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Investing to save: four years of the Revolving Green Fund

07 Mar 2013

On the fourth anniversary of a £1.4M award to support the purchase of energy-efficient equipment, the University’s electricity consumption is at its lowest level since 2007/08.

The scale of this achievement becomes apparent when you bear in mind that the University’s income and student numbers have increased (by 27% and 15% respectively) since 2009, resulting in an expansion in space and activity.

A major part of the savings were achieved through the use of the record Revolving Green Fund (RGF) of £1.4M which HEFCE awarded to the University in February 2009 to support improvements in energy efficiency.

Over the last four years, the University has saved £1.2M on its energy bills by investing its RGF in a range of energy-saving projects, including technologies from LED lighting to solid-state lasers, energy-efficient freezers, water coolers, inverters and presence detection.

All savings on energy bills achieved through the use of the RGF are ploughed back into the fund to support further new schemes, as long as the University continues to invest in energy savings projects.

However, the RGF is not the sole source of all the savings which have been achieved since 2009. The Directorate of Estates and Facilities has undertaken many other projects to improve energy efficiency as part of its ongoing programme of works, and staff and students have also played a significant role in reducing our energy consumption even further through their everyday actions.

Damian Oatway, Assistant Mechanical and Energy Engineer in Estates and Facilities, emphasised: “No matter what improvements we achieve through new technology, there’s always going to be a role for our staff and students to make small, cumulative reductions to our carbon footprint – and we must encourage them to continue. We all need to work together to drive down our energy consumption/carbon emissions and meet our 4% year-on-year reduction target.”

How you can help

Send your suggestions for ways of saving energy to:

Move towards more sustainable working practices in your office/team by joining the Green Impact national environmental accreditation scheme. 44 teams at the University are taking part during 2012/13 and you’ll be able to sign up for the 2013/14 session from September 2013.

In the meantime, for more information: