Back to 2017 BPA Winners Overview
The University of Bradford committed to regenerating its estate sustainably a decade ago as part of its imaginative ‘Ecoversity’ programme. This programme is designed to embed sustainability into everything the university does, including teaching, and the operation and development of the estate.
By 2014, the university had succeeded in reducing carbon emissions by a breathtaking 33% from the 2005/6 baseline; by the turn of 2015 this had risen to 35%. This has been accomplished with an innovative multi-strand approach including:
• New cladding and installing a new control system and more efficient equipment.
• Putting building performance at the heart of each project.
• Restructuring the team to include building service technicians.
• Working with building occupiers/ users to improve behaviours.
The University’s built environment comprises 28 buildings over two campuses with a total floor area of 124,000 sq m. Most of the buildings on the estate were built between 1964 and 1977. The buildings are roughly split 65% for teaching and 35% for research, with 12,000 students and 2,500 staff members.
The university’s mantra with regard to buildings is ‘fabric first’. To this end, in 2014/15, it overclad two 1960s buildings – a thirteen-storey 33,940 sq m and a three-storey 8,500 sq m workshop block. In 2015, it moved its site-wide BEMS to server-based operation. This allows any member of the team access to the BEMS from either handheld devices or desktop computers.
The university also has a number of rolling programmes. These include LED lighting and controls installation; replacing transformers and pumps; engineering and control improvements to the district heating network; expanding the BEMS, and reviewing and optimising compressed air.
They also include rolling energy audits; identifying water usage; a review of air conditioning; consultations with users over operating times, and installation of a second CHP (Combined Heat and Power) and optimisation of the existing plant.
Finally, the university actively discourages the use and installation of comfort cooling across the estate, and has an unswerving focus on providing high quality natural ventilation.