Debate: Is green ICT a priority in times of austerity?

Yes, I believe so. Regardless of the financial climate, there are always things that we can do to work more sustainably. Smaller scale ideas can often make just as big a contribution as some of the really ambitious things that we do. To draw an analogy from every day life, cycling to work one morning is insignificant on its own – but if I cycle to work every day, then that makes a huge environmental difference.

Most universities can actually save money by making their ICT greener, and while many of those ways are themselves modest, when added together they make a big difference. In the field of ICT we're fortunate because many of the things that we can change to save energy are also going to save universities money. Some examples are: data centre efficiency; virtualisation; workstation hibernation; aspects of printing; and file storage.

Data storage requirements are expected to balloon in academia over the next few years because the resolution of scientific equipment and the data it generates is getting bigger all the time. Universities need to look now at how we can save and look after that information in an environmentally sustainable manner.

Cardiff's Planet Filestore project looked at giving our users the increased storage that they require while they're working on a certain document, before moving it to a lower performance, greener tier of storage to look after the finished document when it no longer requires modifying. We found that this kind of tiered storage could result in an 82% energy saving. There are obviously significant savings to be made on energy bills and carbon taxes, along with savings on equipment, and disposal costs and data centre space – as we used proportionately more equipment which was less expensive, smaller, and higher capacity.

I think that sometimes it is felt that being green is expensive and this can be a barrier. Sometimes this is true but often this is just a perception. In other areas of university life, outside ICT, the cost benefits of going green are not always so clear. For example, it might be cheaper to drive from Cardiff to London than it would be to catch the train, but my personal view is that we're global citizens, and making environmentally 'right' decisions will help us to be more successful as an organisation and should form part of the college or university's mission.

When students are choosing which university they would like to go to, they are increasingly taking into account that institution's environmental credentials. Funders too are looking for an environmentally-aware approach when assessing university bids. Students and funders starting to take more notice of these things is a positive step in moving forward in a more sustainable way.

Find out more about the storage calculator project.

Read Cardiff University's hints and tips on how you can use information services in a greener way, both at work and at home.

Do you disagree with Paul? Should we be spending more on teaching and learning and less on green ICT? Or perhaps you see other priorities. Add your voice to the debate by posting a comment below…