About 10% of the energy usage on a typical university campus is spent to meet
Information Technology (IT) demands such as powering desktops, severs, printers, laptops, and
other peripheral equipment. At UC Davis, the annual energy expenditure on IT alone was
approximately $3 million (~$1.3 million excluding servers and related usage) in 2008. This
translates to nearly 12,800 equivalent tons of CO2 per year. In light of California’s greenhouse
gas reduction goals such as AB 32, UC campuses are crafting detailed plans to reduce energy
waste and improve efficiency across all domains; IT efficiency is recognized as an important
area of focus. It is well documented that IT energy use can be significantly reduced through
energy efficiency measures and best practices. However, these strategies when implemented
have not been as successful as expected because they have not incorporated behavioral change,
thereby missing the opportunity to maximize energy savings. Inherent principal-agent conflicts
impede behavior change, notably in the form of consumers on campus not paying the electrical
bill for their IT energy use.
The objective of the current work is to establish the PA problem with IT usage in a
university setting and quantify the maximum potential savings possible by eliminating this
behavioral component. Preliminary estimates have shown that the PA problem in computing
amounts to $460,000 annually. It was found that lack of 1) incentives or policies, 2)
collaboration amongst various stake holders and 3) awareness were some of the key barriers that
need to be addressed to achieve any significant savings.