Energy, Water and Carbon

Do the lights need to be on?

The University spent £7.3m on energy and water in 2010/11, through 668 electricity, gas and water supplies. Energy consumption in buildings released nearly 46,800 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into the atmosphere.

Many factors can affect the emissions in a particular year, for example:

• Hot summers can require more cooling and colder winters require more heating
• New equipment can add to or reduce consumption – for example, computers working on climate change modelling have added significantly to our emissions since their installation in 2007!
• The installation of energy efficiency measures.

This makes trends difficult to identify, but we have seen underlying reductions of around 1% a year in our emissions, after allowing for weather.

Carbon Management Plans

In August 2009, the University graduated from the Carbon Trust’s Higher Education Carbon Management (HECM) Programme, having developed a Carbon Management Plan describing a path to reducing emissions by 15% from 2007/8 to 2015/16. This will mainly be through implementing efficiency and conservation measures.

The University’s Planning and Resources Committee (UPARC) passed an updated and expanded plan in February 2012 aimed at reducing emissions by 36.5% by 2020 based on a 2005/6 baseline.

You can access both Plans here: University of Bristol Carbon Management Plan 2009, which describes the management of carbon and gives a list of projects for the period to 2016, and University of Bristol Carbon Management Plan 2012, which updates and extrapolates this to develop broad themes for further reduction in the period to 2020.

Our emissions from buildings since 2005/6 are shown in the table below:

Conversion factors from DEFRA http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/business/reporting/pdf/100805-guidelines-ghg-conversion-factors.xls Aug 2010 version

“Fugitive emissions” from non-energy sources are estimated to add another 470 tonnes CO₂ equivalent a year, and we will be working over the next three years to assess our “Scope 3“ emissions. Emissions from University owned and leased vehicles are estimated to be 140 tonnes CO₂e.

Energy & Water Management at the University of Bristol - Key Areas

• Energy & Water Legislation.
• Energy and Water Saving projects
• Heating Policy - Heating Specifications
• Air conditioning Policy - Air conditioning and Cooling Specifications
• Building Energy Management System (BEMS) Monitoring and Targeting
• Monitoring and targeting
• Awareness raising - What you can do to reduce energy and water consumption?
• Purchasing utilities

100 day Energy Campaign

If we all carry out the actions noted below, we will not only help tackle climate change by reducing our carbon dioxide emissions by up to 1,500 tonnes but also save money to the tune of £250,000 a year.

Remember most of these tips work just as well at home as they do at work, so you can save yourself some money as well.

1. Switch lights off in empty rooms
2. Working in a large lab or office, only switch on the lights you need
3. Make the most of natural daylight especially with spring and summer coming, switch off the lights
4. Switch off computers and equipment when you’re not using them
5. Don’t leave mobile phone charges plugged in when they are not charging
6. Heating on too high – report it to Sustainability
7. Print less and print double sided
8. Only boil the amount of water you need in a kettle, don’t over fill it
9. Don’t leave taps running, report leaking taps to Maintenance Services, ext. 89898
10. If you are aware of energy wastage, tell Sustainability

You can contact Sustainability on ext. 89100, or via email to sustainability-estates@bristol.ac.uk.