Administrative Regulation 16.08-1

ADMINISTRATIVE REGULATION:   AR: 16.08-1 DATE APPROVED: January 12, 2016
SUBJECT: "Green" Computing Policy ORIGINATING DEPARTMENT: Systems Management

POLICY:

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.

PROCEDURE:
  1. Whenever possible the County will purchase Energy Star rated equipment.
  2. IT equipment that has stand-by or power-saving modes will be enabled by default.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. Where practical, Systems Management may implement shared printers to reduce the total power consumed by running multiple printers.
  6. Systems Management must look for ways to consolidate servers and to prevent server sprawl which increases power consumption and results in higher cooling costs.
  7. Computers, monitors, printers, and copiers should be powered down at the end of the employee’s work day, unless exempted by Systems Management.
  8. Networked PCs should not be configured to hibernate after a period of non-use.
  9. All employees should turn off peripherals not in use.
  10. 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.