2008 Strategies for Green IT at Penn:Desktops and endusers

From Provider Wiki

Jump to: navigation, search

This is a subpage of the 2008 Strategies for Green IT team.

Contents

Introduction

At the initial kickoff meeting , we decided to break out the larger Green IT team into two subcommittees.

Each group will be tasked with focusing on their subtopic, including testing and generating documentation. Please use this wiki for all documentation development so that we may have a history of what the group did.

Subgroup participants

  • Rod Beaton (VPUL)
  • Rich Beynon (Penn Purchasing Services)
  • Richard Conti (Facilities)
  • Valare Gant (ISC)
  • Mike Imbalzano (School of Medicine)
  • John Irwin (GSE)
  • Mike Lazenka (ISC)
  • John Merz (Residential Computing)
  • Alex Milne (Wharton Computing)
  • Marco Onorato (School of Medicine)
  • Brian Peterson (Residential Computing)
  • Pete Shrom (Wharton Computing)
  • Bill Smith (College House Computing)
  • David Toccafondi - Team co-lead (Van Pelt Library)

Brainstorming

This information has been moved to its own page in order to make this information more readable. The brainstorming information can still be accessed here: 2008_Strategies_for_Green_IT_at_Penn:Desktops_and_endusers:Brainstorming

Areas of Focus

Printers:

  • Rich Beynon (coordinator)
  • Marco Onorato

Questions to answer:

  • Are there recommended energy saving settings for the majority of printers that we have on campus
    • As we have mostly HP printers, we should concentrate on the settings available in the latest models
  • What settings should be used as default paper-saving settings?
    • Encourage purchasing of duplex printers, and setting duplex as default either on the printer itself, or in the drivers on the desktop.
  • How should spent toner cartridges be handled?
    • Provide information on recycling toner cartridges (likely handled by the folks looking into recycling options below)
  • What should end users look for when purchasing a printer?
    • Inkjets - single cartridge vs individual color cartridges
    • Energy star label

Preliminary information

  • Energy Star Requirements for Imaging Equipment
  • There is no predetermined time as to when a printer, copier, etc should be replaced/retired, but it might be easier to look at the requirements listed in this document and pick those that are most relevant and important to us as a university. It would be tough to enforce every rule, but you need to start somewhere.
  • HP Printer cartridges go Green (Feb. 2008)
    • “By developing the technology to use recycled plastics in Original HP inkjet print cartridges, we have the opportunity to reduce the environmental impact HP products have on the planet”
    • The process results in inkjet cartridges with 70 to 100 percent recycled content that still meet HP's high-performance standards
    • [3]
  • Xerox Melts Ink To Stay Green
  • 60% of inkjet printer ink is thrown away (and why multi-ink cartridge models stink)
  • How to Press Printers to Reduce Waste, Emissions, and Costs (soy and vegetable oil ink)

Recommendations

Printer deployments

Personal printers should be the exception rather than the rule. Departments should create guidelines where personal printers should be deployed for individuals that need to print confidential information (like Business administrators). Larger multi-function printers (MFPs) should be deployed as the standard group printer in an office. These are more energy and toner efficient, and are less costly than deploying many smaller capacity printers.

Consider the solid ink printers when looking to replace a color printer. The Xerox Phaser 8560 and 8860 both use this low waste technology. See the Xerox website for more information.

Duplex

Printers and/or printer drivers should be set to print duplex by default. Individuals may override this setting for special print-jobs, but by making duplex the default setting, offices will see significant reduction in paper usage.

Power Settings

HP printers can be managed with HP's Web JetAdmin to pre-set sleep and wake modes for evenings and weekends. Ideally, printers should be shut off over the weekend as part of the office closing procedures on Friday afternoons.

Consumable Supplies
  • Purchase inkjet printers that use single-color ink cartridges, rather than printers which contain several colors in a single cartridge. This prevents you from having to replace all of the colors, rather than only the colors that have run out of ink.
  • Buy high capacity cartridges when possible. These require less plastic to manufacture, and less energy and packing materials to ship. For example: One high capacity Hewlett Packard cartridge (Q5949x) has more than double the printing capacity and costs less than two standard cartridges (Q5949a).

