Environment Variables

In this episode of Environment Variables, host Anne Currie speaks to Wilco Burggraaf, a lead green practitioner and architect at HighTech Innovators, for an engaging discussion on integrating sustainability into software development. Wilco shares his journey into green software, the inspiration behind his innovative workshops, and his efforts to build a vibrant green tech community in the Netherlands. The conversation explores his articles on the Software Carbon Intensity standard, the complexities of balancing micro and macro sustainability goals, and the synergy between FinOps and green software. Tune in for actionable insights and strategies to make greener choices in tech while aligning sustainability with business goals.

Learn more about our people:

• Anne Currie: LinkedIn | Website
• Wilco Burggraaf: LinkedIn

Find out more about the GSF:

• The Green Software Foundation Website 
• Sign up to the Green Software Foundation Newsletter

News:

• Use of the Software Carbon Intensity (SCI) and Impact Framework (IF) Tools [39:35]
• The Quantum Entanglement of Software Sustainability: Navigating the Micro and Macro Scales of Carbon Footprint Measurement [41:55]
• Is this Green IT / Green Software at its Core? [47:13]

Events:

• Green Software - The Netherlands | Meetup [50:48]

Resources:

• Software Carbon Intensity (SCI) Specification Project | GSF [41:14] 
• Green Software Maturity Matrix [46:16]

If you enjoyed this episode then please either:

• 
  Follow, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts
• Follow and rate on Spotify
• Watch our videos on The Green Software Foundation YouTube Channel!

Connect with us on Twitter, Github and LinkedIn!

Transcript below:

Wilco: At some point I came to the conclusion, like, okay, we can measure a lot of things, we can have all these metrics but at some point the numbers are not going to change outcomes. Decisions do.

Chris Adams: Hello, and welcome to Environment Variables, brought to you by the Green Software Foundation. In each episode, we discuss the latest news and events surrounding green software. On our show, you can expect candid conversations with top experts in their field, who have a passion for how to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of software.

I'm your host, Chris Adams. 

Anne: Welcome to Environment Variables, where we bring you the latest news and updates from the world of sustainable software development. I'm your host today, Anne Currie. And joining us is Wilco Burggraaf, lead green practitioner and green architect at HighTech Innovators. Wilco brings a wealth of experience in software development, been over 20 years in the industry, and is an active Green Software Foundation champion, and we'll be talking a lot about that today.

So he cares a great deal about integrating sustainable practices directly into the code and architecture of software, helping to make greener choices not only possible, but essential in tech. And in this episode, well, this episode really is the Wilco show. We will be talking about three articles that he's written on LinkedIn

and what they mean and what people should learn from them, what he's learned on his journey in becoming a Green Software Foundation champion, a green software practitioner. So yes, he has a lot of interesting thoughts on integrating software sustainability at the lowest, the deepest level, the lowest micro scale, the code level scale, and the macro scale.

Bizarrely today, we're going to be talking about those in the reverse order, focusing on his articles on the micro scale first, and then moving over to the macro scale, which I, and I'm a big fan of macro scale. So that'll be interesting when we get there. Actually, I'm a fan of all the things, but I'm a big fan of starting at the macro scale.

So yeah. So Wilco's going to be talking about his articles. And he'll also be talking about his experience using the SCI, the Software Carbon Intensity standard and the Impact Framework, because I'm very keen on his thoughts about whether they're useful or not, why they're useful and what they add to the software development process. So, welcome, Wilco. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Wilco: Yeah. Hi, Anne. Yeah. Thanks for having me. Big fan, by the way. I love the book you worked on, Building Green Software. So I'm Wilco. 41, married with no kids and I live in the Netherlands. We have an Airedale Terrier named Iron. And although the country I live in is small with only 18 million inhabitants, I grew up in the South near the coast on a factory plant tied to the coal industry in the eighties. And my dad was a night guard. So we lived in the factory plant and yeah, when you come out of the bed and you smell the stench of chemical processes in the air and when the wash was hanging out to dry, but beautiful weather, but, the coal dust came on the clothes.

Yeah, that was, but yeah, if I look now back on it, that was kind of weird, but that was normal. That was, home for us. So I deeply love nature. I spend a lot of my time on hikes of two or three hours in the forests and the heat lands, and that's only 10 minutes from my home. So, yeah, I love to live here in the South and what we call the nature.

Anne: That's great. That's lovely. And a really interesting backstory that your first, 

coal was your nemesis was your laundry's nemesis from a very early age.

Wilco: Yeah. It's always a story that my mom tells people because yeah, a lot of people who didn't experience that can not have a understanding of how it must been.

Anne: That is really interesting. That is a very interesting backstory. So my backstory is not quite so interesting. So my name is Anne Currie. I am, as I mentioned, one of the co-authors of the new O'Reilly book, Building Green Software. And I said that in the last podcast, and I'll say it again, if you care about this kind of stuff, if you're listening to this podcast...

TWiGS host Anne Currie is joined by Stefana Sopco, Marketing Manager at PortXchange and a passionate climate activist, for an insightful discussion on the intersection of AI, sustainability, and the maritime industry's decarbonization journey. Stefana shares how PortXchange leverages green technology to help ports achieve net-zero emissions through innovations like just-in-time arrival and emissions tracking. They also dive into the challenges posed by AI's growing energy demand and explore nuclear power as a potential ally in the climate fight. Throughout the conversation, Stefana emphasizes the importance of mindful technology use and the urgency of adopting sustainable solutions.

Learn more about our people:

• Anne Currie: LinkedIn | Website
• Stefana Sopco: LinkedIn

Find out more about the GSF:

• The Green Software Foundation Website 
• Sign up to the Green Software Foundation Newsletter

News:

• The role of power in unlocking the European AI revolution [11:17]
• AI Power Demand Might Actually Turn Out to Be Good for Climate [27:55]
• Opinion: The Irony of Powering AI on Atomic Energy [44:34]

Resources:

• PortXchange 

If you enjoyed this episode then please either:

• 
  Follow, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts
• Follow and rate on Spotify
• Watch our videos on The Green Software Foundation YouTube Channel!

Connect with us on Twitter, Github and LinkedIn!

TRANSCRIOT BELOW:

Stefana: Is ChatGPT going to decarbonize the maritime sector? No freaking way!

 I haven't heard of anyone saying how they plan to use ChatGPT to decarbonize or to help ports account for their emissions.

Chris Adams: Hello, and welcome to Environment Variables, brought to you by the Green Software Foundation. In each episode, we discuss the latest news and events surrounding green software. On our show, you can expect candid conversations with top experts in their field who have a passion for how to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of software.

I'm your host, Chris Adams.

Anne: Hello and welcome to The Week in Green Software, where we bring you the latest news and updates from the world of sustAInable software development. I'm your host today, Anne Currie. And today we're going to be joined by Stefana Sopco, Marketing Manager at PortXchange, a leader in driving ports towards a net zero future.

Stefana's work centers on using digital solutions to reduce emissions in the shipping industry. So a bit, a little bit different from our normal guests who are mostly directly programmers or very programmer related. So Stefana's vision extends beyond ports to broader decarbonization goals across the tech industry and the maritime industry.

She's also passionate about D&I, diversity and inclusion. And hopefully we'll talk a little bit about that today as well. So in this episode, we're going to talk about three articles that are all about AI, and the effects AI and the demand for AI is having on grids, particularly in Europe. We'll be talking a little bit about the power requirements of AI and the, grid capacity requirements.

And we'll be talking a little bit about whether or not it's always going to be a bad thing, or will actually could potentially be a very good thing for grids. And I'm quite a positive person. I think that there are massive advantages that come from the extension of the grid to support AI. So that'll be an interesting thing to talk about.

