How Green is Your Digitisation?
Zak Mensah on Tuesday 06 December 2011 Tweet this!
As digitisers we often talk about the sustainability of our digital resources from an economic and technical point of view: maintaining access to our valuable and treasured digital resources for the longer term.
But what about environmental sustainability? Do we know as the creators, users and preservers of digital resources what impact digitisation has on the environment?
A new article released today by JISC Digital Media looks at these very questions in "Digitisation and the environment".
Photo Credit: JISC
The article examines the literature and research already available on the subject of Green ICT to establish just exactly what the environmental implications are for those involved in digitisation. It looks at Government policy on carbon reductions; the scope for digitisation to reduce emissions by lessening our dependence on carbon intensive products and activities like travel and use of paper; and goes on to assess the green implications of an ever increasing quantity of digital data created for learning, teaching and research.
The article argues that as digitisers we have a responsibility to involve Green issues in our discourse and to adapt our digitisation methods, processes and workflows to maximise the possibility of an environmentally sustainable future for digitisation.
The article was launched at the first ever national webinar on Green issues, hosted by the JISC RSC London on the 5th of December 2011. A download of the conference, where you can hear the paper being introduced, will be available from their website shortly.
Read "Digitisation and the Environment".
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