Desktop Habits

  • Pete Shrom (coordinator)
  • Valare Gant
  • Mike Lazenka
  • John Merz

Questions to answer:

  • What are the recommended energy saving settings for the typical desktop machines deployed on campus
    • Windows
    • Mac OS
    • Linux
  • Can the machines be scheduled to shut down at the end of the evening?
    • How is this accomplished
  • Should smaller form-factor machines be recommended as a default?
  • What recommendations should be made with regards to the peripherals on the typical desk?
  • Recommendations for laptop users - constantly plugged in or run off battery between charges

Recommendations

Purchasing Decisions
  • Replace CRT monitors at the end of their useful life with LCD monitors. LCD monitors use significantly less energy (and therefore cost less to run), generate less heat, take up less space, cause less damage to the environment when discarded, and weigh less (easier to carry and have a smaller carbon footprint when shipped).
  • Purchase multiple pieces of equipment from the same vendor at the same time to reduce cost and carbon footprint associated with multiple shipments.
  • Maintenance (disc defragmentation, cleaning the Windows registry, etc.) or re-imaging can improve computer performance and extend the product lifecycle, preventing the need to purchase new equipment.
  • Purchase small form factor machines/laptops/thin clients in environments where expandability is not needed and requirements permit.
  • Consider purchasing solid-state drives instead of traditional hard drive technologies in order to reduce power consumption. As the technology evolves, these drives will increase in capacity, and decrease in price.
  • Factor in energy consumption of equipment when evaluating hardware. Make sure that the hardware you purchase meets Energy Star requrements.
  • Do not buy a bigger monitor than you need. A 17" monitor can use 30% more energy than a 15" monitor.
User Practices
  • Turn your computer (and other equipment) off overnight, over the weekends, and during other periods of non-use (including during a lunch break or during meetings when appropriate). It is a misconception that this practice can shorten the lifespan of your machine, and in fact it can extend the life of the computer and hard drives, as well as considerably cut the cost of running them. Leaving computers turned on also generates a considerable amount of heat (especially when you look at the hundreds of computers in a single building, or the thousands of computers across the University), thus increasing the need and cost of cooling.
  • Most computers continue to draw some electricity when powered down but plugged in. Use power strips to turn off several pieces of equipment simultaneously and cut all energy consumption.
  • Sleep vs. Hibernate: computers in 'sleep' or 'stand-by' mode continue to draw power from your battery or AC outlet, albeit at a much reduced rate. Use the 'hibernate' mode if your computer offers it, as it saves your computer's working state, but powers down completely. Remember to also unplug the computer as you would if you simply turned off the machine.
  • Schedule virus scans and software updates during the workday to allow machines to be shut down overnight.
  • Clean the inside of your computer periodically with a can of compressed air (do not shake the can) to reduce heat build-up caused by dust and to increase the lifespan of your machine.
  • Use (and RE-use) rewritable CD-RW, DVD-RW, and BD-RE discs instead of single-use CD-R, DVD-R, and BD-R when possible.
  • Don't turn on your computer equipment until you need it.
  • Don't use overhead room lighting if task-lighting or natural lighting is sufficient. Use energy efficient fluorescent light bulbs instead of incandescent bulbs. Do not use halogen lamps, which are wasteful and dangerous.
  • Disable screen savers on LCD monitors. Screen savers are not necessary on modern LCD monitors, and can dramatically increase power consumption of a computer. Use the power management features on your monitor or operating system instead, or simply power down the monitor when not in use.
  • Dim your monitor/laptop screen brightness to extend screen and battery life and reduce power consumption.
Handheld Devices
  • Unplug devices after they finish charging.
  • Purchase rechargeable batteries for your battery-powered devices like cameras, mp3 players, and remote controls.
  • Dim the screen to reduce power consumption and extend battery life.
Printing Practices
  • Print as little as possible. Edit documents on screen rather than printing them out.
  • Distribute documents electronically (as webpages, wikis, blogs, email, or PDFs) rather than making paper copies. Free utilities like CutePDF are available to those who don't want to spend money on Adobe's Acrobat Professional software.
  • Reduce font size and margin size to reduce paper usage.
  • Print on both sides of page whenever possible and appropriate.
  • Print on the back side of scrap paper when possible.
  • Print in black-and-white when color is not required.
  • Don't turn on your printer until you need to print. Although it may take a couple minutes to warm up, this is more than offset by the savings in cost and energy consumption.
  • Set your printer to draft/ink-saving mode when you don't require high-quality printing.
  • Due to health concerns, Place laser printers in well ventilated areas, and as far from humans as is reasonably possible.

