ICT is becoming ever more important within higher education, for e-learning, research, e-administration and e-procurement. ICT equipment creates many sustainable benefits, such as improving accessibility for disadvantaged groups, and reducing environmental impacts by substituting virtual activities for physical ones (e.g using conferencing instead of face-to-face meetings).

However ICT equipment also has a number of negative sustainable impacts which needs to be considered throughout the procurement process.

Key impacts include:

– Energy consumption and CO2 emissions
– Pollution, including air, soil, water, food chain exposureUse of hazardous materials
– Use of energy, finite natural resources (e.g. metals) and harmful emissions during manufacture
– Generation of waste material including packaging and final disposal

When procuring ICT equipment it is also important to consider energy efficiency when looking at the environmental impact of these items. More information can be found on our Energy Efficiency pages.

For further information, please see the links below: