£17,770 saved this Easter

Friday, 12 April 2013

Each year, the extended Easter holiday gives the University an opportunity to shut down as much as possible to further reduce our carbon footprint. So how much did we save last week?

Overall, carbon emissions reduced by 90tCO₂e (tonnes of CO₂ equivalent) compared to an average taken from three previous long weekends. This equates to a £17,770 saving.

Savings per campus:

Campus area	Percentage electricity savings achieved
Greenlands	42%
London Road	34%
Whiteknights	28%

This year for the first time, the team were also able to track the energy consumption of 21 individual buildings:

Building	Percentage electricity savings achieved
Park Eat	85%
RUSU Nursery	74%
MERL	70%
Blandford Lodge	63%
HumSS	60%
Minghella	59%
Palmer	56%
Agriculture	54%
Central kitchen	51%
URS	51%
SportsPark	50%
RUSU	49%
Eat at the Square and Cedars	46%
Henley Business School (Whiteknights)	45%
Harry Pitt	29%
Russell	28%
Chemistry	27%
Whiteknights House	24%
Carrington	23%
Meteorology	21%

Savings are estimated based on the six days of University closure over the Easter holidays. This is compared to the average consumption for the three preceding extended weekends.

Dan Fernbank, Energy Manager, said: "It is great to see that in almost every case, the electrical consumption has gone down significantly over the Easter period - thank you to everyone who made an extra effort to switch off in their areas. The challenge ahead is to replicate this type of saving during evenings and weekends throughout the year."