Recycling and Disposal

  • Rich Beynon
  • Richard Conti
  • Valare Gant
  • Mike Lazenka
  • David Toccafondi
  • Rod Beaton

Preliminary Information

Rod has pulled together some preliminary information on recycling options electronics at Penn: 2008_Strategies_for_Green_IT_at_Penn:Desktops_and_endusers:Desktops_Recycling

Ebay started the The Rethink Initiative as a way to raise visibility of various electronics recycling efforts by manufacturers, governmental agencies, and other participants. There is a comprehensive list on the site of existing efforts and options within local communities for recycling electronics.

Recommendations

  • Attempt to find another use for your equipment before discarding it: Can a workstation for a full-time staff person be repurposed as a machine for a student worker? Can it be sold or donated to another university department, to a local school, church, or non-profit organization? Can it be sold or donated via Craigslist or a similar site? Can some of the parts (RAM or hard drive, for example) be used to upgrade other equipment?
  • Currently there are no central locations on campus where used electronics may be dropped off for recycling or donation. The University should provide conveniently located dropboxes for items such as batteries, cellphones, ipods, and other handheld devices that pose an environmental risk if disposed of improperly. Suggested locations include Van Pelt Library and the Computer Connection.
  • The University should sponsor well-advertised recycling days where collection and removal of old hardware is managed centrally, similar to the paper-shredding truck that appears periodically on campus. These days should be schedule to coincide with times hardware is generally disposed of by departments and students (end of semester, for example)
  • Penn equipment donated or sold to other groups/institutions/employees should include information (preferably in the form of a sticker attached directly to the equipment itself) detailing how to responsibly dispose of the equipment locally. The University should also implement a takeback policy where possible to ensure proper disposal of equipment.
  • Departments should recycle used printer ink/toner cartridges (these can often be returned to the manufacturer or to a third-party vendor), and purchase refurbished cartridges whenever possible. There is generally a financial incentive to do both.

--Mcaleese 14:07, 3 June 2008 (EDT)

  • Consider implementing the Green School Project (GSP), a successful recycling program currently in place at Wistar Institute.

GSP Details: GSP donates your funds received from recycled items to an environmental group of your choosing. Wistar donates to the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum. When folks know who / what benefits from recycling, they tend to have more incentive to follow the plan.

GSP accepts: laser/inkjet cartridges, cell phones and PDAs. Link: http://www.greenschoolproject.com/ Phone: 1-877-882-5032

It's really easy to get started: 1) Join the Green School Project online 2) Select an environmental group to whom you'll donate funds from your recycled items 3) Set up collection boxes in high-traffic areas 4) Mail collected items to GSP - - using their free mailing labels 5) Monitor your status via GSP's monthly email reports

Note: Wistar's Environmental Health and Safety Manager Bob Rovinsky will act as an information liaison for the program. Email: rrovinsky@wistar.org


Paper
  • Well-marked paper recycling bins should be placed near printers, copiers, and doors to raise awareness of recycling and to make it as easy as possible for all involved.
  • Departments should switch to office paper with a minimum of 35% post-consumer content. Paper with higher post-consumer content (available up to 100%) is preferable. Information on purchasing this and other green products is available from Penn Purchasing at http://www.purchasing.upenn.edu/buyinfo/how-to-buy-recycled.php
  • When possible, save discarded paper to be used as scrap paper. Cut into smaller pieces for convenience and maximum efficiency.

Power Metering

  • Bill Smith (coordinator)
  • John Merz
  • Marco Onorato

Recommendations

  • Be aware of how much electricty your computer and other equipment are using. Use a device such as a Kill-a-watt (these electricity meters can be purchased for a very small amount, and they are soon to be available to borrow at the Vitale Digital Media Lab in Van Pelt Library) to measure energy consumption.
  • For rechargable items, while the power draw does decrease over time as devices are fully charged, there is still a "vampire" power draw all of the time. We recommend plugging all of these types of devices into a power strip, and switching it off at the end of the day.

