Abstract:

The role of higher education institutions in promoting sustainability involves research activities, curricular changes, improving campus infrastructure, and encouraging green practices. The issue is so important that there are now several ranking systems related to green and sustainable universities. Increasing IT sustainability in higher education is one of the new trends caused by the world’s increased necessity for sustainability and the climate emergency. For the purposes of this paper, we consider sustainable IT to be a comprehensive approach to IT life cycle ranging from the infrastructure, procurement, deployment, to usage and disposal. This paper and collected online resources (i.e., https://www.diigo.com/outliner/m3x1rx/GreenIT?key=9q9ggns54l) can be used by educational organizations to draft their sustainable IT standards and implement policies as they relate to IT procurement, facilities design, energy consumption, IT utilization, and recycling. We highlight fastest, easiest, and most effective solutions that also offer a visual impact at little-to-no cost increase. We also cover challenges and barriers associated with these processes and activities. Higher education, being a transformational agent, has a tremendous impact not only on educating students in their subject matter, but also forming their sustainable habits which would greatly contribute to the future of the society.

Keywords:

Sustainability, green IT, societal responsibility.