Universities and Colleges Climate Commitment for Scotland Edinburgh Napier University May 2011 Report

Transcription

1 Universities and Colleges Climate Commitment for Scotland Edinburgh Napier University May 2011 Report Principal and Vice Chancellor Professor Dame Joan Stringer DBE and Chairman of the University Court Professor George Borthwick CBE signed the Edinburgh Napier UCCCfS commitment in March The University submitted its Climate Challenge Action Plan to the Environmental Association of Universities and Colleges (EAUC) in June The information below summarises the progress made in each of the seven core areas set by the EAUC. For more information on all environmental initiatives on-going and planned at Edinburgh Napier visit or contact the Edinburgh Napier Sustainability Office on or Enhancement of learning and teaching through the provision of skills, modules and courses Within Edinburgh Napier there are three faculties and eight schools. Each school offers a broad range of courses covering education for sustainable development (ESD) and wider environment and social responsibility areas. The University academic signature, as detailed in our Academic Strategy involves programmes that build concepts of global citizenship, promote diversity, ethical understanding and behaviour, and generally develop students social capital. Our Academic Development Department engage with the Higher Education Academy regarding Education for Sustainable Development. Courses offered at Edinburgh Napier include Aquatic Ecosystem Management, Design (Sustainability), Ecotourism, Energy and Environmental Engineering, Environmental Biology, Environmental Sustainability, Renewable Energy, Safety and Environmental Management, Transport Planning and Engineering and Wildlife Biology and Conservation. Also, the University has recently launched a new co-curricular module Valuing the Earth. There are many other courses including Facilities Management, through the School of Engineering and the Built Environment and Strategy, Operations and Economics through the School of Management that cover elements of ESD. As the structural environmental work of the University develops, the Energy & Utilities Manager and Sustainability / Environmental Advisor are increasingly working with undergraduate and postgraduate students completing a wide range of projects by providing information generated at the University such as the Carbon Management Plan. This in turn gives students direct opportunities to help influence the environmental performance of Edinburgh Napier. Promotion of research capacity and knowledge exchange activity in sustainability The University is focused on undertaking research that is directly relevant to supporting sustainable economic growth in Scotland and in other countries. There are nine institutes designed to act as onestop shops for businesses to access expertise, research, facilities and product testing. These include the Forest Products Research Institute, Institute for Sustainable Construction (encapsulating the Scottish Energy Centre), and the Transport Research Institute. The institutes offer direct technical support, grants, specialist skills, training, CPD, facilities and equipment working with Scottish and international companies of all sizes such as the National Health Service and Diageo

2 The University was awarded the Queen s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in The award was made for Innovative housing construction for environmental benefit and quality of life. The biennial award highlights a world-class standard of excellence and recognises the contribution of knowledge exchange made by the Edinburgh Building Performance Centre and the development of robust details for use in the Building Standard Regulations. The University has also recently secured funding from the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation Consortium (NERC, DfiD and ESRC) for work on Swahili Seas: valuing and conserving coastal ecosystems in East Africa. This work includes research, training and the development of a community conservation initiative. Reduction of carbon emissions cutting energy consumption and substituting energy sources Utility usage kg CO 2 Year Electricity kwh Gas kwh Electricity Index Gas Index Total Index 2006/07 9,032,456 17,749, /08 9,054,711 14,833, /09 7,910,532 12,503, /10 8,081,091 11,246, /11 Actual predicted 8,962,405 14,031, N/A N/A N/A 2010/11 Adjusted predicted 7,468,671 11,692, The table above shows gas and electricity consumption from 2006/07, the baseline year for the University five year Carbon Management Plan and the progress made in reducing associated carbon emissions. All electricity figures are marked in red. All gas figures are marked in yellow. Progressing from left to right the statistics show the actual usage and total carbon dioxide reductions for electricity and gas separately then combined. The Index section shows the percentage reductions in carbon emissions i.e. between 2006/07 and 2010/11 total carbon reduction (adjusted predicted) is 24.1%. The predicted data for 2010/11 has been adjusted as the University is in the process of rationalising the estate. In 2010/11 we opened our new m 2 campus at Sighthill designed to BREEAM excellent standard. Some other properties have been vacated or partially vacated but the net effect has been estimated at an increased operational area of 20% for the year and so the data is adjusted accordingly as shown above. Cutting gas consumption has been achieved primarily by the centralised management of the Building Management System allowing more efficient heating ventilation and air conditioning control strategies to be implemented along with a conscious programme of capital works. Much progress has been made in reducing the amount of electricity used in the provision of C&IT services and in limiting the use of air-conditioning systems. A combined heat and power unit has been installed at Sighthill campus and currently generates around 35% of the electricity used on campus. Cutting carbon emissions is endorsed at the highest level and the University attempts to encourage staff to be actively aware and play their part in reducing wasted energy and resources. The University has a ring-fenced sum of capital money available for energy saving projects, typically relating to heating zones and control, insulation, draught-stripping, lighting, voltage control and air conditioning systems.

