Green Achievements

“To minimise the impact of our activities on the environment and in naturally occurring systems”

At the Aquasplash, we understand the importance of reducing our carbon footprint and being ‘green’. Over the past few years, we have been working hard to improve our environmental performance, and have had some great successes.

As Jersey imports nearly all of its energy it essential that we efficiently manage our consumption to help achieve long-term, secure, sustainable and affordable energy.

One of the States of Jersey’s priorities is to ‘Protect and enhance our natural and built environment’. Two of the reasons why this is to be done, and reasons which we fully subscribe to, are:

• "To make best use of natural resources – become more efficient and reduce current consumption of energy"
• To reduce CO₂ emissions

We have made some significant changes to the way in which we work which has resulted in a decrease in our levels of utility consumption as well as our carbon footprint.

We are especially pleased with our reduction in electricity consumption. We have achieved an overall reduction in both day and night consumption which is testament to the changes we have made. The reason for the recent increase in electricity consumption is failure of our CHP unit, resulting in the requirement of imported grid electricity instead of that generated ourselves. We are keen to get this operational again as CHP usage results in lowered CO ₂ emissions.

[NB: Oct-Dec 2007 data currently unavailable]

Gas consumption has also seen an overall decrease, despite the seasonal variations. The impact of the weather can be clearly seen in January 2009 where a drop in the mean temperature to 4oC resulted in a sharp peak in gas consumption.

[NB: Oct-Dec 2007 data currently unavailable]

What we did

• Turning lights off when not required.
• Maximising natural light usage.
• Turning heating and air conditioning down, or off when not required.
• Using natural ventilation when possible.
• Adjusting pool temperatures so they are closer to recommended temperatures. As well as saving energy to heat the pool, it reduces evaporation, saving water.
• Insulation of filters, hot water pipes, valves etc in the plant room – preventing heat loss, saving energy.
• Installing Save-a-flush bags in toilets, these save one litre of water per flush
• Installing timers on vending machines - we have 4 machines that turn off at 21.30 just before the centre is closed and start again at 06.30 when the centre reopens in the morning. Using Carbon Trust figures this equates to savings of £300 per year.
• We are looking into the possibility of installing Variable Speed Drives on our main Air Handling Units as a part of our ongoing energy reducing initiatives.
• We have a pool cover on the outside pool to minimise evaporation when the pool is not open to the public. In addition and through careful monitoring of activity demand we only open the outside pool during peak demand periods which means that the covers remain on for extended periods during the winter months when evaporation would be increased due to greater temperature differences.
• We raised staff awareness so that they understood what part they could play and why. As many initiatives required staff input, education and awareness raising was not only essential but key to our success.