How can we, as a community, consume less energy? What actions can we take to create a cozy but sustainable working climate within our building? In the beginning of this year we organized multiple brainstorms with members of the community to form answers to these questions. The goal? To use 30% less energy in September 2023 compared to a year before.
What we've been up to so far
Due to our switch from gas to district heating and the fact that our system was turned off during summer, we've made good progress in conserving energy and going green. Read our story on his change.
So what’s next?
In order to minimizing the amount of lighting that stays on during hours when no one is around we are currently installing movement detectors in A Lab's hallways. At the same time we are trying to gain more insight in the usage of energy for certain machines or parts of the building, we hope to share these insights in a dashboard soon. Talks with the municipality (the owner of the building) will hopefully soon result in bigger updates in making our building more sustainable.
What can you do?
We hope to see a further decrease in the usage of energy in the following months. You can actively help out to reach this goal:
- Make sure to turn off your heating when leaving the office;
- Switch off devices or cable blocks when not in use;
- Using a meeting room or shared working space? Turn off the heating and lighting when leaving the room as well;
- Buying a new fridge, device, ...? Try to find the machine with the best energy label;
These sustainability tips will be shared through posters in your Labs too. As always, we are open to hear your suggestions. Any ideas or thoughts on the above? Anything new we did not think of yet? Please share it with us!