I'm also really interested in talking to Stefana about this because a lot of the issues around AI are effectively logistical issues. And logistics is something that we don't think enough about in the tech industry. But in the maritime industry, they think about it a very great deal, so I'll be very keen to hear Stefana's thoughts.

So, on that note, welcome Stefana. Can you start by telling us a little bit about yourself?

Stefana: Thank you so much, Anne, and thank you for the invitation. I'm really honored to be here and super nervous, to be honest, because it is a heavy subject, and I really hope I will do it honours. My name is Stefana Sopco. I'm the marketing manager at PortXchange. I've been working in the energy and maritime industry now for five years.

And for the past two years, I've also been a core member of Women in Tech, Netherlands, an NGO striving for diversity and inclusion, as you beautifully mentioned. Here I act as the marketing manager and spokesperson as well for our Dutch chapter. I'm an active member of WISTA NL and for those who don't know, WISTA stands for Women in Shipping and Trading Association.

And like I like to say about myself, I declare myself a climate activist next to my proud feminist tag, which I've learnt to embrace completely, especially in the past couple of years, and one fun thing about me, you will always find me mitigating for a cause. Either diversity in the industries that I work with, or animal rights, animals are my life. And of course, climate change. And next to my professional activity, I try my best to act as a role model for the younger generation.

I mentor and guide young professionals who either want to start their career in marketing and come into these industries that are very intimidating for some, or might want to switch careers. And I also dedicate a big bunch of my time to guiding expats, me being an expat as well in the Netherlands, and I try my best to help them navigate their journey here the way I wished someone would have guided me back when I moved here six years ago.

Anne: That's great. That all sounds very good. Interestingly, this isn't even our first all female Environment Variables podcast, but normally that's because I have one of my two co-authors from Building Green Software, the new O'Reilly book, Sara, or Sarah on with me. So I think this is the first one. I'm going to guess this might be the first one,

all women, that doesn't involve Sara or Sarah, so it'll be an interesting change. So say a little bit about me, because I'm not the normal host. I'm quite a common host, but I'm not the usual host of Environment Variables. My name is Anne Currie. I am, as I've said, one of the co-authors of the new O'Reilly book, Building Green Software....

This Week in Green Software, host Chris Adams and Asim Hussain, Executive Director of the GSF discuss the latest developments in sustainable software, exploring topics like Microsoft's innovative use of cross-laminated timber in data centers to reduce embodied carbon, the environmental challenges of generative AI hardware, and the groundbreaking Real Time Cloud dataset. They delve into the impact of new international energy efficiency directives, the interplay between geopolitics and sustainability, and surprising developments in China's approach to sustainable technology. Packed with insights, this episode offers an in-depth look at the intersection of technology and climate action.

Learn more about our people:

• Chris Adams: LinkedIn | GitHub | Website
• Asim Hussain: LinkedIn | Website

Find out more about the GSF:

• The Green Software Foundation Website 
• Sign up to the Green Software Foundation Newsletter

News:

• Microsoft tests hybrid timber datacenters to cut emissions • The Register [04:37]
• Microsoft Employs Wood Products to Help Decarbonize New Data Center Construction [09:50]
• Karl Rabe – WoodenDataCenter | LinkedIn [12:03]
• E-waste challenges of generative artificial intelligence | Nature [15:02]
• E-waste Challenges of Generative Artificial Intelligence | NetworkDEE
• What now? Trump, data centers, and the next four years [38:53]
• Nuclear? Perhaps! | Volts | Fanfare 
• 数据中心绿色低碳发展专项行动计划 [48:08]
• Small datacenters face the axe under China's new energy policy [51:51]

Resources:

