Imperial College Water Consumption 2010 Final

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Executive Summary This review aimed to identify the water consumption characteristics at Imperial College London’s South Kensington campus. The study area was confined to those facilities and departments west of Exhibition Road and south of Prince Consort Road. Once consumption had been identified, recommendations were made towards the reduction of the amount of water used, to cut costs and lessen the environmental impact of Imperial College without hindering its research and commercial activities. To begin with, the current position of the College was assessed. Existing water management and facilities were examined, as well as any external drivers that may affect the College’s attitudes towards its water consumption such as legislation, and environmental or commercial drivers. To assess the management and facilities a 3 stage methodology was set out and the methods and conclusions will be summarised below: Water metering study The study area has 29 water meters for which telemetry data and billing information was provided. Using this information, this review was able to rank buildings by their water consumption so that the buildings with the highest consumption could be investigated further. Unfortunately, there were several limitations with the metering data which complicated the process. Some of the water meters did not have any telemetry data and only the billing information could be used. The study did find that water consumption at the College is high as would be expected for a university of Imperial’s research intensity. Consumption rarely drops to nil for any building, including non-operating periods such as weekends and holidays. The buildings with the highest consumption typically have a high occupant usage, laboratories, or in the case of the Sherfield building, the centralised catering facilities. Interviews and questionnaires Interviews were conducted with building managers and laboratory staff, in order to report and discuss the outcomes of the water metering study and gain a better understanding of the facilities and their operation. Additionally, a survey focusing on the College occupants’ awareness and perception of water consumption issues was carried out. During this phase, there appeared to be a lack of cooperation and knowledge concerning water issues between facilities management and the individual building managers. Also, during refurbishment works little attention seems to have been paid to the wider water infrastructure and as such there is a frequent occurrence of leaks. During the occupant survey it was demonstrated that the majority of aforementioned leak incidents are not reported. The survey also illustrated that there is a low awareness for water issues and consumption at the College; staff members appear to be more informed and concerned than the students, as well as international students compared to UK students. It also highlights that there is no formal guidance regarding water consumption or any form of encouragement from the College for occupants to reduce their use. And although there is a water policy in place, it seems that it is not widely known or implemented. This also applies to laboratories where there is no standard code of practice. 2 | P a g e
Recommendations Based on the interviews with the building managers and the laboratory staff and the outcome of the occupant survey, recommendations were made in order to reduce water consumption, promote efficiency and move towards sustainable water use. The recommendations are divided into short term, long term and capital intensive and on-going. The short term recommendations are of first priority, and allow for low-cost and immediate water savings, while providing the basis for the implementation of more advanced water efficiency measures. The long term and capital intensive measures require greater spending, and should be integrated in future plans and developments. Finally, education is identified as an ongoing process leading to water savings in the short and long term, and promoting sustainable development. The recommendations address administrational, policy, infrastructural, technical and behavioural aspects of water consumption. 3 | P a g e
Page 1: IMPERIAL COLLEGE, LONDON Water Cons
Page 5 and 6: 5.1 General notes .................
Page 7 and 8: 1 Introduction Water is an essentia
Page 9 and 10: valuable water resources, to delive
Page 11 and 12: 2.3.2 Higher Education Environmenta
Page 13 and 14: 3 Methodology The following methodo
Page 15 and 16: Figure 1: Meter locations for the S
Page 17 and 18: As previously mentioned in the meth
Page 19 and 20: 5 Building Profiles This section pr
Page 21 and 22: There are no regular inspections of
Page 23 and 24: 5.3 Royal School of Mines Building
Page 25 and 26: 5.4 Royal Society of Chemistry 1 (C
Page 27 and 28: Figure 11: Telemetry data (flow at
Page 29 and 30: 5.6 Metering Locations Figure 14 sh
Page 31 and 32: 6 Occupant questionnaire To gauge t
Page 33 and 34: 6.2.3 Questions 4 & 5: Regarding ob
Page 35 and 36: Staff members appear to be more con
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Page 39 and 40: granted on research grounds. The hi
Page 41 and 42: Water conservation Environmental pe
Page 43 and 44: time. This represents a constant lo
Page 45 and 46: een developed, students will have t
Page 47 and 48: within the university campuses for
Page 49 and 50: 10.6 University of Bath Green Leagu
Page 51 and 52: HEFCE. (2009b, November 26). Sustai
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University of Bristol. (2010b). Ene
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Section 2: Thames Water bill from 1
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Section 3: Excel spreadsheet using
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Section 5: Occupant questionnaire
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