If Earth Day has you “thinking green,” don’t forget about technology.
It’s easy to see how working from home reduces our personal environmental footprint, whether that’s by commuting less and burning fewer fossil fuels, using fewer dry-cleaning services or by making coffee at home and skipping the paper cup. Just like ITS services and infrastructure enable us to work on campus, we rely on ITS when we’re working from home. Think about these ITS services you need when teleworking:
- VPN, or Virtual Private Network, which allows you to access campus applications and work securely, just as if you were physically on campus.
- Tools that drive virtual and real-time collaboration such as Zoom, Teams, OneDrive and SharePoint.
- Voice services, including softphone and phone forwarding.
- Paperless processes across campus, including the ITS Service Catalog. The catalog contains more than 60 items (online requests), which replaced many paper forms.
Working really remotely
In the past 12 months, members of the campus community have hosted more than 1.4 million Zoom meetings. Participants have joined from more than 200 countries and territories all over the globe. Some interesting locations participants have joined from include the Seychelles, French Polynesia, Sao Tome and Principe, Greenland and Kiribati. No users from Antarctica … yet!
Don’t trash old tech
While technology has enabled many sustainable practices, our old high-tech gadgets pose an environmental risk if not properly disposed of. Reuse is the most sustainable solution, so first try donating or selling your old technology. If it’s broken or no longer usable, recycle it! Recycling not only keeps heavy metals and corrosives out of our soil and water, but it also puts sought-after materials, like gold and platinum, back into the manufacturing stream.
Did you know that Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) supports on-campus battery, circuit board and computer equipment recycling? Learn more from EHS at Hazardous Materials Recycling Programs.
Stay secure when recycling: remember to wipe or erase data from personal devices before recycling and adhere to the Surplus Computers or Electronic Media Storage Devices Policy for University-owned devices and media.