Westonbirt aims to make sure that energy is used efficiently; investigating what is using the most energy, how we can generate our own energy and managing where we get our energy from.
First off, as with any sustainability action plan, we had to start with establishing a baseline for our energy use. In 2021 we carried out an audit with a consultant called Avieco of all our buildings, including third party organisations operating on-site, to understand energy consumption, identifying how we could reduce energy use and to identify our energy renewable options.
Did you know that Forestry England at Westonbirt used 158k kilowatts of electric (in 2022) - that's 8 houses worth!
So the first step is touse less energy, starting with little changes, such as:
- Turning off the lights
- Shutting doors
- Turning the heating down in the buildings.
We now have a rolling programme replacing all light bulbs with LEDs in all office buildings, which saves 70-90% more energy than regular light bulbs.
Then we looked into how we can use our energy more efficiently. Currently, we have made the following changes:
- The main thing we have done is switch to a green energy tariff . Both Forestry England and the Friends of Westonbirt Arboretum buildings are on green tariffs.
- Replaced all current lighting with LED alternatives, where applicable.
- Virtualising servers - we are moving from a physical server to a cloud based server and are doing a digital tidy-up in the process.
- When constructing buildings, we aim to see that they are sustainably built. For example, our Welcome Building is certified excellent by BREEAM. It includes air source heat pumps, has low water consumption, is fully insulated and has reflective glass.
- We have worked on draft exclusions in our buildings. Did you know that a 1cm gap in a doorway is the equivalent of missing a brick in your wall?
- Lagging has been added to the hot water and heating system piping.
You may have seen our electric vehicle around site. When travelling for work or around the arboretum, staff are encouraged to use the electric pool car to keep emissions low.
We also have an electric shuttle bus and are looking into alternatives for our other diesel vehicles.
During our energy audit the consultants also looked at where we could make use of renewable energy.
We are installing solar PV panels and more air source heat pumps on a number of buildings as we have a target to no longer use fossil fuels, such as oil, for heating.
- Our welcome building water and heating has been powered by an air source heat pump since 2014.
- In October 2024, our first solar PV panels were installed. 73 panels have been fitted to the large roof of our Tree Management Centre, a 31.76 kWh system which should generate half of the electricity currently used by 2 office buildings, the EV charger, Machinery Store and Propagation area.