Currently, no regulations exist globally that specifically address the environmental impact of software, and surprisingly, neither consumers nor investors typically consider a company’s software sustainability in their decisions.
Experts like Santiago Fontanarrosa, vice president of technology at Globant and author of “Green Software Engineering,” believe Europe will likely take the lead in creating such regulations. He points to Europe’s strong sustainability efforts, evidenced by initiatives like the European Green Deal. Countries like France are pioneering green software research, while Germany’s Blue Angels provides the first global eco-friendly software certification.
Fontanarrosa emphasizes that green software practices go beyond just developing code; they also involve deployment and application usage. He recalls how developers in the 1970s were more conscious of resource usage due to limited technology. As computing power has increased, modern developers have become less vigilant about optimizing their code. For instance, he notes, “Today, my iPhone has more computing power than the machine I started with in the 1990s.” He observes a decline in developers’ concern for how effectively they use CPU and memory resources.
When discussing green software, he highlights that efficiency is critical—it relates to how much energy a program requires to operate. Developers should focus on optimizing aspects like CPU time, memory access, and data transfer over networks. If they considered the underlying operations more closely, they could create more environmentally friendly software. For example, choosing an event-based system that only responds to new data, rather than constantly checking for updates, reduces unnecessary network traffic.
Big design choices matter too. An architect might schedule resource-heavy tasks during times when renewable energy is more accessible. Deployment strategies should also minimize data movement and be selective about data centers. Fontanarrosa states, “The cloud is a big data center somewhere that consumes a lot of energy.” By opting for green energy providers, developers can significantly cut their carbon footprints.
He cautions against the ease of scaling cloud resources. “You can spin up an entire infrastructure with just two clicks,” he says, emphasizing that this mindset needs to shift.
Danny van Kooten, a Dutch software expert, illustrates the potential impact of thoughtful coding. He reported cutting emissions by 59,000 kg of CO₂ per month through a minor adjustment to his WordPress plugins used by over two million sites. This change resulted in massive energy savings, equating to the CO₂ produced by five round trips from Amsterdam to New York. He estimates that for every 1 kilobyte saved in JavaScript, developers could save around 10,000 kWh monthly, assuming an average website traffic.
Fontanarrosa shares another example from his book comparing two ways to implement the Fibonacci sequence. The recursive method consumed significantly more energy than the iterative approach—by nearly all accounts. “This shows how critical algorithm design is for energy conservation,” he explains.
Even without government mandates, Fontanarrosa believes companies and consumers can drive the green software movement. Many businesses, including Globant, have joined the Green Software Foundation since its launch in May 2021. Founded by Accenture, GitHub, Microsoft, and ThoughtWorks, the foundation aims to create a reliable environment for sustainable software.
The foundation warns that the ICT sector could contribute to 14% of global carbon emissions by 2040, predominantly from smartphones and data centers. Software developers play a role in this problem, particularly when new product versions require more powerful hardware, leading to older machines becoming obsolete.
There’s some progress, like the Software Carbon Intensity (SCI) specification recently achieving ISO status. However, Fontanarrosa notes that SCI is still a voluntary standard, not a government-backed regulation.
His encouragement? “Everyone should explore green software. Check out the Green Software Foundation’s resources and think about how to implement small changes in your digital products. Those small changes can lead to significant impacts.”