JISC

Aims and objectives

The project will engage with a number of stakeholder groups, including sector-wide membership associations, representatives from a range of Further (FE) and Higher (HE) Education institutions, and relevant ICT vendors / suppliers, to investigate where synergies in technology and energy efficiency policies can be exploited to further the achievement of ‘green computing’.

The SusteIT project reflects the increasing importance of ICT-related energy and environmental issues, in the sector and elsewhere. It is financed by JISC and managed by a partnership of HEEPI (Higher Education Environmental Performance Improvement), which is based at the University of Bradford, and an external NGO, SustainIT.

Approaches and methods

Some key issues to be addressed by the study will be:

Overall ICT impacts What proportion of HE energy consumption is related to ICT, how is this broken down, and how much will it increase in future? What are the areas where a) immediate ‘win-win’ methods of reducing energy consumption and environmental impact can be adopted, and b) where there are more intangible synergies between environmental improvement and other areas of ICT functionality?

Networks and configuration Can moves to thin client approaches, server virtualisation, and extended IP networks deliver significant environmental benefits?

Hardware How can data centres be made more energy efficient? What are the most sustainable purchasing options for ICT equipment? How can energy consumption by PCs, laptops and peripherals be minimised? Can recycling/reuse of end of life ICT equipment be increased?

Applications and use Can ICT applications such as ERP and Intranets reduce resource consumption? Can e-learning, new ways of working, greater use of conferencing technologies and other ICT-related actions reduce travel by staff and students?

Project stages and outputs

Stage 1 (scoping study) of the proposal will combine a mapping of impacts with results from an on-line survey of, and 30-40 interviews with, practitioners and others. An advisory group will also be established. An additional output to those specified in the tender will be 15-20 ‘mini cases’ of innovations.

Areas which are likely to be addressed in Stage 2 (cases) include design of new and refurbished IT spaces; automatic switching off of PCs; virtualisation, especially with regard to servers; thin client approaches; integration of environment into procurement; end-of-life; and peripherals.

Stage 3 (tools) is likely to have three broad outputs, focusing on high level awareness; decision- relevant support; and specific advice and guidance. Stage 4 (final report and recommendations) will draw on stages 1-3, and also conduct further interviews and possibly a survey.