Investing in a greener campus in Greece
At the Techncial University of Crete, the economic crisis and a desire to be more sustainable has led to bold investments in energy efficiency. Christine Georgatou, environmental engineer at TUC gives an update on their recent efforts including Student Switch Off.
The Student Switch Off campaign was launched in the Technical University of Crete (TUC) in November 2014. The dormitory building accommodates 78 students in single rooms.
Student Switch Off adds to the actions carried out by TUC to mitigate the campus’ energy consumption. The TUC’s energy saving program was developed during the last few years, aiming to improve the students’ and the university staff’s energy behaviour and habits, and to conduct an assessment on installing new infrastructure and renewables for energy production.
Coinciding with the launch of the Student Switch Off campaign in the TUC dormitory building, new energy meters were installed in each dormitory room and communal space for optimum energy consumption monitoring.
In addition, the central oil-fired heating system was replaced by autonomous air-conditioning units in each student room. Separate meters have also been installed for each air conditioner, for a distinctive monitoring of the heating and cooling energy requirements.
An energy consumption overview for each campus building is provided on TUC’s webpage, while a local dashboard where the dormitory students and University members will be able to observe the daily energy consumption for their own room will soon become available as well.
Furthermore the ember lab of the environmental engineering School is developing a new Web based Energy management System for the University Campus (CAMP-IT), which includes the installation of new measuring infrastructure of environmental parameters such as temperature, humidity, CO2 and luminosity. CAMP-IT will develop a web based energy management for measuring and mitigating the possible dimensions of energy and environmental impact that the University Campuses can generate. At the present stage of development, the CAMP-IT system is installed and evaluated in two university buildings with offices and laboratories.
The idea of a “Green University” emerged as a necessity in the everyday TUC community both because of the economic impasse caused by the economic crisis faced by Greece but also because of the will and the capacity to transform TUC in a sustainable manner.
TUC’s Strategic Sustainable Development Plan aims at measurable results, promoting the University to become an "open lab" for research and technology in sustainable development. This process will contribute to the energy awareness raising of the TUC community and in extension of the wider society.
