Energy awareness campaign

Energy Management in the University

As a signatory to the Talloires and Copernicus declarations, the University of Glasgow has made a commitment to the protection of the environment, conservation of natural resources and to sustainable development.

This is reinforced by the University's policies on Sustainable Development and on Energy Management.The main objectives of energy management are to reduce the University's utilities cost base, currently £7.4M per annum and improve environmental performance by reducing carbon emissions. Main Campus utility costs are:

• Electricity £4.3M
• Gas £1.9M
• Water £1.0M
• Heating oil £0.20M

Nearly 50% of electricity supplies is generated from green sources, that is wind and hydro, resulting in a 10,000 tonnes per year reduction in CO2 emissions associated with the University's activities. The University was the first in Scotland to attain energy efficiency accreditation status by complying with the national benchmark standard for energy efficiency. The Energy Conservation Officer manages and implements energy policy on a day-to-day basis and can be contacted on ayoung@admin.gla.ac.uk

Over the past 12 years the University has invested £2.5M from energy savings into sustainability projects and have won a variety of awards and grants culminating in a successful bid to the Salex funding scheme, which is supporting a £320K energy conservation investment fund. Last month the University received the Carbon Trust Low Carbon Building Award for the Scottish Centre for Ecology and Natural Environment at Rowardennan. The building makes use of many passive and sustainable design features including geothermal energy, which is used as a heating source for the building.