Greenlines Issue number 32, March 2013
The sustainability newsletter for the University
How would you invest £50,000? Staff and students are being called on to use their collective power to decide how the Switch Off Week savings should be spent. Last month people and teams in departments, colleges and other university institutions were inspired by Switch Off Week to turn off lights, computers and other equipment. In total, the equivalent of £5,000 was saved as part of the campaign. The Energy and Carbon Reduction Project (ECRP) has decided not only to reinvest the value of the electricity saved during Switch Off Week, but to
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Switch Off Off Week Week online poll poll Switch From inside a Department Travel Plan Travel Plan Campus Sustainability 2013 International collaboration on sustainability Upcoming events Upcoming events Climate Forum Climate Forum 2013 Living Laboratory and the Library Living Laboratory and the Library
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multiply the figure by ten, which means that £50,000 will be spent on rolling out a specific energy saving measure.
policy by the University. They are also expected to deliver cost effective energy savings in a short time scale.
A shortlist of energy saving measures has been compiled by the Energy Team from suggestions that came in as part of a Switch Off Week ideas competition. There were many high calibre proposals, but some would require further investigation and may instead be considered as research projects under the Living Laboratory.
The best ideas have now been put to an online vote to see which proposal University members want to invest the capital into. The energy-saving proposal which most captures the interest of staff and students will have £50,000 of central University funding spent on implementation across the Estate.
The shortlisted suggestions are all practical and can be implemented without requiring any major change of
Please cast your vote and decide which idea you would like the University to spend £50,000 on! Installation of more LED lights. For many applications, LED is now the most efficient form of lighting and it can be cost effective to replace spot lighting with new LED lamps. LED lighting can also be used for general illumination in offices and labs but good quality units are still quite expensive, so they have not yet been rolled out widely across the University. Installation of movement sensors that will automatically turn off lights when there is no one in the room. A large amount of lighting within University buildings is already controlled by sensors which detect either movement or daylight levels. More of these controls are added every year, but a vote for this suggestion will help to accelerate the programme.
West Cambridge Photo credit: Sir Cam
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