Aquinas goes Green: Our Commitment to Net Zero

Sustainability is at the centre of every decision made when it comes to the Aquinas College Estate. Over recent years the college has worked hard to reduce its carbon footprint. A couple of recent examples of this include a £500k project to replace all of our lighting with intelligent LED fixtures, Installation of dynamic boiler controls and the upgrading of our (BEMS) building and environmental management systems.

This year the college went further. Over the summer, Aquinas installed 615 intelligent solar panels onto the roofs of both college buildings which cover a surface area of 1,200 m2. These systems will generate a massive 20% of the college’s power requirements in a sustainable way. To put this into context, 20% of our energy equates to £56.6k in saved revenue for the college over the course of a year with current energy prices.

Projects completed over the past five years have reduced our carbon footprint by a huge 22% putting the college on track to reach the net zero targets set by the government. Examples of projects we have completed and Co2 savings generated are detailed in the table below.

Project	Equivalent tonnes of Co2 saved	Equivalent trees planted
Solar Project	31 tCO2e	1,178
LED Lighting Project	33 tCO2e	1,254
Boiler Controls Upgrade	17 tCO2e	646
BEMS Upgrade	21 tCO2e	798
Boiler Controls Upgrade	17 tCO2e	646
Diverted 100% of waste away from landfill	8.5 tCO2e	323