Over the next few months a number of new energy saving projects will be announced by the University in response to its Carbon Reduction Plan and Non Pay Project. The Carbon Management Reduction Plan has set a target of a 43% reduction on CO2 emissions by September 2020 from its 2005/6 baseline, with an interim target of a 30% reduction by September 2015 (http://www.estates.salford.ac.uk/page/Carbon_Management). A reduction in energy consumption levels will also see a reduction in the £1.9 million energy bills.
To help manage our energy as an institution, individual energy meters have now been installed into every building across the campus. Over the Christmas Switch Off period a baseline was set for each building. The energy baseline of a building is its energy consumption level when there is no-one working in it. During the Christmas period these levels were set against each building as part of the shutdown challenge. These non-residential buildings highlighted that a lot of equipment is normally left on during the night-time and at weekends. If equipment was turned off as appropriate, savings of £160,000 per year, equivalent to 920,000kg of CO2, could easily be achieved.
To help on this, the University of Salford has decided to create an ongoing Energy Challenge, where the baseload on each building will be ranked against the Christmas shutdown targets.
The results will be emailed weekly to each building manager and head of school to be distributed to their staff. The results will show the buildings performance in comparison to its target and the previous week’s consumption levels.
Each building will be given individual energy reduction target and we will be reporting on their success. For energy saving tips at work please visit our website http://www.estates.salford.ac.uk/page/energy_saving_at_work and the Environment and Sustainability Team can be reached for more guidance on eps-sustainability@salford.ac.uk.