We at the High-Performance Computing Center of the University of Stuttgart and the Institute for High Performance Computing (IHR) take responsibility for acting sustainably.
We are committed to continual improvement of environmental and climate protection. For this reason, we see applicable laws and regulations as minimum requirements and aspire to exceed them whenever possible. To achieve this, we have introduced a documented sustainability management system and have established sustainability goals and measures for achieving them that will develop further over time. We regularly record and evaluate our achievements in the area of sustainability as well as effects of our activities on the environment.
We place high value on the economical and efficient use of all resources and intend to improve energy efficiency. Whenever it is economically feasible, we deploy the best available technology for optimizing the cooling and energy consumption of our high-performance computing systems and for reusing the resulting waste heat.
We pay attention to the reusability and possibilities for the recycling of all technologies that we use and consider ecological perspectives during their procurement and disposal.
We are committed to avoiding negative impacts on the environment and health, or at least to reduce them to a minimum. To the extent that we have influence, we use environmentally friendly materials during construction and renovation and are dedicated to creating good living conditions for plants and animals on the property surrounding our buildings.
High-performance computing offers many opportunities to conserve energy and resources. We want to intensify sustainability research and increase the number of projects focused on sustainability-related topics. We perform and support simulation research addressing the themes of energy, health, mobility, and environment and make our own contributions in these areas.
We include our knowledge and experience in the field of sustainability in our teaching activities, particularly in the area of energy efficient usage of high-performance computing systems.
We want to embed sustainability as a matter of course in the thoughts and actions of all of our employees, and place a high value on the dissemination of information related to sustainability in our internal and external training activities, as well as additional education measures. Our employees are included in discussions surrounding the establishment and implementation of our sustainability goals.
Within the framework of the University of Stuttgart we promote the health of our employees. We want to create a family-friendly work atmosphere and strive to enable stable long-term employment.
Through our engagement with sustainability we aim to become a role model for other high-performance computing centers.
We maintain an open dialogue with our stakeholders and publish a sustainability report regularly.
(Resolved by the advisory board on August 5, 2015; expanded June 20, 2018; updated June 20, 2020)
HLRS's approach to sustainability is formally recognized under the Eco Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) and ISO international standards.
To ensure HLRS's sustainable development, minimizing energy consumption and continually improving energy efficiency are important goals.
Partners in the State of Baden-Württemberg and the University of Stuttgart were instrumental in our development of an environmental management plan.
HLRS aims to be a leader in improving sustainability in supercomputing and shares its knowledge with others in the HPC and IT communities.
