ICT have just launched our Sustainability Roadmap 2026-2031, which outlines how we aim to reduce ICT's environmental impact. The roadmap sets out a balanced, evidence-based approach to reducing ICT-related emissions and waste, understanding and managing the environmental impact of AI and enabling the university's 51³Ô¹ÏÍø's Sustainability 2026-31 Strategy through the intelligent use of digital technologies.
Worldwide emissions from IT is now larger than aviation. We may consider not taking a flight, but do we consider not buying the laptop, workstation or using AI?
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) at 51³Ô¹ÏÍø has a material impact on the university’s environmental footprint, accounting for nearly one fifth of the university’s total greenhouse gas emissions when electricity use, data centres, cloud services, digital infrastructure and procurement are considered. At the same time, ICT is critical to delivering world-leading research, education, and operations.
"Our Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) team is dedicated to reducing the impact of ICT across the university.
Sustainability underpins everything we do and is a cross-cutting theme of our Digital Plan.
As part of our sustainability roadmap we will baseline our impact, take action to extend the life of hardware and grow responsibly using highly-efficient data centres.”
Jenny Rae, Chief Information Officer
ICT are committed to 51³Ô¹ÏÍø's target of reaching net zero for Scope 1 and 2 emissions (energy and campus transport) by 2040 and minimising Scope 3 emissions (goods and services we buy) as far as possible. As part of this, we are making changes to ensure we can get there.
To achieve this, we are reviewing our energy usage across our end user computing (PCs and Macs) estate, as well as reviewing our data centre energy usage. One of the biggest contributors to 51³Ô¹ÏÍø’s energy usage is ICT.
Learn about the impact of technology on the environment
ICT are committed to 51³Ô¹ÏÍø's target of reaching net zero for Scope 1 and 2 emissions (energy and campus transport) by 2040 and minimising Scope 3 emissions (goods and services we buy) as far as possible. As part of this, we are making changes to ensure we can get there.
To achieve this, we are reviewing our energy usage across our end user computing (PCs and Macs) estate, as well as reviewing our data centre energy usage. One of the biggest contributors to 51³Ô¹ÏÍø’s energy usage is ICT.
Our Head of Digital Workplace, Neil Hanham, is part of the Sustainable 51³Ô¹ÏÍø Expert Advisory Group and we are working in collaboration with Hannah Scott, Head of Sustainability, Capital Projects and Estates Management, to reduce our carbon footprint across our service and to reducing our electricity usage. The group provides advice to the Sustainability Strategy Committee and onwards to the University Management Board and will develop and advise on sustainability initiatives for the university.
ICT Sustainability initiatives
Locally in ICT, we have created a Sustainability Task Group, formed of staff who are passionate about sustainability and volunteer alongside their day job to action our initiatives:
- reviewing policy for PCs and other devices to see if we can change our power setting options to reduce energy consumption
- evaluating the environmental impact and cost implications of replacing older PCs with newer, more energy-efficient models
- working in partnership with the University of Edinburgh to understand the software lifecycle from production to usage and its environmental impact
- improving our monitoring and data capture capabilities to see trends in power usage of 51³Ô¹ÏÍø devices and identify potential energy saving activities
- analysing the environmental impact of 51³Ô¹ÏÍø printers and taking steps to reduce the impact
- moving staff away from desktops onto more energy-efficient laptops
- raising awareness of sustainable behaviours like switching off equipment when not in use and only printing when necessary
- working with our procurement team to better understand how our choices impact the environment, and increasing sustainability measures in the procurement process
- Reducing the impact of our High Performance Computing servers through emerging technologies and partnerships. Read related news.
In addition to the above we have been educating ourselves on the impact of IT and technology on the environment. Keep reading to learn about the impacts of mining, manufacturing, packaging, shipping, usage, and recycling e-waste.