Improving the energy management in an academic library: the case of the Rector Gabriel Ferraté Library

Abstract

Despite an architectural design that facilitates a high energy expend in a context characterized by a huge economic and environmental crisis, the Rector Gabriel Ferraté Library (BRGF) at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) has managed to save  43% of its electric energy consumption.

The main aim of this paper is to describe in detail the actions taken under the internal plan that has made this saving possible, and also to inform about the collaborations and expenses required, the difficulties met, or the prospects for the future in this area in the BRGF and UPC libraries.

Considering libraries as a possible model of a sustainable service that can be exported to any kind of institution or company, we stress the importance of this topic – currently ignored in the librarianship literature – and, especially, in the hope that some of the measures taken in the BRGF could be interesting and applicable in other libraries, both in universities and elsewhere.