Awareness of Green IT towards Improving Environmental Sustainability in Varsities: Case Study of Federal University of Technology Minna, Nigeria

Abstract

Going green means to live life as an individual, as well as a community in a way that is friendly to the natural environment and is sustainable for the earth. In other words, it means contributing towards maintaining the natural ecological balance in the environment, and preserving the planet and its natural systems and resources. Presently, not much is known about the climate change implications of carbon emissions from the ICT resources. Green Information Technology (IT) strives to achieve economic viability and improved system performance and use, while abiding by the social and ethical responsibilities of the society. It is important to take into cognizance how IT equipments are efficiently utilized without compromising the environmental sustainability, the economics of energy efficiency, which includes the cost of disposal and recycling within usable built environment. This research is aimed at evaluating the level of green IT awareness in academic community in order to ascertain the effort required to achieve a sustainable environment with green IT. The studies therefore examined how conversant are the members of academic community with IT and how the IT equipments they use contribute to climate change. The study adopted descriptive research model. The population of the study is 1350 respondents which comprises of 510 students, 670 academic staff and 170 non-academic staff of Federal University of Technology Minna. A structured questionnaire was randomly administered to the respondents. The data was analyzed using simple descriptive statistics. Findings from the study revealed that majority of the sampled population are conversant with IT equipment but are not aware of the concept of green IT. Moreover, most of the respondents are not aware of how green IT can improve environmental sustainability. The study revealed the need for creating awareness of green IT contribution to environmental sustainability in academic community.