An Electronic Voting System as a Tool to Reduce the Carbon Footprint at a Public Higher Education Institution in Colombia
Abstract
The aim of this research is to demonstrate that a green information and communication technology (green ICT) strategy, such as an online voting system (OVS) for democratic processes at a higher education institution (HEI) in Colombia, could reduce the carbon footprint and contribute to the environment. The OVS was designed, tested, and successfully implemented at the mentioned institution. After implementing the OVS in democratic processes, it became possible to observe a reduction in the carbon footprint to zero in aspects such as energy, gasoline, and paper consumption by measuring the mentioned items segmented by year (from 2011 to 2018) and academic population participating in democratic processes (students, graduates, and professors). The institution no longer needed to use facilities, thus reducing energy consumption and eliminating the need for paper ballots. Additionally, many voters no longer needed to travel to the institution to vote. It is possible to implement other strategies based on ICT to further reduce the carbon footprint and raise awareness among the academic population, with the goal of minimizing the impact of human activities on the planet. Research around OVSs is focused on technical topics such as security improvements rather than humanitarian aspects like using software to reduce the environmental impact of human activities. In this order of ideas, thanks to the implemented system, the HEI reduced equivalent emissions from average energy consumption (121.8 KWh per year) from 19.8 KgCO2e per year to zero and equivalent emissions from average paper consumption (37.17 kg per year) from 11.530 KgCO2e per year to zero, contributing to reducing the carbon footprint from democratic processes.
Keywords: green IT, carbon footprint, online voting system, energy consumption.
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