Green Initiatives In Malaysia

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Human being’s life on earth depends on the resources that abound on the earth. Throughout their lifespan, they consume these resources on earth and release waste (in form of pollution) to the environment; either intentionally or unintentionally. This may be in form of cooking, lightening, heating, and smelting irons, for the purpose of their live. Their consumption and the resulting pollution were then very limited as they may not necessarily exceed their living area. However, after the emergence of industrialization and urbanization the environmental pollution issues are becoming a threat to human health and livelihood. As an example, that comes easily to mind, is the pollution due to indulgence in mining, oil and gas exploration, which have increased the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG): one of the main global warming issue.

In the 1960s, awareness of the impacts of environmental issues grows; issues that bother around air and water pollution, climate change, land desertification gathers more attention and organisations (companies) started to accept responsibilities. This was a groundswell support to make organisations worry about global warming and climate changing (Hart, 1997). This revolution has changed how organisations do their businesses and how people react to life‘s resources on earth. Interestingly one of the causes of the global warming and climate change that bothers the mind today is the technology we utilise in our activities.

Due to the operation and use of the technology in our daily activities, we consume large amount of energy, whereas, such consumption and its resultant emission and pollution have been a call for concern. Thus, it is not surprising when Chowdhury (2012) posit that: Sustainable development has remained an area of concern, and a major UN research and policy for several years. The UN Conference on the Human Environment, as authorized by UN General Assembly in 1968, was held in 1972 where "sustainability was a major theme, expressed as the idea that was possible to combine economic growth with environmental protection" (Nolin, 2010).

One of the instrument of the much talked about technology is the peversive Information and Communication Technology (ICT) which has become one of the indispensable necessity in our lives. As a matter of fact, organisations these days can hardly survive without using IT facilities, and even our day to day activites are fastly becoming ICT enabled, without any doubt because of the way IT facilities are been used for countless benefits like; doing businesses fast and right on the time, communicating, shopping, educating, etc. That Information Technology (IT) aids the fast performance of activities and organisations’ numerical output as well (Gold-Bernstein & Ruh, 2004) is becoming a fact that has been appreciated. So, organization these days recognize ICT as the bedrock of the growing globalised world. This fact is both obtainable to the "do it for profit" as well as "non-profit oriented" organisations. The Higher Educational Institutions (HEI) as an organisation saddled with the affairs of educational learning and development is also in the use of ICT to enabled research and development and cannot be left out of this issue.

Thus the utilization of these ICT facilities is really becoming a usual conventional thing, but as the demand for this utility grows the more the resultant emission we have in the environment. It is on record, that these ICT infrastructures, according to Ruth (2009), do account for roughly 3% of global electricity usage and the same percentage of greenhouse gases(GHGs). Thus, we stay by the day in a polluted environment.

This situation can be overcomed and so efforts are being made to minimize the energy consuming and reduce carbon imitation emitted from Information System’s (IS) equipments, starting from manufacturing devices with less hazardous materials, and recycling used one, which will be made available via proper disposal of it. Thus, one appreciates the evolving studies directed towards the minimization of energy consumption, and a genuine way of reducing carbon dioxide emission from IS equipments is a way to save the world of an impending danger.

According to WMO website, the years 2002-2011 was consider as the warmest decade since the start of records in 1850 (WMO, 2012). To stop the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, global emissions would have to stop growing. Electricity is a major cause of climate change, because the coal or oil that helps generating electricity also releases carbon dioxide, pollutants, and sulfur into the atmosphere (Murugesan, 2008).

According to Chowdhury (2012), a study by the Australian Computer Society noted that in 2009:

Australia’s ICT users consumed 13.248 million KWh of electricity, which generated 14.248 million tons equivalent of CO2 emissions, which is nearly 2.5% of Australia’s total emissions (which is 539 million tons). The Berkeley study also (Raghavan & Ma, 2011) notes that desktops and laptops comprise roughly half of the Internet’s total power consumption

The need for greening ICT infrastructure and its use has thus evolved as a term used to describe the ability to ensure a sustainable technology, which has no, or minimum, effect of the environment. According to Lamb (2011), making IT green is a significant part of the "Green" concepts that will help us reduce greenhouse gases, which will in turn help to reduce global warming. This can also be very financially rewarding. This is so, in that, the IT power consumption will be reducing in the process.

Murugesan (2008) opines that: we are legally, ethically, and socially required to green our IT products, applications, services, and practices, because it benefits the environment (public interest) by improving energy efficiency, lowering greenhouse gas emissions, using less harmful materials, and encouraging reuse and recycling. Without a conscious effort, to recycle used IT components, Ruth (2009) fears that such components will find their ways into mostly the developing nations with more comfortable and relaxing environmental regulations. It will be interesting that most of the nations mentioned in connection to this fears are China, India and Pakistan: all Asian countries. This portends a great danger for Malaysia and as such, one cannot afford to go to bed without worries.

Aside from these, going green is required from us as Muslims. Firstly, as Allah S.W.T says In the Holly Quran, in Surat Al-Isra (chapter 17), in Ayah 26: "walatubaththir tabtheeran": but squander not (your wealth) in the manner of a spendthrift. Allah S.W.T orders us not to be squanderer, spending money excessively and extravagantly without any sense. In same manner, consuming energy more than needed is squandering, consuming earth resources loftily and senselessly is squandering. From here, we Muslims are responsible and required, as a religious duty, to reserve our life resources and hence the go green concept is part of us.

