City College Plymouth

City College Plymouth has been making a difference with its approach to Sustainability over the last 10 years. It has been a progressive engagement but one seen as essential as an educator. We exist to inspire our students, staff and visitors, especially in the area of Sustainability given the risks of climate change, resource depletion and global poverty.

So what have we achieved:

In 2001 we completed an environmental demonstration building of about 2500m2. Its aim was to show what could be done at an average construction cost. It includes high mass construction; good orientation; solar shading; solar thermal water heating; rain water harvesting; heat pump cooling/heating; passive night and day ventilation; heat recovery: low energy lights and automatic controls; and green material choices.

In conjunction with the above we developed a college wide transport strategy covering staff and student travel to all college sites. This is reviewed annually and has reached its eighth revision. A cross college waste separation scheme was introduced. This identified paper and cardboard as our greatest waste stream for separation and this has now been collected from our main sites for free for many years. It is now being updated to fully incorporate the Hazardous Waste Regulations. Also the new building housed a environmental support unit for SMEs

Our Energy Strategy includes remote reading of all utility meters on a daily basis by text messaging enabling excess consumption monitoring through preset alarms. We do regular reporting and target setting. The main sites link bank to a sophisticated BMS control systems to optimise performance. Energy purchasing is through the Consortium. Waterless urinals save one third of our water consumption. Also we have on site electrical generation through two roof mounted 6kWp wind turbines.

We participate in an EU energy conservation project, see www.brita-in-pubs.eu

Our wider social responsibilities are demonstrated in a number of ways. Our commitment to disabled access. We are now implementing our 3rd disabled access audit in 10 years. In September we gained Fairtrade status. We are actively seeking to provide healthier food sourced more locally. Centralised furniture purchasing uses ISO 14001 accredited suppliers. A cross college Sustainability Working Group has been established and we eagerly await the LSC Sustainability Policy Tool Kit. This will bring good principles to bear not only in estates but the curriculum and the way we manage the college.

All this activity is covered by our overarching Sustainability Policy with its annual target setting.

Main Contact Name: Gilbert Snook, Head of Estates
Main Contact Email & Telephone: gsnook@cityplym.ac.uk and 01752 305302
Further information/website: www.cityplym.ac.uk 
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