ENERGY-SAVING TIPS

In your everyday working life, you can take a variety of measures yourself to save energy and support Leuphana as a climate-neutral university:

Ventilate properly: Proper ventilation is a particularly effective way to save a lot of heating energy with little effort. Always ventilate rooms with short bursts of air (5-10 minutes, with shorter ventilation times if there is a draught) and turn off the heating during the bursts of air. In this way, you avoid unnecessarily releasing heat to the outside, because when windows are tilted, more than 25% of the energy escapes through the windows without achieving efficient ventilation. To determine the right time for ventilation, pay attention to the CO2 traffic lights installed in the seminar and meeting rooms. These measure the CO2 content in the air of a room and indicate with green, yellow and red lights when ventilation is needed. The CO2 traffic lights were awarded the title "Landmark in the Land of Ideas" in 2010.

Keep windows and doors closed: To keep the room temperature as constant as possible in winter, close windows and doors if possible. This keeps the heat in the room and the room warms up more quickly. However, make sure to ventilate regularly (see above), also as a precaution against the corona pandemic.

Keep radiators clear: Keep radiators and thermostats clear at all times, do not cover them with furniture, partitions or flipcharts. This prevents heat from accumulating and not being distributed evenly in the room.

Keep presence detectors in seminar rooms unobstructed: Heating and lighting in the seminar rooms of buildings C12, C14 and C16 are automatically controlled by presence detectors at the entrances. Please keep the presence detectors clear and do not cover them with flipcharts or partition walls so that the heating works properly. The heating is automatically turned down when the window is open. Please close the windows when leaving the seminar rooms.

Turn off heating, lights and electronic devices: Turn radiator thermostats to level 1 or the frost protection symbol (snowflake) when you leave your office for a longer period of time (please do not turn them to level 0, as frost protection is then no longer guaranteed). Always switch off electronic devices completely when you are not using them, because even stand-by mode still consumes considerable energy. Also switch off the lights when you leave your office. Please check especially in the evening and at the weekend whether you have switched off electronic devices, lights and radiators.

Check energy consumption and get rid of unnecessary appliances: In the library you will receive energy packs with tools to measure the power consumption of your electrical devices or to test the luminosity of LED lamps. If necessary, check with your supervisors and your team whether you really need all the devices, whether you can do without electronic devices or whether you can share devices with others. Do not use stand-alone printers and use central floor printers.

Choose energy-saving settings on the computer: When using computers at the workplace, you can save a lot of energy by simple means: Select the energy-saving function in the system settings and choose hibernation or the computer's energy-saving mode instead of a screen saver for periods of short inactivity. Reduce the screen brightness and use the so-called dark mode with a black instead of a white screen background.

Avoid energy-intensive search engines: Bookmark frequently visited websites to avoid energy-intensive search engine queries. Use a climate-friendly search engine and select it as the main search engine in your internet browser settings.

Avoid frequent printing: Check whether you really need printouts or whether you can also work with digital documents. If you need to print documents, bundle several print jobs if possible instead of repeatedly sending individual print jobs to the printer. This way you avoid the multiple start-up and heating up of the printer, which requires a lot of energy. Use the Eco mode of printers, if available, which prints pages faster and with less toner or ink. Use double-sided printing whenever possible.

Use stairs instead of lifts: Use stairs instead of lifts whenever possible. This saves energy, adds movement to your daily office routine, keeps you fit and is healthy.

Organise events sustainably: At www.leuphana.de/veranstaltung you will find extensive information on how to organise meetings, conferences and other events sustainably.

Use climate-friendly means of transport for commuting and business trips: If possible, use bicycles or public transport to get to work, for business trips or business journeys, or form car pools if you are dependent on a car. If possible, use video conferencing instead of business travel.

Bundle workplaces: Consult your teams and consider whether you can bundle workplaces and thus work areas in offices, e.g. if you are present at different times of the day or on different days. This means that fewer offices need to be heated and fewer areas need to be supplied with energy.