By Linda Headford, IT support

In IS&T we think about the carbon footprint of the University when we’re considering what type of IT to invest in and how we use equipment and facilities. We’ve made some comparisons of the energy consumption of different machines and looked at how we can work more economically and sustainably.

Some machines are more power hungry than others

A couple of years ago, for instance, we tested the energy consumption of our IT stock.  We discovered that the new breed of larger monitors used less power than our existing smaller ones so now, as we replace PCs, we install 22″ screens as standard.

The main printer/scanner/photocopier machines (known as multi-function devices or MFDs) are cheaper to run and more environmentally-friendly than smaller desktop printers as well as offering more printing options so we are phasing out the desktop ones.

Did you know that leaving your monitor on overnight uses enough energy to microwave 6 dinners? Or that it is actually more cost effective (in both financial and carbon footprint terms) to leave on the large main printers (known as multi-function devices or MFDs) rather than rebooting them the next morning owing to their sophisticated automated sleep mode?

Every little helps

As individuals too, changing our behaviour just a little bit – making sure we switch off our computers before we go home, or stopping to think about whether we really need to print a document can make a big difference. Please try and keep that in mind during your working day.