Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

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.