Go green for a sustainable future
The issue
Under the UK Climate Change Act 2008, the higher and further education sectors are required to meet carbon reduction targets of 34% by 2020 and 80% by 2050, compared with 1990 levels.
What you can do
Although ICT accounts for 2% of global carbon emissions, estimates suggest that, globally, it could contribute a 15% reduction by 2020 by enabling more efficient working practices and reducing surplus electricity consumption.
Understand your footprint
Our ICT energy and carbon footprinting tool can help you identify the ICT consumers of energy and producers of carbon within your organisation. Find out how 12 higher education institutions in London used it to discover which areas consume the most energy.
Clever course creation
Use the SusTEACH planning tool to design new courses and teaching material taking their environmental impact into account.
Get your staff on board
Provide incentives to your staff and students to save energy. Cambridge University, for example, offered financial incentives to improve energy efficiency.
Other organisations are using energy dashboards to draw attention to the energy use of individual buildings or facilities. For example, the University of Manchester has developed a carbon-reporting scheme.
Reducing travel
Videoconferencing can replace physical with virtual meetings, saving energy on travel. Explore how Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor and the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance have embraced Janet’s videoconferencing service.
A location independent working scheme for academic staff in teaching roles could save more than £1000 per staff member per year in travel and energy costs.
Data storage
Cardiff University achieved an 80% reduction in the energy used for file storage and have developed a tool which you can use to model the environmental and financial savings your organisation could make with tiered file storage.
Inefficient data centres can use twice as much energy for cooling, power supply etc. as for computation. Several UK universities, such as the University of Hertfordshire and St Andrews University have successfully reduced this overhead consumption.
Efficient offices
Save energy, resources and carbon by replacing numerous desktop printers with fewer multi-functional devices that can print, photocopy, scan and fax documents.
The powerdown and wake system can help you power down idle computers automatically, initiating auto-logout for inactive computers.
Purchasing practices
Reduce duplication or double-purchasing of equipment by using the Kit Catalogue to encourage reuse of equipment across your organisation. You can extend your green investment by ensuring you procure energy efficient equipment.
Using shared services can potentially have a significant impact on reducing your carbon footprint.
Looking ahead
Estimates suggest that ICT use will grow by 6% each year until 2020. Our future work is focusing on the role of energy dashboards in changing energy consumption and on making further energy savings through data centre engineering and cooling.