Background The EU has set three strategic goals around climate change and energy to be achieved by 2020: a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions; 20% of energy from renewable sources; and a 20% increase in energy efficiency. The total footprint of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector was estimated in 2007 to be 830 million tonnes CO2 equivalent - accounting for some 2% of the total emissions from human activity that year. ICT's share of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is expected to increase to as much as 6% by 2020. This, however, is expected to be more than offset by the 'enabling effect' of ICT on the carbon efficiency of other sectors such as transport, buildings, power and industry: any increases in GHG emissions from ICT are forecast to be five times less than the emissions saved by ICT elsewhere. Objectives The LIFE GREEN TIC project aims to harness the potential of ICT systems and devices to reduce GHG emissions. It seeks to model and promote better and smarter use of ICT to address the sector's own carbon footprint and to promote the enabling effect by which ICT implementation can reduce the carbon footprint of other sectors. The project will focus on administrative procedures, the education sector and urban management as demonstration fields to identify, test and validate best practice in the use of established and emerging ICT for GHG-emission reduction. It expects to both demonstrate and quantify the significant CO2 emissions-reduction potential of better and smarter ICT use. The project will test and audit implementation of ICT devices and applications to certify their environmental added value. These techniques are likely to include: Virtualisation of servers and data storage - by which one physical server is replaced by multiple virtual machines to reduce occupation of space and energy consumption; Implementation of ICT in green procurement actions; Implementation of ICT in the management of public services, such as public lighting or environmental monitoring; Sensors and mobility devices in smart cities; and Zero paper solutions. Finally, the project will define and disseminate – nationally and internationally – standards in the use of ICT as a tool for reducing the environmental impact of different activities. The objective is for these standards to ensure the highest performance levels by serving as benchmarks for public administrations and educational institutions. The project also expects to engage SMEs, public and private employees, and citizens in energy-efficient behaviour and moves towards greener ICT solutions. Expected results: The project expects to achieve the following results: Validation of green ICT models for public administration facilities and educational institutions; In one test environment, moving from a system of seven servers and two storage facilities to just two servers and one disk box – virtualisation; A 50% reduction in energy consumption in comparison with conventional ICT facilities; A quantified reduction in the carbon footprint of the ICT sector; A quantified reduction in GHG emissions from other sectors through the enabling effect of ICT; and A reduction in GHG emissions of more than 100 tonnes/yr.