Historic government scheme inspires continued investment in sustainability

Queen’s University Belfast continues energy efficiency projects using ‘green revolving fund’ inspired by Salix scheme.

A prestigious university in Northern Ireland is keeping momentum on energy efficiency works thanks to a self-funded scheme inspired by their England Recycling Fund.

Since fund inception in 2009, Queen’s University Belfast have completed more than 100 projects through their England Recycling Fund. When combined, these have reduced the university’s carbon emissions by more than 3,000 tonnes of carbon and around £680,000 in energy bills annually.

Now, the university is employing a similar scheme, self-funded using the energy bill savings resulting from sustainability works. Titled their ‘green revolving fund’, the in-house scheme has so far made around £1.5million in funding available for continued investment in energy efficiency and heat decarbonisation projects.

Tony Schmidt, estates manager for energy at Queen’s University Belfast, said: “Looking to the future we, like other universities, have a net zero plan to enable us to continue what we started all those years ago.

“Our plan is to reach net zero by 2040 across all scopes, and we are aware that, to get there, this won’t cost millions of pounds, but tens or hundreds of millions.

“Our green revolving fund will continue to plan it’s part and it may be a mechanism to build upon in order to help us to continue to finance the journey to net zero.” 

Although the future of their works requires funding through alternative means, the university attributes the data and documented outcomes provided through those initial Recycling Fund projects in providing the backing that enabled this to come into effect.

Tony added: “Without the initial funding made available through Salix, many of our early projects simply wouldn’t have been possible.

“The funding we have available now is, primarily, down to the fact we could start in the first place, and the Salix Recycling Fund allowed that to happen.”

The university is proud of their progress to date, which acts as an example of how smaller-scale projects can come together to deliver large-scale results.

Works funded through their Recycling Fund include a laboratory equipment replacement, which saw £200,000 of investment to allow labs to reduce energy consumption and progress through the LEAF (Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework) accreditation. This was achieved through the replacement of old laboratory equipment, but particularly cold storage which represents a significant percentage of lab energy consumption. 

A project at their SONIC Arts Research Centre also received £25,000 in loan-based funding, focusing on an upgrade to stage and back-of-house halogen lights to LEDs. This reduced the energy consumption associated with the lighting and allowed for a greater spectrum of colour, as well as generating over seven tonnes of annual carbon emission savings. 

Patrick Lane, programme coordinator at Salix, said: “Queen’s University Belfast were able to complete some fantastic projects thanks to the England Recycling Fund.

 “Their independent implementation of a similar model shows their commitment to continuous investment in decarbonisation, while also highlighting the value of the recycling fund delivery model."

About the sustainability ambitions of Queen’s University Belfast

• Queen’s University Belfast has set the target to achieve net zero on all emissions (scope one, two and three) by 2040. 
• To achieve this, they have created a net zero plan, which sets out a road map for how this will be achieved. 
• Amongst other measures, this includes a focus on energy efficiency interventions and the move away from fossil-fuel boilers across their estate.

About the England Recycling Fund

• The England Recycling Fund is a loan-based, ring-fenced fund, created with capital provided on behalf of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero through Salix, and matched by the public sector organisation. It encourages organisations to re-invest financial savings that result from projects into further decarbonisation and energy efficiency projects, thus operating in a cyclic “recycled” manner. 
• The scheme has been closed to new applications since 2010. However, since that time we have continued to support organisations with open funds to complete thousands of projects worth more than £267 million through the scheme. 
• The average fund has been recycled more than three times, and, when combined, our recycling fund projects save over 296,000 tonnes of carbon emissions every single year.
• The fund is closing at the end of the 2024/25 financial year, with any projects funded through the scheme required to complete by 31 March 2025.