The Guilds budget for environmental refurbishment this year is £5000 pounds (I’m looking into ways of increasing this). I, Tom Guise and the Building mangers are brainstorming ideas of where to spend it in the run up to the first meeting of the environmental work group.
Here is quick provisional list I’ve drawn up, what are your ideas for the guilds green to do list? the building is ancient, so work on the basis that we don’t already have it.
· Thermostats
· PVC seals on exterior doors, letterboxes and keyholes
· Radiator valves with thermostats
· Heat reflectors behind radiators
· Electronic timers
· Insulating pipes
· Insulation of hot water tank
· Draught proofing strips around windows and doors
· Insulation of cavity walls
· Insulation of loft
· Insulation of cavity walls
· Cellar insulation
· New energy efficient boiler
· Double Glazing
Comment below with more
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im sure it wouldnt fit in a £5000 budget, but does the guild have long term plans for solar panels, solar water heating, etc?
ReplyDeleteEven if they did it should probably be the last thing on the list as its not going supply any significant amount of the hot water or electricity. My advice would be spend it on some good environmental consultants who can produce an assessment of the best ways of increasing energy efficiency etc. That can form the basis of a mid-term plan to sort the building out cost-effectively and with at least some regard for things which will really make a difference and dont just sound good.
ReplyDeleteBut hasnt this already been done. I seem to remember both Nick Bryer and Julien Pritchard mentioning this stuff. What happened?
ReplyDeleteThere are quite a few IT-based improvements that would benefit us in the long term. For example, an automatic "idle time" timeout after which computers in the Guild would shutdown or go into stand-by or hibernate modes.
ReplyDeleteI've set up something similar myself in the past with networks I've run; establish a policy - which is well advertised (taking our past problems with internal Guild communication into account :P) - wherein a computer may be left idle for a set amount of time before it is shut down or suspended in some fashion. It might not make much of a difference, but every little bit helps?
sorry ben, i obv have no real idea what would benefit the building, i just wondered if edd knew what the current long-term plan is, on top of (i assume? hope?) the yearly £5000.
ReplyDeleteYearly? That would be nice ... £5000 has been set aside during in the re-development of the guild.
ReplyDeleteI’m sure there must be some kind of long term plan or policy; it would be unbelievable if there was not. I talked to buildings manager about costs and what needs to be done this and he said we should produce a list like this, from that I guess there is not this survey. I'll follow it up and try and search it out within the guild along with the long term plans. Perhaps you could contact Nick Bryer or Julien Pritchard and ask them because it would be great if it did exist ( I don’t have any contact details).
Matt that sounds great and that should not be hard to achieve, I go I’ll go by IT and see what they think about it.
I'm actually impressed we have a budget at all to be honest!
ReplyDeleteMy office shares a partition wall with the printer and photocopy room, but when the original room was partitioned they didn't rewire the lights so whenever I have my lights on, so does the photocopier room. If that got rewired I'd save 33% of my office lighting energy :)
This is exactly the kind of no-cost/low-cost stuff (as well as a lot of other things) that an asessment would uncover...and your predecessors are on Facebook Ed, you go and get them!
ReplyDeletefor the record i believe Brigid Jones should work in the dark, saving both money and energy! anyone else with me?
ReplyDeleteno.
ReplyDeleteI can find Julien I have no idea how to find nick bryer.. I would have thought you would be in contact.
ReplyDeletewith the window draft insulation stuff, it you can get on paper who is in charge of their up keep, the guild or the uni, we may be able to get the uni to foot the bill.
ReplyDeleteIf not I'm sure we can sort out a group of people to go round and stick it on ourselves and it will cost us £20 or something for all the tape.
I think the uni could also be challenged to sort the roof insulation out because I have a feeling I worked out that was also their responsibility.
In regards to the boiler, we have been promised one by the uni and I was told it was purchased so I am shocked its not already in.
I think any of those will be brrrrrrrrillant.
oh and brigid should definitely work in the dark, it would be selfish not too. :p
ReplyDeleteOrganic beer and cider for Joes!
ReplyDeleteYou should do an audit of all the things that use up inefficient energy, and then work out where the money could be most efficiently spent. You should also look into all your embedded emissions as well (e.g. what banks are you with? which companies do you support through advertising, etc.) – these are emissions for the sake of having emissions.
I am actauly look into embeded emissions, thats a good one.
ReplyDeleteI am glad so many people are comming forward with useful suggestions as in many ways this justifies the creation of the student positions on the enviromental working group.
I would encourage anyone interested in this to step foward for election at GC in november.
aslo I noted all these down and will bring them up at the next meeting.