Superfy supported DCU Alpha with their campus sustainability objectives and provided a potential cost saving of over 45%
A commercial innovation campus
Dublin City University ALPHA, based in Dublin, Ireland is a commercial innovation campus that promotes the growth of research-intensive businesses that are creating the technologies and services of tomorrow. The 200,000 sq. ft campus hosts over 40 companies and over 500 employees across multiple buildings.
If you track it, you can measure it
As DCU Alpha began looking at the creation of a more sustainable campus, one area of focus was the monitoring and reduction of operational costs around their waste and recycling schemes.
However, their ability to understand the total waste they generate was very limited. Even more challenging is the inability for them to track the individual waste for each of the 40+ companies on the campus.
To begin this process, they needed support to gather more accurate information on the amount of waste being generated by the different waste streams.
In phase one of the project, all bins ranging from 100 litre up to 1,100 litre were fitted with Superfy fill level sensors to provide real time and accurate fill levels for each bin.
Superfy was taken on to monitor the waste usage of all 40+ companies for the five main streams of waste on the campus:
-
General wastemade up of general non-recyclable waste
-
Dry recyclables
made up of paper, cardboard and plastics
-
Compost
made up of food and garden waste
-
Batteries
-
Glass
The Superfy Platform
In phase one of the project, all bins ranging from 100 litre up to 1,100 litre were fitted with Superfy fill level sensors to provide real time and accurate fill levels for each bin. The sensors provide regular updates to the Superfy platform DCU Alpha to monitor and review the waste generation trends on a hourly basis. As bins have been collected, the fill level of each bin is automatically recorded to highlight the overall collection efficiency. This figure enables the calculation of the potential cost savings for DCU Alpha based on either reducing their bin capacity and/or modifying their collection schedule.
The initial results highlighted a saving potential of over 45%* which only applies to the costs incurred by DCU Alpha. Further operational savings can be gained by the waste collector, if a more efficient collection service was applied and by the facility maintenance company, if internal bins were only emptied when needed to.
Phase two of the project will involve monitoring of internal waste collection to more accurately analyse the potential savings from the facility maintenance by only servicing bins when needed.
“The real-time and accurate analytics provided by the Superfy platform will be a crucial tool to measure our improvements for both our environment and operational costs."
Aidan Kearns
Facilities Manager, DCU Alpha
Aidan Kearns, Facilities Manager for DCU Alpha
Testimonial
“We are delighted to be supported by Superfy’s sustainability, waste and recycling platform. As an organisation supporting many innovative and leading edge companies, it is important that DCU Alpha match the ethos and ambitions of these companies with an equally innovative and sustainable campus waste management system. Superfy is helping us understand how we can improve our sustainability initiatives, in particular around waste and recycling. The potential savings already identified have been significant and as we move to a more sustainable campus, the real-time and accurate analytics provided will enable us to better measure our improvements for environment and operational costs.”
Planning for a more sustainable campus
Phase two of the project will involve the monitoring of internal waste collection to more accurately analyse the potential savings in the facility maintenance by only servicing bins when needed. In addition, the more granular waste collection monitoring for each company will provide accurate reporting on progress for any new waste reduction initiatives.
In taking on this initiative, DCU Alpha wants to lead the way in sustainability and encourage the companies it supports to follow suit – a truly innovative campus, planning for the future.
