Join us in our mission to reach net zero by 2040.  

ICT are committed to Imperial's target of reaching net zero for Scope 1 and 2 emissions (energy and campus transport) by 2040 and minimising Scope 3 emissions (goods and services we buy) as far as possible. As part of this, we are making changes to ensure we can get there.

It is important to consider the sustainability of our ICT use. Every time you print, send an email, save documents to the cloud or use AI you are using electricity and precious resources. 

Use our seven steps to sustainable IT use, and become your own sustainability superhero:

Seven sustainablility steps to becoming a superhero

Professor Omala figure

Think before your print

Think before you print! Imperial prints over 5.1 million times a year, using over 600 trees annually for our paper demand! You can reduce the amount you print and use tech instead of paper for tasks, like taking notes!
Please don’t print unless you really need to, share documents using One Drive or SharePoint instead.

Find out how much your department is printing

Captain Net0 running

Shut the lid to save the grid!

By putting your laptop or computer to sleep when you go for a break, or switching off and unplugging it when not in use, you can save about 1kg of CO₂e per year!

Find out how to save energy

With great AI power comes great responsibility.

AI is revolutionising how we work and enhancing our world-leading research. However, it comes with a significant environmental cost—consuming vast amounts of electricity and water, with its impact growing exponentially each year. For instance, training a single AI model can use more electricity than 100 American homes consume in a year (LinkedIn Learning).
Before using AI, pause and ask: Is it truly necessary for this task? If it’s essential—such as for research—go ahead. But for general use, please take a moment to consider whether AI is the right tool. Thoughtful use helps us balance innovation with sustainability.

Keep your kit, do your bit.

If you do need to purchase a new laptop or other ICT hardware, please keep it for as long as possible. The embodied carbon of all the hardware at Imperial (excluding the servers) totals a massive 5,400 tCO2e, equivalent to powering and heating over 1400 homes for a year. Therefore, we want to keep devices for as long as possible and not buy new unless we really need to. Imperial is aiming to extend the life of our laptops to 5 years where practical, so contact ICT if you have an aging laptop that you want to keep but needs some TLC.

Contact ICT if you have an aging laptop

Only buy the equipment you need

Most of the emissions from basic ICT equipment such as desktops, laptops and phones are released during the manufacturing process. Therefore, if we want to reduce our impact we need to consider if we really need to buy a device in the first place. In general, the smaller the device the less embodied carbon so we want to consider if a simple laptop will do what we require, rather than a large desktop.

Sustainable communication

Every email sent uses electricity. Think about the number of people copied into emails and the number of emails you send. Only include those that need to action or note your message. An e-mail reply generates around 4g CO2, where a reaction such as a thumbs up is a fraction of the emissions. Share large files through SharePoint, rather than attaching to an email.

Share large files through SharePoint

Learn about green computing

For example, in Research Computing the building of efficient applications and software products, design and algorithm choices, coding optimisation and by limiting unnecessary runs can save money and emissions!

What more can I do?

You can find out about the Impact technology has on the environment. 

Use Ecosia - the search engine that plants trees.