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The University of Nottingham is living up to its accolade of being the world’s most sustainable University and has been awarded funding to push ahead with several carbon reduction investments.
The University has committed to move forward with projects at its Sutton Bonington campus and within its Medical School. The projects are set to reduce carbon emissions at the institution by 2,338 tonnes a year, and will also save the University over half a million pounds’ annually.
The new schemes are part of the University’s wider ‘green’ commitment, which aims to reduce the institution’s carbon footprint and lead the way in sustainable energy generation, transport, recycling, architecture and carbon management.
Andy Nolan, the University’s Director for Sustainability, said: “These combined projects will significantly reduce the University’s carbon emissions and will ensure we are able to generate more of our own energy, as well as reducing our current consumption and so reducing costs in the long term. Doing this means we can invest more of our resources into teaching, learning and research.”
Sutton Bonington
Plans have been created at the Sutton Bonington campus which will see the development of a new combined heat and power system that will provide up to 50 per cent of the electricity needed by students and staff at the campus.
The University’s Sutton Bonington campus is ten miles south of Nottingham and is home to the School of Biosciences and the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science.
The combined heat and power (CHP) system will be based in the existing main boiler house and will generate electricity and useful heat simultaneously supplying heat to buildings on campus.
The University has committed £1.32m to fund the scheme, which will reduce campus emissions by 26 per cent.
The Medical School
The University Medical School is the largest single building energy user across Nottingham’s UK campuses and accounts for 18 per cent of the University’s energy consumption.
The HEFCE/Salix Revolving Green Fund has pledged £1.64m to the University to improve the performance of the building through improved insulation, helping to ensure the building stays warm in winter and reducing the likelihood of being too warm in summer. It will also invest in a new chilled water system and low energy LED lighting. The projects will be undertaken over the next 12 months.
Paul Smyth, Head of Programmes at Salix said: “The Medical School Chilled Water Plant was one of only 11 large scale projects which received such funding and we are convinced this project has the potential to make a significant contribution to the sector. We are proud to be involved in this initiative to make our universities more energy efficient. We need our universities to lead the way and influence others; students are looking to be educated in institutions which act as exemplars in terms of sustainability.”
Number one for sustainability
The University has a long track record in sustainable activity. Only last month it was named the world’s most sustainable university for the second year in a row, in the Greenmetric 2015 league table.
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Notes to editors: The University of Nottingham has 43,000 students and is ‘the nearest Britain has to a truly global university, with campuses in China and Malaysia modelled on a headquarters that is among the most attractive in Britain’ (Times Good University Guide 2014). It is also one of the most popular universities in the UK among graduate employers, in the top 10 for student experience according to the Times Higher Education and winner of ‘Research Project of the Year’ at the THE Awards 2014. It is ranked in the world’s top one per cent of universities by the QS World University Rankings, and 8th in the UK by research power according to REF 2014.
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