Firstly, an enormous thank you to the 250 staff and students who gave up their Friday evenings to take part in the Blackout. We think this was the biggest event of its kind in the higher education sector – and it wouldn’t have been possible without you. As the Vice-Chancellor said in his email to you on Monday, we have some challenging and important targets to meet in the months and years ahead, so please stay engaged with the sustainability agenda on campus.
The headline results
We’ve compared energy usage on the Highfield Campus over the weekend of 28-29th April (after the Blackout) with the average of four comparable weekends before Easter.
We’ve found that energy usage after the Blackout was 6% lower than the comparable weekends.
The 6% reduction over the weekend saved 7 tonnes of carbon and 16,000 kWh of energy – enough to power 5 family homes for a year.
In financial terms, the reduction saved more than £1,600 – that’s the equivalent of more than £84,000 over the course of a year.
What does this mean?
We didn’t power-down any major pieces of equipment or entire buildings on Friday night – our volunteers were simply turning off PCs, monitors and lights that had been left on before the weekend.
The results are encouraging – they suggest that most staff are already in the habit of ensuring the things are switched off at the end of the day. But the results also show that there’s more to be done – and with just a few simple, individual acts we can achieve a significant financial saving and a major contribution to our carbon reduction target.
The challenge: Switch off Friday
So here’s the challenge: can we do it again this weekend? It’s a bank holiday weekend, so it’s even more important that things are switched off. Please take responsibility for the equipment on your own desk and in your own office – we will take another look at the energy figures next week.
We intend to release more detailed Southampton Blackout results shortly. If you have any questions about the exercise, please contact Dr Neil Smith, Environment Manager.