Keep thinking blue
Think Blue
Oeiras, 05.06.09
Exactly, one year ago, ITQB decided to start thinking blue and take resource efficiency one step further. The challenge was to make small changes in everyday habits to reduce electricity consumption. Almost immediately, we saw a slow decrease in electricity spending and, during the year, we witnessed more and more people using the stairs, lights turned off in empty offices and labs, and computers switched off at the end of a working day.
So our efforts paid off. And this goes beyond numbers - by being aware of our actions we take the benefits outside ITQB right into our homes, further contributing to reduce our carbon footprint.
But numbers do matter because we had set ourselves a specific goal for this year – to reduce electricity consumption in 5 %. One year after, and even though we have manage to save 98.000 kWh (equivalent to 25 average family households), savings represent a reduction of only 2 %.
Still, numbers must always be looked with caution. The year 2008/2009 was a busy year for ITQB and there were other changes that we didn’t take into account in our estimates and predictions.
By looking in our annual reports and comparing December 2007 (before Blue) with December 2008 (after Blue) we realize that the number of researchers has risen from 350 to 380 (8 %) and the number of research groups changed from 53 to 62 (21%). Besides having more people around, these changes led to an increase of electronic in-house equipment, from simple fridges and computers to more sophisticated apparatus.
All things considered, it is actually amazing that we have managed to have a reduction at all. Come to think of it our mere 2% are quite excellent. Because to have a reduction when everything else increased means that now we make a much more efficient use of resources than we did in the past and this was surely the main objective of our campaign.
It is therefore with joy and commitment to the future that we celebrate this year’s world environment day!
World Environment Day 2009
World Environment Day (WED) was established by the UN General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. Commemorated yearly on 5 June, WED is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action. The theme for WED 2009 is 'Your Planet Needs You-UNite to Combat Climate Change'. It reflects the urgency for nations to agree on a new deal at the crucial climate convention meeting in Copenhagen some 180 days later in the year, and the links with overcoming poverty and improved management of forests.
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