Secondly, polluting the environment intentionally is a trespassing to public interests as the environment contains all resources of our life. As the prophet (peace be upon him) said in the hadith (no) (لا ضرر ولا ضرار): There should be neither harming nor reciprocating harm). Muslims, in their work and activities, should not bring harm to themselves or to others, nor return harm to respond to harm. Environment is a gift and a blessing from the creator to all human kind (Quran, 31:20), from a fresh air, clean water etc. this is a fact human race should appreciate as Allah S.W.T will punish those who pollute it the world of the living (Quran, 2:211) for their own relaxation on trespassing other people’s rights.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Given the Millennium Development Goal Number Seven: "Ensure Environmental Sustainability" and the number of computer and Information Systems infrastructures available in the International Islamic University, Malaysia (IIUM) community. How IIUM has gone in implementing Green IS and what are the factors influencing such initiatives inform the concern of the present study. This concern is borne out of the fact that given the place of universities in nation building one would expect it to serve as a centre of excellence from whom the larger community of Malaysia should learn. However, the indication is that: there are few available research works that confirm that the university is compliant with the green IS concept and that the members of the community have imbibed such practices given its good result.

This reality is borne out of the fact that the field of Green Computing (Ruth, 2009) or Green IS (Watson, Boudreau, & Chen, 2010) or Green IT (Lamb, 2011) as various scholars refer to this new paradigm, is an entirely new 'thinking out' of the box that is just evolving. The present study is posed to investigate the level of Green IT initiative in the university and the way it can be leverage to achieve the seventh millennium goal of environmental sustainability via an effective effort in an educational setting. It is an agreeable fact that a lot would have to be done to harness the benefits of the initiative and this current effort of this study is in that direction.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The following questions thus for the basis if the current study:

What are the factors influencing Green IT initiatives in Education Sector?

How can IT/IS be used to enable environmental sustainability?

How effective has been the IIUM Green IT initiatives on the IIUM community?

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

This study is to:

To determine the factors influencing Green IT initiatives in IIUM.

To determine how IT/IS can be used to enable environmental sustainability.

To determine the effectiveness of IIUM Green IT initiatives on the IIUM community.

METHODOLOGY

To examine these research questions, interviews sessions were conducted with a focus on the policy makers and managers of Information Technology in the university. An exploration of the website and other archives of the university were done to determine the present situation of greening paradigm in the university. Last but not the least; questionnaires were administered on randomly selected students’ populace at the Gombak campus of IIUM to explore their awareness of the university initiatives in a bid to enhance the thoroughness of this study. Further detail is mentioned in chapter three.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The study used a case study to analyze the Green IT concept in an educational Institution. The instrument of collecting data was interview of stakeholders from the ICT provider in the university and some historical facts of the case study in addition to administering questionnaires on students in Gombak Campus of IIUM.

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS

GREEN IT

Murugesan’s definition: It’s the study and practice of designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers, servers, and associated subsystems—such as monitors, printers, storage devices, and networking and communications systems—efficiently and effectively with minimal or no impact on the environment. Green IT also strives to achieve economic viability and improved system performance and use, while abiding by our social and ethical responsibilities. Thus, green IT includes the dimensions of environmental sustainability, the economics of energy efficiency, and the total cost of ownership, which includes the cost of disposal and recycling. (Murugesan, 2008).

Arayalert & Nakata (2011): summarizes and extends the definition to a co-ordination and convergence of strategy, practice and measurement of green ICT whish address environmental sustainability. Green computing is about environmentally friendly use of computers and related technologies and "Green IT" refers to all IT solutions that save energy at various levels of use. These include (i) hardware, (ii) software and (iii) services.

Chowdhury (2012), quoting Jenkin et al. posit that: Green IT refers to the initiatives and programmes that directly or indirectly address environmental sustainability.

Environmental sustainability

Environmental sustainability involves making decisions and taking action that are in the interests of protecting the natural world, with particular emphasis on preserving the capability of the environment to support human life. It is about making responsible decisions that will reduce your business' negative impact on the environment (NSW, 2012).

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The significance of the study is borne out of the fact it will help promote the Green IS paradigm. It will help promote the concept in an educational setting in a nation that is consciously working towards the developed nation status by the year 2020.

From the management’s perspective, it will serve as an empirical study on:

The place of Green IT/IS initiatives in a Malaysian Higher Educational Institution.

The essence of imbibing the Green IT/IS and its positive effect in a university known for its Islamic brand.

From the students’ perspective, it will serve as a means:

Propagating the awareness of the students community on the Green IT/IS paradigm in general.

It will serve to promote the Green initiatives by a way of exposing the positive effect upholding the paradigm will bring forth for the community.

It is to serve as a reminder that as Muslims we have a duty to be deal with our environment with utmost caution and respects.

ORGANISATION OF THE DISSERTATION

The report of this study is organised into five chapters that addresses the concerns of the study; which is to discover the extent of use of IT governance principle in an education outfit. The summary of those chapters is hereby given:

Chapter One: Introduction

This chapter introduces the study providing the purpose of study, the questions and the research objectives. It briefly tells on the method used to gather information while espousing the benefits that this study brings as well as the limitations in carrying it out.

Chapter Two: Literature Review

This chapter take a look at the previous works relating to the evolution of the Green Initiative and thus the Green IT/IS vis-à-vis its application in this context of higher education institutions as well as relate its frameworks on best practices and how adopting them is very essential. It depicts the dearth in the study of Green IT in the context of education institution in a developing nation like Malaysia.

Chapter Three: Research Methodology

Bearing in mind the gap in literature and thus the need for the research a single case study was embarked on. In order to have an insight to the purpose the study, the techniques embarked on in gathering the necessary information was explained here. This chapter was dedicated to explore the case study entity: information technology division ITD and Corporate Strategy and Quality Assurance division CSQA of IIUM. The history of the Green IT initiative in the university and its administrative were brought to limelight and how these two entities have fared in this regard were considered.

Chapter Four: Analysis and Observation

Here the themes that was uncovered from the interviews as a way of learning from the wealth of experiences of the practitioners in the field was presented. The analysis of the questionnaires that were administered on the students populace were also analysed to see how they see and relate with the Green IT initiative of the university.

Chapter Five: Discussion and Conclusion

A recap of the report on the state of Green IT paradigm in an academic environment in a developing nation was presented. The relevance of the questions of the study set at the beginning of the research was tied to the findings from the data thus gathered. The chapter brings forth some recommendations as well as highlights in what could be the implications of the findings to theory and practice. It also espoused the need for further study.

