Sustainability Features

Sustainability features

Energy efficiency
Energy use is minimised through intelligent design that incorporates air tightness, and maximises daylight and natural ventilation through the use of energy efficient technology including biomass heating, intelligent lighting and thin client computer technology. QMU’s targets for air tightness and u-values are a 25% and a 5% improvement respectively over minimum building regulation requirements.

Biomass heating
The campus' carbon emission - its carbon 'footprint' - is expected to be the lowest of any HE organisation in the UK through the use of a biomass heating system. Biomass is generally considered to be any kind of plant material, vegetation, or agricultural waste used as a fuel or energy source. At the new campus, a woodchip boiler generates heat for distribution around the campus, with a projected 75% reduction in carbon dioxide emission compared with traditional gas fired heating. The QMU biomass is the largest non-industrial installation of its kind in the UK.

Thin client computer technology
To minimise heat generation, and therefore reduce the need for ventilation, PC users on campus do not have hard disk drives at their desks. Instead, 'thin client' technology is used whereby software and hardware are stored at central servers. The energy consumption of the thin client terminals is significantly less than a traditional pc (at 34kwh/year compared with 320kwh/year for a pc). Annually, thin-client technology is projected to reduce energy consumption costs by £100,000.

Sustainable Travel
A detailed green travel plan is being implemented to encourage students, staff and visitors to make use of sustainable forms of transport. You can read case studies on some of our staff who have adopted green travel methods.

Biodiversity
Biodiversity has been encouraged through plans that included the creation of wetland, woodland, hedgerow and meadow habitats, and the provision of roosting boxes for indigenous wildlife. Special wildlife corridors mitigate potential conflict between wildlife and human traffic. Other provisions to add ecological values include plant selection to encourage invertebrate and bird populations, and replanting of hedgerows.

Sustainable urban drainage system (SUDS)
A SUDS pond is a key feature of the design, to capture rainwater draining off roofs and paved areas, holding it back on site rather than contributing to downstream flooding. As well as providing a solution to the problem of excess surface water, the pond is an attractive feature of the campus, and provides an excellent habitat for wildlife.

Water consumption
All of the water services (i.e. taps, sanitary fittings etc) have been designed to minimise water consumption.

Building energy management system (BEMS)
BEMS has been installed to optimise the operation of the heating, ventilation and lighting systems in the building.

Lighting controls
The lighting system within the building is intelligent. The further you sit from a window the brighter the lighting in that area becomes, and if you sit close to a window, the lighting dims to compensate. Interior lighting brightens as evening approaches. Lighting is managed via BEMS and turned on and off via a timer.

Indoor air quality and ventilation
The majority of the building is ventilated naturally. An exposed concrete slab at the top of the building absorbs the heat generated during the day and then cool at night allowing the building to maintain a consistent temperature. Benign paint and floor finishes have been used at the campus, minimising negative environmental impacts – for example, much of the flooring used is marmoleum, a natural product made from linseed oil, wood flour, rosin, jute and limestone.

Adopting a more sustainable lifestyle
The university has held a number of promotional green events and developed a range of innovative recycling initiatives (eg the RE:USE project) to educate staff and students and encourage them to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle.

Some statistics on predicted energy use