ADMINISTRATIVE REGULATION: AR: 16.08-1 |
DATE APPROVED: January 12, 2016 |
SUBJECT: "Green" Computing Policy |
ORIGINATING DEPARTMENT: Systems Management |
Computers and electronic equipment are major consumers of electricity. The County’s intent is to provide guidelines to reduce costs and energy demands with power-saving guidelines.
- Whenever possible the County will purchase Energy Star rated equipment.
- IT equipment that has stand-by or power-saving modes will be enabled by default.
- CRT monitors will be replaced with lower power consuming LCD monitors. This will be done for all new PC purchases, through maintenance repairs, and as CRTs become obsolete.
- Systems Management may create power-saving software profiles to install on County PCs. These may shut off monitors, shut off the hard disk drives inside the PC, and/or set the processors and fans to run at lower speeds under reduced loads. Employees are prohibited from modifying these settings.
- Where practical, Systems Management may implement shared printers to reduce the total power consumed by running multiple printers.
- Systems Management must look for ways to consolidate servers and to prevent server sprawl which increases power consumption and results in higher cooling costs.
- Computers, monitors, printers, and copiers should be powered down at the end of the employee’s work day, unless exempted by Systems Management.
- Networked PCs should not be configured to hibernate after a period of non-use.
- All employees should turn off peripherals not in use.
- There are many devices that make use of the PC’s USB ports. These should be unplugged when not in use.
FOOTNOTES & REFERENCES TO RELATED AR’s: Supersedes AR 16.14 adopted January 27, 2009; AR 16.08 dated June 22, 2010.