Green I.T. at West Chester University
Wednesday, April 27th 2011
Goals of Becoming Green
1. Reducing wasted printing resources
2. Utilizing energy efficient desktop and server computer
equipment
3. Building more energy efficient Data Centers
4. Building more energy efficient campus networks
Reducing the Need to Print
• Expansion of University Web Pages
▫ WCU Website is a vital source of information for current and
prospective students, parents, alumni, faculty, staff and campus
community – electronic content decreases need for printed
distribution
▫ Campus events and announcements advertised and promoted on
WCU Homepage
▫ Budget Updates posted on-line
▫ Undergraduate/Graduate course catalogs available on-line
▫ Over 50 web forms with electronic delivery available on-line
▫ 200+ clients have ability to maintain their departmental websites,
ensuring availability of the most accurate and up-to-date information
Reducing the Need to Print
• Student Learning Management System (LMS) provides for storage
of class materials online and promotes electronic distribution to
students
• Digital Signage promotes electronic notification of news and
campus event
▫ 18 displays currently deployed in 12 campus buildings
▫ Upcoming deployment of 5 displays in 1 current and 3 additional
campus buildings
• Microsoft Exchange 2010 – Increased Storage Capacity
▫ Faculty / Staff have 6x more e-mail storage capacity: 300MB →
2GB (2048MB)
▫ Students have 19x more e-mail storage capacity: 100MB → 2GB
Reducing the Amount We Print
• Academic Computing Center (ACC) one of the first locations on
campus to implement paper recycling
• Combined effort by ACC, SGA and Library to make students more
conscientious of printing what they actually need
Reducing the Amount We Print
• 10 year “Paper Cut Initiative” to eliminate the tremendous
amount of wasted resources
▫ 2002 student printing limited to 75 pages per day
▫ Fall 2009 student printing changed to 300 pages per week
▫ Spring 2010 Duplex Option for 2-sided printing added in Anderson
Hall computer labs
▫ Fall 2010 student printing changed to 125 sheets per week; Duplex
Option doubles effective limit to 250 pages
Energy Efficient Equipment
• All campus desktops, notebooks and monitors meet EPEAT
standards
• Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT)
• WCU/PASSHE has standardized on Lenovo desktop and notebook
computers
• Colleges and universities spend close to $2 billion each year on
energy. Adopting a strategic approach to energy management can
lower energy bills by 30% *1
*1
Information from Lenovo website: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/epeat-forhigher-education.shtml
Energy Efficient Equipment
• Compared to conventional products, purchasing EPEAT products: *1
▫ Saves 13.7 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, enough to power 1.2
million U.S. homes for a year.
▫ Saves 24.4 million metric tons of materials, equivalent to the weight of
189 million refrigerators.
▫ Prevents release of 56.5 million metric tons of air pollution, including
1.07 million metric tons of global warming gases—the equivalent of
removing 852,000 cars from the road for a year.
▫ Prevents release of 118,000 metric tons of water pollution.
▫ Reduces toxic material use by 1,070 metric tons, including enough
mercury to fill 157,000 household fever thermometers.
▫ Avoids the disposal of 41,100 metric tons of hazardous waste
*1
Information from Lenovo website: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/epeat-for-highereducation.shtml
Energy Efficient Equipment
• Lenovo Product Registrations with EPEAT *2
*2
Information from EPEAT website:
http://www.epeat.net/CompanyDetail.aspx?CompanyID=37
Energy Efficient Equipment
• HP Sever Computers used at WCU meet EPA ENERGY STAR
ratings *
▫ ENERGY STAR is a voluntary energy efficiency program sponsored
by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
▫ ENERTY STAR qualified products use less energy and reduce
greenhouse gas emissions by meeting strict energy efficiency
guidelines set by the U.S. EPA and DOE
▫ Computer servers that earn the ENERGY STAR rating are 30 percent
more energy efficient than standard servers
*According to HP documentation
Energy Efficient Equipment
• HP Sever Computers used at WCU meet EPA ENERGY STAR
ratings *
▫ WCU’s HP servers come embedded with energy efficient features
based on HP Thermal Logic technology which earn the ENERGY
STAR rating
▫ ENERGY STAR computer servers include efficient power supplies
that have smaller conversion losses and generate less waste heat,
reducing the need for excess air conditioning in the Data Center
which reduces our carbon footprint
*According to HP documentation
Energy Efficient Equipment
• New Allegheny Hall Data Center, opened in 2009, was designed for
energy efficiency, using cold-aisle cooling, blade server and server
virtualization technologies that reduced energy consumption by
50% compared to the old E.O. Bull Data Center
• E.O. Bull Data Center is currently being renovated and redesigned
for energy efficiency utilizing the same technology deployed in the
Allegheny Hall Data Center
• Two newest residence halls, Allegheny and Brandywine, are
completely wireless to reduce energy consumption in the data
network closets
• All future HRI residence halls will be wireless *3
*3
See WCU website News and Events:
http://www.wcupa.edu/pr/2010_2.3Arubawireless.asp
Energy Efficient Data Centers
• Building
▫ New Alg Data Center 40% reduction in data center floor space
• UPS Power Draw
▫ Bull Data Center: 40 kVA
▫ Alg Data Center: 20 kVA
• 50% energy reduction; same capacity in half the space
Energy Efficient Data Centers
• Cooling
▫ Bull Data Center: Perimeter Cooling
▫ Alg Data Center: Hot Aisle / Cold Aisle Cooling
• Blade Servers
▫ Blade Server Enclosures provide power, cooling and network
infrastructure
▫ Blade Servers deliver the same benefits of rack servers but in a
smaller, more power-efficient form factor
Energy Efficient Data Centers
• Server Virtualization
▫ A single blade server hosts multiple applications, each one
running on its own virtual server
▫ Hypervisor installs on top of the physical server allowing the
equipment resources (processor, memory, I/O bus) to be shared
by the multiple virtual hosts
▫ Sharing the physical server resources provides for more efficient
resource utilization, reducing the number of server computers in
the data center
Energy Efficient Data Centers
• Storage Area Network (SAN)
▫ Shared data storage environment used by entire virtualized
server environment
▫ Sharing the data storage resources provides for more efficient
disk utilization, reducing the number of disk drives in the data
center
Energy Efficient Network Closets
• Forty percent of wired LAN ports are typically underutilized or not
used at all
• Most new students have Wi-Fi enabled computers, netbooks,
smartphones and media players
• Installing wireless networks in new residence halls significantly
reduces build-out costs, electricity consumption and cooling in
Network Closets for the LAN switches, and on-going equipment
maintenance costs
Energy Efficient Network Closets
Going wireless will:
• Save roughly $250,000 in network equipment acquisition costs for
each new residence hall
• Lower carbon footprint for the building by 25 metric tons per year
due to reduced cooling and power requirements for LAN
equipment
• Create additional savings on copper cabling installation, reducing
the demand for products that are not always made with the most
environmentally friendly materials