Thousands of pounds saved annually and reducing our carbon emissions!
Guest blog by Greg Sandford, Carbon Management Communications Lead
Hopefully those of you who have been on our campuses over the last couple of months will have noticed the purple lightbulb tags celebrating our investments to reduce the University’s carbon emissions.
We know that staff and students are almost a bit ‘snow-blind’ to all of the posters around the University, so we wanted to trial a different and eye-catching way to promote these changes.
More often than not, our really crucial investments are hidden away around our campuses and don’t get the attention they deserve. For example, in Chemistry, our work to link the fume cupboard extract fans to the outdoor wind speed was a first in the UK and involved detailed modelling of the campus.
Elsewhere, we’ve draught-proofed windows, upgraded light fittings and added a new energy efficient sleep mode to common learning space computers.
The tags have now been taken down, but we are planning to run an expanded version of the campaign at the beginning of the new term, taking into account the lessons we have learned from the pilot, so please let us know what you thought!
This work is supported by the University’s Carbon Management Fund, which is a £4m investment in ideas that will reduce the institution’s carbon emissions and improve the sustainability of our campuses. If you have an idea or would like to find out more, please contact: sustainability@southampton.ac.uk
The team preparing to ‘tag’ the Library