Chris Barnes
Interview with Chris Barnes
At LSBU, it is not only our academic staff who are committed to taking action relating to climate, and with collaboration being one of the key principles of this event series, a number of colleagues from our Professional Services Groups had also been involved in it.
Chris Barnes was LSBU’s Estates and Energy Manager. During Part One of the event series in June 2020, Chris spoke about how LSBU had massively reduced its carbon footprint as well as some of the challenges we face moving forward. We invited Chris back, this time round, to speak about how LSBU’s Estates and Academic Environment Department are working to reduce our water consumption.
Welcome back, Chris! To start with, for those who missed it, can you give us a rundown of how LSBU reduced its carbon footprint?
To date LSBU has successfully reduced our Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions by 85% since 2010. This has been achieved using a number of strategies These have included:
- Undertaking data analysis to provide us with a real understanding of where and when energy was/is being used, providing benchmarking data and carbon intensities across the campus.
- Making significant changes in how we operate equipment and plant whilst ensuring that operations are not affected. These include the implementation of inverter speed controls where advantageous.
- Employing low energy lighting (LED) across the Estate, with all current and future projects adopting it as standard.
- Ensuring heating and cooling parameters are employed that provide best results.
- Employing non-gas heating plant (for example, ground source and air source heat pumps) as part of our ongoing commitment to eradicate fossil fuel use across the estate.
- Putting contracts in place which are ensuring that LSBU is now supplied from Renewable sources of electricity.
For this event, you will be talking about water usage. What can we expect to learn?
I will be discussing how water usage has been overlooked in the past, what automated water readers and data analysis bring to the energy management table and how we can all help in bringing water consumption to manageable levels.
Tell us about some of the issues and challenges you face in your role when managing such a large estate like LSBU?
Without doubt, the most challenging issues relate to expectations and how to best manage them. Opinions differ greatly, especially with room temperatures and lighting levels. Going forward with LSBU’s commitment to become carbon neutral, the investment required for decarbonisation may also be a challenge.
What are your top practical tips for encouraging people to either reduce their carbon footprint or their water usage?
- There are many ways to do your bit at home and most of them will save you money while you are doing so. Reducing your room temperature set point by 1o C, will not only save energy but will save you £75 to £120. This performance can be further improved by fitting thermostats on radiators and with the use of suitable insulation.
- Replace lamps with LEDs. While the initial cost may be higher than the conventional lamps, they will more than pay for themselves very quickly and reduce lamp failures.
- Choose new appliances wisely, using energy efficiency data to assist you in making this decision. It is also worth remembering that gas boiler replacement will not be available from 2025.
Finally, having been involved throughout, what hopes do you have for the event series?
I believe that this event series gives people a chance to get a better understanding of the word ‘Sustainability' and what it means to LSBU. I have been involved in energy management for many years, and carbon reduction has been on the agenda for most of that time. Sustainability is not new, but it has become increasingly important to the current generations, who are seeing what we have to achieve for future generations.
During the past 10 months, many of us have turned to nature to provide us with our mental wellbeing, with many seeing and hearing things that they would not have known existed around us. They have most likely also seen the pollution and damage that we have caused. Now is the time to repay nature by doing something about it….
Chris’s session was on 13th January 2021, on our day devoted to “Food and Water".
For more information on this event, visit the event page.