£100,000 annual savings expected from first eight Sustainable Campus Fund projects
Eight projects have been approved for funding on the first Utilities Working Group meeting and following sign-off by Directors of Social Responsibility & Sustainability and Estates. They are expected to deliver over £100,000 cash savings annually and prevent emissions of almost 600 tonnes of CO2e every year.
Below are some examples of projects funded:
- Chancellor’s Building drying oven replacement. The Sustainable Campus Fund (SCF) will support the purchase of modern oven in Chancellors Building. Modern ovens are significantly more energy efficient due to better insulation. 50% match funding was agreed with local management.
- Replace CV fume cupboards with VAV and install auto sash closer. Replacing 40 fume cupboards across two laboratories (16 in lab 34 and 24 in lab 29) in the Joseph Black building with modern variable air volume models will prevent the need for expulsion of warm air from the building, reducing heating bill. Auto sash closer mechanisms will help reduce air volume when users are away from the cupboards. The School of Chemistry have previously funded other sustainability projects themselves.
- Vented cupboard conversion in QMRI. Adding ventilation ducting to cupboards under fume hoods will enable lab users to store chemicals safely and switch off fume cupboards (where chemicals are currently sometimes stored) overnight. Chemicals are currently stored partly in fume cupbards, which is wasteful from an energy perspective, or in closets underneath, which causes fumes to build up and creates a potentially significant health and safety concern. This has been tested on a few cupboards using local funds and labour, however wider rollout was not deemed feasible without SCF support.
- Energy saving lift cars. This project looks to improve lifts throughout the campus. Lights in lifts are normally on 24/7, while they are only required for a fraction of the time. Using modern LED lights that have a life of over 50,000 switch on/off cycles will also reduce the need for replacing lights, cutting on waste and costs of frequent changes.
- Provision of small energy saving equipment. Often low cost solutions help in saving large quantities of energy. As a first step, a number of timer plugs will be purchased and distributed to colleagues. More equipment will be soon available from our department.
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