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

INTRODUCTION

Green Information and Communication Technology (Green ICT) is a new research area that is broadly understood as an initiative to encourage individuals, groups, and organisations engaged in the use of ICT to consider environmental problems and find solutions to them (Arayalert & Nakata, 2011). It has evolved out of the need to think out of the box. This is borne out of the fact that since Information Technology has become the heart of successful modern business (Lamb, 2011), then one can imagine the environmental consequences that are accruable from these IT based machines scattered all around the world. Having this in mind, Lamb (2011), reveal that, Green IT have thus evolved as an ideal way for most growing enterprise or multi-nationals to make significant steps towards ensuring that we have a greener society; that can serve as a cushion effect for the IT globalization.

The Green Computing idea started in 1992, which show its recentness though the issue of sustaining the environment has been with us some decades back, when the US environment Protection Agency (EPA) lunched Energy Star, a voluntary labeling approach to recognize electric equipment’s energy-efficiency characteristics. EPA, established in 1970, has a mission: "to protect human health and the environment" and conduct researches on the adverse effects of pollution and on methods and equipment for controlling it (EPA, 1992). In 1992, EPA joined hands with the U.S. Department of Energy to start the Energy Star program to help Americans save money and protect the environment through energy-efficient products and practices (EPA, 2006). In 2010, Americans used Energy Star to save nearly $18 billion on utility bills and avoid greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from 33 million cars. Since its creation, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan and the European Union have adopted Energy Star (Energy Star).

GREEN INITIATIVES

In September 2000, building upon a decade of major United Nations conferences and summits, world leaders came together at United Nations Headquarters in New York to adopt the United Nations Millennium Declaration, committing their nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and setting out a series of time-bound targets -with a deadline of 2015- that have become known as the Millennium Development Goals (United-Nations, 2000). The Millennium Summit was a meeting among many world leaders lasting three days from 6 September to 8 September 2000 at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. Its purpose was to discuss the role of the United Nations at the turn of the 21st century. At this meeting, the largest gathering of world leaders in history as of the year 2000, world leaders ratified the United Nations Millennium Declaration.

However, one of the landmark policy documents on climate change, which have resulted from the Inter-governmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) assessment reports and subsequent UN and various government initiatives, is refer to as The Kyoto Protocol. This protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on 11 December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005. It has set binding targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European Community for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to an average of 5% against the 1990 levels over the five-year period of 2008–2012 (Chowdhury, 2012).

Consequently, many countries now have developed new initiatives and strategies for reducing their emissions, and several targets have been set. There have been studies to the effect that greening the environment is a must for all as the imminent danger of doing otherwise stares at us in the face. Murugesan (2008) sees that the growing accumulation of greenhouse gases is changing the world’s climate and weather patterns, creating droughts in some countries and flood in others and it’s slowly pushing global temperatures higher, thus, we can no longer claim oblivion of such treat.

Wong (2003), in his own study, observed that what is paramount is how people perceive, and behave in response to, environmental problem in understanding responses from individuals, groups, and social levels. This fears as well as the much celebrated Technology Adoption paradigm goes to state that the effort of government in giving the populace a direction is not a child’s play. To address this, Fourie (2012) suggest that a first step would be to realise the need for factual information (cognitive issues), as well as addressing the affective by exploring means of sharing ideas on "going green" and displaying relevant information on "going green" available in books, videos, etc. through every possible means, be that home pages, their own video clips, games. Information is associated with serious business and serious work, but perhaps a bit of fun in sharing it can add incentive to those doing the work, as well as those at whom the information is aimed (Fourie, 2012).

This growing awareness has put companies, organisations and all providers of services to be more aware of the need of thier consumers satisfaction on one hand and the corporate social responsibility especially as it affects environmental sustainability in accordance with the Millenium Development Goal on the other hand. This fact is supported by Spackman et-al (2010):

Companies have become more aware of the interconnectedness of their activities and the manmade and natural world surrounding them...While satisfying consumer desires was the original intention of marketing, as sustainability became more important to consumers, companies and organizations began to respond... As public awareness of environmental issues continued to grow, the concept of societal marketing evolved into green or sustainable marketing

These facts has make both do it for profit companies, governmental and non-govermental organisations as well as the higher educational institutions all over the globe; be it in the developed, developing or underdeveloped nations to become active in the campaing and creation of an enabling environment for the sustaibility of an eco-freindly world. The tempo of such aggressiveness to address this upsurging problem may however different from one nation to another. The present study is focusing on the effectiveness of such initiative in a higher institution of a nation that is rapidly becoming a developed nation.

GREEN INITIATIVES IN MALAYSIA

Malaysia is a growing economy that now has more attention focused on it. In its bid to make it to the ladder, the nation is spuriously making true its agenda for 2020 by which it would have achieved the status of a "developed nation". In addition, as a one of the major tourism destinations, Malaysia has been successfully marketed as an ecologically and culturally rich destination. Added to this reality, the natural endowment to which make it a destination for tourism and the fact that the education industry is witnessing a lot of influx based on the reputation the Malaysian educational sector. This reputation, based on the spirited effort of the government, is harnessing the gains as Hassan (2006) states:

Education is another growing industry where Malaysia is gaining acceptance as a reputable study destination in the region. The education sector offers a variety of higher educational programs as well as professional and specialised skill courses that are comparatively priced and of excellent quality. Underlying this is the current trend of reputable universities from the UK and Australia setting up branch campuses here, whilst other universities from USA, Canada, Australia, France, Germany and New Zealand offer twinning, franchised and external degree programs in partnership with Malaysian institutions

Adducing from the fact of being a developed nation, Malaysia has to be responsive to the paradigm shift in the use of the environment and that will affect lot of things in this regards. A developed nation is expected to generate a lot of greenhouse gas due to industrialization more so; given the already highlighted challenges posed by the use of ICT facilities for which the nation has carve a niche for itself. Accordingly, the Government has been allocating huge sums under its Malaysia Plan (MP) for IT expenditure, which Maidin & Arshad (2010) reasoned that this is due to the Government’s plan to move towards a paperless environment, decrease the daily operational cost and improve the quality of services being delivered to the citizen. Given these facts, one is not surprised to read that the Malaysian Government has created policies and regulations to support sustainable tourism, one of which is the National Tourism Policy that promotes sustainable practices in the industry (Siti-Nabiha, et al., 2011).

