Lower energy wastage on campus
It is important now, more than ever, to understand how we can efficiently cut our energy wastage and in turn lower our carbon footprint. As a large organisation with thousands of staff and students, we consume a lot of energy.
We are continually monitoring and managing the energy we use and introducing ways to improve our energy efficiency, to ensure heat and light is not wasted, while continuing to look at further initiatives in our Sustainability Plan and our annual Sustainability report (latest report was published in 2024).
However we could all make an immediate difference with some small changes.
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Standby appliances should be switched off via the wall socket where possible. This will help cut energy waste from unused devices.
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Undock laptops when not in use and do not charge electrical items once they reach 100% or leave them charging overnight. And chargers left turned on at the wall still consume a small amount of electricity, even if they’re not charging anything
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Cut your online carbon footprint by linking to files on cloud storage rather than sending large attachments and by deleting unwanted/draft files and emails.
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Keep office / building doors closed wherever possible and don’t block radiators. Keeping warm air in and cold air out will keep the temperature in the area consistent and avoid having to continuously turn the heating up and down, which consequently uses more energy.
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The University sets temperature standards for room heating and cooling. During the colder months (October-May) we aim for a room temperature of 20°C. Again, keeping heat at a consistent and agreeable temperature avoids using more energy.
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Don't overfill your kettle. If you half fill a kettle when you want to make one cuppa you use 2.5 times the energy you actually need. 150% of the energy is completely wasted each time.
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Lighting accounts for a significant proportion of all the electricity consumed across our estate. It may sound simple and we’ve heard it before but please remember to turn the lights off when you leave an empty office or room.
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With our online reporting it only takes 2 minutes to report faults with lighting, heating, water, and other facilities and it will help to save energy. A dripping hot tap for example uses a significant amount of energy.
The Energy Savings Trust also provides useful advice on understanding your home energy bill. You can find more details about ways to reduce your carbon footprint while working from home on our sustainability pages, as well as further information on saving energy on our staff and student cost of living hubs.
Learn more about university sustainability initiatives and what more you can do.