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.

Workshops

New events explore green and sustainable IT in universities and colleges

The SusteIT (Sustainable IT in Tertiary Education) initiative is currently reviewing the environmental and social impacts of IT in further and higher education, and identifying and disseminating examples of good practice within it. To support these objectives, it has organised several events for the sector, with presentations by practitioners (rather then vendors).

The scheduled events are:

Date	Event	Location
3 Mar 2009	Half-day workshop: 'Green Data Centres in Universities and Colleges'	Imperial College, London
30 Sept 2008	High Performance Buildings - 'The Crucial Role of IT'	Kings College, University of London
29 Sept 2008	Half-day workshop: 'Creating the Intelligent Campus'	Birkbeck College, University of London
2 Sept 2008	Full day workshop:  ‘The Sustainable Desktop? Achieving Energy Efficient PCs in Universities and Colleges - Slides available on the Suste-IT Website	University of Sheffield
21 Aug 2008	Full day workshop: ‘New Ways of Working’ covering thin client-based studying and working solutions, remote working, and conferencing - Slides available on the Suste-IT website	Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh
19 Jun 2008	Full day workshop: ‘Energy Efficient Configuration, Cooling & Power Supply in Data Centres’	University of Cardiff
3 Jun 2008	Session on ‘Environmental and Social Impacts of e-Learning’ at the University’s Teaching and Learning Assessment Conference	University of Bradford

Smarter, Greener Learning Conferences

The JISC Regional Support Centres are organising a series of Smarter, Greener Learning Conferences which will launch at London's City Hall on 26 February 2009 before moving on to Birmingham on 18 March and Edinburgh on 22 April. The conferences will bring the latest thinking and practical advice to managers in further education and skills to help inform their implementation of sustainable business practices in IT.

The events will be informed by a scoping work which SusteIT has been undertaking since the start of the year. This will be accompanied by a number of case studies of good practice, and the results of a detailed carbon and energy footprinting of ICT at the University of Sheffield.