9 November 2011
University targets carbon savings ahead of Green Week
Photo opportunity: 2pm on Tuesday, 15th November outside DUSA (Balfour Street entrance). The University will take delivery of two, carbon neutral vans.
The University of Dundee are set to unveil two new initiatives aimed at reducing the institution’s carbon footprint by more than 200 tonnes of carbon each year.
The University’s annual Green Week (14-18th November) will be marked by the formal handover of two carbon neutral electric vans, while a thermal heat store facility is due to be installed next month. Staff from the University’s Campus Services will take delivery of the vans on Tuesday, 15th November.
Green Week is intended to encourage staff and students to become more ecologically aware in all aspects of their life by embracing the idea of sustainability. It takes place in partnership with Dundee University Students Association (DUSA) and the University’s Enterprise Gym (TEG), and will see a host of events held on campus.
The week begins with TEG’s 3rd annual Dundee Student Sustainability Showcase and Conference, taking place at the Dalhousie Building from 10am-3pm. The Conference, which this year takes ‘Sustaining Life’ as its theme, will showcase research and expertise, highlight green business opportunities, and offer the chance to network and take part in competitions.
Other Green Week 2011 events will see a series of workshops and awareness-raising sessions taking place. Transport, energy, waste and shopping are the themes of this year’s programme. Green Week will draw to a close on Friday, 18th November with a Green Christmas Fair offering eco-conscious shoppers the chance to get their hands on some bargains ahead of the holiday rush.
Trudy Cunningham, Environment & Sustainability Officer at the University, said, 'Green Week is an initiative that would help to encourage members of the University community to consider their environmental footprint. We encourage everyone to consider their use of resources, whether it is energy, water or transport because we can all make a difference.
'It fits perfectly with the themes and aims of DS3C, which I’d encourage as many people as possible to go along to. This event highlights the range of research and expertise which are helping make sustainability a reality for more and more people.'
The Transport Day (Tuesday) and Waste/Recycling Day (Thursday) will take place outside DUSA, while DS3C, Energy Day (Wednesday) and Green Christmas Fair (Friday) will be held in the Dalhousie Building. The University will be working with a number of companies, charities, statutory bodies and other organisations throughout Green week.
It will be at Tuesday’s event that the new electric vans, which will emit zero Co2, will be delivered. The new vehicles will be charged using renewable sources, and are to be used by the University’s security and campus catering service, who clocked up some 17,000 miles between them in diesel vans last year. Switching to electric therefore represents a saving of almost five tonnes of carbon per year.
The thermal heat store project is scheduled for completion next month and, when fully operational, will recover energy from existing power-generating installations on campus which would otherwise be dumped during periods of low thermal.
This energy will then be released into the district heating network when demand exceeds supply. By doing this, the need to burn fuel to top up the heating network by burning gas for short periods of time is avoided.
The design indicates an avoidance rate equivalent to 1000MWhr annually, a carbon saving of around 200 tonnes per year.
Colin McNally, Director of Campus Services, said purchasing the vans and installing the thermal heat store represented a real investment in the University’s sustainable future.
'We are very excited about both these developments, and the range of other measures aimed at sustainability taking place across the
University estate,' he said. 'We are committed to reducing our carbon footprint and these initiatives are steps in the right direction which demonstrate our commitment to making the University as environmentally friendly as it possibly can be.'
More information about Green Week is available by visiting www.dundee.ac.uk/estates/energy&environment/whatson/ or contacting Trudy Cunningham on t.z.cunningham@dundee.ac.uk or 01382 386996.
Students from the Universities of Dundee, Abertay, and St Andrews, and Dundee College are invited to attend the Conference. More information can be found at www.ds3c.co.uk.
For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07854 953277 |
