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Recycle This Blog

In what appears to be a truly holistic recycling effort, news put forth by the University of Michigan on its green computing efforts last June has been finding new life on news feeds in early December. Not one to shirk my recycling duties, I offer now a roundup of other relevant nonbreaking news. And for what it's worth, not only are they are all related to the U-M story, but I probably would have missed them if not for the Detroit Free Press rehash of the Wolver-green story.

• The National Wildlife Federation, which rates colleges and universities on their green efforts, in August released a report titled Guide to Climate Action Planning: Pathways to a Low-Carbon Campus. Unfortunately, while the NWF bills it as a "comprehensive review of the strategies and steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on campus, with best practices from U.S. colleges and universities," the report delivers only a glancing blow to the topic of personal computers and none to data centers.

• The U-M Utilities and Maintenance Services Department, Energy Management Division, has written and distributed a booklet titled, UM Guide to Green Computing: What You Can Do To Conserve Energy On and Off Campus. There are about 26,800 PCs and nearly half that number of printers currently used in U-M buildings. Although it is difficult to estimate, PC operation probably accounts for more than 10% of all electricity used by the U-M. Among its tips: "If the computer is going to be inactive for more than 16 minutes, consider turning it off. After this time, the energy needed to run the computer outweighs the start-up energy."

• The University of Colorado at Boulder in late August released its Campus Sustainability Plan in Support of the Greening of State Government Executive Order. The document offers specifics as to how it is improving energy efficiency in its data center, including server virtualization and updating cooling equipment:

"The six computer room air conditioners CRAC in our two primary data centers are more than 20 years old and are mechanically inefficient. We plan to replace (1) 15-ton and (1) 20-ton units in the next 12-18 months. The remaining units would be replaced at a later date contingent on available funding. The replacement CRAC units will be high-efficiency cooling systems from Liebert or similar. The units themselves are more efficient, but will also have intelligence to adjust output to current environmental conditions, including variable-speed fan motors. Units (installed) are approximately $90K each."

It also will look to "right-size" desktop computers used in its computing labs. They account for about 1,300 of the university's 18,000 desktops.

Columbia University has received an A- on a 2009 College Sustainability Report Card, making it one of just 15 schools to receive the top grade. This is up from last year's B+, and from the B received for 2007 when the university's Department of Environmental Stewardship was just getting started. The College Sustainability Report Card operates under the auspices of the Sustainable Endowments Institute. The Report Card project surveys the 300 schools in the United States and Canada that hold the largest endowments. It describes itself as "the only independent evaluation of campus and endowment sustainability activities" at colleges in both countries.

However, Columbia received only a B for its climate change and energy efficiency efforts. The report card notes: "The university has instituted a policy to reduce heating and cooling energy consumption and is launching a computerized building management system to do so. The Cool Columbia campaign conducts energy audits in off-campus housing, provides energy-efficient appliance upgrades, and encourages residents to pledge to take three steps to reduce their energy consumption."

Separately, in its own Green Computing Guide, Columbia notes that it has about 30,000 computers in our dorm rooms, offices, and labs. "By conservative estimates, these computers consume 3.5 million kwh of electricity each year, resulting in the release of more than 4.5 million pounds of CO₂ into the atmosphere," the guide states. "If these computers aren't properly recycled at the end of their useful lives, their toxins may contaminate soil and water."

To that end, it offers energy- and environmental-saving tips.

And speaking of which, please recycle this blog.

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