• Listening notes: zero carbon cement on the Volts podcast [10:39]
• We are closing in on zero-carbon cement - by David Roberts [11:01]
• Wooden DataCenter | YouTube 
• Dalston Works | Waugh Thistleton Architects 
• REVEALED: Google's GINORMOUS £650m London Choc Factory • The Register [12:37]
• The AI datacenter, Nvidia's integrated AI factory vs Broadcom's open fabric [21:21]
• Computational Power and AI - AI Now Institute [22:37]
• Chip Production’s Ecological Footprint: Mapping Climate and Environmental Impact 
• $2 H100s: How the GPU Rental Bubble Burst [25:12]
• GitHub - Green-Software-Foundation/real-time-cloud [26:28]
• Happy E.E.D. day to those who celebrate - Green Web Foundation [33:16]
• Tweet from David Fishman | X [47:39]
• Tweet from David Fishman | X [47:45]

If you enjoyed this episode then please either:

• 
  Follow, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts
• Follow and rate on Spotify
• Watch our videos on The Green Software Foundation YouTube Channel!

Connect with us on Twitter, Github and LinkedIn!

TRANSCRIPT BELOW:

Asim Hussain: We do not know how much electricity data centers are using. And the amounts, 

and I've spoken to researchers who are doing kind of research for the US department of energy, and they're like, "look, we've just had to... it's guesswork." 

Chris Adams: Hello, and welcome to Environment Variables, brought to you by the Green Software Foundation. In each episode, we discuss the latest news and events surrounding green software. On our show, you can expect candid conversations with top experts in their field who have a passion for how to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of software.

I'm your host, Chris Adams.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of This Week in Green Software. And I probably should say welcome to Environment Variables, too, the parent name for this podcast, where we bring you the latest news and updates from the world of sustainable software development. I'm your host, Chris Adams. Today, we're doing a quick check in with my friend and Executive Director of the Green Software Foundation, Asim Hussain.

Hi, Asim. 

Asim Hussain: Hi, how are you doing Chris? 

Chris Adams: And if you haven't heard this kind of format before, we are So, we are pretty much doing a roundup of interesting news or news that has caught our interest in the last few weeks in the world of sustainable software to basically share some of our takes and provide a bit of analysis or the things that we've seen, basically.

So that's pretty much it. We'll be sharing links to all the stories and all of the follow on links that we do from this. And I think that's it. That's pretty much it. Asim, before we start though, I know I've just said you're my friend and you work at the ED, but can I just give you a bit of space to introduce yourself about why you have something to do with Green Software?

Because I've just mentioned Executive Director, Green Software Foundation, but I suspect it might be a bit more useful to share a bit of background about where you came from in terms of professionally and where some of that credentials might be. And ...

In this episode of Environment Variables, host Chris Adams dives into the evolving landscape of sustainable web development with Alexander Dawson and Tzviya Siegman from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Dawson and Siegman discuss the W3C’s efforts to develop Web Sustainability Guidelines (WSG), a comprehensive set of evidence-based practices aimed at reducing the environmental impact of web technologies. They explore the creation and potential impact of these guidelines, especially as global interest grows in embedding sustainable practices within web standards. The episode also covers the challenges of driving adoption across public and private sectors, the role of testability in sustainability guidelines, and future directions for standards that minimize digital carbon footprints. This engaging conversation provides listeners with insights into how W3C’s sustainability initiatives could shape the future of the web.

Learn more about our people:

• Chris Adams: LinkedIn | GitHub | Website
• Tzviya Siegman: LinkedIn | Website
• Alexander Dawson: Website

Find out more about the GSF:

• The Green Software Foundation Website 
• Sign up to the Green Software Foundation Newsletter

Resources:

• The Week in Green Software: Greening Web Standards at the W3C w/ Alex Dawson and Anne Faubry [04:20]
• Web Sustainability Guidelines (WSG) 1.0 [04:56]
• GRI [16:36]
• RDF-star Working Group [19:26]
• General policy framework for the ecodesign of digital services version 2024 [21:34]
• Sustainable Web Design Community Group [31:04]
• Sustainable Web | Interest Groups | Discover W3C groups | W3C [31:06]
• The 2024 Web Almanac [33:40]

If you enjoyed this episode then please either:

• 
  Follow, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts
• Follow and rate on Spotify
• Watch our videos on The Green Software Foundation YouTube Channel!