3 Encouraging waste reduction, recycling and responsible disposal Recycling bins for plastic bottles, aluminium and steel cans, paper, cardboard, glass bottles and ink cartridges are positioned throughout all of our campuses. Our average recycling rate, for waste collected on campus, between 1 August 2009 and 31 July 2010 was 43.47%. In the near future we will retender our waste contract, run educational campaigns and ensure better signage and information on all bins to increase our recycling rate further. The opening of our redeveloped Sighthill campus has seen a marked change in bin allocation, namely the fact that there are no individual desk bins. There are paper collection bins in most offices, with cardboard collected as well. Separate bins for plastic bottles, drinks and food cans, paper and landfill are positioned in every staff kitchen. All staff at Sighthill were given thermal travel mugs when they moved to the campus. All staff and students can gain a ten pence discount on all hot drinks if they use a reusable mug at our on-site catering outlets. There are no individual printers on the campus. Staff instead use multi functional devices (MFD) located on every floor. The MFD rooms themselves house paper and ink and toner cartridge collection points. It is hoped that the use of the MFD s will reduce paper and ink use. Studies at Sighthill regarding positioning of bins and use of MFD s will be carried out to investigate the success of both schemes before considering rolling both out across all campuses. The University has signed up to the WRAP Halving Waste to Landfill initiative. Through this there is a commitment to reduce waste sent to landfill through all construction projects. Through the redevelopment of our Sighthill campus most of the demolition waste was either reused on-site or reused locally at Stevenson College. We received a grant from the City of Edinburgh Council to place two 32 litre bins into every student accommodation kitchen, on the sites that we manage. The bins, and information provided encourage students to segregate their waste in their kitchen, and then use the larger recycling bins provided by the City of Edinburgh Council outside. The bins can collect paper, glass, cardboard, cardboard food packaging, aluminium foil, aluminium and steel food and drinks containers (including empty aerosols), plastic bottles and envelopes. Unfortunately we do not have a current recycling figure specifically for our accommodation sites but the City of Edinburgh recycle rate in December 2010 was 32.9%. As per all environmental areas, we try to tie into local and national campaigns as much as we can, European Week for Waste Reduction for instance. And, in addition to the information above, we encourage all staff and students to reduce, reuse, recycle at home, as well as at the University. More information can be found on our website Delivering sustainable estate development through both maintenance and capital programme The estate rationalisation plan aims to achieve a concentration of modern, fit for purpose facilities whilst selling a range of older, more problematic buildings. The new Sighthill campus demonstrates this and addressed sustainability issues through the design for example: Minimising heat loss through the building and windows Using natural daylight to encourage economical use of artificial lighting Making effective use of natural ventilation Selecting more energy efficient equipment The next phase of development proposes a significant upgrade and extension of our Merchiston campus with sustainability high on the design requirements.

