Sustainable IT

Information Technology (IT) is a part of everything we do. Computing, communications, printing, networking, and internet access have become foundations of the modern economy, including on campus. But the proliferation of IT devices and services has an environmental footprint, from rare earth materials to growing energy consumption. There is growing concern about this impact, and also more attention toward practical solutions.

This site provides a guide to Sustainable IT for the University of Waterloo. It describes what Sustainable IT looks like, and provides important best practices that Waterloo can use, both as individuals and as a campus.

The importance of sustainable IT

The growth of IT systems has expanded new possibilities at Waterloo. From distance education and conferencing to expanded research and collaboration opportunities, Waterloo has long been a pioneer in integrating technology in the campus. However, technology does have a large societal impact.

  • IT accounts for approximately 3–4% of global electricity use, and around 2% of emissions.
  • IT devices and systems are material intensive, requiring a range of minerals, precious metals, and hazardous materials. Plastics, glass, and rare earth metals are also required inputs into most technologies, as are cardboard and plastic for packaging and transportation.
  • IT products, such as phones and computers, are designed to be replaced in very short timeframes, which leads to significant electronic waste (e-waste).

What sustainable IT is

Sustainable technology, then, is technology that is:

  1. Circular – eliminating waste and extending the lifespan of materials at each stage of extraction, design, manufacture, use, and disposal.
  2. Efficient – using less energy and consumables to accomplish their core purpose.
  3. Low carbon – powering all energy used in extraction, manufacturing, and product use from clean and renewable sources.
  4. Ethical – ensuring safe and fair working and living environments at all stages of product creation and use.

Sustainable IT in Higher Education

As significant users of technology across campuses, the higher education sector can have a role in supporting sustainable technology. Integrating sustainability considerations into purchasing decisions not only helps solve these core challenges, but also reduces risk for Waterloo’s supply chain, builds brand value, and has the potential to create operational and energy savings.

See the Sustainable IT Procurement Guideline before making new purchases.

Key action areas

How can sustainability technology be embedded in campus practice? The following framework was developed by Green Economy Canada to outline some of the key action areas that can support sustainable technology, from procurement through use to disposal. Review the key areas below to learn more.

Paper management

Secure pull printing

Best practice: Use secure pull printing options on centralized printers where available.

Action: Secure pull printing systems allow users to verify and approve their printing job before releasing it. This decreases waste since automatic printing does not occur, and it is easier to cancel jobs if desired. It also enhances security since someone else cannot take another person’s printed documents, and it increases productivity since multiple documents can be released and collected at the same time. It also supports more confidence in using shared departmental printers instead of single office printers, since shared printers are typically more efficient and are easier to manage.

Paper recycling

Best practice: Recycle paper that can no longer be reused.

Action: Place paper that can no longer be reused in recycling bins. Recycling paper reduces the amount of deforestation needed to procure wood materials to make more paper. At Waterloo, printer paper can be placed in either the white Fine Paper bins (typically located next to printers) or in any grey bin recycling stream marked as “Papers."

Minimizing printing

Best practice: Minimize printing by performing communications and transactions digitally where possible.

Action: Only print when you absolutely need a paper copy. Adobe has many embedded tools to read, highlight and comment on electronic documents, and to insert digital signatures.

Double-sided printing

Best practice: Print double-sided and make double-sided printing the default for all printers.

Action: Users should keep this default whenever possible. Double-sided printing reduces the amount of paper consumed, which results in less deforestation. Default settings make it easier to print double-sided.

FSC Certified Paper + Recycled content papers

Best practice: Purchase paper with post-consumer recycled content or with the FSC certification.

Action: The use of post-consumer recycled paper, made with fibres from recycled used paper, should be prioritized. If recycled paper is not available, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified is another good option. The FSC certification demonstrates that the forest management practices do not negatively impact biodiversity, local citizens and workers. FSC Certified Paper and recycled content paper are both available through Procurement and Contract Services in bulk, through Staples E-way for departmental purchases, and can be requested during the design process from Creative Services.

Paper reuse

Best practice: Collect and reuse paper that has only been used on one side.

