The Outcome
Procurement professionals at Kelvin College made use of the SUPC IT peripherals framework to pilot an initial upgrade of 20 computers. The supplier upgraded computer hard drives which were previously using traditional Hard Disk Drives to new Solid State Drives, which are faster, last longer, and are more energy efficient. The supplier additionally upgraded computer memory to further improve the task speed of computers.
These upgrades vastly improved the performance of PCs, resulting in a further energy reduction during their use. For example, the first time login time was reduced from 2.09 minutes to 29 seconds, and the time from Powered Off to Login Screen was reduced to just 5 seconds. Memory upgrades also meant that applications ran faster, allowing students to complete assignments more efficiently. After the success of this initial pilot, the program was expanded to upgrade a further 380 PCs across Glasgow Kelvin College’s campus and a number of partner learning centres.
Comments from partner:
“Solid State Drives have been installed in all the desktop PCs and has completed Re-imaging for both centres. Our PCs are now running at optimum speed so logging in, accessing word etc. takes very little time at all. It’s always a pleasure to work with our college colleagues and the professionalism they show is second to none.”
The increase in start-up time meant that the log off and restart buttons could be removed so that PCs are shutdown at the point of students walking away from the device. This meant that PCs were not left on standby and resulted in a further reduction in energy consumption.
Glasgow Kelvin College’s Vision is to transform lives through education, which includes partnering with community organisations to support 44 community-based learning centres throughout Glasgow and central Scotland. Kelvin College next plan to upgrade 150 PCs at these Community Learning Centres, thereby providing communities with access to improve education and modern digital skills.
Contribution to National Outcomes
Lessons Learned
Incorporating life cycle impact mapping into this project has given the team confidence to use this approach on wider scales. The success of the project has encouraged wider long-term, whole life cycle thinking. The team reflected that in the future, a reporting criteria would strengthen this procurement exercise, as collecting more before/after data on carbon would provide solid metrics of success.
