Learning, teaching, research, work, and travel can be a challenge during a global pandemic, but the changes we’ve all made have also added up to a record drop in global greenhouse gas emissions. It’s also caused a dramatic increase in the amount of time spent on Zoom, GoToMeeting, Microsoft Teams, or other virtual meeting platforms. A recent study1 conducted by researchers at Purdue, MIT, and Yale suggests2 that due to the way that conferencing data is processed and transferred across the Internet, turning off the camera during video calls could reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of virtual conferencing by 96%. Should we all be leaving our camera off during our next virtual meeting to “save the planet”?
Tag: Energy Efficiency
Energy Savings During COVID-19 Remote Period
With buildings largely quiet besides non-essential employees, NYU has dramatically decreased energy usage across campus. Much of that reduction occurred organically as people departed their residences or workplaces, turning off lights and bringing home laptops. But, a number of devices — such as printers, copiers, student computer clusters, lobby displays, desk phones, coffee makers and microwaves — were left on.
NYU Rolls Out University-wide IT Sustainability Initiative
From the devices in our hands to the cloud where important project documents are stored, information technology (IT) is a critical part of teaching, research, and work. As NYU IT requires substantial energy and resources to serve our diverse community needs, it also serves a major source of potential carbon reductions and energy savings. That’s why in 2019 NYU’s IT Sustainability Initiative formed: to reduce NYU IT’s carbon footprint. The Initiative is comprised of seven workstreams: