 "Photo: Dane Koch")
A simple computer program could save Chico State thousands of dollars, save on energy and reduce greenhouse emissions.
Senior Kalen Daniel, a Green Campus intern, saw the potential to implement a computer program being used by the user services department into other departments in order to save the university thousands of dollars a year, he said.
Now, User Services and Green Campus - a nonprofit student-led organization - have partnered with Daniel to launch the Desktop Sustainability Plan, he said.
They are ready to start piloting Power Save - the sustainable computer program - with any campus departments that want to participate.
Power Save, created by the software company Faronics, puts computers into a low energy consuming stand-by mode, which is much more efficient and measures how much energy is being saved, Daniel said. It enables the user to estimate the savings.
If installed in all the campus departments, the program has the capacity to save Chico State $100,000 annually, he said.
"I think they could save even more than that," Daniel said. "But every computer on campus would have to be using the program."
The program has been in use since November 2008 in three campus computer labs, under the user services department, which handles all software used at Chico State, he said.
But the program benefits the environment as well as the university.
Power Save would be great for Chico State's green image, said Halli Bovia, sustainability coordinator.
University President Paul Zingg signed an agreement for the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment, she said. The commitment is to reduce greenhouse emissions and eventually get the campus' emissions down to zero.
"A good portion of our greenhouse emissions come from our energy use," Bovia said.
The Desktop Sustainability Plan is also eligible for a PG&E rebate, she said. So, that would help cover the costs of the project.
One faculty member would facilitate the technicalities of the program.
The remaining departments adopting Power Save would be very beneficial for the university, said Ryan Richter, ResNet and Labs Services coordinator.
Chico State saves an average of $1,245 a month with the three computer labs that are using the program, according to the reports generated by Power Save, Richter said.
Power Save reports back to a central-control server that synchronizes the whole Power Save setting process and makes it a lot easier than setting one computer at a time, he said.
There are a lot of computer labs under other departments, and it's up to those departments to decide if they want to use Power Save or not, Richter said. He would administer the control server, but if people in individual departments want to manage the settings, they would have that option.
Power Save itself isn't very complicated, he said. But even the simplest thing can become complicated when one applies it to a large number of computers. It's not as simple as just flipping a switch.
Any time some of the control is taken away from the end-user, there is the potential to disrupt what they're working on, Richter said. But he is taking it one step at a time and doing everything possible to not cause any problems for other departments.
"I will present the proposal at a campus lab management meeting later this month," Richter said. "We will try to make it as easy as possible for departments to set the program up and hope to see everyone get on board."
Joel Hersch can be reached at jhersch@theorion.com
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