I attended recently a conference of the Environmental Association of Universities and Colleges (EAUC), it was very interesting and eye-opening experience. Interesting because I could see how sustainability is being practised in campuses, and how also systems thinking is making a contribution in education and in the design of sustainability assessment tools. An example is the project on sustainable IT in tertiary education (http://www.susteit.org.uk/). Its outputs suggest that sustainable forms of IT (thin clients, virtualisation of data, adequate and consciencious storage and energy management) could help in reducing the carbon footprint of institutions.
The experience was also eye-opening for me as an academic, because although action is being taken and action is suggested in the management of universities and colleges as institutions, there are two missing elements that could also contribute. I am referring to students and academics, and our behaviour towards sustainability.
Students are for the most part the inhabitants of campuses. We (I am also a student of French courses) come and go, we live in campus, we prepare consume campus products (not only lectures, parties, or meetings). We think our life in campus is temporary but we spend on average a good number of hours. We should do something about sustainability. Unfortunately this issue seems to be out of our life in campus. There are very interesting projects and ideas already happening in relation to recycling and cycling. Still there is a long way to go if we talk about shaping our behaviour in daily life. And there is a longer way if we talk about IT. So far campuses aim to provide many facilities and action is focused on energy. Behaviour is, as Andy Hix (our sustainability officer) and other colleague point out, the difficult bit to change.
A similar concern with sustainability surrounds academics. Some of us research in sustainability, but it can also be directed to what happens in campus. There is a growing area in relation to students behavior to sustainability. If we can link this up with how students use IT in relation to sustainability, I would have made my wish possible: To do research on IT and sustainability in an area which I have close to my interests. How about 'green' behaviour being shaped by IT and also in relation to IT?
Green behaviour is an area that we can research to see if those goals of sustainability can be better met. IT is now on the way, not only because IT consumes energy (and therefore becomes an area in which our carbon footprint needs to be managed), but also because it is something we all use in university campuses. Greener interfaces (friendlier, holistic, simpler), with greener hardware, and with tools that allow us to reflect on our greener behavior in a greener way...my God I need another coffee to keep dreaming.
Hopefully a good project will come out of this.
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