In the Blog
The Mobility Plan and Sustainable IT
Posted on Tuesday, February 28th, 2012 at 1:45 pm by Ralph PinaWhat on earth has the newly unveiled university Mobility Plan to do with information and communications technology? Quite a bit actually. It is another example of how ICT can be an enabler for sustainability elsewhere on campus – the third leg of Sustainable IT.
Read more...Sustainability or Green Reporting
Posted on Friday, December 9th, 2011 at 10:35 am by Ralph PinaInformation technology can enable the achievement of sustainability goals on campus in many ways, including by providing sustainability assessment and reporting tools. More than two years ago when students initiated and drove the population of a “sustainability scorecard” with the purpose of conducting a sustainability assessment and setting the bar, information technology played an insignificant role. The scorecard was presented to management but never published and there has been no subsequent assessment.
Recently, however, the request came to the IT Division to investigate the local market for carbon footprint assessment and reporting tools. A very brief report on sustainability reporting (pdf) was prepared and submitted. It briefly explores the world of sustainability and integrated reporting, considers reporting frameworks and standards (such as the GHG Protocol, Global Reporting Initiative, STARS (a framework for higher education) etc.), and reviews a sample of sustainability management suites and tools.
Finally it recommends that:
…any choice of a sustainability application suite should be delayed until the university’s sustainability strategy has been determined.
… that it is necessary for the university to select and implement a sustainability assessment and reporting framework in order to identify sustainability indicators, help it develop its strategy, assess progress, report to stakeholders and benchmark against similar institutions.
The recommended assessment and reporting framework is the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s (AASHE) Sustainability, Tracking and Rating System (STARS). Stellenbosch University is an international member of AASHE.
Read more...Printing system saves paper, water
Posted on Friday, March 25th, 2011 at 4:59 pm by Ralph PinaLast September we reported that the savings as a result of the new printing system were already significant. Now almost a year after implementation we can show that the targeted areas in the university used 39% less paper than what they would have during 2010. (more…)
Read more...Greenpeace’s Green Electronics Survey #3
Posted on Friday, January 7th, 2011 at 10:45 am by Ralph PinaGreenpeace’s latest Green Electronics Survey reveals that 18 companies participated and that there has been a “general improvement in green features” since the 2008 and 2009 surveys. Notebooks, desktops, netbooks, smartphones, mobile phones, monitors and TVs are assessed against the following criteria:
- The use of hazardous chemical substances (e.g. PVC, BFRs, phthalates, etc.)
- Power consumption by the products (benchmarked against the Energy Star standard)
- Product lifecycle (including use of recycled plastic, take-back programmes, etc.)
- Innovation and marketing (data about the manufacturing footprint, consumer information, etc.).
In desktops, HP Compaq’s 6005 Pro Ultra-slim came out tops while in smartphones the Sony-Ericsson Aspen (M1) beat out Nokia’s N8-00. Once again Apple declined to participate.
View Greenpeace’s “snapshot of results” or download the full report (pdf).
One wonders how many buying decisions are influenced by such a survey….?
Read more...First SU admin building installs solar PV
Posted on Wednesday, December 15th, 2010 at 12:22 pm by Ralph PinaThe InnovUS office was abuzz with excitement on Thursday 21 October 2010! It is after all the first administrative building on the Stellenbosch University campus to install photovoltaic (PV) solar panels. This green initiative was celebrated with a launch held at its offices in De Beer Street, Stellenbosch. The PV panels at InnovUS will allow the office to generate its own electricity, thereby reducing the amount of electricity purchased from the municipality. This is in line with the overall sustainability objectives of the University and the project will pave the way for the rest of the University to follow suit. Read more …
Read more...SA Green IT SIG Webinar 3
Posted on Friday, November 19th, 2010 at 1:14 pm by Ralph PinaSouth Africa’s higher education IT sector held its third Green IT special interest group (SIG) webinar today under the auspices of the South African University Directors of Information Technology (ASAUDIT). There were 11 participants from SU, UCT, NMMU, UP, UNISA and UJ. Kimon de Greeff and Charl Souma of the University of Cape Town (UCT) and Adriaan Vorster of the University of Johannesburg (UJ) presented on the following:
- Kimon – UCT’s online car pooling systems for students, RideLink
- Adriaan – UJ’s renovation of its data centre cooling
- Charl – update on UCT’s e-waste initiative
- Charl – UCT’s energy-monitoring system under implementation.
The Story of Electronics
Posted on Friday, November 12th, 2010 at 12:02 pm by Ralph PinaThe Story of Stuff Project has released a new animated film, The Story of Electronics, hosted by Annie Leonard, the creator of the hit viral video The Story of Stuff. The film takes on the electronics industry about e-Waste. It argues for “product take back” and for companies to manufacture less toxic, more easily recyclable and longer lasting products. It’s an entertaining but pointed way to get the message across to us gadget geeks …
Did she mention “take back” laws in South Africa? Er …. no.
Read more...Benchmarking Sustainable IT at universities
Posted on Friday, October 15th, 2010 at 4:22 pm by Ralph PinaOur peers in Australia (CAUDIT) have progressed much further with benchmarking between universities – including benchmarking on the sustainable IT or “green IT” front. South Africa’s equivalent HE IT association, ASAUDIT, has largely adopted CAUDIT’s benchmarking metrics. The Green IT benchmarking metrics are discussed briefly below.
Read more...New printing system starts to show savings
Posted on Saturday, September 11th, 2010 at 9:50 am by Ralph PinaThe university typically consumes between 54 and 60 million sheets of paper per annum. That’s a lot of paper. Earlier this year we implemented a new printing management system that utilises energy-efficient multi-function printers (MFPs) and seeks to minimise wastage and unnecessary printing by defaulting to duplex printing (printing on both sides of the sheet) and implementing “pull” printing (where the user requests his/her print job by presenting the proximity student/staff card at the printer). This has been rolled out on 176 MFPs in student computer user areas (CUAs) mostly. And the results are already significant.
During August, the first full month of operations, the savings on over 3 million page prints were as follows:
- 900,000 sheets as a result of duplex printing
- 395,000 sheets as a result of “pull” printing (i.e. sheets that would have been printed if the user did not have to request them at the printer).
That represents a saving in paper of over 30%.
The percentage of all print jobs that were duplex was 62%, while the pull print ratio was 70% – which reflects the fact that some devices are not yet being operated in “pull” mode but are being tracked.
Ultimately, up to 600 devices will be managed by the system.
Besides the green and savings aspects of the solution, it also facilitates secure printing at a shared MFP, as the user’s job is only printed when the user presents his/her card at the MFP. Uncollected jobs are automatically deleted after a preset, configurable period. The project leader is Le Roux Franken – feel free to contact him via this blog if you have questions.
In another initiative that seeks to reduce paper usage amongst other goals, one faculty is piloting a laptop-per-student initiative from the beginning of 2011 in partnership with the IT Division. All learning material will be digitally preloaded onto the laptops which will sync to an online e-learning repository when connected. Read more...
Green IT versus real-world IT Practice?
Posted on Friday, July 9th, 2010 at 9:47 am by Ralph PinaForrester Research has noted a trend where companies are recognising the strong linkages between so-called Green IT initiatives and the more traditional IT priorities of more efficient usage of IT assets, cost-savings, improved resilience, customer satisfaction, etc. In fact, IT executives report less and less emphasis on “doing the right thing” and regulatory compliance as drivers for Green IT, and growing emphasis on lowering operating and energy costs and improving the resilience and reliability of IT infrastructure.
Read the article here…
Read more...