UCL Easter Switch Off 2024 Impact!

Thank you to everyone who participated in UCL’s 2024 Easter Switch Off! Your efforts saved a remarkable 229,502 kWh, saving £71,146 in costs, and reducing carbon emissions by 48 tonnes—the equivalent weight of 1.2 million crème eggs! Congratulations to our champions, the Bartlett School of Architecture and Ifor Evans Hall, and a big shoutout to our individual winners who helped UCL reduce its impact.

The UCL community once again demonstrated its commitment to environmental sustainability through its annual Easter Switch Off campaign. Leading up to the end of Term 2, the concerted efforts of staff and students led to substantial energy savings and a significant reduction in carbon emissions.

Impressive energy and carbon savings 

The 2024 Easter Switch Off was a resounding success, with the university achieving a reduction of 229,502 kilowatt-hours (kWh) in energy use. This translated into cost savings of £71,146 and a reduction of 48 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2) – the weight of 1.2 million crème eggs. The environmental impact of these savings is comparable to planting almost 800 trees, highlighting the positive effect of collective action.

Celebrating our competition winners

Staff and students across UCL pledged to switch off as part of the competition. Well done to the Bartlett School of Architecture who emerged as the faculty winner - you will receive £100 towards sustainability-related initiatives or events.

Ifor Evans Hall won the accolade for accommodation, thanks to the participation of its residents—your Hall Community Officer will receive £100 to be spent on a social activity.

This year also featured an individual prize draw, and the winners are:

• Shashwat Guha (Student - Institute of Neurology)
• Sara Bunting (Staff - Office of the Vice-Provost (Advancement))
• Ellie Wong (Student – Geography)
• Ayisha Shabbir (Staff - Institute of Neurology)
• Christina Egan (Staff – Institute of Education)

The winners of the individual prize draw will be contacted by the Sustainable UCL team to arrange for sustainability-related prize collection. 

What actions can you take to help save energy?

• Spark change by switching off: Check appliances daily before heading home to ensure computers, monitors and lights are switched off. We currently spend £3,000 every hour overnight when the campus is largely unoccupied. Switching lights off each night would save UCL £500,000 a year – equivalent to the CO₂ absorption of almost 7.5 million trees.   
• ‘Watt’s’ causing energy inefficiency? If you have identified something that is causing energy wastage in your department such as windows not closing or faulty lighting controls, please report them through this form.  
• Be a chameleon: In the cooler months, use layers to keep warmer, rather than turning up the thermostat or heating. In the Spring and Summer, use layers and light clothing to keep cool, rather than turning up the air-conditioning. Teaching, research and office spaces are regulated between temperatures of 19-21°C on weekdays between 8-6pm, during Spring.  
• Make #ChangePossible: Join Green Impact and LEAF – our sustainability behavioural change programmes to make further changes to your offices and labs. 

> Green Impact & LEAF 

What action is UCL taking to reduce energy use?

Making our campus more energy-efficient   

• Working with the Energy Institute and others to link our heating system to on-campus weather stations helping to better match heating provision with demand.  
• Connecting our room bookings system with our heating control system so unoccupied rooms are not heated unnecessarily.    
• Undertaking surveys in buildings to implement more LED lighting and improve BMS controls to improve building performance and efficiency.  
• Adopting a fabric-first approach for refurbishment and construction projects ensure less energy is needed from the offset.  

Streamlining our operations  

• Continuing to work on the management of our buildings, to ensure they are working efficiently, with adjustments to our heating, lighting, and ventilation systems. 
• Opening hours of some buildings have been changed to reflect usage patterns. We have worked to ensure that there are no unreasonable impacts on teaching, research, or other business-critical activities. The Student Centre will remain open for 24/7 studying.   
• Consolidating our office space by moving all Central Professional Services (PS) teams to Bidborough House.  

Making improvements to our IT services  

• Consolidating data storage into data centres to improve energy efficiency and data security.  
• ISD is changing how power for Desktop@UCL computers is managed across campus. It is estimated it will save £500 a day.  

Stay in touch:

Follow us on social media or sign-up to our sustainability newsletters to find out more and be the first to know about the Easter Switch Off!  

• Follow us on Twitter/X and Instagram 
• Sign up to our Sustainable UCL newsletters  

Savings calculations:

On average, one tree can consume approximately 60kg of CO₂ from the atmosphere.

Carbon savings given are CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent).

Department winner: Calculated by percentage participation per department compared with the percentage energy saving of the department.

Hall winner: Calculated by taking the number of pledges per hall and dividing by the number of current occupied rooms to get a participation percentage.

• The holiday period was from 28/04/24 - 03/04/2024. 
• Savings compared to term time = 229,502kWh. 
• Average weekday energy use during term time = 286,703kWh. 
• Average weekday energy use during holidays = 225,083kWh. 
• Average weekend energy use during term time = 250,299kWh. 
• Average weekend energy use during holidays = 222,567kWh.