Action: Non-confidential paper with text on only one side should be collected, using containers near printers, and reused for informal purposes such as writing reminders, taking notes, etc. Reusing paper instead of taking a completely blank sheet saves an incredible amount of virgin paper. To ensure confidentiality concerns are met, printed documents containing personal information should be shredded instead.

Ink and toner management

Printer cartridge recycling

Best practice: At the end of their life, recycle printer cartridges.

Action: Ink and toner cartridges should not go in the garbage, since many contain toxic material and can damage the environment or human health.

On campus, there is a recycling program through Central Stores with drop-off bins.

Other off-campus recycling options include returning them for free to most manufacturers (HP, Brother, Lexmark, Canon, Canon Toner, Xerox, Okidata, Panasonic, Ricoh, Samsung, Sharp and Dell); mail-back programs; drop off at supply retailers (e.g, Staples and Office Depot).

Safe indoor air quality

Best practice: Choose inks and toners that do not impact the indoor air quality.

Action: Many inks and toners contain VOCs, which may be harmful for human health. The chemicals contained in the products can be found on the Safety Data Sheets.

Printer cartridge materials

Best practice: Purchase printer cartridges made from post-consumer plastics, closed loop, or ocean-bound plastics.

Action: Post-consumer plastics result in a 60% lower carbon footprint. Also, closed loop recycling allows a product to be turned back into a new version of the same product. Purchasing ocean-bound plastics can prevent more plastic from ending up in the ocean.

Draft mode printing

Best practice: Use draft mode for printing whenever possible.

Action: Draft mode allows for lower quality printing that is still easily legible. Draft mode saves considerable amounts of ink and toner. Enabling the default setting on your computer can also make draft mode printing automatic until you change the quality.

Packaging

Bulk packaging

Best practice: Prioritize purchases that come in bulk packaging.

About: Packaging causes a lot of unnecessary waste and often contains plastics or Styrofoam that is not possible to recycle at Waterloo. Reaching out to current suppliers may reveal a willingness to change their packaging procedures. For future suppliers, sustainable packaging practices can be incorporated into RFPs by requiring them to collect packaging for re-use after shipment. Suppliers are more likely to minimize packaging if they must deal with it after.At the same time, there should be a balance between not damaging the products themselves, which would have a much higher impact and cost than that of the packaging.

Post-consumer recycled packaging and recyclable packaging

Best practice: Prioritize post-consumer recycled packaging and recyclable packaging for packaging that is required.

About: Post-consumer packaging is made from recycled materials, which saves natural resources, meaning fewer plastics are ending up in the ocean and less mining is required. Recyclable packaging has similar benefits and means the packaging can be used to make new products. Suppliers should be able to supply information regarding the origin of their packaging materials and whether they are recyclable.

Energy use

Sleep mode during the day

Best Practice: Put computers in sleep mode when the user will be away for 5 minutes or longer.

Action: Sleep mode saves energy compared to keeping the computer on all day. Settings can be configured on laptops so that they automatically enter sleep mode when the lid is closed.

Virtualizing servers

Best Practice: Replace data centres with virtual servers.

Action: Data centres require lots of energy for cooling. Virtual servers cost less money, result in less material waste and wasted energy, and decrease the environmental impact.

Multi-function device

Best Practice: Prioritize multi-function devices over single-function machines for new purchases.

Action: Multi-function machines (e.g., a combined printer and scanner, instead of separate printers and scanners) save energy and reduce waste.

Turn devices off

Best Practice: Shut down computers when the user is away for 30 minutes or longer.

Action: Shutting down computers saves a lot of energy. According to Energy Star, shutting down computers does not damage the hard drive, and it takes much less energy to start up a computer than to leave a computer on. Work is underway at Waterloo to develop better guidance on processes and requirements for university computing equipment.

Laptops vs. desktops

Best Practice: Transition from desktops to laptops where appropriate.

Action: From the survey of Sustainable IT at Canadian Higher Education Institutions, it was seen that there is a growing trend among higher education institutions to default to laptops. In fact, laptops often use less energy than laptops, since laptops are generally 2.5 to 3 times more energy efficient. Laptops are also more portable, which makes it easier to work from home and don’t require a remote connection to a second computer running on campus.

Of course, there are many uses where the computing power of a desktop is necessary for the work being done, and there are more and less efficient laptops and desktops.

