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The Carbon Trust’s Higher Education Carbon Management programme is designed specifically for universities and higher education colleges, providing them with support and guidance to cut their carbon emissions and reduce their energy costs. The roll out of the programme follows a successful pilot last year involving an initial eighteen universities [2] which has already identified savings of £3 million and 55,000 tonnes of CO2 for the sites involved.
Richard Rugg, Programme Manager at the Carbon Trust, said,
“Cutting carbon emissions as part of the fight against climate change should be a key priority for publicly funded bodies like universities and higher education colleges. In England alone, the higher education sector spends more than £200 million on energy each year. Our Higher Education Carbon Management programme is designed to help the higher education sector overcome obstacles that get in the way of better energy management, such as lack of resources and finance. It’s a great way for universities and colleges to save money on energy and put it to good use in other areas. We’re hugely excited that after a successful pilot, we are now set to help sixteen more universities save up to £3 million per year on their energy bill.”
The Higher Education Carbon Management programme is designed to deliver improved energy management of academic, accommodation and leisure buildings and vehicle fleets. It also provides practical support to organisations by helping them identify carbon saving opportunities, providing software to analyse energy consumption and delivering workshop support for staff and senior managers to improve their awareness of energy efficiency. The programme is supported by a bespoke toolkit – a CD-based manual that gives detailed guidance on the programme’s process, technical advice and examples of best practice.
One organisation that has benefited from the pilot phase of the Carbon Trust's Higher Education Carbon Management programme is the University of Warwick. With an annual energy bill of more than £4 million and annual emissions of more than 38,000 tonnes of carbon, the university has spent the last year working with the Carbon Trust in creating the implementation plan to identify how to reduce its carbon emissions by ten per cent and save £2.5 million in energy costs over five years (based on 2004-5 levels). The energy-saving recommendations include installing lighting and heating controls, investigating the use of biofuel and electric vehicles and introducing recycling schemes within halls of residence. The feasibility of installing small wind turbines on the university site is also being investigated. So far the university has appointed an Environmental Officer and a Waste consultant to oversee the university's involvement with the programme, and is integrating the implementation plan with its overall business plan. During this financial year, the university is set to cut its carbon emissions by more than 4,000 tonnes.
Mike Stacey, Head of Estate Services, University of Warwick, commented:
"Rising energy prices and plans to extend the university's site prompted us to take a closer look at our energy usage and Carbon impact last year. The Carbon Trust's Higher Education Carbon Management programme offered us the right, user-friendly combination of expertise and support to start driving down our energy use whilst limiting our impact on the environment. We're committed to achieving the targets we have set and delighted with progress so far."
The Higher Education Carbon Management programme pilot will run until the end of April 2007. Any university that would like to be considered for phase three of the programme should contact the Carbon Trust by emailing richard.rugg@thecarbontrust.co.uk.
[1] University of Northumbria, University of Loughborough, University of Leicester, University of Exeter, University of Surrey, Manchester Metropolitan University, Edge Hill College of Higher Education, University of Central Lancashire, University of Worcester, University of Hertfordshire, London School of Economics, University of London, Queen Mary University London, University of Wales, Cardiff, University of Wales, Newport, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff
[2] The Open University, University of Birmingham, University of Warwick, Coventry University, University of West England, University of Wales (Aberystwyth), University of Southampton, University of Sussex, University of Cambridge, King’s College London, London Metropolitan University, University of York, University of Bradford, Leeds Metropolitan University, University of Leeds, University of Sunderland, University of Teesside, University of Strathclyde.
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