World-renowned University of St Andrews chooses Compactus shelving units

Compactus Dynamic II XTR Series shelving has helped renovate the library at the world-renowned University of St Andrews in Scotland. St Andrews Library is one of the largest and oldest academic libraries in the UK. The university was founded in 1413, and the impressive library has a collection of more than one million books, some of which date back to the early 15th century. The mobile shelving supplied is one of the first large-scale projects using environmentally friendly steel. The steel has the lowest CO2 impact available today. It meets sustainability goals!

Like many other universities, the University of St Andrews is struggling with a growing student population and limited space to study and work. St Andrews wants to use its existing buildings and spaces wisely and efficiently to contribute to its sustainability vision of achieving "net zero" by 2035. According to the UN1, buildings account for nearly 40% of annual CO2 emissions worldwide.

By partially relocating the book collection and choosing a library equipped with mobile shelving (instead of conventional static shelving), St Andrews could create 500 new learning spaces. This saved a lot of CO2 emissions, money and time, and solved the need to invest in an expensive new addition. Overall, opting for mobile solutions instead of static ones allows the building to be laid out much more efficiently, by up to 50%.