Invisible energy policy in Higher Education

Energy Policy, 2008

The UK education and education-related services are said to be one of the fastest-growing export earners in recent years and are known to have had significant impacts at the micro-and macro-levels of the UK. This review looks at energy consumption of this fast growing sector. It concentrates on the energy consumption patterns of the funded higher education institutions in the UK. The findings indicate energy consumption in the sector has been on the increase in the 6 years up to 2006; rising by about 2.7% above the 2001 consumption levels. This increase is, however, not evenly spread across the entire sector. The high energy-consuming institutions appear to be increasing their net consumption, relative to other institutions. Gross internal area, staff and research student full-time equivalent were found to have highest correlation with energy consumption across the sector and may be used as proxy indicators for energy consumption as well as the targets of interventions.

Applied Energy, 2019

Among the various sustainability goals of higher education institutions (HEIs), reducing energy use and carbon emissions are particularly important. However, not much is known about energy demand from the higher education sector-especially since there is a lack of robust models of energy demand in this sector. This paper, the first to utilize a panel dataset and advanced panel econometric techniques in order to model energy use in higher education, investigates variations in energy use between HEIs (cross-sectional analysis), and also changes in energy use over time (temporal analysis), using the UK as a case study. We argue that panel dataset and methods are more useful for understanding growth (and reduction) in energy use within the HE sector than the methods used within previous cross-sectional studies. Results show that, over time and also across the sector, energy consumption in the HEIs increases with increases in income and floor space, but at a slower rate. As HEIs grow overall (in terms of income, floor space, student and staff number) over time, they become more 'energy efficient' (using less energy per unit of area, population or income), indicating economies of scale in the temporal dimension. Results also show that after controlling for income and size, research intensive HEIs consume more energy. We also find a small but statistically significant effect of energy prices on energy consumption, as might be expected. Simulation using the model parameters for an example scenario suggests that energy consumption will continue to increase unless there is a significant change in the policies driving income growth and spatial expansion in the HE sector in the UK.

International Journal of Sustainable Energy, 2020

In 2010, the UK's Higher Education Sector set a carbon reduction target of 43%. This study aims to evaluate the performance of this Sector for the period before and after the implementation of its carbon reduction target. Dataset available from the Higher Education Statistics Agency has been extensively used in this study. Significant factors driving the sector's energy consumption have been identified. Energy performance indicators have been established. The increasing role of green technologies in the sector's energy mix has been unlocked. The sector's energy and carbon performance have been additionally analysed by critically analysing the data collected from the display energy certificates. In the end, the impact of Brexit on the sector's academic and environmental targets has been discussed.

Environmental Policy and Governance, 2020

Organisations and institutions of many kinds play important roles in maintaining and transforming energy systems, not least through their direct contributions to energy demand. Major service-providing institutions such as universities and hospitals have especially large and complex demands. Facing pressures to reduce environmental impacts and costs, many of these organisations are trying to reduce their energy consumption—with varying degrees of success. The responsibility for pursuing this goal in practice often lies with practitioners here referred to as Energy Management Professionals (EMPs). However, there has been little systematic investigation of EMPs' practices and their energy implications. Using qualitative evidence from English universities and hospitals, we argue that three types of work are marginalised in EMPs' practices, namely: (a) change-focused work, and within that; (b) work engag- ing with people and what they do, and within that; (c) work engaging with institu- tional policy-making. We argue that these marginalisations limit the scale and scope of demand reduction efforts, and also show how they arise from interacting dynamics of national policies and priorities, institutional structures and professional practices, and the influence of neoliberal governance, among other things. Finally, we discuss how rethinking institutional energy governance could help reduce energy demand and reflect on wider lessons for research and policy on organisational sustainability.

Energy Policy, 2010

This paper provides an insight into energy efficiency interventions studies, focusing on issues arising in UK higher education institutions (HEIs) in particular. Based on a review of the context for energy efficiency and carbon reduction programmes in the UK and the trends in higher education sector, existing external and internal policies and initiatives and their relevant issues are extensively discussed. To explore the efficacy of some internal intervention strategies, such as technical, non-technical and management interventions, a survey was conducted among UK higher education institutions between February and April 2008. Consultation responses show that there are a relatively high percentage of institutions (83%) that have embarked on both technical and non-technical initiatives, which is a demonstration to the joined-up approach in such area.

