Sector review of UK higher education energy consumption

The UK education and education-related services are said to be one of the fastest-growing export earners in recent years and are known to have had significant impacts at the micro- and macro-levels of the UK. This review looks at energy consumption of this fast growing sector. It concentrates on the energy consumption patterns of the funded higher education institutions in the UK. The findings indicate energy consumption in the sector has been on the increase in the 6 years up to 2006: rising by about 2.7% above the 2001 consumption levels. This increase is, however, not evenly spread across the entire sector. The high energy-consuming institutions appear to be increasing their net consumption, relative to other institutions. Gross internal area, staff and research student full-time equivalent were found to have highest correlation with energy consumption across the sector and may be used as proxy indicators for energy consumption as well as the targets of interventions. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.