Sustainability, according to Siti-Nabiha, et al. (2011), covers a wide range of dimensions and includes economic issues relating to organizational interactions with its stakeholders, social involvement with the local community and environmental activities that protect and conserve nature while minimizing damage to environment. So by the day, the awareness on the need to cut greenhouse gas, cut cost by use of efficient way to power utilization do form the basis of several efforts by the government and the corporate organisations in the country. In fact, Uddin, et al. (2011) records that: "Seldom does a day pass in which we don’t hear or read about sustainability or "going green." Environmental concerns are constantly in news headlines and the impact of technology on our environment is significant".

Green campaign is thus, one of the hot topics among the Malaysian. The objective of here is to create awareness among the public to protect our environment. In Malaysia there are a lot of organization organizing green campaign such as Environmental Protection Society Malaysia (EPSM), Malaysia Environment NGOs (MENGO) and Treat Every Environment Special Sdn. Bhd. (TRESS) (Islam, Saidur, Rahim, & Solangi, 2010).

ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE ON GREEN INITIATIVES

I have to add some!!

FACTORS INFLUENCING GREEN INITIATIVES IN MALAYSIA

Despite these campaign and the created awareness on the need to be environmental friendly there are still a number of challenges especially on the part of the implementing organization due to non attractiveness of the venture. In the study by Siti-Nabiha, et al. (2011) the following factors was identified as salient when talking about the green initiative in Malaysia:

Unattractive benefits compared to costs,

Not enough incentives or rebates from the government to encourage implementation of green practices.

Lack of knowledge about the variety of methods that can be used to protect the environment and care for society in an effective way.

GREEN IS/IT INITIATIVES

Over the years, Murugesan (2008) observed, the use of IT has exploded in several areas; improving our lives and work and offering convenience along with several other benefits. However, IT has been contributing to environmental problems, which most people do not realise. Computer and other IT infrastructures consume significant amount of electricity, placing a heavy burden on our electric grids and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, Green IT or Green Computing as Agarwal & Nath (2011) opined, represents an environmentally responsible way to reduce power and environmental waste. It is about the environmental friendly use of computers and its related technologies.

Murugesan (2008) define the field of green computing as:

The study and practice of designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers, servers, and associated subsystems -such as monitors, printers, storage devices, and networking and communications systems- efficiently and effectively with minimal or no impact on the environment

Elaborately, Arayalert & Nakata (2011) position that Green ICT aims at: minimising carbon footprint, minimise hazardous ICT waste, reduce energy cost, achieve corporate social responsibility (CRS), and finally comply with regulations. From these perspectives, the evolution of Green Computing or Green IS/IT, as the case may be, is aimed at reducing or militating against the effect of the havoc for which our daily use and disposal of ICT enabled infrastructures has bring to the earth. From this end, is the need to be prudent while ensuring our comfortable with the use of these instruments: thus the need to "go green".

The result from this evolution has been wonderful as reduction in energy use and consumables, cost savings in energy use, purchases, management and support, in addition to environmental benefits has been recorded (Agarwal & Nath, 2011). Exposure to this paradigm shift and patronage will among other benefits provides its adherents with the following as enunciated by Agarwal & Nath (2011):

Lower overall energy expenses.

Optimize server capacities and performances.

Reduce data centre footprint.

Reclaiming valuable floor space through consolidation and/or virtualization.

Provide required, rapid and secure access to data.

Increase ease of system and solutions management.

Recycle end-of-life equipment.

Recapture resiliency.

Free-up budget components.

Factors Influencing Green IT Initiatives

An Ignorant Fact

Immersing in adopting IT in their lives, majority of people are unaware of the environmental problems that are caused by harnessing and adopting ICT. Murugesan (2008) opined that most people do not realise that computers and other IT infrastructure contribute to environmental problems, where the use of IT consumes significant amount of electricity, placing a heavy burden on the electric grids and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. The impression is more shocking when Watson, et al. (2010) alleged that the IS academic community seems largely ignorant of the challenge of sustainable development, with a few exceptions.

From here, Watson, et al. (2010), see that it is the responsibilty of the IS community to promote this initiative in order to minimise the environmental problems, recommending a set of action for Educational Institutions as a step to promote the Green IT:

Include environmental sustainability as a foundation within all IS-related classes where appropriate.

Produce more educational materials (case studies, etc.) to learn about the impacts and challenges related to Green IS projects.

Introduce energy informatics into the IS major curriculum.

The current study fit into the second proviso here as it presents a case study on the IT initiatives in a Higher Educational Institution. Holistically, Green IT/IS researches has shown how the carbon footprint of ICT can be reduce in different ways. Quoting several studies; for example, Chowdhury (2012) enumerate some ways to achieving this:

By developing more sophisticated software and business systems that can help in the reduction of GHG emissions of businesses.

By developing new and improved technologies for manufacturing ICT equipments and infrastructure.

By sharing computing and ICT infrastructure and thereby optimizing the use of computing and network resources and also reducing energy consumption of ICT.

GREEN IT INITIATIVES IN EDUCATIONAL SECTOR:

In the UK, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) is promoting the idea of using the cloud computing technology for providing data and information access services for the higher education sector in the country. Some universities in the US are now taking initiatives in developing cloud-based systems for managing research data and information (Chowdhury, 2012). The Netherlands, SURFnet, the national body for promoting ICT in education and research, is also taking several measures for promoting the use of cloud computing for higher education and research (Chowdhury, 2012). The overall evolution of green ICT practices in UK HEIs displayed significant increase in concern on ICT and environmental issues during 2009 and 2011 (Arayalert & Nakata, 2011). This fact goes to show the genuine need for HEIs to be conversant with the havoc derivable in being negligent in this regards.

