This Green IT case study commissioned by Försäkringskassan (FK), the Swedish National Social Insurance Agency, quantifies the environmental performance of the IT infrastructure (IT-IS) in use during 2010 in a lifecycle perspective. Adopting a system view in Green IT analysis can mitigate risks of problem shifts. IT-IS concerns the equipment that enables office automation and external web application services. The size of the FK IT-IS is in the order of 300 branch offices with 14000 pc’s, 2100 printers and a 1 MW data centre hosting 1200 servers, 5 Petabyte of central data storage and serving about 80 key business applications. The carbon footprint of the FK IT-IS in 2010 accounts to 6.5 kiloton CO2-equivalents. The total environmental impact is calculated across 18 themes and expressed as a single indicator eco score amounting to 822.000 ReCiPe points. The contribution of capital goods is large with 44% of the carbon footprint and 47% of the eco score linked to emissions embedded in material equipment. The environmental effects from distributed IT deployed at local office sites, dominate at two thirds of the total FK IT-IS impacts. Important drivers in the local office sites category are the relatively short economic life span of pc equipment and the significant volume of paper consumed in printing activities. Within the data centre category, operational processes dominate the environmental impacts and are linked to intensive power use. In comparison to industry benchmark scores, the data centre infrastructure energy efficiency (DCiE) is relatively low at 57%, or 59% when credited for waste heat utilisation. Airflow containment measures in computer rooms are identified for efficiency improvement. Enhanced airflow controls also act as a prerequisite to better leverage opportunities for free cooling present at the location in northern Europe.  With regards to the data centre hosted IT, environmental impacts linked to storage services dominate and remarkably exceed those of servers. / Denna fallstudie inom Grön IT på uppdrag av Försäkringskassan (FK) kvantifierar IT-infrastrukturens (IT-IS) miljöprestanda i ett livscykelperspektiv under 2010. Att införa ett systemperspektiv inom Grön IT analys kan lindra riskerna av problemväxling. IT-IS avser utrustning som möjliggör kontorsautomatisering och externa webbapplikationer. FK IT-IS omfattar 300 kontor med 14,000 datorer, 2,100 skrivare och ett 1 MW datacenter med 1,200 servrar, 5 Petabyte central datalagring och 80 huvudsakliga applikationer. Koldioxidavtrycket av det totala FK IT-IS utgör 6,5 kiloton CO2-ekvivalenter för 2010 . Den totala miljöpåverkan är beräknad över 18 miljöteman och anger som en enda indikator ekobetyget på 822,000 ReCiPe poäng . Kapitalvaror bidrar stort, med hela 44% av koldioxidutsläppen och 47% av ekobetyget kan härledas till inbäddade utsläpp i material utrustning. Miljöeffekterna av de lokala kontorens IT dominerar med två tredjedelar av den totala FK IT-IS miljöpåverkan. Viktiga faktorer i kategorin lokala kontor är kapitalvarornas relativt korta ekonomiska livslängd samt de betydande volymer av skrivarpapper som används.   Inom datacenterkategorin domineras miljöpåverkan av de operativa processerna som är kopplade till intensiv el förbrukning. I jämförelse med branschstandarden är energieffektiviteten av datacentrets infrastruktur (DCiE) relativt låg, med 57%, alternativt 59% när användandet av spillvärme inräknas. Luftflöde inneslutningsåtgärder i datorsalar identifieras för effektivisering. Förbättrad luftflödesinneslutning i datahallarna är identifierad som en energieffektivisering. Den förbättrade luftflödeskontrollen är också ett krav för att bättre kunna utnyttja möjligheterna för fri kyla som finns i Norra Europa.  Med avseende på datacentrets IT, domineras miljökonsekvenserna kopplade till lagringstjänster och överstiger anmärkningsvärt effekterna från servrarna. / Miljöutredning Grön IT på Försäkringskassan - examensarbeten

