Overview and Purpose

Computers and other office machinery consume power and generate heat whenever they are on. Employees should seek to optimize the power consumption of office machinery in order to reduce the waste, environmental impact, and energy costs associated with its use. Even small changes to the way we typically use and manage common devices can significantly reduce the amount of energy consumed by office machines.

To help reduce [variable: Covered Organization]'s carbon footprint, save costs related to energy consumption, and extend the life of computers and other equipment, [variable: Covered Organization] requires employees to follow energy efficient computing strategies for the devices for which they have direct responsibility. Moreover, we encourage employees to apply the same principles of energy conservation to shared-use devices within office environments.

This policy defines steps employees should take to conserve the energy used by computers and shared-use equipment.

Coverage

All employees, contractors, vendors, volunteers and other personnel who use, manage, or are responsible for the approval or procurement of computers and shared-use equipment, including servers, network devices, office printers, copy machines, and fax machines.

Definitions

• None given

Policy

Desktop (Personal) Computer Usage and Management

• The configuration of desktop and laptop machines should be standardized so that power-saving and/or energy management settings support energy-efficient operation. Computers should be configured to enact “sleep” or “hibernation” mode whenever the computer is not in use for more than [variable: Time period], or the minimum amount of time that does not impede typical work performance.
• Turn off your computer monitor when it is not in use, such as during breaks, meetings, and other periods when you are away from your computer for [variable: Time period].
• Turn off peripherals, such as printers, PDA devices, fax machines, and scanners, when they will not be in use for more than three hours. Check with [variable: Department or role responsible for computer management] to see if specific peripherals have “power saver” or “sleep” modes and configure devices to activate these modes at the minimal time that does not impede work performance.
• If your desktop computer does not run processes overnight and is not scheduled for nightly backup, turn it off when you leave for the day.
• Plug computers and other equipment into power strips instead of wall outlets, which allows the equipment to be more easily turned off.

Shared-Use Office Device Management

• Use the “print preview” function for office applications to review documents before printing documents to public printers.
• Avoid printing e-mail messages and other electronic documents unless you have a specific need to retain or distribute a hard copy.
• If printers allow two-sided printing, use this option whenever possible.
• Use email or other electronic communication media whenever practical as an alternative to paper memos and faxes
• Copiers, faxes, and shared-use office devices should be turned on only when needed. On a daily basis, the first person who requires the use of a device should turn it on. Employees should turn off shared-use devices at the end of each work day or, on a daily basis, at whatever time it becomes unlikely that the equipment will be used again before the next day.

Development, Architecture, and Infrastructure Management

• IT, project, and development managers should factor energy-efficiency and utility cost savings into technology decisions. Virtualization technologies that optimize server use, for example, can improve the operating efficiency of server and data center environments.
• Development managers should consider the need for information availability in server allocation and selection. When possible, resources or processes that may be made periodically unavailable (e.g., overnight, on weekends, and over holidays) should be housed on servers that can be periodically shut down to reduce energy consumption.

Data Center Management

• [variable: Organizational role] must review and document data center equipment use at least once every [variable: Time period] for:
  • Excess numbers of data copies, indicating inefficient use of server resources
  • Dormancy of information resources stored in the data center. Data that has not been accessed at least once in the previous [variable: Time period] should be marked for removal to offline storage media.
  • Servers that do not support 24×7 operations and may be turned off after work hours, over weekends, and during holidays without interfering with normal business functions.
• [variable: Organizational role] measures, tracks, and documents electrical consumption by the data center.
  • Measurements must be taken every [variable: Time period]
  • [variable: Organizational role] should track and maintain ongoing comparative metrics for a) energy consumption by the entire data center over time, and b) electricity consumption by individual machines within the data center.
  • [variable: Organizational role] must note and report any anomalous energy consumption by data center machines that might indicate the impending failure of a machine or the need to replace a machine with a more energy-efficient alternative.
  • [variable: Organizational role] provides recommendations to [variable: Organizational role] for specific actions to reduce electricity consumption in the data center, either by computing equipment or data center cooling systems.

Procurement Management

In general, office and procurement managers should review equipment requests for energy-efficient characteristics and seek energy-efficient and/or green-computing options for new purchases.

• All technology procurement evaluations for equipment costing more than [variable: Financial sum] shall include an evaluation of energy efficiency and energy consumption costs related to long-term use of the equipment.
• Procurement should prefer equipment that is certified by the US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) “ENERGY STAR” program at a Plus 80 rating or higher. Where the cost difference between a technology alternative rated at Plus 80 is less than 10 percent higher than an alternative rated at a lower energy efficiency (all other factors being equivalent), the more efficient alternative should be purchased.
• Laptop computers should be preferred over full-sized desktop machines. This preference may be mitigated by factors of business use, user productivity, and organizational security policy.
• Flat-panel liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors should be preferred over conventional cathode-ray tube (CRT) monitors.
• Printers that can print on both sides of paper (duplex printing) should be preferred over single-side printers.
• Except in cases of a specific business or security need for the procurement of a dedicated printer assigned to a single individual, departmental management and procurement should encourage the use of networked/shared printers.
• When procurement of a personal/dedicated printer is indicated, procurement should prefer more energy-efficient inkjet printers over laser printers.
• Procurement should actively seek and evaluate energy-efficient and “green computing” offerings, noting computer vendors that offer resource-efficient machines designed for eventual recycling.

Equipment Reclamation, Recycling, and Disposal Management

• Employees who are not in charge of equipment disposal should not throw away computers or other equipment, even if they are non-functional. Employees should contact [variable: Applicable department or role name] to properly dispose of unused or unusable equipment.
• Employees who are responsible for equipment disposition should seek, whenever possible and always in compliance with secure disposal policies, to recycle, reallocate, or reuse reclaimed equipment.
• In cases where the entirety of a machine cannot be reused, [variable: Applicable department or role name] should seek to salvage and reuse any valuable components.
• CRT monitors contain hazardous materials and must be disposed of in compliance with [variable: corporate hazardous materials disposal procedure].

Enforcement

Willful violation of this policy may result in disciplinary action which may include performance sanctions; termination for employees and temporaries; a termination of employment relations in the case of contractors or consultants; dismissal for interns and volunteers; or suspension or expulsion in the case of a student. Additionally, individuals are subject to restriction or suspension of [variable: Covered Organization] email privileges, as well as civil and criminal prosecution.

Supporting Documentation

This policy is supported by the following rules, standards, and procedures:

• [variable: Internal documents (with links, if available)]
• [variable: External documents (with links, if available)]
• Data Marking, Handling, Processing, Storage, and Disposal (Policy)
• Secure Media and Data Handling (Procedure)

Policy Support Contact

• [variable: Title (not personal name) of role responsible for overseeing this policy]
• [variable: Contact information of office responsible for overseeing this policy]

Policy Publication Date

[variable: Policy publication date]

Revision(s)

• [variable: Policy revision date]

References

• US EPA Energy Star Program
• EPEAT: Green Electronics Made Easy
• IEEE P1680 Family of Standards for Environmental Assessment of Electronic Products
• 2002/95/EC European Union Restriction of Hazardous Substances (ROHS) Directive (PDF)
• 2002/96/EC European Union Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE Directive) (PDF)
• Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, European Commission

Policy Models

• Green Computing Policy, The University of Hong Kong Libraries
• Energy Efficient Computing policy, Northwestern University
• Policy #ITP-21-1 Green Computing Policy from the book IT Governance 2009 Policies & Procedures by Geraint H. Jenkins, Michael Wallace, Larry Webber