Collegiate scoops top green award

A WARRINGTON college has scooped a top national green award after reducing its carbon footprint while also saving money.
Warrington Collegiate has won the Best Sustainability Initiative award at the UK Public Sector Digital Awards 2011, for their work in reducing their carbon footprint, beating stiff competition from NHS, Surrey and Cambridgeshire Libraries and Learning Services.
The Facilities and IT Services departments reduced CO2 in a variety of ways including installing solar panels to harness the power of renewable energy sources. Smart –metering systems were also installed which can shut down gas, electricity, water and air conditioning units automatically and recycle energy wherever possible.
The college also addressed its ICT infrastructure by virtualising over 60 servers replacing 42 old computers. The IT team also completed a desktop virtualisation system which allows the re-use of existing infrastructure for longer, reducing the need to annually replace computers saving energy and smoney. Printers were replaced by lower energy models amounting to a staggering 40% reduction in energy usage. Further savings were also made by the use of software that shuts machines down after 30 minutes of inactivity and removes the restart and logoff options, forcing users to shut down machines at the end of their use.
Overall the college made a massive reduction in carbon footprint equivalent to reducing CO2 emissions per year by 327 tons, taking 71 cars off the road or planting over 14,000 trees.
The UK Public Sector Digital Awards, held at the Guildhall in London is the UK’s most closely watched public sector technology awards, supported by the Prime minister, David Cameron, and recognises excellence and innovation in digital initiatives in national and local government, the NHS, education and the third sector. Locally the college’s sustainability programme was recognised at the Warrington Business Awards sponsored by Warrington Guardian by a commendation for Team of the Year 2011.
In a video on video link from Downing Street, the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg said: “These awards are highly important in celebrating ICT successes across the public sector.
“Your ideas that cut waste and boost efficiency so that in these difficult times as much funding as possible can go to front line services”
David Cameron is a strong supporter of green initiatives explaining, “These Awards recognise some of the brilliant work done by digital specialists working across national and local government. One of our big ambitions is to make government more transparent, open and accountable and digital communications will play a massive part in that. I congratulate all the nominees and encourage all digital specialists across the public sector to follow their good example and innovation.”
Nick Smeltzer, Director of IT Services was presented the award by Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude MP and Katy Ring from K2 Advisory who sponsored the event.
“I am delighted to accept this award for Warrington Collegiate, said Nick. “Winning the Best Sustainability Initiative is recognition of our commitment to the environment and to reducing our carbon footprint. These are challenging financial times and the ability to reduce our energy consumption means that we have more resources available for our students. It is also proof that Further Education colleges can be right at the cutting edge when it comes to implementing new technology and systems and adapting to change.”
Warrington Collegiate is developing a number of courses and apprenticeships which offer training in renewable energy sources including Electrical and plumbing and Gas. In the future the college plans to run conferences and seminars for business and education including local schools to showcase what can be done to save energy and money in these times of austerity.
The college has been recognised nationally in the past for its green credentials. In 2011 Warrington Collegiate won both the JSC RSC North West Recognition of Innovation Awards as well as the Techworld Award for Energy Efficiency. The college was also shortlisted for Outstanding Practice in Sustainability at the TES FE Awards. In many instances the college fought off competition from much larger organisations, impressing the judges that a small college can punch well above its weight in terms of going green.
Picture: Nick Smeltzer, Director of IT Services (middle) is presented the award by Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude MP (right) and Katy Ring from K2 Advisory who sponsored the event.