ABSTRACT
My employer is the University of Hull and it has tried to influence how its staff and students work and their environmental impacts for some years now. Its energy manager monitored electricity usage and found that it remained high overnight even when many offices were empty, because many University staff reportedly left their computers running overnight to save time booting them up the next morning. Since then, the University has implemented shut-down programmes on all computers, so that they go into ‘sleep’ mode when they are not actively used for a period of time. The University has done the same with lighting by installing motion sensors in many corridors and its energy management initiative also encourages staff and students to turn off the lights when leaving rooms. To implement its Carbon Management Plan, the University urges staff to “do your bit by remembering to switch off appliances and rather than taking out the energy-guzzling fan heater, perhaps putting on an extra jumper in winter”, and exhorts staff to use videoconferencing to reduce travelling and to travel to work by walking or cycling in the ‘Hull UtravelActive’ project, instead of by private car (University of Hull 2015).
