CARBON CHAMPION CASE STUDY BRADFORD UNIVERSITY
Top ten tips How cutting carbon emissions was achieved by the university
1 Improved building management system and integration of plant shut-down strategies
The university’s building management system has been expanded to cover 80% of the mechanical plant. The use of the BMS has resulted in significant improvements in DECs throughout the estate. There is also a plant shut-down policy linked to room bookings and space occupancy, and automatic shut-down software has been installed to switch off PCs when not in use. 2 Space management The amount of space per member of staff/student has been reduced from one per 14 sq m to less than one per 10 sq m of floor area by removing redundant buildings and using existing spaces more efficiently through timetabling building usage. The university is also looking at reducing the amount of office space by encouraging home working and compressed hours schemes. 3 Sustainable building specification
The university’s sustainability specification requires all new buildings to be built to BREEAM Outstanding. 4 Reducing carbon emissions of the estate
Moving the School of Health from a satellite campus to a new building on the main campus helped reduce the size of the estate by 7% and saved an estimated 450 tonnes of carbon annually. The move included a behavioural change project to prepare staff and students for the move, and to ensure they maximise the sustainable features of their new home.
With an estate primarily 30 CIBSE Journal June 2012
constructed in the 1960s and 1970s, refurbishment is a key issue in reducing its carbon emissions. Projects include recladding several older buildings to improve their thermal performance and appearance, and installing energy efficient lights and PIRs to improve the carbon performance of the estate. The management strategy is for all buildings to have a Display Energy Certificate rating no lower than D, with an aspiration to increase this to a C. 5 Outdoor areas are just as important as the buildings Outdoor spaces are used to promote biodiversity by ensuring that all plants are either edible or insect friendly. Campus users are encouraged to eat produce grown on-site. Users can also enjoy the surroundings, which include a newly created woodland, wildflower habitats and an orchard. Beehives are tended by volunteer beekeepers. 6 Gaining staff and student engagement
This includes the Midnight Project, where student ambassadors patrol the offices across the campus with security staff to see where lights, computers and equipment have been left on. Information is fed back to the estates department, where it is incorporated into energy efficiency initiatives in these areas. The university also provides ‘edd:e’ meters to departmental Green Impact teams to allow them to record and manage their energy use and to find ways of reducing it. This is is claimed to have resulted in 33% energy savings in those areas. 7 The increased use of renewable energy technologies
A 1.6MWe CHP plant will deliver power to the campus and heat water for the student accommodation along with annual savings of 19% in carbon emissions. As part of the refurbishment of the Students’ Union building, 70 sq m of photovoltaic panels have been installed to generate power for the building. The amount of energy generated and carbon emissions saved is displayed in the building to help the behavioural change programme. A solar thermal system has been installed on the BREEAM Excellent- rated redevelopment of the School of Management. Other initiatives include biomass boilers using locally sourced FSC woodchips and rainwater harvesting at the Students’ Union. The estates department is even investigating ground-source heating and a possible wind turbine. 8 Travel plan
Active travel planning has achieved a reduction in staff and students commuting to the university by 33%. The focus in now in limiting business travel. 9 Catering contract The contract includes key performance indicators for year-on-year reductions in the consumption of energy. 10 Waste minimisation Initiatives include diverting 64% of waste from landfill to recycling; reducing overall waste production by 4% per year; reducing paper procurement by 23% over two years; setting up a furniture re- use programme and an annual collection, at the end of the academic year, to amass items left by students for donation to a local charity.
company funded by the Department for Energy and Climate Change. All energy savings are ploughed back into new initiatives to reduce emissions further. In addition to carbon savings, the Ecoversity initiative is starting to have an impact on the students. It is seen as being one reason why the number of students declining an offer of a place at the university has dropped to just 8%, compared with previous years when it was 22%. The latest campus survey shows that the initiative is having a positive impact on the existing students’ perception of the campus. And, if further proof of the university’s commitment to becoming a green inspiration were needed, the Sustainability and Enterprise Centre (SEC), its flagship sustainability building currently under construction, has just received the highest ever BREEAM score at design stage of 95. The record-breaking BREEAM score
is one more step on the university’s sustainability journey. The current 8% reduction in carbon emissions on the 14,000 tonnes emitted in 2005-06 is just the start of an ambitious plan for the university. It has set a target to achieve a 40% reduction by 2015, rising to 50% by 2020 and 80% by 2050. If the emissions cuts are achieved, perhaps CIBSE will have to introduce a new award of Carbon Champion of the Century to honour the achievement. CJ
A video about the Sustainable Enterprise Centre is available at:
www.brad.ac.uk/estates/capital-projects/ live-projects/sec
www.cibsejournal.com
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