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Last updated 04 March 2026 by Loïc Lannelongue and Anica Araneta
We’re thrilled to have you join the community of research groups and institutions tackling the environmental impacts of their computing activities.
These guidelines will walk you through the process of applying for a Green DiSC certification. Please take the time to review this document before you start filling out the submission template.
Note that certification applies for 2 years, and teams will be expected to apply for recertification after this period. There will be separate guidelines for recertification (lighter touch than this initial certification process!).
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Useful Contacts and Links
- Contact the Green DiSC Team at info@greendisc.org
- Visit the webpage for announcements: https://www.software.ac.uk/GreenDiSC
- Green DiSC questions? Join the online ESCS forum: https://forum.escs-community.org
- Sign up for the newsletter: https://zcmp.eu/mwMp
You can apply for Green DiSC either as a central team, research group, or research computing infrastructure (RCI) team. If you’re certain about which application you should be making, great! Feel free to proceed to the next section.
If you’re unsure about which one to do, our general rule of thumb is this: if you run compute or do research yourself/within your team, then you should be certified as a research group (this is the default level for Green DiSC). Meanwhile, if your team has more of a facilitator role, enabling and supporting groups doing research and/or computation, you should apply as a central team. But if your team provides a service managing HPC infrastructure to support research done by other groups in your institution, you should apply as an RCI team.
We understand that many institutions can have gray areas so if you are still unsure about this, you can email us at info@greendisc.org and we can help.
In some cases, multiple groups within the same Department or Unit operate similarly, conduct similar research using some common data, pipelines and/or infrastructure. To streamline the process and reduce redundancies, there is now the option to submit a joint application. A few things to know about this:
- It is only applicable to a small number of research groups with closely related activities and within the same institution (we expect ~5 groups to be the norm for these). We recommend that you check with us early on to confirm that your circumstances are suitable for a joint application.
- If the application is successful, then each group will be certified individually (i.e. receive their own certificate).
- The joint application should be put together by a working group of at least one member from each team involved.
- In your application, you will be expected to demonstrate how you managed to still fully engage researchers on the ground in spite of the joint application format.
If you consider pursuing a joint application, you should confirm eligibility with us before starting work on your application. To do this, please email info@greendisc.org with the following details:
- List of interested research groups (with the names of the groups’ representatives), and the number of people in each one.
- A short paragraph explaining why a joint application is a better fit for your situation (e.g. describing how the activities of the groups are aligned, close collaborations between the teams, etc.).
- Confirmation that each research group listed above has enrolled separately through this form. After the Green DiSC team receives the information above, we will confirm whether you are eligible for a joint application or if your groups are better suited to applying for Green DiSC separately instead.
For a joint application, you are still using the same application template (see this folder), but there is a distinct space dedicated to joint applications.
When gathering evidence and relevant information across the criteria, here are some tips:
- Demonstrate in detail how engagement was conducted with every group (e.g. survey forms, group meetings, 1:1 discussions) to show that group members on the ground (not only the group representatives) were involved in the application process.
- For each criteria, make it clear to which groups each answer applies to. It’s expected to have differences between the team, it’s just important to make it clear. Identify if resources included in the evidence are shared across the groups or if they are unique to only one/some of the groups (if any). This is to ensure a comprehensive review/inventory was indeed conducted.
Regarding your group’s folder on Google Drive:
- If a central team from your institution has enrolled before you, we will let them create your group’s folder as a subfolder of the institution’s space. This is to facilitate collaboration between you.
- Otherwise, we will create a standalone folder for your group (it can always be reattached to your institution later).
- Importantly, this makes no real difference to what you have access to!
Once you have a folder:
- In your group’s folder, rename files to replace
<group’s name>by the actual name of your group. This is to ensure that the scope and ownership of each file is clear. - Complete the information document (
Key information for Green DiSC in Group X) with your contact details, and anything else that you may find useful.
You can manage access to a particular folder by doing right click → share → share → add their email address.
You should have access to your Green DiSC space, with edit access to your file, and read access to Green DiSC’s central resources (such as this document). If your central team is also doing Green DiSC, you should have read access to a Shared resources folder.
You are free to organise files as you see fit, add users to the folder, and you are responsible for restricting access to subfolders appropriately. If your team prefers to use your own shared directory elsewhere (e.g. OneDrive), you’re free to do so. Just a reminder to be mindful of sharing personal information when adding users to your Green DiSC folder.
We’re glad that your group is taking the first steps towards more environmentally sustainable digital computing.
The objective of the application phase for either Bronze, Silver, or Gold is to document the activities and initiatives that your group has done and is doing to tackle the environmental impact of your work. Using the Green DiSC criteria as a roadmap, identify the initiatives, policies, processes, and inventory hardware, data resources, computing pipelines, and training materials to understand and show where your group is currently and where there is still room for improvement.
If your central team is also doing Green DiSC, they will be able to provide you with answers for quite a few criteria (for which the answers are the same across the institution), making it easier for you. That’s the benefit of doing both central teams and group-level Green DiSC!
The best place for any questions about the criteria, or how to implement them, is the ESCS forum. And why not have a look in case you can answer questions from others?
The Criteria and Submission Template has three sections to fill up: the cover page, the tracker, and the submission template for each criterion. The cover letter summarises key information about the applicant which you should complete before submitting your application. The tracker allows you to monitor the status of each criterion as you and your team accomplish the criteria over a period of time, as well as allow you to assign different parts of the application to members of your team. Filling this up is completely optional, but it may help you track your progress if you take long breaks between criteria. Finally, the criteria and submission template - the main bulk of this document - will contain your responses and supporting evidence for the criteria.
Tip
Watch out for this symbol! 📣 If you see this symbol on a criterion, this means that you should be able to ask your central team (if they have or are also applying to Green DiSC) about the evidence they’ve provided for that criterion and what additional information you can provide for your application as a group. In this case, you may not have to do much to tick this box.
When filling out the responses, provide clear and complete but succinct answers that show whether you’ve achieved the criteria and how you’ve done so. Provide supporting evidence that directly and explicitly demonstrates the criterion. Make sure files can be opened by others and links are accessible, otherwise provide screenshots instead. Avoid sharing or linking to general documents and websites where it is unclear how the information supports the relevant criterion. When possible, highlight explicit sections of supporting evidence to strengthen your response and make reviewing easier. If any information is sensitive or confidential, you may anonymise or black out these parts in documents.
Make sure to take note of the next deadline for submission (check the webpage for updates!). When you’re ready to submit, save this file as a .docx file and email it to us with your supporting documents at info@greendisc.org. Once we receive it, expect an acknowledgement email confirming your submission.
After the deadline, we will allocate peer reviewers for your application and give everyone a few weeks to complete the reviews. Then we will give you sufficient time to respond to your reviewers’ comments and make required adjustments (if any), and the final outcome will be communicated to you around 10 weeks after the deadline, with certificates awarded shortly after.
Teams are expected to apply for recertification 2 years after their last audit. The recertification process will be of course lighter touch, mostly to check that the actions are still in place and align with updated criteria. The Green DiSC team will be publishing guidelines on the recertification process in the coming months.