Green Campus Computing

What is Green campus computing? In my own understanding, it is a widely promoted campaign on saving the environment from technology’s fast evolution and reducing the power consumption of computers. There are articles over the Internet that discuss about green campus computing and some of the best solutions to apply this said campaign. Currently, several Universities and Colleges are putting into practice these possible ways. Does University of Southeastern Philippines can also achieve green campus computing?

http://chronicle.com/free/2009/01/10296n.htm

This article talks about the conference held by University of California at San Diego. “Greening the Internet Economy” is the aim of the conference. The event, offered a sampling of a new generation of technologies that promise to help colleges make their IT departments more competent. Relocate a college's server computers next to a solar-power generator. Replace AC power with DC power. Cool the servers only where they get the hottest. Put the servers in the ocean and power them with waves were some of the ideas discussed in the conference. They introduced a device called the Green Light Instrument. This device will deploy sensors and software to measure the energy use, humidity, and other variables in various parts of a Sun Modular Data Center, a popular, self-contained complex of servers. Its goal is to encourage engineers to try different computing strategies to reduce electricity consumption.

If our school will adopt these things, it will be a great help to the environment. But I don’t think if our school can afford this kind of technology. One best alternative for this is to supply energy from solar cells or other sources of DC power. In this way, the school can save on electricity bills.

http://www.theorion.com/2.691/green-campus-pushes-energy-saving-program-1.3253

It talks about a computer program that would save energy and reduce greenhouse emmissions. Power Save is the computer program created by the software company Faronics. It put computers into a low energy consuming stand-by mode and it measures how much energy is being used and saved. The said program will be installed on each computer and it reports back to a central-control server that synchronizes the whole Power Save setting process and makes it a lot easier than setting one computer at a time.

If Power Save will be implemented in USEP, the school’s emission will be reduced and of course it can save its budget on energy. But before implementing this kind of program, the teachers, staff and also the students should be oriented about it. The university can benefit from this program as well as the environment.

http://greencampus.winserve.org/greencampus/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23&Itemid=40

This article is about putting your computer to sleep and how it can save energy and help the environment. When your computer is in sleep, it is on low power mode and it will be easy to wake up whenever you want to use your computer again. To make sure that you consume less energy, you can set your computer to automatically sleep when not in use in a specified amount of time.

If the university will apply this strategy, energy consumption will be reduced and it can lessen environmental concerns. The computers, especially on laboratories and in the library should be maintained and set a specific time to sleep when not in use. It is also better to use CRT monitors and CPUs, for it consume less energy. The management may also consider thin client computing or using more environmentally friendly consumer packaging models. These strategies will not only save the school from power consumption, but it will also provide great experience for students and staff.

The dramatic increase in energy consumption and costs has caused a renewed interest in the effective management and use of computing throughout the campus. Every time we leave computers on without regard for energy conservation and planned use, we potentially waste electricity, which means wasting money and polluting the environment. But there several ways on preventing this, lets all support green campus computing.