Energy, carbon and water

Energy use in buildings is one of the most significant elements of our university’s carbon footprint and we are striving to reduce this as much as possible. BU has invested and continues to invest in on site electrical generation. We currently have more than 1500 solar photovoltaic panels across buildings on our campuses. This equates to approximately 250kW of peak generation capacity. You can see the energy generated by the array on Poole Gateway Building here.

We have been striving to reduce the carbon cost of heating our estate and lower our reliance on natural gas to provide our heating and hot water needs. One of the largest tools that we have been using to achieve this is the biomass boiler, which you can find in Poole House. It works by burning local wood chip and covers most of the heating and hot water demand for the building. 

Whilst biomass is considered to be carbon neutral there is still a carbon impact involved in the felling, processing and transportation of the wood chip that the boiler uses as well as in the disposal of the ash created as a bi-product of the combustion process. In order to mitigate these impacts, BU sources wood chip from a local company, just outside of Ringwood, who grow crops of trees in a renewable manner for biomass. The same company collects the ash and uses it to fertilise the ground to grow more trees. 

We have also invested in heat pump technology, primarily Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSHPs) and our third system has been installed in the Bournemouth Gateway Building. By moving heat stored in the ground into our buildings rather than directly generating heat, GSHPs can provide heating at approximately 400% efficiency. GSHPs are also a brilliant technology to future proof our heating requirements as the national grid becomes greener so too does our heating. 

Water is often an overlooked carbon contributor but all the water that comes through the mains is highly treated and this treatment and pumping process comes with a carbon impact. In order to reduce this, BU has introduced rainwater harvesting systems (RWHSs) in our new buildings. RWHSs capture rainwater which we then use to supply the toilets instead of treated drinking water, saving energy whilst also reducing the potential for flooding on campus. With our RWHS’s, approximately one-third of the water used in Fusion Building is recycled rainwater.  

To support you to save water, we have also introduced motion sensing taps and low-flow toilets across the university. These both reduce water usage and increases hygiene. We also have water refill points in all buildings on campus for you to fill up your reusable bottle. 

Monitoring our buildings for water leaks is an ongoing job for the Sustainability Team, which we do through automatically generated alerts triggered by our metering systems, regularly reviewing our metering and lastly through your help! We actively encourage members of the BU community to contact the Estates Service Desk to report any leaks or dripping taps they find and where they are. You Spot the Drop, so we can stop the drop!  

Our Sustainable Construction Policy requires any new building constructed by BU to meet or exceed a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating and for refurbishments to meet or exceed BREEAM ’Very good’.  

BREEAM is an internationally recognised certification for the sustainability of buildings, environmentally and socially, and by having these requirements built into our practice we ensure that our new and existing buildings are as energy efficient as possible. A prime example of this is the Student Centre which, when built, became the highest BREEAM rated building in Dorset.  

All of our buildings have Display Energy Certificates (DECs). The DEC’s are based on a range of factors that vary across every building, such as energy used to run the building per square metre, and are benchmarked against similar buildings. Each building is provided with a score rating of 0–150+, with highest ranking buildings having the lowest score, as well as a letter grading between A and G. The average DEC score is around 100. As of the 2019 DEC scores, BU’s average building score as of the was a C rating with a score of 66.  

Our Team also work regularly with Maintenance staff to monitor the temperature and ventilation of each area in our Building Management System (BMS), in order to keep our campuses comfortable for users in the most energy efficient way possible. 

You can read more about the environmental impact of our buildings on the Sustainable Campuses page. 

Our Carbon Management Plan which was refreshed in 2016 had the ambitious target of reducing our carbon emissions by 40% by 2020/21 compared to our 2005/06 baseline. We reached this a year earlier than the target date in 2018/19, a feat we are very proud of as a community. You can read more about this in our 2018/19 annual report.  

The current CMP finishes in 2020 and we are now writing our next plan for reducing carbon emissions, including scope 3 emissions, further. We aim to launch this plan in early 2021. 

• Energy and Water Policy

We are committed to minimising our energy and water consumption and increasing the amount renewable energy and water technologies on campus and our Energy and Water Policy outlines this commitment. 

• Sustainable IT Policy

Our Sustainable IT Policy specifically deals with the operation of BU IT infrastructure and services. 

• Sustainable Construction Policy

This policy requires any new building constructed by BU to meet or exceed a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating and for refurbishments to meet or exceed BREEAM ’Very good’.

• Sustainable Procurement Policy 

We have committed to purchasing energy efficient goods and review any equipment that may have a significant impact on energy use at BU. We also purchase 100% of our grid electricity from renewable sources.  

You can view all our sustainable policies and documents on the Governance and Operations page.