Why education sector has to Go Green

Education systems thus, are hardly surviving without the use of ICT nowadays. Admittedly, due to the generalized nature of the curriculum, students are required to study more modules thereby contributing more to wastage of energy through various forms. Educational systems, are thus, major users of energy consuming devices and equipments while delivering the curriculum contents. Hence, educational systems or curriculum contents have a relationship with energy and that aspect should be considered in green (Rajadorai & Selvakumar, 2011).

Arayalert & Nakata (2011), explain three reasons for why HEIs need to pay attention to Green ICT, namely the social pressure, economic pressure and environmental pressure.

Environmental Pressure: due to the impacts of ICT on the environment, because ICT is a cause of carbon dioxide emission, high-energy consumption, and hazardous waste production. Regarding HEIs, students and staff have increased the number of ICT equipment and usage. So, HEIs have to adopt green ICT to minimize energy consumption, carbon footprint, ICT waste, and to maximize recycling and reusing.

Social Pressure: in term of HEIs, green ICT operates to achieve social aspects, which are related to corporate social responsibilities (CSR). These responsibilities include enhanced image, improved reputation and trustworthiness.

Economic pressure: ICT has directly affected financial cost including utilities and maintenance costs, which increase every year. Green ICT proposes to develop and use energy efficient equipments and reduce energy cost. As such, Green ICT in HEIs can also address economic pressure through saving in energy usage.

Universities as Organisation

Universities and higher institutions stands at the center when we talk about educational institutions and they considerably have features of today’s organisations in many known regards. Lockwood observed; universities like other organisations have, for instance, the problems of coordinating resources, controlling costs, of stimulating and facilitating enterprise among staff, and so on’ (Pollock & Cornford, 2004).

The issue of the uniqueness of universities to any other organization and or any other Higher Educational Institutions is to the extent that they possesses some certain combination of common characteristics which Lockwood cited in (Pollock & Cornford, 2004) described as unlike any other organisations, these includes:

Complexity of purpose.

Limited measurability of outputs.

Autonomy and dependency from wider society.

Diffusion of authority, and

Internal fragmentation

Thus, what obtain in these organisations is obtainable in the higher educational institutions. Today we have both private and public universities with aims and objectives not too distance from the known private and public organisations; they may be profit oriented, charitable based or what have you, it is a fact that university, despite its changes over time, maintains the characteristics of an established institution (Mudaliar, 2009). To this, Rajadorai & Selvakumar (2011) recount the fact that:

Educational systems are also major users of the devices and equipments that consume energy in order to deliver the curriculum contents. Hence, Educational systems have a relationship with energy consuming…Performing two Google searches from a desktop computer can generate about same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle for a cup of tea

Silver, et al. (1995) in their study recorded that:

Polluting nature by emitting radiation from the equipments such as projectors, computers, etc., according to (Braue, 2009) 0.473KWh power per hour is being used by the devices that are used by a student. Let’s say the university has around 500 first year students and is using 4 hours of power for their redundant subject in a day, in a year they are wasting around 345290Kwh. If we convert the power to costs (using $0.1561 per kWh) then around $53900 is being wasted. The calculation shown is just for one university’s first year student’s power consumption. Imagine how much costs are incurred for overall universities worldwide. Furthermore it is just for power wastage, what about other type of energy wastages

Since the inception of the Green computing or Green IT or Green IS concept, organisations that have accepted the paradigm shift are mostly the "do it for profit" ones. To this end most of the studies focuses more on this types of firms (Murugesan, 2008; Ruth, 2009; Lamb, 2011; Agarwal & Nath, 2011; Hedman & Henningsson, 2011). However, considering educational institutions as an organisation is very important as they replicate what the society and this explains why we have some studies focusing on educational institutions (Weenen, 2000; Wong, 2003; James & Hopkinson, 2009; Atherton & Giurco, 2011; Faghihimani, 2010; Arayalert & Nakata, 2011; Rajadorai & Selvakumar, 2011).

GREEN IS/IT FRAMEWORKS

For the purpose of this study, we restrict ourselves to examine the following framework available in the literature. These frameworks will form the benchmark for the present case study to determine how it fares in the propagation of the Green IS paradigm.

Murugesan’s holistic approach

In evolving a way out of danger posed by the effect of use of ICT facilities, one of the efforts that comprehensively and effectively address the environmental impact, especially in educational institution, is the one captioned by (Murugesan, 2008) as:

Green use.

Green disposal.

Green design.

Green manufacturing.

Green Use

Reduce the energy consumption of computers and other information systems and use them in an environmentally sound manner. By this we can significantly reduce our energy consumption by making small changes to the ways we use computers. "Turn it off when not in use". This, unlike the general believe, increases the lifespan of the equipment. We can also program it to automatically power down to an energy-saving state when we are not using it. Software such as Surveyor that can offer network-level control over PCs and monitors is being deploy when PC use is widespread in a given organization.

Due to increase in use of servers, given the wide use of the internet and the web applications data centers efficiency, can be achieved, by using energy-saving equipments, improve airflow management to reduce cooling requirements, invest in energy management software and adopt environmentally friendly designs for data centers. IT industries are not relenting in this regard, as they are now evolving all means to conserve energy by working on technologies such as liquid cooling, nano-fluid cooling systems and many more innovative means. Eco-friendly data centers also uses synthetic white rubber roof, paint and carpet of low volatile organic compound and practice virtualization as a key to reduce the power consumption of their centers.

Green Disposal

Refurbish and reuse old computers and properly recycle unwanted computers, and other electronic equipment. Thus, we should not throw away old computers or it paraphernalia anyhow; rather we should try to give life to it by imbibing the culture of the Three Rs:

Reuse: once a system meets our requirement, we need not dispose because of age. When it does not, then we can donate it to other person that can put it to use.