Connect with us on Twitter, Github and LinkedIn!

TRANSCRIPT BELOW:

Alexander Dawson: We have tried to, even at the point of being a community group, 

treated this as seriously as possible and made sure what we've created to be as evidence led as possible.

Chris Adams: Hello, and welcome to Environment Variables, brought to you by the Green Software Foundation. In each episode, we discuss the latest news and events surrounding green software. On our show, you can expect candid conversations with top experts in their field who have a passion for how to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of software. I'm your host, Chris Adams. Hello, and welcome to Environment Variables, where we bring you the latest news and insights from the world of sustainable software development. I'm your host, Chris Adams. Green software covers a lot of different kinds of software. And today, we're checking in on the work of a group of fellow travelers in the world of web development, and more specifically, the World Wide Web Consortium. If you're not familiar with the World Wide Web Consortium, the W3C, it's effectively the place where people who build the web define how the web works. And where standards like HTML works, how CSS works, and how they're made accessible, and so on. And long before the Green Software Foundation existed, there was the W3C Sustainable Web Design Community Group, chaired by Tim Frick at the agency Mighty Bytes, who was also the author of the O'Reilly book, Designing for Web Sustainability. And in the last few years, there's been a real uptick in activity in this group, with the creation of the W3C Web Sustainability Guidelines and regular monthly community calls to coordinate the work on developing more sustainable web development practices. So what exactly are the Web Sustainability Guidelines and who are they for? If you cared about sustainability in the digital realm, why would you try getting involved in a group like the W3C in the first place? How does this even change the way people build the web and consume web services? And how do we make them more sustainable? Joining us today are two key figures from the W3C to help us explore these themes. Alex Dawson, one of the editors of the Web Sustainability Guidelines at the W3C, and Tzviya Siegman, at the W3C's new sustainability lead. So in alphabetical order, Alex, you win here. So I'm just going to hand over to you to briefly introduce yourself before we hand over to Tzviya. Is that okay?

Alexander Dawson: Yep, that's fine. Hi, everyone. I'm Alex Dawson, and I'm an invited expert in the W3C Sustainable Web Interest Group. And as Chris has mentioned, I'm the editor of the Web Sustainability Guidelines. And I've also recently been involved in co-authoring the upcoming sustainability chapter in this year's Web Almanac.

Chris Adams: Cool. Thanks for that, Alex. Tzviya, can I give you the floor to do the same?

Cool. 

Tzviya Siegman: Sure. Thank you for having me. I'm Tzviya Siegman. I'm the sustainability leader at W3C. I recently joined the staff of W3C, but I've been involved here more than 10 years. I also do member engagement in North America. I recently been involved in setting up the interest group in W3C and getting used to being on the staff instead of being a member.

Chris Adams: Thanks, Tzviya. And if you're new to this podcast, my name is Chris Adams. I am the host of this podcast, but I'm also the executive director at the Green Web Foundation. I also work Inside the Green Software Foundation as one of the chairs of the policy working group as well. And I'm one of the maintainers of the library CO2.js, a tool that's used in a number of digital sustainability projects. Before we dive into this conversation, here's a quick reminder that we're going to share a transcript to this and links to all the projects that are just mentioned in our show notes. And, you'll need to look for that on podcast.greensoftware.foundation to find that. So if you're listening to this via Spotify or YouTube, you might not find them. So please remember to look that up there. Alright, so, with that, I think the two of you are sitting comfortably, right? Alex, maybe I'll just...

In this episode of Backstage, we go backstage with the Awesome Green Software (AGS) project, a pioneering initiative from the Green Software Foundation’s Open Source Working Group. Project leads Ahmad Antar and Abid Ali, along with contributor Josh Rauvola, share how AGS is building a centralized platform for developers to access tools, libraries, and frameworks to create greener, more sustainable software. They discuss the innovative tech behind AGS, the project’s progress toward launch, and its potential to make green software development accessible to organizations worldwide.

