Impact of high student usage
Energy figures for the year 2004/5 obtained by Nouse show students on campus play a key part in the over-use of energy at the University, and in the generation of harmful emissions.
Of the total gas, water and electricity used at the University that year, 33% was used in campus residences. Campus residents alone were responsible for 68,33368 of the 21,733,598 kg of C02 emissions generated.
Using an online facility, Nouse has calculated the ecological footprint of the average student at 5.3 hectares. Though this is short of the national average footprint of 6.3 hectares, it is still far in excess of the actual earth-share of 2 hectares per capita.
If every person in the world lived in the manner of a typical student, 2.8 planets would be needed to sustain global consumption.
To combat this high-level student energy-usage, the Students’ Union launched a recent poster campaign to increase student energy-awareness, by publicising the costs of residential energy usage in terms of student services.
One such poster read: “If all the computers on campus were switched off for 6 hours per night, the University would save enough to fund 450 new societies”.
Though Services Officer Nat Thwaites McGowan admitted on Friday that he had no assurances that the University would spend any of the money saved on students, he is hopeful that if it becomes clear that students have dramatically reduced their energy usage, the University could be persuaded to commit some of the money accrued to student services.
The University will be able to detect changing levels of student energy use through a new system of metering being implemented.
The Students’ Union are keen to remind students to make every effort to conserve energy.
