Â鶹´«Ã½

44%
Sussex target to reduce carbon emissions
2005 - 2020

To meet the targets in the Climate Change Act, the UK government has to halve carbon emissions over the next forty years. As a result, new requirements are being set for industry and Sussex has adopted a target to reduce carbon emissions by 2020.

Travelling without moving

200,000
miles

60
days' travel

Estimated annual savings based on our surveys of staff using the videoconferencing facilities at Sussex.

Power hunger

We are now automatically detecting student computers which have been waiting at the login screen for ten minutes and putting them to sleep.

Our power management software monitors computer usage and identifies when a computer has been idle with no user logged in. It then puts the device to sleep so that computers are not needlessly using energy when not in use.

We also use automated routines to turn off audiovisual equipment in lecture theatres and seminar rooms. This has reduced power consumption but is also extending the life of expensive equipment with fewer hardware faults since the measures were introduced.

More about power-saving on Sussex PCs

Cool data

The Shawcross data centre is now well established. It was designed to meet the current and future technology requirements of the Â鶹´«Ã½ in an energy-efficient way.

Computers need energy to run, but they also generate heat that can damage their components if it's not dissipated. So computers require a double-dose of energy, firstly to power their own activities but also to keep them cool.

The cooling systems used traditionally in data centres, such as air conditioning, are inefficient because they lower the temperature of the entire room rather than just the computing equipment. Best practice in modern facilities is to place the cooling mechanism directly alongside servers and use systems which can respond to changes in the amount of heat being generated.

The Shawcross facility uses water-cooling units built into the server racks. If less energy has to be put into the cooling mechanisms, the operation is more efficient and the Shawcross data centre has been designed to a world-class standard.

Recycle and reuse

A modern higher education environment demands up-to-date and increasingly powerful computing resources.

This means that computers are replaced regularly, generally on a four year cycle. But equipment could be used for longer by other types of organisation, so IT Services has encouraged the re-use of equipment by donating resources to charitable projects such as Computers for Charities.

This can considerably extend the use of equipment and lead to a long working life for computers leaving the campus.

Print less - and if you have to, use the double-sided printing options where possible to save on paper and reduce your printing costs.

Let your computer sleep - newer computers are designed to sleep and wake quickly and Windows 7 uses substantially less power than previous versions when snoozing. If you're a laptop user, letting your computer sleep will make the battery last longer too.

Green IT

In IT Services, we're working hard to make Sussex greener:

• energy-efficient data storage - the new Shawcross Data Centre has been designed to meet the Â鶹´«Ã½'s data storage requirements with world-class energy efficiency
• smarter use of resources - we provide alternatives to paper resources, including Study Direct, Sussex Direct and email. We have also introduced initiatives such as double-sided printing to help reduce the volume of printed pages on the campus and provide videoconferencing services as alternatives to travel
• responsible management of equipment - we dispose of equipment by environmentally responsible methods, seeking ways in which devices can be reused wherever possible