Overview
COMP 635: Green Information and Communication Technology Strategies approaches green ICT strategies from a professional perspective, providing instruction on how best to apply such strategies in the working environment.
Green ICT (also known as green IT or green computing) is the study and practice of using computers and telecommunications in a way that maximizes positive environmental benefit and minimizes the negative impact. The energy efficiency of operating equipment is a major concern of green ICT, as are the embodied energy and the lifecycle of the materials used in the design, manufacture, reuse, and recycling of equipment and components. Green ICT seeks to inform accepted management practices to achieve efficient and effective business interaction.
COMP 635 covers topics such as networking and distributed systems, builds on themes such as standards and open systems, and uses tools such as integrated development environments. The course provides historical, hardware, software, and mathematics foundations for the subject, and it will help you develop the research and report-writing skills you need to prepare a project report.
Green ICT strategies is an emerging discipline. This course is drawn from practices being developed in the public and private sectors both in Canada and internationally. It also introduces implementation methodologies and assessment tools that are currently being tested in the field.
Outline
Part I: Sustainability Assessment
- Unit 1 – The Politics, Science, and Business of Sustainability
- Unit 2 – The Global ICT Footprint
- Unit 3 – Energy Saving: Data Centres and Client Equipment
- Unit 4 – Materials Use
- Unit 5 – Carbon Accounting
- Unit 6 – Methods and Tools
Part II: Sustainability Strategy
- Unit 7 – Enabling ICT
- Unit 8 – Business Process Improvement
- Unit 9 – Improving Data Centre Energy Efficiency
- Unit 10 – Enterprise Architecture
- Unit 11 – Procurement
- Unit 12 – Energy Star Program and Quality Management
Learning outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, you should be able to
- understand the role of ICTs as they impact the global carbon footprint.
- Explain how electricity used to run computers and telecommunications can contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.
- Explain how cooling and lighting functions in data centres and power usage associated with backup devices contribute to energy consumption.
- Explain how transportation costs associated with employee travel contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.
- Explain the role of energy used to manufacture products.
- Explain the impact of e-waste on the environment.
- develop a model to track changes in consumption and generate feedback.
- estimate the carbon footprint of the ICT operations of an organization.
- Use the greenhouse gas conversion factor to convert energy consumed in kWh to kg of equivalent carbon dioxide.
- assess ways to reduce the carbon footprint of an organization through changes to
- policies for procurement of ICT,
- ICT operations, and
- revisions of business processes.
Evaluation
To receive credit for COMP 635, you must achieve a course composite grade of at least B– (70 percent). The weighting of the course composite grade is as follows:
| Activity | Weight |
| Discussion Forum Participation | 20% |
| Assignment 1 | 40% |
| Assignment 2 | 40% |
| Total | 100% |