Sustainablility
It is a major concern of the Göttingen Campus Institute for Dynamics of Biological Networks to use resources sustainably in all areas of the institute. As a public institution, CIDBN recognizes its ethical responsibility to comply with and promote social and environmental standards. The goal is the transition to a carbon-neutral operation in the long term.
CIDBN members have identified four areas where sustainability issues are critical at the institutionary level:
Business travel - especially flights - are responsible for a large part of the CO2 emission by scientific institutions. CIDBN members have voluntarily committed to minimizing the use of flights for business travel. Thus, the preferred means of travel for business trips in Europe is by train; short-haul flights of less than 1000km are completely avoided. Thereby, the CIDBN members join the initiative "Unter 1000 mach ich’s nicht!“ [“I don’t do it below 1000”].
If long-haul flights seem essential, special attention is paid to the necessity of travel. Since countless functioning online formats have been established, business trips for meetings and individual presentations are avoidable. Flights, if they are indeed unavoidable, are CO2 compensated as far as possible. Events organized by the CIDBN are also aligned with sustainability criteria. For example, no guest speaker is flown in for just a single lecture. Besides, online or hybrid formats are becoming standard.
The CIDBN strives to minimize their energy use as far as possible setting great value upon energy-efficient equipment for the setup of the Neurophysics Laboratory as well as for the high-performance computers. However, the human factor has to be included when discussing energy use. In order to be able to operate the high-performance computers in an energy-efficient manner, our employees and other user groups are trained to use the High performance Computin (HPC) platform in an optimal way.
All three stages of the life cycle of IT equipment - procurement, use and disposal - are currently proving problematic from the environmental and the social perspective. Rare earths play an important role in the production of IT equipment. These belong to the so-called conflict raw materials, which are associated with armed conflicts and exploitation in their mining countries and are often extracted under the worst human rights violations. The often illegal mining sites also lead to serious environmental damage. Setting aside conflict raw materials, the extraction of raw materials and the production often still take place under inhumane working conditions. In our tendering processes, we emphasize the importance to comply with standardized labor norms in order to prevent human rights violations in the manufacture of high-performance computers.
Within the framework of the DFG Priority Program 2205 the CIDBN members plan public events to draw attention to current sustainability issues. The SPP 2205 deals with evolutionary processes accordingly taking a look at the current species extinction. As CIDBN is an institution in the field of computational research, another focus of public outreach will be on the topic Green-IT.
CIDBN members have identified four areas where sustainability issues are critical at the institutionary level:
Mobility – Energy Use – New Purchases – Public Relations
Mobility
Business travel - especially flights - are responsible for a large part of the CO2 emission by scientific institutions. CIDBN members have voluntarily committed to minimizing the use of flights for business travel. Thus, the preferred means of travel for business trips in Europe is by train; short-haul flights of less than 1000km are completely avoided. Thereby, the CIDBN members join the initiative "Unter 1000 mach ich’s nicht!“ [“I don’t do it below 1000”].If long-haul flights seem essential, special attention is paid to the necessity of travel. Since countless functioning online formats have been established, business trips for meetings and individual presentations are avoidable. Flights, if they are indeed unavoidable, are CO2 compensated as far as possible. Events organized by the CIDBN are also aligned with sustainability criteria. For example, no guest speaker is flown in for just a single lecture. Besides, online or hybrid formats are becoming standard.
Energy Use
The CIDBN strives to minimize their energy use as far as possible setting great value upon energy-efficient equipment for the setup of the Neurophysics Laboratory as well as for the high-performance computers. However, the human factor has to be included when discussing energy use. In order to be able to operate the high-performance computers in an energy-efficient manner, our employees and other user groups are trained to use the High performance Computin (HPC) platform in an optimal way.New Purchases
All three stages of the life cycle of IT equipment - procurement, use and disposal - are currently proving problematic from the environmental and the social perspective. Rare earths play an important role in the production of IT equipment. These belong to the so-called conflict raw materials, which are associated with armed conflicts and exploitation in their mining countries and are often extracted under the worst human rights violations. The often illegal mining sites also lead to serious environmental damage. Setting aside conflict raw materials, the extraction of raw materials and the production often still take place under inhumane working conditions. In our tendering processes, we emphasize the importance to comply with standardized labor norms in order to prevent human rights violations in the manufacture of high-performance computers.Public Relations
Within the framework of the DFG Priority Program 2205 the CIDBN members plan public events to draw attention to current sustainability issues. The SPP 2205 deals with evolutionary processes accordingly taking a look at the current species extinction. As CIDBN is an institution in the field of computational research, another focus of public outreach will be on the topic Green-IT.