Metering Results

Things to Test

Questions from Arizona State University

Products/Scenarios to Test and Results

From John Mulhern: a few recent updates to the University's Approximate Desktop & Notebook Power Usage page, with more coming.

Dell Energy Smart Desktop Offerings:

  • Energy Star Dell products:
ManufacturerLineModelForm FactorProcessorSpeedRAM
Dell Precision 390 Intel Core2 Duo 2 GHz 4 GB 2
Dell Inspiron 531 AMD Athlon 64 Dual-Core 2.6 MHz 2.0 GB 1
Dell Optiplex 330 desktop Intel Core2 Duo 2.4 GHz 1 GB 1
Dell Optiplex 330 Mini tower Intel Other (enter below) 1.8 GHz 1 GB 1
Dell OptiPlex 745 Mini-Tower Intel Core2 Duo 2.13 GHz 512 MB 1
Dell OptiPlex 745 Small Form Factor Intel Core2 Duo 2.13 GHz 512 MB 1
Dell OptiPlex 755 Desktop Intel Core2 Duo 2.2 GHz 1 GB 1
Dell OptiPlex 755 Mini-Tower Intel Core2 Duo 2.2 GHz 1 GB 1
Dell OptiPlex 755 Small Form Factor Intel Core2 Duo 2.2 GHz 2 GB 1
Dell OptiPlex 755 Ultra Small Form Factor Intel Core2 Duo 1.8 GHz 1 GB 1
Dell OptiPlex 745 Desktop Intel Core2 Duo 2.13 GHz 1 GB 1
Dell OptiPlex 740 Desktop Chassis AMD Athlon 64 Dual-Core 2.2 GHz 1 GB 1
Dell OptiPlex 740 Mini-Tower AMD Athlon 64 Dual-Core 2.4 GHz 1 GB 1
Dell OptiPlex 740 Small Form Factor AMD Athlon 64 Dual-Core 2.2 GHz 1 GB 1
Dell OptiPlex 745 Ultra Small Form Factor Intel Core2 Duo 2.13 GHz 512 MB 1

Recommendations

Final Recommendations

What is Green IT?

We define Green IT as the use and management of computing technology (and related equipment and processes) in such a way as to reduce carbon footprint, increase sustainability and energy efficiency, promote recycling and reuse, and minimize damage to the environment. Green IT is important not only for IT professionals, but for all users of technology and its by-products.


  • Make sustainability a value/goal at the highest level possible in your school/center/department. These efforts are most effective when mandated from the top down.
  • Business administrators and other staff who make purchasing decisions should be included in sustainability efforts whenever possible.
  • We recognize that these recommendations may not be suitable in all circumstances, for example issues of confidentiality, certain University policies, or budget restrictions may conflict at times with sustainability goals.
  • Electricty should be metered at the building level, and preferably even at a finer level. We believe that any up-front cost incurred in installing such meters will be more than offset by energy savings once departments and buildings have a financial incentive to conserve energy. This will become increasingly important when electrical rate caps are removed in 2010.
  • Encourage telecommuting and teleconferencing when permissible to reduce emissions generated by vehicular travel. Low or no-cost technologies such as Skype or Apple's iChat make long-distance meetings possible in environments where they would once have been prohibitively expensive.
  • The ComputerConnection should provide standardized energy consumption information about hardware packages in order to raise awareness and to give consumers the ability to factor sustainability into their purchasing decisions.
  • State green policies and practices in departmental documents such as handbooks, and include them in employee orientation and training sessions.
  • The University should work with vendors to minimize the amount and improve the biodegradability of packing materials (such as woodfibers and pelaspan?) used to ship hardware.
  • Set up a centralized program and location for recycling/reuse of packaging materials. These could be sold cheaply, reused by schools and centers on campus, or donated to individuals and organizations who use these materials.

Documentation

Retrieved from "http://prowiki.isc.upenn.edu/wiki/2008_Strategies_for_Green_IT_at_Penn:Desktops_and_endusers"
Personal tools