RWTH Receives Ökoprofit Certificate
The RWTH Institute of Power Plant Technology, Steam and Gas Turbines and the Department of Facility Management at RWTH Aachen received the Ökoprofit certificate.
Ökoprofit, which stands for "ecological project for integrated environmental engineering,” is a collaborative project between the municipalities and local companies which seeks to minimize the use of natural resources and improve energy efficiency. The Ökoprofit seal certifies the successful introduction of environmental management measures as a contribution to eco-friendly, sustainable institutional operations.
As part of the certification process, the participating institutions and companies participated in workshops and presented their eco-balance assessments to external environmental experts. Each institution created eco-friendly guidelines and analyzed current consumption patterns and values, which made it possible to identify and implement opportunities for improvement. At the end of the process, the implemented measures and results were presented to the review board.
As part of the process, among other measures, the RWTH institute has optimized the heating control system and converted its lighting system to modern LED technology, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 21 tons and saving about 10,000 Euros in costs.
RWTH’s facility management was able to save about 190,000 kilowatt hours in energy usage by optimizing is heating system and installing high-efficiency pumps. Further, a project for the implementation of hydraulic balancing has been launched. In sum, these measures help to save about 190,000 kilowatt hours per year in energy, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 53 tons and saving costs of about 14,000 Euros.