Reducing our Energy and Water Consumption
We spend around £1.6m on energy and utilities annually at Edinburgh Napier University. The University has spent almost £1m on energy-saving projects over the past ten years. Over their lifetime, the projects are expected to save £3.2m and around 16,500t CO2e by reducing electricity and gas use. These projects include solar panels, electric vehicles, and installing energy-efficient lighting.
Saving energy across our buildings and estates
We have a number of sites across Edinburgh city centre and its surrounding areas, including our three main campuses and Student Accommodation. We are committed to doing all we can to ensure our existing buildings and future developments are as sustainable as possible and we are continuously working on improvements to reduce our environmental impact.
Our current Estates Strategy commits that any development at Edinburgh Napier University will be responsible, sustainable and reflect our corporate social responsibility aspirations. BREEAM is the world's leading sustainability assessment method for masterplanning projects, infrastructure and buildings. Both Sighthill Campus and Bainfield Student Accommodation hold a BREAAM Excellent rating, while the music school at Merchiston holds 'Very Good'.
Recent Projects
Riady Lecture Theatre - Craiglockhart Campus 2017
- Fluorescent light fittings upgraded to LED fittings with an anticipated life span of a minimum of eight years, removing the need to replace light bulbs every two years
- Outdated control system replaced with a flexible and highly-configurable wireless lighting control system
- Position of light switches improved
- Absence detection introduced
- Upgrading to LED lighting
Annual savings:
- 8 tonnes of CO2e
- 17,000 kWh of electricity
- £9,600
- 75% energy reduction
- Payback 3.4 years (including reduced maintenance costs)
Jack Kilby Computer Centre - Merchiston Campus 2018
- LED lighting installed, leading to a reduction in maintenance requirements
- Flexible and highly-configurable wireless lighting control system installed
Annual savings:
- 63 tones of CO2e
- 139,000 kWh of electricity
- £21,000
- 60% energy reduction
- Payback 4 years (including reduced maintenance costs)
Learning Resource Centre - Sighthill Campus 2018
- More than 600 light fittings retrofit with LED boards, significantly reducing waste and resource use.
The project is funded from the Scottish Funding Council interest free loan from their University Carbon Reduction fund.
Annual savings:
- 32 tonnes of CO2e
- 83,500 kWh of electricity
- £13,600
- 65% energy reduction
- Payback 5 years (excluding reduced maintenance costs)
Office and Classrooms - Merchiston Campus 2018
Controls upgraded to absence detection reducing consumption by an estimated 75%
Over 80 rooms identified with ineffecient T8 light fittings, replaced with LED fittings
The project is funded from the Scottish Funding Council interest free loan from their University Carbon Reduction fund.
Annual savings:
Reporting our emissions
The University monitors environmental impact through a variety of means. As a public body in Scotland, Edinburgh Napier is legislatively required to submit an array of information to the Scottish Government annually. Our reports can be found on the Sustainable Scotland Network (SSN) website.
Reports cover carbon and wider environmental impact associated with business travel, electricity, gas, waste and water as well as a wider overview of governance arrangements, projects carried out and planned and also action towards sustainable procurement and adaptation. To publicly report both qualitative and quantitative information, ongoing audits of impact are collated.
Noise
As part of our Environmental Management System we monitor and manage noise and nuisance. The aspect of noise covers the day-to-day running of our campuses and accommodation sites as well as on-going or one-off building works.
All noise complaints should be reported to Facilities Service Desk, email FacilitiesServiceDesk@napier.ac.uk or call ext: 5000
Construction
Our current Estates Strategy commits to any development at Edinburgh Napier University will be responsible, sustainable and reflect our corporate social responsibility aspirations. The values and aims of the Estates Strategy are embedded within the University-wide Strategy 2020, which again highlights environmental sustainability aims through the institution.
For more information, please refer to the Estates Strategy and Strategy 2020.
Accreditation
BREEAM is the world's leading sustainability assessment method for masterplanning projects, infrastructure and buildings.
Sighthill Campus: BREAAM Excellent
Bainfield Student Accommodation: BREAAM Excellent
Music School at Merchiston: BREAAM Very Good
Water on campus
We use around 20 million litres of water each year. The use of this water results in emissions of around 20 tonnes of carbon, equating to 0.3% of our total annual carbon emissions from utilities.
There are many initiatives in place to conserve water, including real time monitoring and waterless urinals. These kind of projects have resulted in us reducing our water usage significantly, and water consumption is now less than half the amount used in 2006/07.