Over the next 2-3 years our focus will be on “smartening” our highest consuming buildings. Our goal is “interoperability” – so that the systems that run our lighting can report on occupancy of spaces, and that information can be used by the systems running the boilers to determine how much heat is really needed. We are looking at Physics, Southwell St, Life Sciences and DHB to start with, but will also continue with lighting, insulation and control projects elsewhere.

Beyond this we are investigating:

• How to buy biogas in a sustainable responsible manner.
  
  
• How we can enter into agreements with individual suppliers of green electricity.
  
  
• How we best use and deploy solar power and heat pumps.
  
  
• How we can recover heat from our datacentres and server rooms to warm our buildings.
  
  
• How can we offset our carbon in a way that is demonstrably additional but takes into account the needs of all stakeholders.
  Read more about this in Carbon Offsetting - University of Bristol position (PDF, 227kB)
  
  
• How we best use non-car modes of transport and electric vehicles to green our transport fleet and play our part in improving air quality in the City.
  
  
• How we can cut down the need to fly without compromising the impact of our teaching and research.
  
  
• How we can engage with our supply chains to reduce the embodied carbon in the goods we buy and reduce the amount of waste we produce.