Energy and water
Brookes and energy
Our yearly energy bill is now a whopping £2.4 million per year, that's £8,500 per day! This cash would be far better used on improving our campus and equipment, so it's important we reduce it.
All of our sites are part of our Building Management System, meaning we can track how much energy they're using. New smart meters are going to help us improve our data collection.
What can I do?
Despite our best efforts on improving our buildings, we can't do it all on our own. We need everyone to help us. Adopting some of these behaviours will stop you wasting money and energy at home too.
Turn electronic equipment and lights off when you're not using them and when you leave at night
- Don't leave equipment on standby mode
- Turn your radiators down before you open a window
For more tips on how not to waste energy and money, visit the Energy Saving Trust website.
Brookes and water
Water looks set to be a really important issue in the future. Believe it or not, the UK receives less rainfall per head than sunny Syria, making it scarcer than you might think. Our water usage is monitored through the Building Management System and we're looking to compare data across our campuses.
Refurbishing our existing building stock represents a great opportunity to make things better, so we're building rainwater harvesting into future plans and investing in lower consumption toilets. We're also trialling gadgets to help us, like waterless urinals.
What can I do?
Not wasting water is easy; here are some little things you can do to make a difference:
- Turn off running taps when you see them
- Report leaking and dripping taps to the maintenance help desk on x4631
- Use communal water boilers rather than individual kettles where possible
Working with water
Taps aren't something you'd normally think much about. You turn one on, water comes out. Job done, right?
Not according to the Brookes Estates and Facilities management team. Their incredible attention to detail (and willingness to try new things) is paying dividends. Working tirelessly to cut Brookes' water consumption, they've experimented with all manner of gadgets and gizmos. From waterless urinals to the push time flow taps delivering water 3 litres a minute, you see around all of the campuses, some ideas work better than others. It's hard to find ways of maximising comfort whilst saving water.
Brookes recognises that water is one of the issues of the future. As well as experimenting with methods of effectively reducing water consumption , they're also working with Thames Water making sure that Brookes is compliant with water regulations. So far, we've inspected all of Headington Campus and most halls of residence with the intention of checking every water outlet throughout the university property portfolio.
We've had some great successes reducing the amount of water we use everyday, whilst showering, flushing the toilet and doing all the little things that are essential to our day. If you have any ideas about how we can save water, contact the sustainability team on: sustainability@brookes.ac.uk
Facts about energy and water
- Did you know, our showers only use 9 litres of water a minute compared to the average of 18-20 litres?
- We've reduced our daily urinal flushes to four from 12 times a day. Special enzymes are the key to making sure that that they work just as well as they did before.
- Brookes are committed to cutting our carbon by 20% from 2005 levels by 2013 and 50% by 2020.
