Contributed by Organizations or Campuses; Articles, Papers, and Reports; and Green Computing

"As the drumbeat grows louder for colleges to commit to reducing their carbon footprints, all kinds of data are being generated, and all sorts of greening efforts are cited in reports and campus material."

Some simple fixes in the data center can add hard cash to an enterprise's bottom line.

This autumn, PC World will launch its first "green" PC, and surely herald a wave of such products to hit both home and business. Is this the signal that it is time to clear out the techno-junk and invest in a new generation of ecologically sound hardware? Even if there is a lot of "green washing" of products that would have come out anyway, it would seem that the environmental benefits are clear cut. Unfortunately, however, it is more complicated than that: most of the green promises on offer centre on energy usage, and this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to IT's ecological impact.

This Intel white paper focuses on the importance of of the eco-technology revolution in the wake of global warming and the growing importance of developing energy-efficent sustainable technologies.

Green computing is a hot-button issue right now, but not all the ideas out there are practical for data centers.

Data center managers who championed virtualization and green computing in 2007 now face the task of delivering the benefits they promised -- something industry watchers say will be no small feat. As projects move beyond the planning phase in 2008 into broader deployment, data centers managers will need to evaluate how they're going to manage and support the new technologies without overhauling their entire infrastructure.

Today, there is much concern about the effect of our computers on the environment. In addition, the issue of power and cooling is a mounting anxiety. Rapid growth in energy costs and increasing dependency on sustainable computing increasingly require 3R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) endeavors in our information technology operations and management of our information technology resources.
From the viewpoints of environmental preservation and resource utilization, managing e-waste and eco-computing is becoming an important target for higher education institutions worldwide. Furthermore, tackling eco-friendly solutions on campus environments takes a group effort and starts at the Information Technology division. In this report we review major eco-responsible initiatives and detail moves towards more efficient and sustainable technologies. In addition, we look at ways to assess the environmental impact of our data centers and eco-friendly solutions.

"Across the country, conscientious professors, business leaders, student activists, and grass-roots organizers are driving the sustainability movement with the urgent sense that humanity is facing a series of crises — among them, climate change, a growing divide between rich and poor, energy shortages, the collapse of various ecosystems, and the pressures of a world population that may reach nine billion by mid-century."

E-Waste is a popular, informal name for discarded electronic products such as computers, VCRs, cameras, which have reached the end of their "useful life". Discarded electronic products contain a stew of toxic metals and chemicals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium, and PCBs. Unfortunately, e-Waste, a dangerous byproduct of technology's relentless expansion is one of the fastest growing segments of higher education institutions' waste stream. We need to be strong advocates of "producer responsibility" and give companies an incentive to produce environmentally friendly products. In addition we must learn about and educate our campus communities about managing old electronics and associated materials. In this report, we attempt to answer the question "What should be done with old electronic products?" discuss opportunities for waste prevention and reuse, and talk about regulatory issues.

"CIO William Hill had an admirable, if unanticipated, return on investment when he overhauled the IT infrastructure for Dayton, Ohio: He helped the environment. Hill's strategy included replacing the old setup -- a disorganized mix of 80 archaic networked terminals and numerous ad hoc PCs of varying ages and operating systems -- with thin clients for 60% of the staff and PCs for the rest, strategically positioned for optimum use. Hill opted for thin clients for technological and cost reasons, but says he saw a corresponding drop in how much energy his organization uses -- a drop that saves the city between $60,000 and $90,000 annually."