Summer cleaning
We did a little cleaning in the Tech Services office this week -- cleaning that was years overdue.
Tasks: re-racking equipment, new cabling, new electrical. We did switch most equipment to 240v and we should see some reduction in temperature as a result.
Online textbooks!
In an effort to (1) extend the life of textbooks ($$) and (2) decrease the weight of books being carried home by students, St. Regis has begun purchasing only classroom sets of new textbooks.
To replace carrying the books home, all textbooks will be made available over the Internet (through PowerSchool). See image.
Can I also consider this another green effort?
Watch a short video about accessing the textbooks.
Green can be dangerous
Here is the story...
In an attempt to be "green" we deployed a shutdown script to all desktop computers which will force a shutdown at 11:00 p.m. each evening. It worked well in the lab and it should save some money given we have close to 100 desktop computers.
Here is the problem...
Most of the computers sleep after 2-3 hours of inactivity. The script wasn't set to wake the computer up from a sleep to run the shutdown. So...users would wake their computers up in the morning, get something started, then their computer would shutdown.
Oops!!
Teachers: first line of defense for environment
This article I found on TreeHugger.com tries to make the point that teachers are shaping the next generation which will have to solve the "global energy crisis".
The article offers several activities that teachers can use in their classrooms. They also have some tips for creating a green school/classroom. Stay tuned for St. Regis' own "green report" after the first of the year.
View the article.