Estate Management
Energy & Water
The University has a long standing commitment to the responsible management of utilities for both environmental and financial reasons. The University Environmental Policy has a commitment to reduce the amount of CO2 emitted as a result of the energy used in buildings to limit the University’s contribution to climate change.
The University has often been at the forefront of local, national and international initiatives in this area. It was a founder signatory of the Cambridge Climate Change Charter which sets out targets and actions for reducing emissions which in 2008/09 amounted to 73,744 tonnes of CO2.
The University worked with the Carbon Trust in 2006/07 to pilot both the Higher Education Carbon Management Programme and subsequently the Revolving Green Fund, which established a £750k fund for investment in energy conservation measures. Both these initiatives have now been rolled out across the HE Sector by HEFCE, the funding body for universities in England.
Even though the University continues to save energy, the increasing amount of modern scientific research being carried out at the University and the ever more energy intensive nature of that activity has helped drive up emissions in absolute terms. However, the ongoing work to improve energy efficiency has helped reduce the carbon intensity of the organisation over time, measured in terms of tonnes of CO2 per unit of income.
Energy costs have increased significantly in recent years bringing the University’s spend on energy and water to around £15m in 2008/09. This breaks down as:
- Electricity: £11.8M
- Gas: £2.7M
- Oil: £0.07M
- Water: £0.5M
These figures are likely to continue rising in the future due to a combination of the effect of Government policies aimed at curbing national emissions of CO2 and increasing global demand for finite stocks of fossil fuels which is expected to continue forcing up the price of energy.