2008 Strategies for Green IT at Penn:Desktops and endusers:Brainstorming

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Important note: this page was part of a past product evaluation team which last convened more than 18 months ago. The information included may be outdated or obsolete.

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This is a subpage of the 2008_Strategies_for_Green_IT_at_Penn:Desktops_and_endusers subcommittee.

Brainstorming

Ideas about team direction should go here. Below are some examples to begin discussion:

• Power settings
  • How should a typical desktop be configured for power savings?
    • general rules of thumb vs. specific settings
  • What OS has better power management? MacOS, XP/Vista, Linux
    • strengths/weaknesses of each
    • PowerTOP application for Linux

• Printers
  • What settings should be set on printers by default to save resources?
  • At what age should printers be retired in preference for newer, less resource intensive models?
    • Why? Based on what criteria? Power consumption? Ink/Toner usage? Emissions/etc.?
      • Original article in the Sydney Morning herald here
      • Original study is available here
  • Inkjet printers
    • differing about of ink usage across different models
    • amount of packaging for cartridges
    • some printers won't print from a multi-color cartridge even if only one of the colors is low/empty (separate cartridge for each color preferable?)
    • amount of ink used during built-in print-head cleaning function?
  • Return empty ink/toner cartridges to the manufacturer for re-use/recycling (HP provides return shipping labels with new cartridges)
  • Buy high capacity cartridges. One high capacity cartridge (Q5949x) has more than double the printing capacity and costs less than two standard cartridges (Q5949a). Plus less plastic used, less energy and packing materials to ship.

• Desktop habits
  • Consolidate devices with similar power requirements (cell phone chargers, handheld devices, lamps, etc) onto their own power strips
  • Advocate switching off power strips at the end of the work day.
  • Power consumption of wireless/bluetooth peripherals vs. wired equivalents (additional power for wireless plus necessity of battery)

• Lab setup
  • Monitor lab use and determine what peak activity/use is. Deploy KVM switches to allow for use of all systems in the lab while cutting the amount of LCDs and CRTs by up to 50%
  • Thin Clients? Any advantage to this model in the Penn environment? (Labs, business office, library, classroom)?
  • Use laptops instead of desktop machines when requirements permit? (See Weigle Information Commons in Van Pelt as an example)

• Extending Hardware Life Cycles
  • A Dell PC 4 Year Basic Limited Warranty and 4 Year NBD Onsite Service [add $7.49] compared to a 3 year Gold warranty. If you have LSP support is there any value in the GoldSupport (now called ProSupport) option? From John Mulhern: ISC doesn't suggest Gold support for desktops in the first place, so this funds redistribution may not be available. The call to go to a four year warranty is under review for the FY2009 desktop recommendations but is heavily informed by reliability in the fourth year - it's no good telling clients they should get that extra year if the reality is that the desktops fail (for example - just a guess) three times as much (because all a warranty does is make you whole on the hardware side - it doesn't make up for significant lost time, etc.). We recently received some relevant data in this area and are reviewing it.
  • Many end users receive little or no lifecycle maintenance (diskclean, registry clean, defrag). After 3 years systems run slow and users want replacements. Maintenance or re-imaging can improve performance and extend the product lifecycle.
  • Linux - make old hardware run like new, but can it be used productively by the end user?

• Recycling
  • Is there an opportunity to increase recycling of older less efficient hardware from across campus(esp CRTs)?
  • Should we create quarterly recycling days where collection and removal of old hardware is managed centrally?
  • How can we encourage LSPs who deploy new hardware to recycle packing materials when appropriate?
  • Coordinate with Facilities so that hardware may not be disposed with regular waste/trash. In some buildings facilities requires an account number to remove hardware. Where does it go?
  • Provide information about recycling/disposal or implement Take-Back policy for Penn computers that are sold/given to employees.

• Reducing Paper Usage/Waste
  • Use recycled paper
  • Print/copy double-sided when possible
  • Recycle paper
  • Use email/IM/electronic notifications instead of paper
  • More support for PennERA and other applications that move paper processes online (Grant and Contract proposal development and submissions. Regulatory Affairs submission (may already be electronic).
  • Get PennERA prepped to use Adobe Forms and test streamlined submission processes. Grants.gov is moving to Adobe Forms as of July 2008. PennERA is currently still using PureEdge, the old Grants.gov system. Make sure end-users know what is required of them to use Adobe Forms prior to the July implementation.
    • Both PureEdge and AdobeForms are electronic submission and do not use paper. Proposal Development, PD, is the online grant submission module within PennERA. It is a substitute for both PureEdge and Adobe Forms. PD can only be used for specific grant mechanisms but will increase over time. Some NIH grants still require paper submission. Further development and use of the PD system has great potential for reducing paper use.
    • NIH Electronic Submissions, Adobe Forms News Release – Dec. 2007 (http://era.nih.gov/ElectronicReceipt/news_pi_12-18-07.htm)
  • Reinvent/Revive GRAM (Grant Reporting and Management System - existing online web application). Every month paper reports are printed for every active BEN fund number. Costs: paper, ink, electricity, hardware useage (printer,server,desktops).
  • Use waste-reducing Print Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), or Print CSS. Print CSS removes images, sets a standard font size (usually about 12pts.), printed page size, etc.
  • CutePDF free pdf generator for PC's

• Phones/Handhelds/Mp3 Players
  • extending battery life
  • disposal issues
  • user-replaceable batteries?
  • screen brightness
  • Use Kill-o-Watt to determine how much energy is used from AC chargers when plugged into outlet, but not charging units
    • Place all such devices on a single power strip that can be switched off (if that saves energy)
    • If not, launch information campaign to encourage owners of devices to unplug chargers when not in use.
  • do solar rechargers work?

• Ancillary
  • Would bundling shipments of hardware, software, and media orders reduce carbon emissions by reducing the number of vehicles required to deliver materials to campus?
    • If yes, how can Penn effectively bundle orders from disparate organizations and accurately distribute them upon arrival on campus?
  • How much influence do we have over vendors to reduce packing materials or to begin using fully biodegradable materials such as woodfibers and pelaspan?
  • Ask Campus Computer Connection to set up Recycling Center for product packaging.
  • Ask Campus Computer Connection to establish liaison with Bridging the Digital Divide to recycle hardware in the form of donations to local non-profits.

• Misc (sorry, these are mostly stream of consciousness, but I wanted to get them down somewhere. feel free to Organize or add your own miscellany)
  • disable Wake on Lan/Modem (i'm assuming this will lessen power usage)
  • sleep vs. hibernate vs. turn off vs. turnoff & unplug (i don't think Mac "hibernates")
  • Battery maintenance - don't recharge to 100% if you usually plug into the wall while working. (I know at least ThinkPads have these settings.)
  • dim your screen, especially in darker spaces
  • spin down hard drives after x minutes of inactivity
  • put printers in sleep mode
  • schedule software updates/virus scans for workday to allow powering down overnite.
  • disable screensavers, put monitor to sleep instead. (are screensavers even necessary anymore?)
  • use LCD instead of CRT monitors (probably mostly implemented already, but can't hurt to mention it)
  • unplug peripherals not frequently used (scanners, printers, card readers, barcode scanners)
  • Consider recycleability/reusability of shipping boxes, padding, styrofoam peanuts (or corn-based peanuts if possible)
  • Does color of desktop (white vs. black) affect energy usage? (or is this just too picky?)
  • Are people on campus building their own desktops? Do we need to worry about recommending more efficient power supplies, video cards, fans, cases and heat sinks that are more efficient, etc.?
  • How does energy savings translate into cost savings? (see example on discussion page )