Eco-labels

Eco declarations

Best practice: Ask suppliers for product-specific declarations of environmental impact.

Action: In addition to the certifications, many IT manufacturers can provide documentation on the lifecycle impact, from extraction through usage, of their products. This could include, for example, information on carbon emissions, recycled content, or hazardous material content. The methodologies used between companies can vary, so look for declarations that reference common standards such as ISO 14040 – Life Cycle Assessment.

TCO

Best practice: Prioritize TCO Certification for IT product purchases to build social wellbeing criteria into purchasing decisions.

About: TCO Certified is a prominent sustainable IT certification, with regular updates, independent verification, and action against non-compliance. Like EPEAT, it scans a range of environmental criteria, but also has requirements to prevent the use of conflicting materials, prevent child labour, ensure worker health and safety and fairness, and integrates anti-corruption measures.

EnergySTAR

Best practice: Prioritize EnergySTAR certified equipment where EPEAT certification is not available.

About: EnergySTAR devices use less energy than non-certified devices. These are a single-attribute certification and only look at energy efficiency, but may cover other IT-related products where there is currently not an EPEAT certification available, for example on some audio/video equipment, lighting, or telephones. EPEAT certification includes EnergySTAR requirements, so an EPEAT certified product also includes energy efficiency benefits.

EPEAT

Best practice: Prioritize EPEAT Silver or higher certified devices wherever possible.

About: The Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) provides information about the environmental impact of a product. It has a multi-attribute framework that includes many dimensions of product sustainability, and has expanded to include a wide range of IT products, including computers, cellphones, displays, printers, and servers. Almost all computers in the current Desktop Rollover contract, and most phones in the current cell phone contract are certified to at least EPEAT Silver, and most are EPEAT Gold.

Lifecycle costing

Waterloo has created a Lifecycle Costing Guideline to ensure commitment to using this methodology in order to bring the greatest long-term value to the University. Or, in cases where a product with a higher lifecycle cost is selected, there is transparency in the long-term needs among all stakeholders.

IT equipment is an optional category under the guidelines, but is strongly encouraged, especially for devices with potential for high energy consumption or consumables.

Circular procurement

Use Central Stores programs for e-waste

Best practice: Drop-off electronic waste with Central Stores.

Action: E-waste contains hazardous materials that should not be deposited in the garbage. If repairing, upgrading, or refurbishing devices is not possible, bring electronics to Central Stores for disposal. The team manages a program with a certified e-waste recycler to properly recover the raw materials in e-waste and add them back into the value chain. Visit the Central Stores website for info on accepted items, and the Waste Sorting Guide for drop-off locations for ink and toner and small e-waste items.

Long-lasting products

Best practice: Purchase new products that are lost-lasting.

About: Keeping products for longer saves natural resources and reduces the impacts of mining, manufacturing, and processing new materials (e.g., metals and plastics). In fact, the lifecycle carbon footprint of a typical computer decreases by 30% by extending the life of the PC by two years. 

Recycled content

Best practice: Prioritize products with post-consumer recycled content, particularly plastics, wherever possible.

About: Post-consumer content means some of the materials used to make the product have previously been recycled. This saves natural resources, means fewer plastics are ending up in the ocean and less mining is required. Suppliers should be able to supply information regarding recycled content in their products.

Vendor takeback program

Best practice: Prioritize working with vendors who support takeback programs for packaging and electronics.

About: Vendors are increasingly developing programs to take back devices that may be older but are suitable for refurbishment and can be given a second life. Keeping products in use through these takeback programs, rather than sending them straight for recycling, can significantly reduce the per-unit environmental impact. Vendors are often in the best position to facilitate refurbishment, since they created the products in the first place, and it aligns the incentive to create longer-lasting and more durable products.

Learn more

Waterloo's Environmental Sustainability Strategy defines eight operational areas of impact for the campus and is the foundation for policies and projects to improve efficiencies and reduce environmental impact. It also presents opportunities for students, employees, faculty to incorporate sustainability into their work and studies. Visit the Sustainability website to learn more or get involved.

Questions or feedback?

Please email the University's general sustainability mailbox with a description of your question or suggestion, your full name, and your affiliation to Waterloo (i.e., student, staff, faculty, alumni, community member).