From its foundation in the mid-1960s the University of Newcastle's Callaghan campus has sought to balance the principles of environmental sustainability with the operational demands of a major teaching and research institution.
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Potable water consumption at the bushland campus has remained steady at about 235,000 kilolitres per year for the past 25 years.
That is despite a significant increase in the number of students and staff working and studying at the campus in the same period.
An additional 1800 students living on campus in the last three years has added to the demand.
As one of the Lower Hunter's largest consumers of potable water, water efficiency and conservation initiatives featured as major priorities in the university's recent six year sustainability plan.
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The payoff from the introduction of smart metering to enable more efficient leak detection, the installation of water efficient fixtures and using the campus's stormwater retention ponds for the irrigation of sports fields has been immediate with a seven per cent reduction in water usage in the past two years.
The savings were the equivalent of 280,000 kilolitres in 2018.
Environment manager Daan Schiebann said the institution's history of embracing sustainability initiatives assisted it to achieve the increased water savings.
"The Callaghan campus is essentially the size of a suburb, we have a lot of underground infrastructure," he said.
"When we are seeing water losses occur we can pick them up quickly and have them repaired. That is where we are seeing a large part of the seven per cent reduction in water usage come from."
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- The endless drought is has brought Murrurundi's residents to the brink physically and mentall
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- Conservation initiatives have driven down domestic water usage over the past decade
The principles employed at Callaghan campus have also been put into effect at the recently opened NewSpace campus and will also be adopted at the future Honeysuckle campus.
Water used for amenities at NewSpace comes via a 67 kilolitre rainwater tank installed beneath the building.
Similar features will be incorporated into the Honeysuckle campus buildings.
Mr Schiebaan said the university sought to position itself as a world leader in sustainability.
"We are targeting Green Star ratings and as a part of that there is a very important water efficiency component to that," Mr Schiebaan said.
"Our tap heads, our toilets, our dishwashers, those kind of issues are going to be very highly rated for water efficiency.
"We are also committed to native and low irrigation landscaping around those buildings so we don't want to be watering those gardens. We want them to grow naturally through the rainfall that occurs and using the plants that are meant to be here in the first place."
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