Although water meter readings for the College had been recorded for three years, no attempt to monitor trends had been made. Green Impact helped the College with the idea of carrying out a water audit.
Using data provided by Thames Water, the College came up with the idea of introducing four-minute shower timers to its students.
Fifty shower timers were bought and provided to students. Information on the initiative now appears in the welcome book for all new tenants. The response from students was positive.
The College worked with the Facilities Manager to identify other ways to help reduce water and energy consumption:
- Automated taps in the kitchen were installed to help reduce water use.
- Regular pipe surveys are carried out to identify leaky pipes. Gutters are cleaned at least yearly (and twice per week under flat roofs)
- Rainwater harvesting provides water for the garden at 64 Banbury Road
The buildings where shower timers were used showed a 5% reduction in water consumption. It is hoped that this will increase with the rollout of the scheme this term.
Due to this initial success, the voluntary shower timer scheme will be rolled out to students in Michaelmas term.
To assess the impact, Kellogg College has created graphics on energy usage for each building and divided the data by academic year. This will allow the impact of future actions to be tracked.
