Green Gown Awards 2015 – Carbon Reduction - Oxford Brookes University - Finalist

Low Carbon Oxford

Keeping Oxford Brookes University moving is a daily challenge. With 2,800 staff and 18,500 students, Brookes needs a clean, green and sustainable means of getting people between its eleven Oxford sites.

Since 2004, the BROOKESbus has provided the solution. The fleet has moved almost 12 million passengers, since 2009, saving an estimated 1.4 million car journeys each year. In 2014, 40% of all journeys were made by community members.

The new fleet has been installed with the Gyro Drive System resulting in up to 17.9% fuel saving and a 17% reduction in CO2 emissions. The technology is the first in the country to be installed on a commercial bus services and has been developed by our Alumni working at Williams Formula 1.Previously, it has been used in racing cars including vehicles used at the “Le Mans 24 hours”.

Top 3 learnings

1 We were surprised by the amount of support this project received, not just from our partner (Oxford Bus Company) and our internal teams, but from our staff, students and the general public

2 A project of this size could not have succeeded without the hard-work and support of many people across multiple teams, working together to ensure a successful implementation. To ensure this was possible, we arranged multiple meetings with all parties involved

3 We have implemented this project successfully but we know there is still more work to be done. Even now we are diligently working alongside Oxford Bus Company to optimise our CO2 savings.

Videos

• Low Carbon Oxford (click to hide)