go! Switch Off

What is 'go! Switch Off'?

Wherever you live, work, or study, you can take part in activities to help save energy and to save water. 

Even the smallest actions add up to big impacts. 

We’re facing a climate emergency and we want to slash the university’s carbon emissions by 63% by 2030.​

We’re already doing a lot but we need the help of everyone to meet our ambition.  75% of all the electricity used on campus is controlled by individuals!

The power is in your hands so, go! Switch Off!

What you can do

These are the actions where we can making the biggest carbon savings.

• Switch off all electronics and lights when you leave a room or when it’s no longer needed.
  • If all lights on our UK campuses were left on overnight, it would create around 15 tonnes of CO2 in a single evening!
• Layer up instead of turning the heating up.
• Don't waste it - only use what you need. Whether that's unplugging your devices when they've finished charging or turning taps off when you wash your hands and brush your teeth.

Every £1 saved on energy is £1 we can direct towards our core business and to help support staff and students more directly. 

Seasonal Switch Off

Each year we ask everyone to turn off all non-essential equipment before leaving for Christmas, Easter and the summer holidays.

Help us to save energy whilst the university is closed by thinking carefully about which equipment has to stay on, and switching off everything else.

Together with your colleagues, use our checklists to switch off your office, department or lab before leaving.

Switch Off checklist

Lab shutdown poster

Lab energy walkaround checklist

Living in halls on campus?

Saving electricity is part of the go! Greener Halls Competition where on-campus halls compete to see who can reduce their electricity and water use the most, alongside reducing waste.

go! Greener Halls competition

In recent years, Rutland, Newark, Sherwood and Melton halls have all won by reduce their electricty the most.

In Autumn 2023, it was very close between Rutland Hall and Lenton & Wortley Hall. Together, these halls saved over 31,400 kWh of electricity during the competition. To put this in perspective, that could power:

• roughly 90 refrigerators for an entire year,
• an average home for approximately 1,047 days.