Sustainable IT Lecture Series Free Online

The Natural Edge Project, an Australian based independent Sustainability Think-Tank, has produced the Sustainable IT Lecture Series. This is a free education package for training ICT professionals in sustainability. The package focuses on energy efficiency and draws on case studies of real world energy saving projects. Most of the examples are from the project sponsor HP, and focus on the company's methodologies for energy reduction, but this is not some company greenwash. The material is suitable for use in tertiary education for ICT practitioners, engineering and related disciplines. The lecture notes would also be useful for self study by practitioners interested in learning about energy saving techniques.

TNEP and HP are to be commended for making the material available free for educational use via an open access licence. TNEP have provided the opportunity for Australia to lead the world in reducing the impact of ICT on climate change. It is now for ICT educators and practitioners to take up the challenge.

Sustainable IT: Reducing Carbon Footprint and Materials Waste in the IT Environment

1. Drivers and Benefits of Sustainable IT: The aim of this lecture is to discuss the drivers and benefits of Sustainable IT, particularly for the customer. Drivers and benefits range through business, economic, environmental and legislative domains.
2. Product Service Systems and the Product Cycle: The aim of this lecture is to discuss product service systems, their barriers and lessons from past implementations, as well as the opportunities to reduce energy and materials consumption in packaging and equipment through end-of-life processing.
3. Client Equipment: The aim of this lecture is to discuss a four-step process for reducing energy consumption, materials consumption and materials toxicity in client equipment.
4. Data Centres and HP Case Study: The aim of this lecture is to discuss a seven-step process for reducing energy consumption in data centres and to present a Sustainable IT case study of IT vendor HP.
5. Roadmap and Success of Sustainable IT: The aim of this lecture is to discuss the strategies, activities and actions upon which customers and vendors should focus in order to successfully transition to, maintain and promote their Sustainable IT solutions at the organisation and industry level.
6. References: This document contains the full citations for the references in the Lecture documents.