At over 45%, the consumption of heating energy is a significant factor in the greenhouse gas emissions of the UP. As a motivation, a bonus is therefore offered to employees, who receive a financial share of the savings in heating energy consumption.

Who can participate?

Participants can be user units that can be assigned to the organizational and site plan of the university (faculties, institutes or similar). If there are several user units in the building or building complex, a premium is divided in proportion to the use of the space. In case of strongly differing usage, a different distribution key can be decided in advance by the participants. The technical requirements (energy consumption meters) are available in almost all buildings.

Measures for optimal savings

The climate protection management and representatives of the user unit enter into an exchange about possible measures in the respective building. Together, possible organizational and behavioral measures are to be identified. Inspections of the building or short workshops can be organized by the climate protection management. All possible and decided measures are communicated in the department. Often, careful heating and aeration behavior on the part of the users can already achieve a considerable reduction in energy consumption with little effort. A short, concluding report on the implemented energy-saving measures is intended to motivate other user units to take similar measures.

Calculation of the savings and the bonus

If the heating energy consumption is lower than the baseline value in the period of use for which the application was submitted, the user unit receives half of the costs saved in the process as a premium. The average, climate-adjusted annual consumption of the previous 5 years is used as the baseline value. The Energy and Media Manager of the University of Potsdam's Building Management determines this value for each building and provides it to the user unit.

Use of the bonus

The bonus is to be spent on the improvement of technical equipment or the professional training of employees within the year of the grant. The respective user unit is free to decide on the corresponding use of the bonus.

Application period

The period of use is the period from October to September of the following year. It is optimal to register two to three months before the start of the utilization period (July-August) in order to identify and establish possible savings measures at an early stage. However, registration during the utilization period until mid-January is also possible.