Refurbish: if a system is not meeting the new requirement it can be upgraded to meet the new requirement.

Recycle: when the system cannot be reuse and must be disposed then such must be done in a properly environmentally friendly way in a manner suggested below:

Separate collection, disposal and recycling;

Standards for e-waste treatment at authorized facilities; and

Collection, recycling, and recovery targets.

Green Design

Design energy efficient and environmentally sound components, computers, servers, and cooling equipment. This will reduce the environmental impact of computers by adopting new technologies and using new techniques and materials while balancing environmental compatibility with economic viability and performance. For example, moving CPUs from single core to dual and quad core processors, adherence to standards in assessing the environmental attributes of the computer components and the adoption of enterprise wide green IT Strategy.

Green Manufacturing

Manufacture electronic components, computers, other associated subsystems with minimal or no impact on the environment.

Going by this framework, the HEIs could easily fit, especially, in the first two items that has to do with our growing consumption and how we deal with such as well as how we dispose these facilities. The HEIs can favorably harness this to boost its yield and arrive at a matured stage of optimality.

Arayalert & Nakata’s framework

The purpose of the framework is to provide a scope and analysis of Green ICT in HEIs.

C:\Users\Admin\Desktop\PGSS KICT\green icons\araryati framework.png

Green ICT Strategy

ICT plays an important role in HEIs’ core and administrative activities. There are commitments from governments around the world to reduce carbon emission. HIEs in UK have followed their government’s regulations and policy to reduce environmental, social, and economic pressures. Therefore, most UK HEIs have developed ICT strategy, considered to be, the first step to achieve these green ICT targets.

The strategic objectives derived from UK HEIs by this paper were:

Minimize carbon footprint.

Minimize hazardous ICT waste.

Reduce energy cost.

Achieve corporate social responsibility.

Comply with Green ICT regulations.

Green ICT Practices

Usually, Green ICT strategies serve as the basis to develop Green ICT practices.

Green ICT practices for UK HEIs’ websites data analysis is categorize as follows:

The Green ICT Practice of Personal Computing and Related Equipments.

The Green ICT Practice of Printing and Consumables Usage.

The Green ICT Practice of Enterprise Computing and Related Equipments.

The Green ICT Practice of Working and Study Activities.

Green ICT Measurement:

HEIs should measure the targets and monitor the environmental impacts of ICT. Measured information can motivate stakeholders’ with regard to Green ICT. Targeting provides an aim to achieve. It also provides a milestone for Green ICT development, which highlights the present status and how far people need to go. Monitoring is the ability to measure any process against itself in order to determine whether it is improves or not.

GREEN Is/IT INITIATIVES IN MALAYSIAN HEIs

No doubt green IS/IT has been a new paradigm shift but while there have also evolved, with passage of time, a replica of studies on how educational institutions of the developed nations has been deploying this paradigm shift to make the educational systems energy efficient same cannot be adjudged of developing nations. While from the foregoing realities there has emerged in recent time studies on greening the higher educational institutions most of these studies are conducted in the developed nations. Studies by Wong (2003); Murugesan (2008); Rajadorai & Selvakumar (2011) and Fourie (2012) were records of what takes place in the academic settings far away from malaysia. However in malaysia, there has been a fewer records on studies that account for the green initiatives in HEIs.

GREEN Is/IT INITIATIVES IN IIUM:

In line with the national policy to advocate sustainable and alternative energy, IIUM started the Alternative or Green Energies, and Energy Conservation and Energy Efficiency project to allow IIUM to implement renewable energy in the IIUM campus. This project is aimed to cultivate the culture of conservation, creativity and innovation by reducing the energy efficiency index up to 10% or an equivalent savings of millions of kWh for the university within the IIUM Gombak campus.

Malaysian government has established the legal and institutional framework for environmental protection to promote environmentally sound and sustainable development, the. Investors are encouraged to consider the environmental factors during the early stages of their project planning. Aspects of pollution control include possible modifications in the process line to minimise waste generation, seeing pollution prevention as part of the production process, and focusing on recycling options (MINI, 2012).

Supposed model for iium:

Needs info

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

INTRODUCTION

This chapter is a description of the steps we have embarked upon to address the research questions and the tools and instruments utilised to gather data as well as the steps taken to validate the instruments especially the constructs of the questionnaire and the questions raised in the semi-structured interview. We would look into the definition and applicability of qualitative, quantitative, mixed method, data collection, data analysis of the study.

Qualitative Design

Leedy and Ormrod (2010) posit that qualitative studies have become increasingly popular in recent years, even in some disciplines that have historically placed heavy emphasis on quantitative approaches. This approach involves looking at characteristics, or qualities, that cannot easily be reduced to numerical values. Here one aims to examine the many nuances and complexities of a particular phenomenon.

Qualitative design is an inquiry process of understanding a social or human problem, based on building a complex, holistic picture formed with words, reporting detailed of view of informant and conducted in a natural settings. According to Gorman & Clayton (2005) it is a process of enquiry that draws from the context in which events occur, in an attempt to describe these occurrences, as a means of determining the process in which events are embedded and the perspectives of those participating in the events, using induction to derive possible explanations based on observed phenomena. Creswell (2003); further explained that qualitative approaches uses inquiry strategies like narratives, phenomenologies, ethnographies, grounded theory studies or case studies. In this research we will be limited to interview, some artifacts available and then the website of the university.

Qualitative Research Approachs:

Leedy and Ormrod (2010) describe five designs for a qualitative research.

Case Study

In a case study, a particular individual, program, or event is studied in depth for a defined period of time in considerable depth. In a case study, the researcher collects extensive data on the individual(s), programs(s), or event(s) on which the investigation is focused. These data often include observation, interviews, documents (e.g. newspaper articles), post records, and audiovisual materials.