Most research in green IT tend to focus on the practices of large IT vendors and companies. There is therefore a need to examine the beliefs and actual behaviour of IT users about green IT, as it significantly impact of energy consumption and computer design on the broader society. The main question to be answered was ―Are IT users generally concerned with regards to green IT issues?‖. Therefore the main purpose of this study was thus to evaluate the beliefs and actual behaviour of IT users regarding green IT in South Africa through a survey that was completed by university students and lecturers. The paucity of available research on this subject pertaining to South Africa justifies the importance of conducting this study. A hypothesised research model based on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) was used to evaluate the main factors contributing to green IT awareness in an empirical study. A mixed research method was used as the paradigm which combines aspects from both interpretive and positivist research approaches. A questionnaire was used to collect data from university students and lecturers. The data was captured and analysed for convergent validity. The reliability of measurement items was tested using Cronbach‘s alpha. Structural Equation Modelling was used to model latent variables under conditions of non-normality. Subjective norm was the main factor contributing to intended belief and actual behaviour / School of Computing / M.A. (Computer Science)

La motivation principale de cette thèse est de faire face à l'accroissement de la complexité des systèmes informatiques, qui, dans un futur proche ( de l'ordre de quelques années) risque fort d'être le principal frein à leur évolution et à leur développement. Aujourd'hui la tendance s'inverse et le coût de gestion humaine dépasse le coût des infrastructures matérielles et logicielles. De plus, l'administration manuelle de grands systèmes (applications distribuées, réseaux de capteurs, équipements réseaux) est non seulement lente mais aussi sujette à de nombreuses erreurs humaines. Un des domaines de recherche émergent est celui de l'informatique autonomique qui a pour but de rendre ces systèmes auto-gérés. Nous proposons une approche qui permet de décrire des politiques de gestion autonomiques de haut niveau. Ces politiques permettent au système d'assurer quatre propriétés fondamentales de l'auto-gestion: l'auto-guérison, l'auto-configuration, l'auto-protection et l'auto-optimisation. Nos contributions portent sur la spécification de diagrammes de description de politiques de gestion autonomiques appelés (S)PDD "(Sensor) Policy Description Diagrams". Ces diagrammes sont implémentés dans le gestionnaire autonomique TUNe et l'approche a été validée sur de nombreux systèmes: simulation électromagnétique répartie sur grille de calcul, réseaux de capteurs SunSPOT, répartiteur de calcul DIET. Une deuxième partie présente une modélisation mathématique de l’auto-optimisation pour un « datacenter ». Nous introduisons un problème de minimisation d’un critère intégrant d’une part la consommation électrique des équipements du réseau du « datacenter » et d’autre part la qualité de service des applications déployées sur le « datacenter ». Une heuristique permet de prendre en compte les contraintes dues aux fonctions de routage utilisées. / The main challenge of this thesis is to cope with the growing complexity of IT systems. In a near future (mainly the next few years) this complexity will prevent new developments and system evolutions. Today the trend is reversing and the managing costs are overtaking the hardware and software costs. Moreover, the manual administration of large systems (distributed applications, sensor networks, and network equipment) is not only slow but error-prone. An emerging research field called autonomic computing tries to bring up self-managed systems. We introduce an approach that enable the description of high level autonomic management policies. These policies allow the system to ensure four fundamental properties for self-management: self-healing, self-self-configuring, self-protecting and self-optimizing. We specify autonomic management Policy Description Diagrams (PDD) and implement them in Toulouse University Network (TUNe). We validated our approach on many systems: electromagnetic simulations distributed on computer grids (grid’5000), wireless sensor networks with SunSPOTs and the computing scheduler DIET. A second part of this thesis presents a mathematical modeling for self-optimizing datacenters. We introduce a minimization problem with a criterion integrating both the electrical consumption of the datacenter networking equipment and the quality of service of the deployed applications. A heuristic takes into account the routing functions used on the network.

