66 | FOCUS | EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY
CASE STUDY: UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN DATA CENTRE
The University of Aberdeen has won numerous prizes for its cutting edge data centre, including a Green Gown Award university data centre, which had been around since the 1990s, was turned into a state of the art shared service for all the higher education organisations in the allowing institutions to vacate current also saved them on energy bills by using a Before the refurbishment, the data centre
now down to 75 kilowatts, which translates to a massive cost saving of £80,000- by about 500 tonnes a year, the equivalent
Partnering with Aberdeen were Robert Gordon University and the North East vice principal of student services at the within the Scottish education sector for some time towards working more for a solution at the same time and it The service not only got people together, but went from a power usage
The drivers for green “Universities’ desire to go green is very signifi cant,” says Andy Bennet , group sales and commercial director for the Stone Group, with whom universities currently spend around £80m a year on ICT. “Green is at ractive to students and it is part of their corporate social responsibility. Universities are behaving more and more like the big corporations we work with across the rest of the public sector.” Not only do students expect their
institution to have a level of commitment to green agenda, they also want to learn about it. The National Union of Students have published research showing that over 80% of undergraduates believe that skills for sustainability should be covered by their university experience.
The cost factor But while ethics and students come high on the list, the real motivation for universities’ carbon reduction may well be fi nancial. As Andy Bennet explains: “It’s a constant balance between green sustainable IT, ethical sourcing and cost. There are few procurement bodies that can justify paying signifi cant premiums to support green IT.” Universities save money on printing by going digital or by mandating duplex or reduced printing. They reduce travel costs when they support video conferencing. They bring down energy bills through
intelligent building design – for example using smart LED lights, automated power systems and computers that go to sleep automatically.
Winning hearts and minds “There’s only so much that preaching can do,” says Rob Bristow, green expert at Jisc, the UK’s technology charity for universities and colleges. “It’s much bet er to set systems up so people are incentivised to do the right thing.” Indeed, more and more UK universities are taking a holistic approach to greening their organisation – not just thinking of it as a problem for the Estates or IT department. In the last year, a number of universities including Leeds, Southampton and Edinburgh have created a sustainability team to raise the profi le of their commitment to not just environmental but also social and ethical concerns.
Hot stuff Aside from the challenge of changing peoples’ at itudes towards energy use, the other great issue facing universities is the cooling of their ICT equipment. It is estimated that the HE sector spends £147 million a year on energy to support its ICT alone – including the costs of providing and operating the associated cooling and power supply infrastructure. There are individual bits of tech that are helping. Low-power replacements for
Main image (above): Bigstock Images. Aberdeen and Leeds imagery used courtesy of the universities
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102