Current green initiatives by Information Technology Services enhance Green Roots efforts to create a sustainable Lawrence.
Following are several ways in which ITS is working to conserve resources and reduce LU’s impact on the environment. These efforts are a small, albeit meaningful component of the campus-wide drive to “grow green” in the next two years.
Power Management
Power Management is a process of automatically placing computers and monitors into a low-power sleep or standby mode after a designated period of inactivity to decrease power consumption. Touching the mouse or keyboard “wakes” the computer and monitor to its normal running state in seconds.
- Public Lab computers enter standby mode after 30 minutes of inactivity. Monitors for faculty, staff, and labs enter standby mode after 30 minutes. Department Lab computers enter standby mode twice per day when not in use. (In standby mode, computers use approximately 2% of the electricity they typically use when running normally.)
- Faculty and staff are advised to set energy-saving preferences on their office computer in addition to manually shutting down their computer each night.
Print Management
Print Management is a recent ITS initiative which allows print jobs to collect in a queue until securely released by their owner from a Print Release Station. If jobs are not released within an allotted time frame, they will be automatically canceled, thereby eliminating duplicate and unwanted print jobs and reducing printed paper waste.
- ITS purchased 50 cases of paper (250,000 sheets) for printers in the residence hall labs, the Conservatory lab, the ITC, and Science Hall room 127 from September to November of 2007. During the same period of time in 2008, ITS purchased only 35 cases of paper for those areas. This is a reduction in paper by 75,000 sheets!
Purchasing
- ITS purchases toner cartridges made from 80% Recycled Post-Consumer Content for printers in the seven large residence hall labs, the Conservatory lab, and the ITC.
- ITS is in the process of converting all campus monitors from CRT to LCD flat-panels. The energy-consumption of an average LCD display is two-thirds of that for an average CRT. source: energystar.gov
- ITS purchases new, EPA Energy Star qualified computers and peripherals as appropriate and cost effective.
Recycling
- ITS recycles end-of-life computer hardware through a reputable, full-service materials processing and electronic recycling service provider.
- Empty toner cartridges are returned to the manufacturer for recycling.
- Staff-issued cell phones which are no longer functioning properly are returned to the provider for recycling.
