Our Client.

Situated in the heart of Stirling, Carter's Yard is part of CRM Students, one of the UK’s leading PBSA Operators. Known for prioritising quality and a supportive living experience, Carter's Yard goes beyond providing just a place to live – it focuses on creating a community where students feel at home. 

The Challenge.

CRM Students tasked Utopi with helping them solve a data collection challenge across their real estate asset. Starting with Carter’s Yard, they needed a way to measure their environmental impact, and better understand their utility consumption. Solving this data problem would allow them to drive an improvement in operational efficiency, would find cost savings, and improve the living standards for their residents. 

Actions.

Not only did Utopi offer our portfolio performance enhancing tools, including a combination of the Utopi Multisensor in all 127 bedrooms, but also metering solutions to get a strong understanding of the utility consumption on site. And that was just the beginning!  

Utopi worked alongside CRM Students’ site teams to engage with residents to educate them on the impact of overheating homes.  Data after all is just the beginning, without engagement from the people living in the spaces, stimulating real positive change can be tough. However, by engaging with residents early and with consistent assessment of rooms with high temperatures, CRM Students saw a significant decrease in average temperature during the 2023 heating season.   

An example of positive engagement was incentivising residents. A £100 Amazon voucher was offered to the resident who reduced their average room electrical consumption the most over a 30-day period. .. And the results say it all! 

Positive Impact.

Not only did we collectively generate a reduction in temperature across Carter’s Yard, seeing their average reduce from 23.1°C to 22.5°C in just one month, but we were able to positively engage with residents, and reward them for reducing their impact.  

Results.  

The CRM Students team now have the ability to measure their energy and carbon emissions, and that knowledge paired with active interventions using granular data, have allowed them to save the following based on 127 beds and a 200-day heating season: 

Cost Savings. 

£28,448 

Energy Reduction. 

 88,900 kWh  

Carbon Reduction. 

18,669 kg  

Small incremental changes to resident behaviour really can have a significant collective impact on overall buildings energy use. But more than anything, when creating a community of sustainable change like CRM Students have in Stirling, will bring even more positive change in time.