On Friday 10th November 2017 Winchester University held a fantastic night out with the lights out for a Blackout event! This was the first NUS Blackout event of the year, rolling out the initial concept from the University of Southampton Sustainability Action Programme, and was a great night for all involved, complementing wider sustainability initiatives.

During the evening, 30 students and five staff members coordinated their efforts to switch off any unnecessary lights and appliances left on throughout the university. Anything seen as wasting energy - for example open windows - was also addressed. In total, across the evening, 1,810 appliances were switched off which included 990 PC monitors and 60 lights! All of these items may have otherwise been left on over the weekend, wasting a huge amount of energy.

As well as switching off lights and appliances the teams also left little notes for the staff to remind people to switch off next time. This is a great way to help people change their long-term behaviour and also helps to replicate these savings each and every weekend.

If the same actions were taken each weekend throughout the academic year, there would be an estimated financial saving of £13,398 and a carbon saving of over 39 tonnes of C02. Actions taken during the night saved nearly 8% of normal electricity use, all by switching off some simple items that would have otherwise been left on.

Students who volunteered their time and participated in the event were taking direct action on their campus to reduce energy use and help the environment, both locally and globally. One volunteer from the night, Carey McLuckie, said 'My flatmates and I really enjoyed taking part in the Blackout and saving so much energy with such a great team (and team mascots, a dog!) was really fun. Can't wait to do it again!'. All student and staff volunteers from the night benefit from a free Blackout-branded, Fairtrade, hoodie, as well as some delicious pizza to say thank you for their efforts.

Liz Harris, Environmental Projects Assistant at the University said of the event, 'The Blackout is a brilliant way of enthusing both staff and students about saving energy across campus and helping to reduce the University's carbon footprint. It shows that all our collective switch-off actions really do add up and make a difference, and that real savings can be achieved with just a few small changes to the way we work. A big thanks to everyone who helped out on the night!'

The Blackout event is a great way to highlight the simple energy saving actions everyone can do to make a difference, and just how much can be saved, both financially and environmentally, when everyone pulls together to make a change.

We'd like to extend our thanks to Liz Harris and Tony Courtney as well as the wider Winchester team for coordinating such a fantastic event, as well as a huge thanks to all the fantastic students and staff that volunteered their time on the night - we couldn't do it without you!

Blackout is a great way for both staff and students to collaborate, change behaviours and make UK campuses more sustainable. Many organisations run the Blackout in conjunction with their Green Impact or Student Switch Off campaigns, bringing together participants for this one-off event.

If you are a student or staff member interested in running the Blackout campaign at your campus please email sustainability@nus.org.uk to find out further opportunities to be involved.