It’s our second post for Green Libraries Week. We’re exploring how the library can support sustainability and green initiatives.
Here at Swansea University we take our responsibilities towards the planet very seriously. With two campuses very close to sea level, we are more aware than most of the importance on reducing our carbon footprint.
This is why at the library we are taking early action to try to help the university achieve its net zero targets. The earlier the action, the more carbon that is saved.
We talked on Tuesday about our Gold Award winning efforts last year, but this year we’re going even further, and this means ensuring that our buildings operate at the maximum efficiency for reducing carbon and ensuring a liveable planet for our students. The early effects of climate change are here already, and at Swansea we intend to go above and beyond to ensure that the effects are as low as possible.
We now have a project underway in our Bay Library that is designed to reduce enough carbon usage at night that would have previously used the same amount sequestered by 2 fully grown mature trees over a 40 year life span.
The project means that the study spaces in the North wing of the Bay Library close between midnight and 6 AM.
This means both the student study rooms and the PC lab in that area lock between those times.
Not only that but we are able to remotely power down all the PCs and turn off the air conditioning which has a huge impact on saving carbon emissions.
The PCs will give you a message 5 minutes before shut down, giving students time to save their work before the shut down.
If successful, we intend to look at other areas where we can make similar savings overnight in all our libraries and use state of the art monitoring technology to ensure that we don’t close off too many sections. There will always be enough spaces for you to study, especially at exam time and when there are essay deadlines approaching!!
We are always happy to hear your suggestions for saving energy and resources, allowing us to make bigger strides towards achieving net zero. If you have any ideas, please feel free to get in touch with me at c.m.j.evans@swansea.ac.uk and hopefully together we can make the changes needed to ensure our biodiverse planet thrives in the future.