Learn more about the Awesome Green Software Project:

• Awesome Green Software
• Digital Emissions 

Learn more about our people:

• Ahmad Antar: LinkedIn 
• Abid Ali: LinkedIn 
• Josh Rauvola: LinkedIn

Find out more about the GSF:

• The Green Software Foundation Website 
• Sign up to the Green Software Foundation Newsletter

Resources:

• Algolia [4:03]
• Notion [4:04]
• Scaphandre [5:07]
• CodeCarbon.io [5:15]

Events:

• Green Gaming with STRATEGIES (November 9 at 9:00 am CET · Katowice) [07:39]
• Implications of AI-Related Data Center Electricity Use and Emissions (November 12-13 · Washington DC [07:58]
• Digital Impact Pitch (November 20 at 6:30 pm CET · Virtual) [08:09]
• Green Waves Hackathon Closing Day (November 22 at 8:30 am CET · TU Delft) [08:30]

If you enjoyed this episode then please either:

• 
  Follow, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts
• Follow and rate on Spotify
• Watch our videos on The Green Software Foundation YouTube Channel!
• Connect with us on Twitter, Github and LinkedIn!

TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
Chris Skipper: Welcome to Environment Variables, where we bring you the latest news and updates from the world of sustainable software development. I'm your host, Chris Skipper. On this episode, we have another edition of Backstage. Here, we'll take you behind the scenes at the Green Software Foundation to highlight ongoing projects and share insights from the members directly involved.

Today, we're diving into the Awesome Green Software Project, an exciting initiative curated by the Green Software Foundation's open source working group. Today, project leads Ahmad Antar and Abid Ali have provided us with some informative content and along with some soundbites from contributor Josh Rauvola to give us the lowdown on the collection of tools, libraries, and frameworks designed to help developers create greener, more sustainable software.

So, what makes this amazing, nay awesome, collection of green software resources tick? Let's explore that in this backstage episode. The GSF is all about building software that emits less carbon. Awesome Green Software fulfills that by creating a one stop shop which compiles research, tools, code, libraries, and training from volunteers that will be used for building applications that emit less carbon into our atmosphere.

There aren't too many tools available today that organizations can use to ensure their software is following sustainability principles. But, Awesome Green Software aims to fill that void. The GSF has the Impact Framework and the Software Carbon Intensity Specification, the SCI. And now, Awesome Green Software to provide that support.

As previously mentioned, Awesome Green Software brings research and resources that will be available at one place for organizations to access, hence reducing their efforts and time to find these tools and rather focus their efforts on building impactful software. Awesome Green Software was an idea that the GSF wanted to start for a while.

GSF member Digital Emissions took the initiative and is bringing it to reality. They have made a lot of progress over the last few months. The front end and back end are almost ready, and they are getting ready to start testing soon. Awesome Green Software is still in the developmental phases, but once it's ready to launch, We are expecting many contributors from the GSF and beyond to start contributing impactful code, tools, and utilities.

It will have a great impact on the overall community because currently it is not easy to find such tools in one place. Next, I'd like to play you a soundbite from Josh. We asked him the question, what are some of the key challenges you've encountered while developing the Awesome Green Software project?

And how did you and your team work to overcome them?

Josh Rauvola: Well, one of the main challenges we've faced is consolidating a vast amount of information and resources into a single user friendly platform. There's so much valuable content out there, but it's scattered across various sources. Organizing it in a way that's easily accessible to developers and other people was a significant task.

We also had to ensure that integrating technologies like Notion for content management and Algolia for search, which we can get into later, would provide a seamless user experience. To overcome these challenges, our team focused on building a solid backend and frontend infrastructure. We've been meticulous in our approach, and we're excited to get this project out into the hands of people that truly care about the environment.

Chris Skipper: With such a comprehensive list of tools and resources, the Awesome Green Software Project provides a bird's eye view of everything related to sustainable software out there on the internet. Can you explain some of the methods that you used to compile such a comprehensive list?

Josh Rauvola: Certainly. One innovative approach we're taking is leveraging powerful AI search capabilities through Algolia. This allows users to quickly find the tools and resources they need to build sustainable software. We're also using Notion as a content management system, which simplifies the process, for contributors to add and update resources in the directory.
...

In this episode, we honor the memory of Abhishek Gupta, who was an instrumental figure in the Green Software Foundation and a Co-Chair of the Standards Working Group. Abhishek's work was pivotal in the development of the Software Carbon Intensity (SCI) Specification, now adopted globally. His tireless efforts shaped the future of green software, leaving an indelible mark on the industry. As we remember Abhishek, we reflect on his legacy of sustainability, leadership, and friendship, celebrating the remarkable impact he had on both his colleagues and the world. We are airing an old episode that featured Abhishek Gupta, Episode 5 of Environment Variables. Where host Chris Adams is joined by Will Buchanan of Azure ML (Microsoft), Abhishek Gupta; the chair of the Standards Working Group for the Green Software Foundation and Lynn Kaack, assistant professor at the Hertie School in Berlin to discuss how artificial intelligence and machine learning impact climate change. They discuss boundaries, Jevons paradox, the EU AI Act, inferencing and supplying us with a plethora of materials regarding ML and AI and the climate!

In Memoriam: Abhishek Gupta:

• Honoring Abhishek Gupta | GSF 

Learn more about our guests:

• Chris Adams: LinkedIn / GitHub / Website
• Will Buchanan: LinkedIn
• Abhishek Gupta: LinkedIn
• Lynn Kaack: LinkedIn / Latest Paper

Find out more about the GSF:

• The Green Software Foundation Website 
• Sign up to the Green Software Foundation Newsletter

Episode resources:

• ClimateAction.tech [3:44]
• Green Web Foundation [3:49]
• Green Software Foundation’s Standards and Innovation Working Group [4:14]
• Montreal AI Ethics Institute [4:43]
• Hertie School Berlin [5:50]
• Aligning Artificial Intelligence with Climate Change Mitigation [6:32]
• The IPCC [7:11]
• Paper: Green AI | Roy Schwartz, Emma Strubell, Jesse Dodge [8:37]
• Project: Pachama [9:33]
• Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms [10:34]
• Project: This Climate Does Not Exist [10:48]
• Austrian Institute of Technology | Infrared [11:32]
• Jevons Paradox [20:19]
• The GHG Protocol [23:27]
• Legislation: The EU AI Act [25:08]
• Paper; Measuring the Carbon Intensity of AI in Cloud Instances | Will Buchanan et al. [30:08]
• ONNX Runtime [37:02]
• TinyML [37:09]
• GitHub: Dynamic Batch Inferencing - Taylor Prewitt & Ji Hoon Kang of UW
• GitHub: NVIDIA Triton server on AzureML & Model Analyzer
• Green Software Foundation Summit

If you enjoyed this episode then please either:

• Follow, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts
• Follow and rate on Spotify
• Watch our videos on The Green Software Foundation YouTube Channel!

Connect with us on Twitter, Github and LinkedIn!

TRANSCRIPT BELOW:

Chris Skipper: This week on Environment Variables, we have some sad news.

We have to report the untimely passing of Abhishek Gupta. Abhishek was a key part of the Green Software Foundation. He was the co chair of the Standards Working Group from the GSF's formation to his passing on September 30th of this year. I would like to read out an in memoriam that was posted by Asim Hussain, honoring the great man, his legacy of leadership, his collaboration, and the heart that he put into the Green Software Foundation.

When the Green Software Foundation was formed over three years ago, Abhishek offered to help. The standards working group was looking for a co chair, and he jumped in to help without hesitation. He led the standards working group for over three years, with the full support of everyone involved. Leading a work group isn't about imposing your will on others, It's about finding common ground, nurturing discussions, and searching for the truth.

