Queen Margaret University has picked up a top award for sustainability at a gala event in London on Tuesday night, and was highly commended in a second award category for sustainable construction.

Vice Principal Rosalyn Marshall, Estates Director Steve Scott and Information Services Director Fraser Muir picked up the prestigious Green Gown award for ICT which recognises the growing environmental importance of computer technology within further and higher education.

QMU's new campus was the largest scale project shortlisted in the sustainable construction category with the highest BREEAM score, the globally recognised measure of environmental impact of buildings.

Now in their fifth year, the Green Gown Awards recognise the exceptional initiatives being undertaken by universities and colleges across the UK to become more sustainable. The Awards are administered by the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC) the sector champion for environment and sustainability and governed by a cross agency steering group of sector support agencies.

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In 2007 Queen Margaret University relocated from a scattered estate across Edinburgh into a new campus at Craighall which has become a national showcase for the benefits of sustainable development in HE. Innovative ICT, centred on a 'thin client' infrastructure, has been fundamental in delivering the exemplar energy and environmental performance ratings of the new campus.

With thin-client, users do not have hard drives at their desks. Instead, processing is performed on central servers and users have a low-power terminal. This technology minimises heat generation, reducing the need for ventilation. Consequently, the building design requires minimal air conditioning and mechanical ventilation.

Commenting on the award Vice Principal Rosalyn Marshall said: "We are delighted to have won such a prestigious award for sustainability. Thin client technology has helped us to deliver an open campus and it is also driving a major change in the way higher education is delivered.

"As well as having an impressively low impact on the environment it means staff and students can log on anywhere, on or off campus, at any terminal, and access a full desktop with all personalized settings, files, software and electronic resources. This has created major change in work practices across the university and has supported distance learning."

QMU is on target to be one of the lowest energy and lowest carbon campuses in the UK.

(GK/JM)