Here’s our latest carbon reduction project news.
Lighting improvements
We’ve been investing in lots more energy efficient lighting, with improvements in 3 of the SAGES (School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science) buildings now pretty much complete. As well as more modern, efficient light fittings, intelligent sensors have been installed to make sure the lights dim/turn off when there is either sufficient daylight, or no one is present. Further lighting work is shortly due to begin in the Maths & IT building and the Harborne building and our thanks go to the Green Impact teams in both buildings, who highlighted the opportunities for improvements to us originally. The combination of all these lighting improvements is expected to save £22,000 and 90 tCO2 each year.
Metering
Another important project also underway is the installation of improved energy and water metering around the Whiteknights campus, to help us measure how efficiency each building is performing and identify opportunities for further improvement. This £250,000 project is the culmination of 2 years’ planning, consultation and design to ensure this sets us up for the long term. We are also currently costing similar work at the Henley Business School’s Greenlands campus.
Hand dryers and water efficiency
We are about to install new super-efficient hand dryers in a number of facilities around campus, which are expected to use 90% less energy than the machines they will replace; hopefully setting the standard for all future installations and paying for themselves in just 3 years. Water efficiency is also being tackled; with new controls being fitted to urinal flush systems, as well as repair work to some recently identified leaks.
Funding and further information
Much of this work has been funded through the Revolving Green Fund run by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE); from which we secured a £500,000 interest free loan for energy efficiency improvements.
As always, further information is available at www.reading.ac.uk/ cleanandgreen, or email us directly at sustainability@reading.ac.uk or on twitter UniRdg_Sust