Summary in English, Afrikaans and Zulu / The natural environment is important for human existence and the ubiquity of Information Technology (IT) has negatively impacted on the natural environment. Green IT offers to address these negative effects. However, since Green IT practices are often not common knowledge, it is vital that they are taught to others. Teachers typically have the skills and opportunities to teach many people. The research problem was the lack of research focusing on the teaching of Green IT in the context of the urgent need for it and teachers’ limited knowledge and competencies relating to Green IT. The study employed a survey research strategy, involving exploratory factor analysis, ANOVA and structural equation modeling (SEM). The main findings indicate that allocating time and resources to improve student teachers’ level of awareness, perceived behavioural control and person-related beliefs would positively influence their intention to teach Green IT, and, in turn, their Green IT teaching. / Die natuurlike omgewing, wat so noodsaaklik is vir menslike voortbestaan, word negatief beïnvloed deur die alomteenwoordigheid van inligtingstegnologie. Groen IT-praktyke kan gebruik word om sodanige negatiewe effekte in te perk, maar aangesien die nodige kennis nie alombekend is nie, moet dit aan ander oorgedra word. Onderwysers het beide die vaardighede en die geleenthede om inligting aan groot groepe mense oor te dra. In dié geval was die navorsingsprobleem ‘n gebrek aan studies wat fokus op die dringende noodsaaklikheid van Groen IT-onderrig, asook onderwysers se beperkte verwante kennis en vaardighede. ‘n Opname is gebruik as navorsingstrategie, met eksploratiewe faktorontleding, variansie-ontleding (ANOVA) en strukturele vergelykingsmodellering (SVM). Ingevolge die hoofbevindinge sal die beskikbaarmaak van tyd en hulpbronne leerlingonderwysers se bewuswordingsvlakke verbeter, sowel as hul waarneembare gedragswetenskaplike beheer en hul persoonsverwante beskouinge, en ‘n positiewe uitwerking hê op hul voorneme om Groen IT te onderrig, wat weer op sy beurt hul Groen IT-onderrig sal bevoordeel. / Imvelo yemvelo ibalulekile ekubeni khona komuntu nokutholakala kobuchwepheshe bezokwazisa kuye kwaba nomthelela omubi emvelweni yemvelo. Ubuchwepheshe bezokwazisa obuluhlaza bunikeza izindlela zokubhekana nemiphumela emibi. Kodwa-ke, njengoba imikhuba yobuchwepheshe bezokwazisa obuluhlaza ayivamile ukuba ulwazi iv oluvamile, kubalulekile ukuthi ifundiswe kwabanye. Othisha sidalo sabo banawo amakhono namathuba ukufundisa abantu abaningi. Inkinga yocwaningo ukuntuleka kocwaningo okugxila ekufundiseni kobuchwepheshe bezokwazisa obuluhlaza esimweni sesidingo esiphuthumayo sabo, nolwazi olulinganiselwe lothisha kanye namakhono afanelekayo kubuchwepheshe bezokwazisa obuluhlaza. Isu lokucwaninga ucwaningo lwasetshenziswa, okubandakanya ukuhlaziywa kwesici sokuhlola, ANOVA kanye nokuhlelwa kwesifaniselo esiyisilinganiso (SEM). Ukutholwa okusemqoka kubonisa ukuthi ukwabela isikhathi kanye nezinsiza zokuthuthukisa abafundi othisha izinga lokuqwashisa, ukulawula kokuziphatha okubonwayo kanye nezinkolelo ezihlobene nomuntu zizoshukumisa kahle izinhloso zabo ukufundisa ubuchwepheshe bezokwazisa obuluhlaza futhi nemfundiso yabo yobuchwepheshe bezokwazisa obuluhlaza. / University of South Africa / School of Computing / M. Sc. (Computing)

Sustainability has become increasingly important in global debates and in world politics, where the UN has formulated 17 sustainability goals. This has led to increased pressure on companies to focus more on sustainability. However, sustainability is a broad and difficult concept, where there is a lack of understanding of sustainable working methods. The purpose of the thesis is thus to study how companies transforms strategic approaches into something concrete and how it is communicated to organizations. Through a case study of a sustainability-leading IT consulting company, the research questions; "How does management translate sustainable strategies into concrete initiatives for communicating sustainable approaches?" and "What can be understood about the challenges of communicating sustainable ways of working through the organisations internal communicative processes?", is being answered. Based on the theoretical framework of the thesis, on Sensemaking and Double Loop Learning, the communication process has been mapped within the company, through semi-structured interviews supplemented with qualitative document analysis. The results show three main challenges: (1) to concrete sustainability and sustainable working methods; (2) to communicate and establish a unified understanding of sustainability and sustainable working practices throughout the organization; (3) to establish systems thinking for sustainable working methods.