Eco-friendly
It’s very important to us at OHLC that we do our bit to make our centre more eco-friendly. We’ve signed up to Rochdale Borough Council’s eco-business pledge. This involves doing what we can to be more energy efficient, reduce our environmental impact, reduce the waste the centre produces, minimise single use plastics and reduce the amount of water the centre uses.
Energy efficiency
We have installed PIR (motion detection) sensors on all lighting (where safe to do so) to ensure lighting is not on in unused areas of the centre.
We have replaced lighting fixtures with low-energy LED fittings.
Installed timers on our vending machines.
Many of our CV machines utilise energy derived from the motion of the machine rather than being plugged into the mains, where safe to do so.
We use pool covers when the pools are not in use to reduce heat loss. Use of pool covers reduces heat losses by 10-30% of the total pool energy.
We closely monitor air temperatures in all areas of the centre, and pool water temperatures to ensure they are controlled within industry guidelines.
Pool hall air temperatures are maintained at no more than 1 degree above the pool water temperature, and the relative humidity is maintained between 50-70% to reduce heat loss and evaporation from the pool.
External doors and windows are controlled and monitored to prevent loss in effective temperature control.
Internal doors are kept closed between areas of different temperatures and humidity.
External lighting is controlled by sensors and timeclocks to ensure they are only on when required.
Heating and ventilation throughout the centre is controlled by a BMS (building management system) to maximise efficiency. BMS systems reduce total energy use by at least 10%.
We use variable speed drives on our pool circulation pumps. The variable speed drives are controlled by the automatic dosing unit, which dictate the speed of the pumps depending on water conditions. If chlorine and pH levels are satisfactory the VDS’s will slow the pumps to conserve energy. At set deviations from ideal levels, the VDS’s will increase the pump speed to improve water quality. A swimming pool circulation pump running at 80 percent speed only need 50 percent of the energy required at full speed.
We use a programme of regular maintenance on heating and ventilation systems to ensure they are running efficiently.
Reducing the amount of paper we use
We have moved to e-versions of many of our forms and information leaflets, focusing on online and electronic options for things like customer forms, timetables and safety and maintenance checks carried out by our team.
We have reviwed remaining paper records to minimise paper consumption through formatting documents to fit on single sheets and printing back to back, so far we have saved 2041 sheets of paper per year through this type of review.
Minimising single-use plastic
We’ve removed the overshoe policy on poolside and replaced with a no outdoor footwear / barefoot policy.
Removed the disposable cups for the water-fountains in favour of customers using their own reusable bottles.
We buy our cleaning supplies in larger bottles to refill and reuse the trigger spray bottles the product is used from.
Reducing environmental impact
We have changed chlorine systems to an in-situ generated product, the supplies are manufactured in the UK and not imported from overseas as with our previous system.
The new chlorine system also runs at a lower pH so we use less chemical for pH correction.
We have stock control procedures to minimise the frequency of deliveries for regularly used products like cleaning supplies.