The researcher also records details about the context surrounding the case, including information about the physical environment and any historical, economic, and social factors that have bearing on the situation. Case study is usually, embarked upon when the study is to know how an independent variable exercises impact upon a dependent variable. A case study can be defined as an object of study or a procedure of inquiry (Creswell, 2008). A Researcher, Robert K. Yin, defines it as: an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context; when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident; and in which multiple sources of evidence are used (Yin, 2003).

Ethnography

In an Ethnography research, the researcher looks on entire group - more specifically, a group of common culture- in depth. The researcher studies the group in its natural setting for a length time period, often several months or several years, the focus of investigation is on the everyday behaviors of the people in the group (e.g., interactions, language, rituals), with intent to identify cultural norms, beliefs, social cultures, and other cultural patterns.

Phenomenological Study (interview)

The term phenomenology refers to a person’s perception of the meaning of an event, as opposed to the events as it exists external to the person. A Phenomenological Study is one that attempts to understand people’s perceptions, perspectives, and understandings of a particular situation. In other words, phenomenological study tries to answer the question: What is like to experience such-and-such?

In some cases, the researcher has had personal experience related to the phenomenon in question and wants to gain better understanding of the experiences of others. By looking in multiple perspectives on the same situation, the researcher can then make sine generalizations of what something is like from an insider’s perspective.

Grounded Theory Study

The major purpose of a grounded theory approach is to begin with data and use them to develop a theory. More specifically, a grounded theory study uses a prescribed set of procedures for analyzing data and constructing a theoretical model from them.

The term ground refer to the idea that the theory that emerge from the study is derived from and "grounded" in data that have been collected in the field rather than taken from the research literature. Typically, a grounded theory study focuses on a process (including people’s actions and interactions) related to a particular topic, with the ultimate goal of developing a theory about that process.

Content Analysis:

A content analysis is a detailed and systematic examination of the contents of a particular body of material for the purpose of identifying patterns, themes, or biases. Content analysis typically performed on forms of human communications, including book, newspapers, films, televisions, art, music, and video tapes of human interactions, transcripts of conversations, and internet blogs and bulletin board entries (Leedy & Ormrod, 2010).

QUANTITATIVE DESIGN

Creswell (1994) defines Quantitative design as an inquiry into a social or human problem, based on testing a theory composed of variables, measured with numbers and analysed with statistical procedures. Leedy and Ormrod (2010) depicts that quantitative research involves looking at amounts, or quantities, of one or more variable of interest. We typically measures variables in some way, perhaps by using commonly accepted measures of the physical world (e.g. rulers, thermometers, oscilloscopes) or carefully designed measures of psychological characteristics or behaviors (e.g., tests, questionnaires, rating scales).

Quantitative research uses numbers and statistical methods. It tends to be based in numerical measurements of specific aspects of phenomena; it abstracts from particular instances to seek general description or to test causal hypotheses; it seeks measurements and analyses that are easily replicable by other researchers. (King, Keohane, & Verba, 1994)

Quantitative researchers seek explanations and predictions that will generalize to other persons and places. Careful sampling strategies and experimental designs are aspects of quantitative methods aimed at produce generalizable results. In quantitative research, the researcher’s role is to observe and measure, and care is taken to keep the researchers from "contaminating" data through personal involvement with the research subjects. Researchers "objectively" are of utmost concern of utmost concern (Glesne & Peshkin, 1992).

Quantitative Research Approachs:

Four approaches are included in quantitative research design. These approaches contain quantitative information that can be summarized through statistical analysis.

Observation Studies:

A quantitative observation study tends to have a particular, pre-specified focus. For a study about human beings, the focus of observation is typically on a certain aspect of a behavior. The behavior is quantified in some way in which in some cases the occurrence of the behavior is counted to determine its overall frequency, or in others, the behavior is related to the accuracy, intensity, maturity, or some other dimensions (Leedy & Ormrod, 2010).

Correlational Research

It is a statistical approach used when the researcher need to examine the relationship between two or more characteristics or variables but not necessarily probing for their causal reasons underlying them (Leedy & Ormrod, 2010). It is a measure of the association or co-variation of two or more dependent variables by a way of examining the extent to which differences in one variable are related to the differences in other variable.

Developmental Design:

Developmental research is used to assess changes over an extended period of time. It would be an ideal choice to assess the differences in academic and social development in low-income versus high-income neighborhood. It is an observational-descriptive type of research that either compares people in different age group (called cross-sectional study) or taken through a lengthy period of time (called longitudinal study) (Leedy & Ormrod, 2010). It is most common when working with children as subjects for obvious reasons and can be undertaken using several methods: longitudinal, cross sectional, and cross sequential (AllPhsych, 2011).

Survey:

It is a study design to determine the incidence, frequency and distribution of certain characteristics in a population (Leedy & Ormrod, 2010). It is usually a method employed in collecting quantitative information about items in a given population (Wikimedia, 2012). Most often than not, the instrument used in getting this done is via the design of a set of questions for the elements in the population to respond to a pre emptive idea of the researcher on the topic at hand.

MIXED METHOD

Leedy and Ormrod (2010) believes that to some extent, quantitative and qualitative research designs are appropriate for answering different kinds of questions. As a result, we learn more about the world when we have both methodologies at our disposal than when we are limited to only of approach or the other. In order to benefit from this exposition we finally have the last approach, which Creswell (2003) termed as mixed method.

It uses approaches that have a combination of strategies from both the qualitative and quantitative. These days because of the weaknesses inherent in previous approaches a mixture of the two is now explored to strengthen the study. Leedy and Ormrod (2010) reasoned that in the quantitative method a common weakness is that the contrived circumstances of the study can give the researcher considerable control on the occurrence of an events, in the qualitative method though the study occurs in "true to life" event, yet the findings may not be generalized. It is this reality that makes researchers think in the direction of not recognizing one exclusive of the other and even at times use the two approaches in a study. According to Gorman and Clayton (2005), the name mixed method was arrived at after series of terminology has been given to this method. Nothwithstanding, the nomenclature, the purpose of using the method, Gorman and Clayton (2005) reason is twofolds: one method supports the other and the strenght of one compensate for the weakness of the other.

