Background on Sustainability and Green IT in Higher Education

Monroe Community College (MCC) is participating in the AASHE (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education) survey. The purpose of this process is to assess sustainability planning and related institutional issues and to identify any other areas of the College that should become a part of MCC’s campus sustainability initiative and possible future AASHE surveys. 

Research into educational technology and campus sustainability programs was conducted and over twenty sources were reviewed. (See Selected Resources on Sustainability in Higher Education and Green IT.)  These resources included:  AASHE, the Association of University Leaders for a Sustainable Future, Higher Education Sustainability Consortium, North American Alliance for Green Education, Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) Sustainability in Higher Education, US Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development, College Sustainability Report Card 2008 and Gartner’s Top Ten Strategic Technologies for 2008.

Findings suggest that most existing higher education campus sustainability initiatives and related survey assessments only minimally address areas in which educational technology can play a role in these efforts. For those that do consider IT’s role in sustainability, the topic often is related to energy consumption and sometimes is referred to as “Green IT.” Of the Green IT issues addressed, the majority are related to energy conservation for large data centers—server virtualization—to the replacement of existing equipment with more energy-saving replacements and to other automated power saving issues for equipment usage. 

As a follow-up to these research findings, a more comprehensive listing of sustainability and technology (Green IT) issues and ideas was developed and categorized. This Green IT Campus model includes input from the MCC Educational Technology Services (ETS) Executive and Management Teams and significantly broadens the view of existing sustainability survey topics and Green IT ideas. The proposed model includes contributions to be achieved through robust network connectivity, software applications, online services and a variety of technology processes and protocols. 

Monroe Community College’s Proposed MCCs Green IT Campus Model is presented in four categories: Power Consumption, Recycling, Transportation and Fuel Conservation and Other Campus IT Sustainability Items. These categories were selected based upon those used in other institution’s campus sustainability initiatives and they have been adapted for use with campus IT efforts.

It is suggested that next steps for MCC include the formation of specific Green IT Campus sustainability survey question recommendations to be presented to AASHE and to other related consortia so that IT’s role in campus sustainability can be maximized and appropriately measured.