Sustainability Conference for Responsible Research Computing

Computing plays an integral part in research, used for modelling, simulation and data analysis across disparate disciplines, from the study of literature and economics, to medicine and astrophysics. Its use has significant negative environmental impacts, beginning with raw material extraction and production of computing hardware, through energy use in operation, to decommissioning and reuse/recycling. The drive for increased capacity and efficacy of hardware and software tools, as well as increasing dataset size, suggests these environmental impacts will continue to grow.

All research communities have a responsibility to limit the environmental impacts of their activities, and there is a pressing need for a coordinated and interdisciplinary focus on computing impacts. This conference aims to facilitate knowledge exchange between data-intensive disciplines, allowing the sharing of best practice, the development of common resources, and the catalysis of new interdisciplinary collaborations.

Topics covered will include:

• responsible use of computing hardware (sustainable procurement, extending and optimising use phase, responsible disposal),
• resource-efficient software,
• carbon-aware scheduling,
• FAIR and effective data sharing, storage and curation,
• Addressing the rebound effect,
• Community building and training,
• Field-agnostic and field-specific best practices,
• Changing user behaviour and incentivising sustainable computing practices (addressing e.g. external drivers, the rebound effect).