Energy and Buildings, 2007

The services sector has the least amount of energy end use data available, which poses significant challenges to companies within the sector attempting to benchmark their energy performance and inform energy management decisions. This paper explores through a case study analysis the use of simple performance indicators and how additional data and new metrics can greatly enhance the understanding of energy trends and in particular the assessment of building energy performance. The country chosen for the analysis is Ireland, where the services sector has experienced high energy demand growth since 1990 (4.1% annually) compared with the EU-15 (1.5% annually). Despite this growth, the available energy data is poor, in particular for the public service sub-sectors. The case study chosen is an institution within the education sub-sector, University College Cork. The paper presents some simple energy performance indicators that have been used to date to inform energy policy. The paper then introduces new approaches and tools for assessing energy performance in buildings and how these may be utilised to improve the energy policy decision making and energy management. It discusses how these approaches are been implemented for buildings with separate functions, presents some initial results and discusses future planned work.

Journal of Cleaner Production, 2016

Energy saving on campus is an increasingly important part of universities' responses to climate change, but can only be fully realised through a partnership between institutions and students. This study explores similarities and differences between students' energy-related attitudes and reported behaviours, as well as their perceptions of their institution's energy saving efforts using data from two universities in the United Kingdom (UK) and one in Portugal. The results indicate that there are differences between the students' responses at the selected universities which appear to reflect the national context and diverse institutional priorities. Key differences include the variation between students' perceptions of individual agency and their university's environmental practices (stronger in the UK) and students' sense of collective agency and trust in the government and business (stronger in Portugal). The study is the first to attempt a comparison between students from institutions in different countries in relation to energy saving. It provides a foundation to extend the comparison to other institutions and other countries, and to expand the research to encompass actual energy use, in relation to perceived energy use. Energy efficiency has an increasingly important role to play in responses to climate change at both an individual and organisational level (IPCC, 2014). Personal consumption patterns (consumer behaviour, household energy use, dietary changes etc.) are identified as crucial elements in the move towards lower carbon emissions, thus efforts to promote energy-saving behaviour change form an important part of the policy agenda (Brounen et al., 2012; Geller et al., 2006). Unfortunately, even when people are motivated to change their behaviour with regard to energy saving, many lack sufficient understanding to make appropriate decisions (Gardner and Stern, 2008; Lorenzoni et al., 2007), or fail to change their habitual responses to similar situations even in the light of altered intentions (Kastner and Matthies, 2014). Most energy saving activities are of the low-effort, low impact variety, and even more numerate individuals are only slightly more likely to gauge accurately the amount of energy saved by different actions (Attari et al., 2010). This suggests that enhancing energy literacy throughout all levels of education has an important role to play in encouraging energy saving behaviour (Liu et al., 2015). As DeWaters and Power (2013) argue: "a successful shift into a stable future will rely not only on qualified technical, scientific, and professional expertise, but also on the ability of the average citizen to make appropriate energy related choices that range from mode of transportation to consumer purchases and voting habits." (p. 38). The role of education in ensuring a more sustainable future is not in doubt: the recent United Nations 'Decade of Education for Sustainable Development' (DESD) (UN 2005-2014) has provided a focus for the development of a range of educational initiatives with the overarching goal of integrating the values of sustainable development into all aspects of learning and, ultimately, encouraging behaviour change (UNESCO, 2015). Universities have a key role to play, as has been highlighted consistently in policy documents. However, despite a global movement that has repeatedly emphasised the role of universities through research, campus greening and education for sustainability , there is less evidence of the impact of such endeavours on students' practical actions such as personal energy saving behaviours.

Energy Research & Social Science, 2019

This article makes the case for a new and ambitious research and governance agenda for energy demand reduction. It argues that existing 'demand-side' approaches focused on promoting technological efficiency and informed individual consumption are unlikely to be adequate to achieving future carbon emissions reduction goals; it points out that very little attention has so far been paid to the impacts of non-energy policies on energy demand; and it submits that a much fuller integration of energy demand questions into policy is required. It advances a general framework, supported by illustrative examples, for understanding the impacts of 'non-energy' policies on energy demand. It reflects on why these connections have been so little explored and addressed within energy research and policy. And it argues that, for all their current 'invisibility', there is nonetheless scope for increasing the visibility of, and in effect 'mainstreaming', energy demand reduction objectives within other policy areas. Researchers and policymakers, we contend, need to develop better understandings of how energy demand might be made governable, and how non-energy policies might be revised, alone and in combination, to help steer long-term changes in energy demand. 'needed' in society, or about the role of policy in constituting these 'needs', are not usually asked (Shove and Walker, 2014). And on the other, energy demand reduction is rarely a priority in policy areas like health, welfare or defence, all of which have core priorities of their own. Caught between these dominant approaches, the roles played by 'non-energy policies', as we label them, in sustaining and increasing demandand the roles they might conceivably play in transforming itremain largely invisible. Although arguably vital for any effective

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