Green Gown Awards 2017 - The University of Nottingham - Finalist

Medical School carbon reduction strategies 

The University of Nottingham Medical school, constructed in the 1970’s as part of the Nottingham Teaching Hospital Trust’s Queens Medical Centre, is an energy intensive 30,000m2 facility with requirements for high resilience on many of the primary building services, namely power, heating and cooling.

Home to much of the University’s medical activities including specialist labs and facilities, it is the University’s single most energy-intensive building due to its construction and its use.

A programme of carbon reduction projects commenced in 2015, targeting building fabric by replacing glazing, ventilation control to service void areas, replacement of central chilled water provision and segregation of heating circuits along with replacement of many steam control valves.

Three years on it has seen significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and an annual saving of £560,000.

Top 3 learnings:

1 The most significant carbon reduction we have achieved on any of our campuses.

2 Major improvement in reliability of the chilled water system.

3 Removal of the legionella risk associated with the old cooling towers.

CO2t savings over the life cycle of the project: 38,430t CO2 (Estimated over 15 years)