Environmental Stewardship and Green Computing

Last Updated - June 2, 2009

In March 2007 President Simpson signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) on behalf of the University at Buffalo, making UB one of the charter signatories of this initiative aimed at reducing one of the great threats of our age: global climate change. The ACUPCC currently has more than 400 institutional members across the U.S. and commits members to achieve "climate neutrality" according to a plan devised by September 2009.

UB has created a Committee on Environmental Stewardship, charged with conducting an inventory of campus greenhouse gas emissions by September 2008, as well as with creating a plan to lead us to climate neutrality by September 2009. You can follow the work plan of the committee by visiting the UB 2020 Environmental Stewardship Committee web site.

UB has recently been recognized by the EPA as an "Individual Conference Champion" for their purchase of green power and for taking a leadership role among colleges and universities in support of a better environmental future. See 2008-2009 College and University Green Power Challenge Champions. (Mid-American Conference) UB's green accomplishments and additional information on UB's environmental leadership can be found at the following web site: A Greener Shade of Blue: UB Demonstrating Environmental Leadership.

We welcome feedback on the initially proposed IT/HR Mitigation Actions of UB's Climate Action Plan.

Current UB Green Computing initiatives follow.

Green Computing Initiatives

Think Green - Use Web and Video Conferencing to Reduce Travel

Buy Green - Purchase Energy-efficient Hardware

• UB2020 Workstation Standards Product Offerings
  • Purchase Energy-Star equipment
  • Many new UB2020 product offerings come with web cams and microphones
• Replace desktops with laptops
• Replace CRT monitors

Use Power Management Features

Power management technology enables systems to automatically turn off components such as monitors after set periods of inactivity. In addition, a system may hibernate, in which it turns off nearly all components, including the CPU and RAM, greatly reducing the system's electricity usage.

• Activate power management features on your computers
• Shut down computers at night - Yale University saves $40 per PC by shutting down their PCs after hours, waking them up for backups and software updates. Some units at UB are doing this as well.

Green Data Center Initiatives

• Data Centers with their concentration of servers with high-end power and cooling needs are among the largest consumers of electricity on campus. "Green Data Centers" are designed for maximum energy efficiency and minimum environmental impact. Dell is providing their expertise in designing and configuring energy efficient data centers to CIT as the University consolidates servers on campus.
• UB's Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences has received a $300,000 contract from the NY State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), matched by a $150,000 investment by UB, to replace older servers with more energy-efficient ones. This will result in energy savings of approximately $150,000 per year.
• Data Center Efficiency Statistics (From www.infoWorld.com and McKinsey and Company)
  

Server Consolidation and Virtualization

• UB2020 IT Transformation service and server consolidation efforts have reduced the number of campus servers, retiring 53 of 97 servers in the University Support Services (USS) unit. Comparable reductions in the 537 departmental servers outside USS should be possible.
• We have also replaced several end-of-life servers with more energy- and space-efficient servers

Reduce Materials Consumption, Increase Recycling/and Proper Disposal of E-Waste

The following initiatives have enabled UB to greatly reduce paper consumption and increase recycling at UB. The UB2020 workstation standardization initiative has a program in place with Dell for recycling of UB institutionally-purchased computers in compliance with EPA disposal guidelines ( Dell's Asset Recovery and Recycling Service - ARS). For complete information on ARS, see the UBMicro web site. University Facilities also has programs in place for the proper disposal of and recycling of e-waste.

• Print Management for Students: iPrint
  • The iPrint print management system has cut in half the number of pages printed at public computing sites. iPrint is now being rolled out to departmental student labs.
• Use of Recycled Paper in Student Computing Labs: fully implemented
• Electronic Course Reserves: implemented
• Reduce Hardcopy Reports: campus culture change required
• Online Document Collaboration Tools
  • The UB community is beginning to use online document collaboration tools and systems such as wikis and SharePoint/Google docs respectively, to cut down on the amount of printing of documents to share information.

Online Business Processes, Online Programs/Courses

The automation of business processes and development of online programs and courses is part of our climate initiative to reduce travel and energy emissions.

• Automation/Transformation of Business Practices To-Date
  • eReq (electronic requisition system/eProcurement) has been implemented for Sate requisitions and the implementation for Research Foundation purchases is underway
  • ePay (electronic payment/e-commerce)
  • ePTF (electronic personnel transactions)
  • UBJobs
  • Sponsored Programs Transformation
  • COEUS - automation for grant proposals, funded programs
  • Web Registration
  • DARS, Taurus (degree audit, transfer articulation
  • UBlearns (Blackboard Course Management System)
• Online Programs and Courses, Blended/Hybrid Courses
  • Online Programs and Continuing Education: GSE, Social Work, Nursing, Engineering, et al.
  • Digital Access - School of Management
  • Audio and Video Capture in the Classroom and Streaming - Instructional Technology Services

Teleworking/Telecommuting to reduce travel and energy consumption at UB

Human Resources (HR) piloted the use of alternate work schedules and working from home (teleworking) in 2008. They will be sharing their experiences and providing advice on more broad adoption of their practices in 2009.

Miscellaneous Green Initiatives

• Virtual Labs to Replace Public Labs: The SoftGrid Application virtualization project to deliver software applications via the Internet has been approved. Students will be able to use applications that were licensed and available for use in public computing sites on their own desktops/laptops.
• Remote Management of CPUs: a best practice across campus IT units
• Thin Clients to replace workstations: some units (e.g., CSE) are using thin clients; EIS is considering deployment of thin clients.
• Outsource Student Email: A new partnership with Google will provide new students with Google Apps for Education. This program will be gradually phased-in for all students