University of West London shortlisted for National Sustainability Awards 2024
Intro
The University of West London has been shortlisted in the category Building of the Year for the 4th annual National Sustainability Awards 2024. The Awards is looking for stories of innovation and breadth of impact across all sectors that can help build a more sustainable and better future.
Article body
The Building of the Year Award is for companies or organisations that have invested in creating energy efficient, sustainable and low-impact buildings. This could include materials used, renewable energy supply, water reduction, insulation, natural ventilation or "greening" of the site.
Since 2012, UWL has been on an estate journey that has seen a complete transformation of its main campus site at St Mary’s Road. This has delivered a unified campus building, enhanced learning and social experiences for students and does so whilst having a significantly reduced impact on the environment.
The journey reached a peak in 2021, when the University secured funding from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, to install Europe’s largest combined Ground Source Heat Pump and Solar Photovoltaic Thermal system in an education building on the St Mary’s Road site.
The total combined annual energy and carbon savings from the projects is verified as 2,262,420 kWh and 476.3tCO2e, and the technologies are continuing to innovate, with the heat pumps regenerating themselves in use and passive cooling applications being a realistic opportunity for the future by cooling building slabs. The University has also transformed green spaces on campus into biodiversity hotspots through local community partnerships as part of the estate projects.
Placing in the shortlist in the National Sustainability Awards is recognition of the relevance of our contribution to climate resilience not just within the education sector but in the wider national context,”
said Executive Director of Property and Environment at UWL Claire Willitts.
We are working hard to adapt ourselves and our estate and to demonstrate that the challenges of retrofit can be overcome to deliver really impactful improvements to ourselves, the local community and the climate.”
The winners will be announced on 2 October at an Awards Gala Dinner at London Marriot Hotel, Grosvenor Square.
Related news
-
Grace Hunter joins UWL as Head of Environmental Sustainability
Grace will be leading on the development and implementation of the University’s environmental sustainability strategy, policies and initiatives.
-
Best in the West: UWL named Environmental Corporate of the Year at West London Business 2024 Awards
The University of West London has been rewarded for its commitment to sustainability and its work towards becoming a net-zero carbon institution by 2030 at the West London Business 2024 Awards, where it won Environmental Corporate of the Year.
-
University of West London Accounting students explore career pathways in green finance
The event was conducted by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the world’s largest professional accountancy body, which accredits several of UWL’s courses.
-
UWL PhD student publishes paper assessing the sustainability of supermarket buildings
The study from Agha Hasan, from the School of Computing and Engineering's Building Performance and Climate Change research group, is one of the first to appear in the new journal, published by UWL and the Temporary Work Forum.
