The ABCs of Green Software & Sustainable IT

Hello everyone. When you look at this image, it probably reminds you of the movie The Matrix. In 1950, Isaac Asimov, a science fiction author, wrote a series of short stories called iRobot. These stories talk about machines taking over the world somewhere in the 21st century. Well, we are now in 2024, and almost a quarter past the 21st century.

Machines have indeed taken over the world. In fact, there are more machines and processors in this world than humans. And that includes the laptops, mobile phones, and the various devices that are connected to the internet. And they are growing more powerful as we speak.

Let me give you an example. I assume most of you have smartphones lying around. I want you to imagine this. You have more computing power in the palm of your hands than the Apollo 11 guidance computers that were used to fly man to the moon. The Apollo 11 guidance computers had a processing power of approximately 14,000 floating-point operations per second. Whereas the smartphone in your hand has processing powers in the range of trillions of operations per second. You almost have a neural engine in the palm of your hands. To quote Neil Armstrong, it is indeed a giant leap for mankind, or in this case, artificial kind.

But such great power comes at a cost. With great power comes great responsibility, goes the popular saying. But I say that with great computing power comes an even greater carbon footprint. Now, what is carbon footprint? It is an indication of the amount of greenhouse gases, that is carbon dioxide and methane that are emitted as a result of our action. That includes the technology we use and the software we create. So today you're going to look at the three Ws, sustainable IT and green software. Why do we need to acknowledge sustainable IT? What is green software and how do we build expertise around it? What are the ways in which we can make the most impact that leads to a better future?

According to the United Nations Environment Program, the tech sector is responsible for two to three percent of the global greenhouse gas emissions. Two to three percent, that doesn't sound too much until you compare it to the global aviation industry, which also accounts for the same amount of global energy related carbon dioxide. And we are not even talking about the global e-waste problem. According to the World Health Organization in 2019, around 50 million tons of e-waste were generated globally, out of which only 20 percent were documented to be efficiently recycled. Looking at all these facts, we can acknowledge that this is indeed a big challenge ahead of us and that we need to take urgent steps in order to address this challenge.

Are there any recommendations towards solving these challenges? Well, one such solution is to look at moving the technology infrastructure to the cloud. Well, there are positives and negatives to this recommendation. On the one hand, gone are the days when organizations had to spend millions of euros in order to set up data centers of their own, procure expensive hardware and processors, and also train IT staff in order to maintain these data centers around the clock. There are major cloud providers nowadays, such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon, that have ensured that organizations have reduced capital expenditure costs. They are also scalable up or down depending on the business needs. They also provide backup in terms of whenever a data center is down, there is always another data center that ensures business continuity. But the key point here is that most of the cloud providers are also sustainable. The three major cloud providers are already carbon neutral data centers. That is, the amount of carbon that they emitted are being offset by these cloud providers. They are also aiming towards net zero data centers. So instead of using energy based on fossil fuels, these cloud providers are moving towards renewable sources of energy, such as wind, turbine, and solar. But moving to the cloud does not solve our challenge until the cloud resources are optimally used. There have been instances of virtual machines being run continuously around the clock, even on weekends on the development and quality environments. Running these virtual machines on development and quality not only increases the cost of maintaining these resources, but it's also not a sustainable way of working. These are some of the topics that are being addressed by the FinOps Foundation. There are various training programs that talk about how to optimally use your cloud resources and how to ensure that your teams are being trained in these aspects. I encourage you to visit the FinOps Foundation website and if possible, to follow one of these courses. For major organizations, in order to set up optimal usage of cloud resources, there is a need for a governance wherein you have FinOps trained DevOps teams, and there is a central FinOps team that drives optimal resource utilization. And how do they do that? Well, there are various dashboard options that are possible nowadays, wherein you can highlight the cloud utilization and also have recommendations in order to optimally use the cloud resources.

Now we have looked at the technology aspect. What about the software aspect? Well, that's where the Green Software Foundation comes in. Green Software Foundation is a non-profit set up by Microsoft, Accenture, GitHub, and ThoughtWorks, along with the Linux Foundation. They are an ecosystem of standards and best practices for green software. In fact, they have, along with the Linux Foundation, also have a course wherein you can go and get yourself certified as green software practitioners. And the best part is that this is a free course that you can do right away.

And the best part is that this is a free course that you can do right away. It is also good for your LinkedIn profile. For all the Microsoft fans, of course, Microsoft also has a sustainable software engineering course that you can follow on the Microsoft Learn website. But now that I have told you about some of the ways in which you can build expertise on green software and sustainable IT, let's assume you take my recommendation, go through these courses, get yourself FinOps certified, become green software practitioners, and also follow the Microsoft course. Well, how do we apply this and make the most impact?

Well, there are certain recommendations for that as well. The first step to spread our knowledge is to communicate and collaborate among our colleagues. One example is within Rabobank, where I work. We have within the organization a sustainability community. This community has more than 3,000 members spread across the globe within Rabobank. Here, we talk about all topics related to sustainability, and one of the chapters is, of course, sustainable IT. We share the best practices, lessons learned, and also tips and suggestions from experts around the world on how to be more sustainable in IT practices. I encourage you to promote the culture of communities within your organization, wherein you can talk about this particular topic.

I previously talked about the Green Software Foundation. They also have a very active community which you can join and learn from experts around the globe. For people within the Netherlands, we also have a Sustainable IT Netherlands meetup that you can join and also collaborate with like-minded colleagues and technologists about sustainable IT. I encourage you to visit these forums, these meetups, and if possible, also start initiatives on your own in your regions. This is the first step towards communicating and collaborating about this topic and to ensure that many people know about sustainable IT. In fact, recently the Green Software Foundation also conducted a hackathon called CarbonHack. This was an opportunity for individuals to apply in real life how to promote and to build sustainable software. This hackathon in particular was about utilizing a plugin called Impact Framework, which the Green Software Foundation has come up with. I encourage you to visit the Green Software Foundation website and also read more about the Impact Framework. In fact, this plugin can be an opportunity for you to do a hands-on and also to measure software sustainability for your applications.

To summarize, we talked about the need for acknowledging sustainable IT and green software, we talked about what is green software and how to build expertise around it, and what are the ways in which we can make the most impact. I leave you now with the final slide on the United Nations Act Now webpage. The Act Now is a campaign by the United Nations in order to promote individual contributions towards the Sustainable Development Goals. If you are having any doubts whether your contribution as an individual can have any impact, I urge you to think of the butterfly effect. According to the chaos theory, when a small butterfly flaps its wings somewhere in the Amazonian jungle in South America, it sets off a chain of events that leads to a big cyclone in North America. Such is the power of that small action and such is the power of that small butterfly. Ladies and gentlemen, I see that butterfly in each one of you. So flutter away, take action, make an impact. Thank you. Thank you.