04 Operations

EUR has ambitions to become one of most sustainable campuses in the country, and operations have a key role to play in achieving this.

Our Roadmap to a Sustainable Campus (2019) provides an implementation framework for sustainable operations, and a new Energy Transition Roadmap is currently in the works. The latter will provide more detailed insights regarding the potential for reducing the energy consumption of our buildings as part of our contribution to the (Rotterdam) Climate Agreement. It’s due for publication in mid-2022, so keep an eye on our website!

In this chapter, we proudly present an overview of our operation-related efforts and activities regarding sustainability, as well as our main achievements in 2021 and some highlights of our plans for 2022.

Nevertheless, both total and individual utility consumption have been declining since 2018, while student and staff numbers have been on the rise. How’s that been possible? Because EUR had the foresight to implement the following energy-saving measures.

Green roofs were installed on several buildings. These roofs are able to capture and store rainwater for later use, increase a building’s insulation — thereby reducing energy consumption for heating and cooling — and improve air quality by filtering out and absorbing fine dust from the air. As if that weren’t enough, they also require very little maintenance!

Most rooms on campus are equipped with motion sensors to avoid any unnecessary use of electricity, and more sensors are on the list of upcoming renovations.

Heating is supplied by the district heating system, but the university is also equipped with seasonal thermal energy storage systems, an environmentally friendly and efficient form of technology that is increasingly helping us meet our cooling needs.

More and more buildings are being equipped with CO₂ sensors that automatically adjust the ventilation rate. And sensor taps have been installed in the washrooms and kitchens of most buildings on campus.

Campus Woudestein's sustainable makeover continues! Below are the main developments.

• Various technical modifications have been made to stabilize the indoor temperature of the Sanders Building.

• A further 5,000 m² of green roofs were installed on the Van der Goot Building and the Erasmus Building.

• Work began on new seasonal thermal energy storage systems for the Theil Building and P Building.

• Two new energy-neutral buildings are now under construction: a multi-purpose educational building (MFO II) and a sports centre. Both will generate their own energy from rooftop solar panels and will be equipped with seasonal thermal energy storage systems, wells for which were drilled in 2021.

Procurement and tendering plans play a major role in making business operations more sustainable. From service providers to office supplies and coffee in our coffee machines, what we buy has an impact not only on our sustainability credentials but also on people in other parts of the world and on the environment. Consequently, we need our supply chain to be more sustainable, which is why we developed a new Procurement Policy for 2021-2024 last year, focussing specifically on matters such as supply chain efficiency, legitimacy and sustainability, and responsible and professional contracting.

As in previous years, EUR held its annual stray bike clean-up drive at the end of November, the purpose of which is to free up parking space for active cyclists and, more importantly, reduce the amount of waste on campus.

Last but not least, the Erasmus community has gained a new member: Rosie, a robot that delivers your groceries! Staff members and students can find FAQs about Rosie at MyEUR. The smart delivery system is being carefully studied with a view to further innovation and efforts in sustainability.

From January 2022 until the end of the academic year, ESE, ELS and RSM are participating in the Co-Ex Challenge to reduce the carbon footprint of their catering orders. You can help, too, by ordering their vegan menu items for your lunches and events. Contact Pinar Coskun to subscribe to the newsletter, receive updates on each month’s winner and learn about new additions to the university canteen menu!

EUR took on two new service partners in January 2022:

• Croonwolter&Dros, a socially responsible company whose values closely align with ours, who are now responsible for the sustainable management and maintenance of buildings on campus; and

• GOM, an equally sustainable company that is a signatory to the Code of Responsible Market Conduct, and who are now responsible for cleaning and related services.

In early 2022 preparation started for a pilot project on reusable packaging to kick off in September in collaboration with Vitam, the Erasmus Pavilion, the Erasmus Food Lab and the Erasmus Sports Centre, the aim of which is to gain a better understanding of the difficulties faced by businesses in altering their production processes to accommodate reusable packaging.

In mid-2022, the Real Estate and Facilities (RE&F) department will implement a new EU tendering process for office supplies and furniture. Although we’d already taken steps in this direction, this is our chance to officially integrate higher sustainability standards in our purchasing policy!

Two new facilities will open to the public in September 2022: the energy-neutral sports centre and the multi-purpose educational building (MFO II), the latter of which earned EUR a BREEAM rating of 88.6% for its design, making it the second most sustainable educational building in the Netherlands after the Atlas Building at TU Eindhoven! Click here if you’d like to receive updates on the two buildings.

Ongoing campus renovations will resume later in the year. New fittings installations – such as indoor LED lighting – are scheduled for the Van der Goot Building, the Bayle Building, the Theil Building and the Erasmus Building. In addition, four new drinking fountains and a composting machine will be installed on campus.

Finally, the campus is set to become even greener! Improving biodiversity is in fact one of our big operational goals for 2022. Numerous proposals for achieving this were presented during an earlier workgroup session. What could the campus look like in the future? Imagine buildings with green walls, more trees and lawns, and more wildlife provisions for birds, bats and bees! Well, visitors to the MFO II Building will soon be greeted by a bee hotel and a bird box, and we can barely wait to see this and the fruition of all of our other greening and biodiversity-related efforts!

To conclude, some exciting IT news: staff at EUR can now make Ecosia the default search engine on work laptops. Our ICT Service Desk has written a manual for staff to guide you through the installation process and help us reduce our carbon footprint. We encourage students to install it too!

Click here if you’d like updates on Tomorrow’s Campus.
If you have any questions about campus-related operations and sustainable innovations, you can also contact:

• Jan-Cees Jol, Sustainability Coordinator - Business Operations: jan-cees.jol@eur.nl

• Ben van der Kemp, Project Leader - Real Estate and Sustainability: ben.vanderkemp@eur.nl

• EUR Sustainability Programme: sustainable@eur.nl