Skip to main content

Sustainable IT and digital infrastructure

Our University IT department is working towards a more sustainable IT and digital infrastructure.

Since 2012, University IT has demonstrated continuous environmental improvement, confirmed by independent audits under the University’s ISO 14001 (environmental management systems) certification.

The University provides advice and guidance for staff and students to minimise their energy consumption and environmental impact across all key activities.

We recommend ways of minimising energy use through new staff and student induction, the Green Impact programme, the Environmental Compliance Officer (ECO) Network, and the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment (LEAF) Framework.

Logged-in University staff and students can read intranet guidance on sustainable use of IT. The guidance includes advice on:

  • energy savings
  • efficient virtual collaboration to reduce travelling
  • reducing the environmental impact of using Artificial Intelligence (AI)

We pursue a range of initiatives to reduce our datacentre energy consumption and emissions. We review the environmental impact of our datacentres in our Safety, Health and Environment policies.

Electricity

Our datacentres are powered purely by zero-carbon electricity that doesn’t depend on carbon offsets. It is backed, where appropriate, by Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin. Our main datacentre benefits from a detailed Green Energy Programme.

Energy

Our past programme of IT consolidation and virtualisation reduced our energy use and waste, and made our services more resilient. We are currently further reducing our virtual servers’ consumption.

Cooling

Our main datacentre uses modern cooling systems, combining direct liquid cooling and evaporative air cooling for maximum efficiency.

We reduce the need for active cooling and associated energy by using chilled water heat extraction more efficiently. Wherever possible, we use free (air) cooling. We also run a hot aisle containment system, optimising the effectiveness of air cooling and recirculating air for efficiency.

Procurement of IT equipment is in full compliance with the University’s Responsible Procurement Framework.

The recent significant procurement of the University’s Research Data Repository covered multiple sustainability criteria:

  • independent audits of providers
  • organisation-wide environmental management system certified to IS0 14001 or EMAS, including energy management

Where appropriate, server procurements are undertaken through the Servers, Storage and Solutions National Agreement, which includes sustainability standards such as the Government Buying Standards, Energy Star and EPEAT.

Our website and intranet are designed to minimise unnecessary data transfer and processing. Multi-layer caching reduces repeat requests, while content and images are automatically optimised.

Connections between computers and applications (API integrations) are cached and rate-limited at multiple layers to reduce unnecessary external calls. Listings and search results use server-side caching to avoid generating the same content repeatedly.

Together, these measures reduce infrastructure load, improve efficiency, and lower the energy required to deliver digital services.

University IT aligns with the University’s Environmental Sustainability Plan, which aims to minimise the environmental footprint of all our activities, including monitoring and reporting.

We report on energy consumption of digital infrastructure as part of the University IT Safety, Health, Environment and Wellbeing Annual Management Review, which is included in our ISO 14001 certification audit. This report is presented annually to the University IT department’s Safety, Health, Environment and Wellbeing Committee.

University IT’s Environmental Aspects are updated annually in line with ISO 14001, and include actions for all IT staff to find ways of reducing electricity use. Cutting energy consumption is a key aim of our recent datacentre developments.

Our departmental Safety, Health, Environment and Wellbeing Policy covers how we identify and reduce our environmental impact, including emissions and energy use of all IT services and equipment.

Intranet guidance on reducing the environmental impact of using AI is available for logged-in staff and students. The University also provides advice on the use of AI for teaching and assessment, including the need to acknowledge the use of generative AI in assessed work.

Between June and September 2026, we are trialling Ecosia as the default web browser search engine (on Edge and Chrome) in the open access room 1.81, Science Library, Main Building.

Our sustainable use of IT intranet page covers the environmental benefits of Ecosia, along with setup instructions for students.

We take a full-lifecycle approach to minimise electronic waste from hardware, printing, and other sources.

This includes responsible procurement, secure reuse, recycling, and compliance with WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) legislation.

Cardiff University Responsible Procurement policy states that staff are required to:

  • always consider the need for the purchase and explore options for reusing and sharing existing assets
  • give priority to sustainability and whole life cost at the pre-procurement stage

We also have University Waste Minimisation and Recycling Guidance, and an IT Asset Management Policy to ensure proper management of IT and digital equipment through its lifecycle, including secure disposal.

We supply intranet guidance for logged-in University staff:

We also provide intranet guidance for logged-in University students: