At the National School Boards Association's Technology + Learning (T+L) Conference in Seattle, the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) launched new initiatives aimed at helping school technology leaders manage two important ed-tech issues: improving energy efficiency and protecting IT systems in case of an emergency.

With its Green Computing Leadership Initiative, CoSN will provide tools to help school technology leaders reduce their school's or district's carbon footprint by conserving energy and reducing waste--while at the same time saving money.

The organization's IT Crisis Preparedness Initiative will help school tech leaders ready their schools and districts for a potential crisis and will feature solutions for dealing with a disaster and protecting valuable data and IT infrastructure.

Green computing

Growing concerns over the effects of greenhouse gases, the safe disposal of electronic waste, and the need to conserve funding are forcing schools to address green-computing issues as a matter of conscience, budget, and political values, said CoSN.

With support from Cisco, Dell, Faronics, Gartner, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Pearson, SAS, SMART Technologies, and Toshiba, the green-computing initiative focuses on three major areas: technology energy use, green computing purchase and disposal, and reducing waste and saving natural resources.

"From responsible computer purchase, operation, and disposal to using computers to reduce waste throughout the district, schools can do a lot to minimize their carbon footprint and reduce energy expenditures," said Keith Krueger, CoSN's chief executive.

As part of this new initiative, CoSN has developed an online resource, www.cosn.org/greencomputing, that provides information on topics ranging from making responsible computer purchases (with consideration for disposal) to using technology to reduce waste and preserve natural resources.

For every 12 consumers who operate their monitors and PCs in energy-saving mode, the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions is equivalent to taking one average automobile off the road, the COSN site reports.

Other energy-saving tips include choosing printers that allow for two-sided printing to reduce paper and energy usage; substituting video conferencing for travel; converting paper forms, notices, and communication to online or eMail formats; using flat-panel liquid crystal displays instead of conventional monitors; consolidating servers and using server virtualization technology; running data backup during the workday to avoid leaving computers on all night; putting cooling devices and thermostats closer to your servers and networking heat sources; and moving cables to allow for better airflow.

The web site also features an energy-use calculator that allows school tech leaders to estimate their kilowatt-hour use and related costs for current and planned computing and network infrastructure.