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Before heading home, attendees are listing the various ways that they’ll pledge to work toward a “greener, brighter” future for higher education. Their contributions range from simply “learning more” to promoting collaborations at their campus. Several attendees pledged to “bring the message home,” organizing brown bag lunches or mini-Summits around the issue of Green IT, writing articles for campus papers, or encouraging their campuses to adopt more stringent policies and CO2 reduction goals. Measuring their own energy consumption was also a critical issue, as well as working toward better metric assessments for IT and introducing IT into current and future assessment tools. Before the session ended, many attendees were already staying true to their promises to encourage more information sharing by uploading their own resources and URLs to a Summit wiki. A complete list of attendee-generated resources will be included in the Summit whitepaper.

After a day of discussion and reflection, attendees are beginning to sketch out rather precise ideas about what a green agenda for higher education might look like. During the last session, they shared their lists of what they wanted others to do to push for greater sustainability.

Several action items were shared across the boards. There seems to be a general consensus that the community needs more ways to share information, from case study repositories to research studies that really dig at specific numbers and outcomes. Several groups mentioned further exploring virtualization and changes to data centers, or online learning and telecommuting. Others wanted to ensure IT is part of the green discussion, making it part of the STARS assessment or ensuring that grant seekers for government money include a “green” aspect to their application.

Other highlights included:

As brainstorming continues, a green notepad from the NSF is circulating the room, with a pen clipped to the top made of recycled currency. On it, they offer eight ways to think green at the desktop:

• Consider the environment before you print
• Opt for printing double-sided documents
• If you need to share documents with colleagues – use Sharepoint
• Shut off your monitor when away from your computer
• Every time you leave the room for awhile, turn off the lights
• Recycle paper, plastic, and aluminum
• Voltage matters -- Turn off printers and unplug mobile chargers when not in use
• Encourage others to go green!

After hearing what others have been doing, attendees have broken back into their groups to brainstorming actions that they’d like for others to take. In one group, an attendee noted just how helpful it is to have an “elevator speech” to make the case. He said the one image he took away from the first day was the comparison of a computer server on campus to a Hummer. He said that the next time someone approaches him to ask about new equipment, he wants to be able to make the case, “Do we really need this? Or, can we do it smarter another way?”

After doing some quick scribbling on his napkin, one Summit attendee suggested that his numbers suggest institutions of higher ed could be responsible for 10 percent of the United States’ carbon output. Other attendees suggested that the number is probably closer to 4 percent. Either way, it’s higher than cement and steel and most eyes around the room doubled in size during the discussion.

Don Spicer, an ECAR senior fellow and associate vice chancellor and CIO at the University System of Maryland is updating attendees and explaining the work behind one of the latest ECAR Research Bulletins, "Climate Change, Campus Commitments, and IT."

The bulletin analyzes how several IT offices, largely at Maryland colleges and universities, are responding to the challenges issued in the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitmentinitiative. The bulletin also leaves readers with, "Key Questions to Ask," including:

After hearing an impassioned argument for the need to reduce their campus footprints yesterday, Summit attendees heard practical approaches for carbon reduction from the University of California-Irvine and Vice Chancellor Wendell Brase. UC-Irvine isn’t just taking a small bite at the problem, Brase says, they’re taking a big bite, focusing on those long-term strategies that will help them slash their greenhouse gas emissions.

Although he offered a more detailed look at their efforts at the 2008 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference in October, he focused on IT during his presentation this morning, highlighting those immediate actions that UC-Irvine has undertaken and those actions that are looming on the horizon.

IT has a number of ways to get involved in carbon reduction areas, specifically looking at ways the can ensure efficient processing, story, configurations, loading, power supplies, and efficient monitors. IT staff can also help enforce efficient user behaviors, using sleep features on monitors, double-sided printing, or minimizing printers.

One attendee lamented at dinner last night that they weren’t sure where to go to share content and resources with their peers around sustainability. An attendee just announced that EDUCAUSE will be launching a constituent group around Sustainable IT in the spring.

The second day of the Summit kicked off with an update from the 2008 American Association for Sustainability in Higher Education Conference and Expo, Working Together for Sustainability: on Campus and Beyond. A handful of Summit attendees participated in the conference, and Terry Link, director of the Office of Sustainability at Michigan State University offered a brief update for those that could not. Some of his key insights:

As the first day of the Summit drew to a close, participants turned away from brainstorming priorities to dig deeper into a few items from their list. (Those items, determined by the Summit planning team and loosely based on those priorities that appeared across each table’s list included: virtualization, energy reduction, campus education and awareness, creating inventories and assessments, engaging IT in the conversation, and transportation.)

Each group was asked to identify the forces working against those priorities and those that are working for it.  Interestingly, many of those forces seemed to push and pull in both directions. Most groups agreed that the general public seems to agree that the environment is a critical issue and that focus can help propel conversations around these campus priorities. On the other hand, many noted that agreement is not deep enough and it can be difficult to adequately persuade constituents that thinking “green” is worth their time and investment. Others said it can be difficult to convince the campus community that their actions can have an impact on the problem.