Start date: 7 December 2007
End date: 7 December 2008
Funding programme: JISC Organisational Support programme
Project website:
http://www.susteit.org.uk/
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’
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 set up 3 events for the sector, with presentations by practitioners (rather then vendors).
The scheduled events are:
| Date |
Event |
Location |
| 3 Jun 2008 |
Session on ‘Environmental and Social Impacts of e-Learning’ at the University’s Teaching and Learning Assessment Conference |
University of Bradford |
| 19 Jun 2008 |
Full day workshop ‘Energy Efficient Configuration, Cooling & Power Supply in Data Centres’ |
University of Cardiff |
| 21 Aug 2008 |
Full day workshop on ‘New Ways of Working’ covering thin client-based studying and working solutions, remote working, and conferencing - Slides available now on the Suste-IT website |
Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh |
| 2 Sept 2008 |
Full day workshop on ‘The Sustainable Desktop? Achieving Energy Efficient PCs in Universities and Colleges - Slides now available on the Suste-IT Website |
University of Sheffield |
| 29 Sept 2008 |
Half-day workshop 'Creating the Intelligent Campus' |
Birkbeck College, University of London |
| 30 Sept 2008 |
High Performance Buildings - 'The Crucial Role of IT' |
Kings College, University of London |
Further events are currently being finalised on:
- Green IT in Further Education - January 2009 (Venue tbc)
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.
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