Expansion of renewable energy resources and energyconscious behaviour at the University of Szeged

Abstract

At the University of Szeged, as the greenest University of Hungary, the sustainability project is built on two pillars. One of them is based on events and communication campaigns held regularly for the University citizens to prompt environmental-conscious behaviour, whereas the other is built on technological developments and on the extensive use of renewable energy resources. Thus the development of built environment and social responsibility both support the adequacy to sustainability requirements. The spreading of the effective solutions to making more and more buildings of the University energy efficient, numerous investments using renewable energy are also responsible for the decrease of the natural energy use of the institution contrary to the fact that the number of the buildings of the University of Szeged is continually increasing. It can be stated that the University of Szeged is committed to using renewable energy which is taken into consideration of each investment planning. The following examples confirm it: using geothermal cascade system for heating and cooling of five university bulidings, solar panels on 24 builidings and a unique technology of using the heat of wastewater to cool and heat one of the main bulidings of the university, namely the Study and Information Centre.