The SUSTE-IT project reflects the increasing importance of ICT-related energy and environmental issues, in the [higher education] sector and elsewhere. For example, there is ever growing consumption (and even more rapidly increasing costs) of electricity in data centres, and in computers and peripherals; legislative and other pressures are requiring reductions in ICT-related carbon emissions, and the WEEE Directive is creating new requirements for equipment end-of-life.
The SUSTE-IT report is published and the site is live with carbon footprinting tools to help universities assess – and reduce – the environmental impact of their ever increasing use of information technologies. I only wish the case were made more strongly in what might be called “moral” terms as well as simply legislative and economic terms. I would suggest that it is for universities as repositories of scientific knowledge to lead, not simply be driven by legislation to comply.
rWorld2 