Amsterdam student helps his university to save water – lots of it
31 Mar 2008
In collaboration with the Office for Occupational Health & Environment, arts student Younes Bouadi has made sure that the University of Amsterdam will save at least nine million litres of water and €12,000 over the next three years.
All that was needed in order to achieve this was a small investment in water-saving tap caps (€500 to refit 300 taps). Without the caps, between 12 and 14 litres of water flow through an open tap per minute, while with the cap this is reduced to seven to eight litres. The water-saving caps will be installed first in the P.C. Hoofdhuis, the University Library, the Atrium, the Maagdenhuis, Building E on Roeterseiland and the Agora. The taps in other buildings will be fitted later.
Sustainability and the UvA
Bouadi (from the May student party) manages the sustainability portfolio of the Central Student Council. He states: ‘Sustainability and the UvA go hand in hand, and money wasted on gas, water, and electricity can be better spent on teaching and research. I want to identify strategies that are good for the environment and the University: the departure point is always finding a win-win situation. One of our earlier successes is the fact that the whole University now uses sustainable energy. Other plans which we can hopefully carry out in the future include computers which can be put on standby from a remote location so that hundreds of them aren't needlessly left on at night, and printers on which the default setting is double-sided printing (this is not yet the case throughout the whole University).
Difficulties
Recently, the UvA has given sustainability a higher priority, but some projects can only be realised over the long term, and some good ideas are harder to put into practice. For example, imagine that a faculty takes extensive measures in order to save energy. That will not be immediately reflected in their electricity bill, because at the UvA electricity is billed according to total square meters. This is definitely not an incentive for the faculty to take action, and changing this type of administrative arrangement is complicated.
Inventory of initiatives
In order to be able to produce concrete results, the Office for Occupational Health & Environment has made an inventory of initiatives, including both those that can be realistically achieved, and those that have been shelved because they are more difficult to carry out. The water-saving caps are an excellent example of a project that is both cheap and easy to execute. However, 80% of the water used within the UvA is used in electrical and heating systems, so the caps only save water on the remaining 20%.
It would be good if the University made visible the energy-saving measures being taken. These efforts aren't evident to everyone, which is why we want to put a sticker beside taps with water-saving caps.‘