4 The University is very aware of the need for continuous maintenance and with the assistance of specialist facility management software has a programme of planned maintenance using internal and external resources. Along with the alarm functionality of the building management system this ensures that problems associated with energy inefficiency are identified and rectified. Achieving sustainable and active travel through sustainable travel planning The University has a Strategic Transport Policy and Sighthill Travel Plan, both developed in In order to update both documents and create holistic travel plans for the University as a whole, and all campuses individually, a travel survey was launched on Monday 14 March. Open for three weeks, 1414 staff and students (representing 48.9% of staff and 4.6% of students) responded. The survey covered the daily commute, the term time commute for students and business and academic travel as applicable. With financial support from SEStran, the South East of Scotland Transport Partnership, a transport focus week was run the week beginning Monday 14 March, to coincide with the launch of the travel survey but also to provide more information to staff and students as to their travel options, and give everyone an opportunity to ask questions to the range of external organisations. The week included Dr Bike sessions (including resources and information from the Bike Station and A Better Way to Work team), bike tagging provided by Lothian & Borders Police, the Energy Saving Trust driving simulator (including advice and support from the Energy Saving Scotland Advice Centre team), City Car Club, Lothian Buses and information from the University itself. All at our Craiglockhart, Merchiston and Sighthill campuses. The newly gathered information will be integrated into our Carbon Management Plan. At the same time, colleagues in the Principal s Office and the Health & Safety Office are investigating business travel implications, including ways to reduce travel. Colleagues in C&IT maintain and advertise our video conferencing capabilities. While colleagues in Property & Facilities are investigating ways of reducing the size of the University fleet. In addition to this a City Car Club vehicle will be position at our Sighthill campus from June We advertise the Tripshare Edinburgh site to staff and students. Our website also contains links to bike maps, public transport providers including hyperlinks to all bus stops around our Sighthill campus (the same will be done for all campuses soon). Engaging with suppliers / service providers on responsible procurement of goods and services Our Head of Procurement liaises directly with the team at Advanced Procurement for Universities and Colleges (APUC). Our Head of Catering is working with The Universities Catering Organisation (TUCO). Both APUC and TUCO provide member organisations with a range of services allowing them to maximise buying power whilst taking environmental, social and economic values and responsibilities into consideration. The TUCO Sustainability Policy in particular provides information on considerations made when setting up contracts with businesses. The University has a Sustainable Catering Policy and Ethical Investment Policy. The latter includes the procurement of goods and services, including financial services at Edinburgh Napier. We have been a Fair Trade University since May Fair Trade has allowed us to provide information to staff and students to give insight into the social, economic and environmental impact when buying goods. We do this in partnership with the Edinburgh City Fair Trade Group. Our Head of Procurement and other colleagues in Finance Services work closely with all staff responsible for the procurement of all goods to ensure that finance and resources are not wasted. All

5 bulk procurement requests are rigorously checked by Finance Services. While the University has not yet investigated the environmental impact of all goods and services, conscious decisions have been made to ensure that goods bought help to reduce the overall environmental impact of Edinburgh Napier. This includes the installation of Dyson Airblade hand dryers in all toilets at our Sighthill campus, and all refurbished toilets at our Merchiston campus. To review our performance and gain clear guidance on areas that we need to develop, in regard to procurement of goods and services we participated in Universities That Count in 2008/09 and 2009/10. Office Depot are the only company so far to provide us with quarterly environmental reports detailing the estimated carbon emissions associated with the products procured, and the proportion of products procured that are made from recycled materials. All contractors, to become an approved contractor must supply a copy of their own environmental policy. We still have a lot of work to do in regard to engaging with suppliers/ service providers. But, as we develop our work at Edinburgh Napier and we ourselves reduce our carbon footprint we generate greater confidence to question everything that we buy and consume. For more information on the work being carried out at Edinburgh Napier University please visit call or environment@napier.ac.uk