Energy, environment & sustainability

This University takes its environmental responsibilities seriously and is determined to reduce the impact of its activities. We are a small town of 80 plus buildings and 16,000 students and staff and our impact is therefore significant.

We are a major user of energy and water with an annual spend of around £5m. Our carbon footprint due to energy use is about 24,000 tonnes of CO2, a highly significant amount. We therefore have a responsibility to reduce our emissions and our contribution to climate change. Annually we also produce over 4500 tonnes of waste, which is the equivalent of 1375 domestic wheelie bins a week.

We have some challenging carbon targets as a University and have recently produced a five year strategy to achieve these. This can be seen in our recent Carbon Management Plan (link). Our Environmental policy and targets in other areas can be found here.

• Info for new starters/A brief summary - click here.

• Sustainability at the University - 'The Challenge'
  Watch a video clip about what we do at the University to meet the challenge of sustainability. Please be patient as this may take a little while to display.

• Facts and Figures .... if you would like to more about the facts and figures, follow this link

• What Can I Do? .... if you would like to know what you can do to help, click here

• Energy and Environment team: Find out what they've been up to around campus, click here
  
  
• Student Accommodation Energy Competition - 'Student Switch off' - if you would like to know more about the student accommodation energy competition, see the Student Green Web

• Green Impact - staff behavioural change - Your University is taking part in an exciting project called Green Impact. Teams of staff will take part in the Green Impact environmental accreditation scheme, helping them to 'green' their work places. For more information click here.

• If you want to know about travelling to the University in the most sustainable manner see here.

• Annual Energy Report .... if you would like to know more about what the University is doing, read the annual Energy Report or explore this website further

• If you want to know what to do with your waste see here.
  

• Tell the Department of Estates about a particular problem ... if you would like to report a problem to the Department of Estates, contact us via the Helpdesk.

We have already achieved £1.0m of annual savings from our energy consumption. Energy-saving work has led to the following reductions over the last 5 years:

• Electricity 10% down
• Gas 20% down (weather-corrected)
• Water 18% down
• Carbon emissions reduced by 10%

….and all this while the University has been expanding significantly!!

We are accredited under the Carbon Trust Standard, which demonstrates our energy and carbon management is to the highest standards.

We have an extensive metering network with over 1000 of our own utility meters throughout the Estate, of which the majority are on our new automated monitoring system.

In 2003, we were the very first UK University to go through the Carbon Trust Higher Education Carbon Management Scheme.

A key part of the University's approach to reducing its environmental and energy impact is the Sustainability and Carbon Management Steering Group. The terms of reference for this group and the minutes of previous meetings can be viewed by following this link.

We have had a commitment to build BREEAM ‘Excellent' buildings for a number of years, and have 3 buildings on site that meet this eco-design standard.

For more information on this and our current approach to sustainable construction see this summary, and the news articles about 4 West and Woodland Court and East Building.

In 2011 a new travel plan was launched (see here). We have won Gold awards in the West of England Travel Plan Awards for the last three years, and Employer of the Year in 2011

If you would like to know more about some of the related research currently being undertaken within the University of Bath, please follow this link.

If this website does not answer some of the questions you have, please contact one of the energy and environment team shown below:

The Energy & Environment Team

	Peter Phelps at the Energy Champions Event held at The Guildhall, Bath. Picture taken by Paul Groom of Paul Groom Photography		Phil Auger, Energy Engineer, receives Energy Efficiency Accreditation Award from Dame Ellen MacArthur in Dec 2007
Peter Phelps Energy & Environment Manager tel: 01225 38 6085		Phil Auger Energy Engineer tel: 01225 38 4599
	Steve Andrews Carbon Reduction Officer tel: 01225 38 5797