SUSTE-TECH and CUSP to the rescue

Last week I hosted the South West and South Wales SUSTE-TECH project participants meeting at the University of Gloucestershire. Eventhough not all the South West and South Wales participants were in attendance, what was discussed proved valuable as there is much overlap in the hurdles faced by institutions wishing to green their ICT systems.

Problem : One hurdle that featured strongly was the lack of staff available to champion green ICT. Recent cutbacks have resulted in redundancies and overburdening workloads for those that remain. The responsibility of implementing sustainable initiatives becomes an unwelcome addition to any IT manager’s workload, even if they believe in the cause.  An increase in workload can often lead to an increase in stress, and sickness which often results in requests for sick and stress leave from their positions at the university. The subsequent abandonment of the championing of sustainable issues results in a lack of sustainable improvement across campus. As sustainable projects are often not the primary responsibility of ICT managers there is less of a drive for other members of staff to champion the cause.

Solution: As a mean of solving this problem I have contacted the College & University Sustainability Placement organisation (CUSP) that is run by studentforce. I am hoping organise the placement of ICT, energy or environmental graduates with SUSTE-TECH participants. This should prove to be a win: win situations as SUSTE-TECH participants avail of much needed support staff and graduates receive the benefit of hands on experience