The Green Initiative @ ITS

The response from within ITS to Rich’s “Green Initiative” announcement yesterday has been overwhelming! Everyone is very excited and full of ideas about how we can green ITS!

Many have forwarded news articles. Here’s an interesting one that asserts IT produces as much CO2 as commercial aircraft

(http://news.com.com/Computers+as+environment-unfriendly+as+planes/2100-11392_3-6180528.html?tag=sas.email). Others have forwarded reports, website links, and ideas for new policies. Please feel free to post your suggestions to this blog or send them to me.

I’m also very excited to report we will be working with the community to learn how ITS can contribute to the new SustainVU effort (http://www.vanderbilt.edu/sustainvu/ ). There is definitely momentum building among faculty, staff, students, departments and schools to find ways to continue fulfilling Vanderbilt’s mission while protecting the environment and its resources.

Keep the ideas coming!

This announcement can also be found at

http://blogs.vanderbilt.edu/itsadmin

I would like to announce the start of an ITS program to reduce consumption of limited resources called “The Green Initiative” for our organization. Karen Montefiori will be leading this program for our organization and Bari Brooks will be providing oversight. This “Green Initiative” is internally focused and will develop new ways for ITS to conserve the limited resources provided to us to run our operation. The focus will not just be on the traditional recycling programs seen in most organizations, but focus in on the use of Green Technology that enables the delivery of our services. This campaign will look to lessen the impact of our consumption of the resources, while still maintaining a high level of operational service to the Vanderbilt Community. Some areas Karen will be looking into include:

• Investigate the use of Green Technology that is currently present in ITS, as well as new technology

  

• Power consumption of our electronic devices we have on our desks (phone, monitor, PC, etc)

  

• Disposal and recycling of electronic equipment

  

• Consumption and environmental impact of our vehicle fleet

  

• Purchasing patterns and disposal as it related to office supplies and other disposable items

  

• ITS paper based internal processes that can be moved into an electronic format

  

And Much More….

My hope for this program is that a set of standards can be developed for ITS as it relates to our daily operation that will lessen the impact we have on the environment and the consumption of limited resources. In support of this initiative, Karen has created a new blog called http://blogs.vanderbilt.edu/itsgreen and will keep a running log of her efforts around this initiative. Our hope is that this blog become the central source of information for ITS on how each of us can reduce consumption.

Rich Germano

Senior Director and Chief Operating Officer

Information Technology Services

Vanderbilt University