DATA COLLECTION

Leedy and Ormrod (2010) explained that; in quantitative researches, data are usually collected from a population, or from one or more large samples that represent the population, in a form that is easily converted to numbers while in the qualitative researches, we tend to select a few participants whose participation can shed light on the phenomenon under investigation. It can either be verbal (interview responses, documents, filed notes) or/and nonverbal data (drawings, photographs, videotapes). Interviewing is the most famous technique used in a qualitative research today. Individual and group interviewing can afford the interviewer to obtain detailed in depth information from the interviewee. The collection of data in qualitative designs allows one to learn from the informants or respondents and it also allows the recording of data as the study progress. This kind of sampling can allow one to select people who can best help to understand the phenomenon in focus (Creswell, 2008).

For this study, two types of data collection research methodology design are used, the qualitative and the quantitative research methodologies. Qualitative data-collection through multiple case-studies and a literature review will be undertaken to identify potential key concepts and variables. The findings will be validated with confidential face-to-face interviews with decision maker of IT in IIUM. The interviews will give a rich set of data that will provide information about the Green IT initiatives that has been undertaken currently by IIUM as an HEI in Malaysia. After cross-validating data from the literature review, new information derived from the interviews will be combined together with the cross-validated data to formulate a questionnaire. This questionnaire will survey student of IIUM to obtain students attitude in adopting the Green concept in IT field in general. A second part of the questionnaire will be on how effective this initiative has been as reflective of the daily dealings of the students with computer devices.

DATA ANALYSIS

Leedy and Ormrod (2010) reasoned that all research requires a logical reasoning. It involves relying more heavily on deductive reasoning: beginning with certain premises and then drawing logical conclusion from them or through inductive reasoning: making specific observations and then draw inferences about larger and more general phenomena.

Selected research design

Needs an introduction!!!

Interview

This study will use the technique of interviewing some of the IT Practitioner in the university with a view to qualitatively get their view of the whole process of Green IS. Travers (2001) sees interview as a quicker way of learning about what is been observed in an organisation so as to understand their day-to-day tasks. There is no hard and fast rule for how many people you need to interview. It will partly depend on the available time to collect, transcribe and analyse the available data.

Survey

This study used the technique of designing a questionnaire, validated and administered on the users of IT services on campus. The constructs of the questionnaire are carefully designed to gain quantitatively, the feelings of a purposeful sampling of the student population on their awareness, acceptability and practice of the Green IS/IT initiative on campus and beyond.

Why mixed methodology

Researchers often combine the elements of quantitative and qualitative approaches to make room for the deficiencies inherent in both approaches so that one can strengthen the other and a better finding is thus arrived at. Leedy & Ormrod (2010) gave a vivid example of such deficiency in each of the approaches:

a common weakness of quantitative research with human beings is that it is sometimes conducted in a laboratory- and therefore somewhat artificial-setting. Although contrived circumstances can give the researcher considerable control over the events that occur, the results obtained may in some cases not generalize to more naturalistic settings. In contrast, qualitative research occurs within a natural contexts and so, in this respect, is more "true to life." Yet findings of qualitaitve studies may be specific to a particular context athat they do not apply to oher contexts.

This method is especially useful in the study of human behaviour as it enables a clearer picture of a particular process than when just one of the approaches is used. Thus in this study, we employed the use of questionnaire on ICT’s user population, the conduction of semi-structured interviews to the ICT providers and managers of quality as well as the archive of the functions involved and the university’s website. All in a bid to unravel:

What are the factors influencing Green IT initiatives in Education Sector?

How can IT/IS be used to enable environmental sustainability?

How effective has been the IIUM Green IT initiatives on the IIUM community?

CASE ORGANISATION

The study summarily, embarked on a case study research using a mixed method to gather the needed data about the case organisation: International Islamic university, Malaysia (IIUM) to gain answers or information to the stated queries.

IIUM

The university was established in 1983 and it has been growing from a single campus entity to a multi-campus one. It started as a small idea launched with a unique vision of raising a community of committed individuals who has a deep sense of social responsibility. Its mission best summarises the vision and uniqueness the university is posed at achieving:

Integration; this is to reform the contemporary Muslim mentality by integrating the Islamic revealed understanding into the field of Knowledge; both to natural and human Sciences.

Islamization; that is to foster the Islamization of the ethics of Muslim in the academic and administrative settings with a view to make members of its community more useful and more relevant to the Muslim Ummah. Thus, all knowledge and affairs within the University community will be mirrored within the Islamic perspectives.

Internationalization: this is to exemplify an international spread in its community of dedicated intellectuals, scholars, professionals, officers and workers who are motivated by the Islamic world-view and code of ethics as an integral part of their work culture thereby creating an enhanced intercultural understanding and foster civilization dialogues in Malaysia as well as across the globe.

Comprehensive Excellence: this is to develop an environment which instills commitment for life-long learning, and a deep sense of social responsibility amongst staff and students in all aspects of live. This will at the final analysis bring forth individual with good character to serve the world as agents of comprehensive and balanced progress.

ITD

Information Technology Division, established in 1993 with a mission and vision

To collaborate and provide quality ICT services and support efficiently and effectively.

Towards providing holistic ICT services for the achievement and continuation of excellence in IIUM

Its objectives are to:

Educate by a way of training and inculcating awareness on the utilization of ICT in IIUM community, and activities leading towards the development of an Islamic ICT culture.

Provide an excellent, accessible, reliable and secure ICT infrastructures, facilities and services.

Develop, implement and improve the integration of ICT systems and tools that will further enhance productivity and efficiency in IIUM.

Provide consultation and advice in the formulation of a robust IIUM ICT policy and guidelines for implementation.

Synergise the knowledge-worker and technological advancement in the e-university environment.

CSQA

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