Abhishek excelled in all of those areas. He leaves a powerful legacy with the Software Carbon Intensity SCI specification. His tireless efforts over the years led to a consensus on the specification, which was later published to ISO in late 2023, and is now being adopted globally.

The impact of the SCI is truly global, with academics and enterprises worldwide adopting it. This widespread adoption is a testament to Abhishek's vision and dedication and his influence will be felt in every software product that bears an SCI score. His legacy is not just a memory, but a living testament to his work.

He has left an unforgettable mark on the community. And will be remembered for his contributions for years to come. Aho brother, I'll see you on the other side, Asim Hussain. To honor Abhishek, we're going to revisit an older episode of Environment Variables from the very start of the podcast, episode five, How Does AI and ML Impact Climate Change?

In this episode, host Chris Adams is joined by Abhishek Gupta, Lynne Kaack, and Will Buchanan to discuss these topics. So, without further ado, here's the episode.

Abhishek Gupta: We're not just doing all of this accounting to produce reports and to, you know, spill ink, but it's to concretely drive change in behavior. And this was coming from folks who are a part of the standards working group, including Will and myself, who are practitioners who are itching to get something that helps us change our behavior, change our team's behaviors when it comes to building greener software.

In this episode of Environment Variables, host Chris Skipper introduces "Backstage," a new segment offering behind-the-scenes insights into the Green Software Foundation's key projects. The episode highlights the "Transforming Organizations for Sustainable Software" (TOSS) project, led by Pindy Bhullar, which aims to embed sustainable practices across all aspects of business operations. The TOSS framework, divided into four pillars—strategy, implementation, operations, and compliance—provides organizations with a decision tree approach to drive sustainability in software development and IT. With collaborative efforts, workshops, and real-time feedback, the project is set to release version 1.0, with the ultimate goal of reducing carbon emissions across the industry. 

Learn more about our people:

• Chris Skipper: LinkedIn | Website
• Pindy Bhullar: LinkedIn | Website

Find out more about the GSF:

• The Green Software Foundation Website 
• Sign up to the Green Software Foundation Newsletter

Resources:

• GitHub - Green-Software-Foundation/toss: Transforming Organisational Software Sustainability (TOSS) [01:28]
• Transforming Organizational Software Sustainability | GSF
•  Software Carbon Intensity (SCI) Specification Project | GSF [03:47] 
• GitHub - Green-Software-Foundation/sci: A specification that describes how to calculate a carbon intensity for software applications.
• Impact Framework [03:54] 
• GitHub - Green-Software-Foundation/if: Impact Framework 

Events:

• Sustainable AI: Myth vs Reality (October 15 at 6 pm CEST · Amsterdam) [12:49]
• CNCF Sustainability Week - Cloud Native for Green Software (October 15 at 6:30 pm CEST · Hybrid · Karlsruhe) [13:02]
• Code Green London October Meetup (October 15 at 7:00 pm · London) [13:25]

If you enjoyed this episode then please either:

• Follow, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts
• Follow and rate on Spotify
• Watch our videos on The Green Software Foundation YouTube Channel!

Connect with us on Twitter, Github and LinkedIn!

TRANSCRIPT BELOW: 

Chris Skipper: Welcome to Environment Variables, where we bring you the latest news and updates from the world of sustainable software development. I'm your host, Chris Skipper. Today, we're launching an exciting new segment: 

Backstage. Here, we'll take you behind the scenes at the Green Software Foundation to highlight ongoing projects and share insights from the members directly involved.

In the first episode of Backstage, you'll hear about innovative projects shaping the future of green software and the hard work behind it all. It's easy to overlook the complexity and dedication required to drive sustainability in the tech industry. But today, you'll hear more about the passion, thoughtfulness, and expertise that fuels these initiatives.

From collaborative projects to cutting edge research on sustainable computing, the Green Software Foundation is the conversation you need to be part of, and we're bringing you Deep Inside. Join us as we look into the stories, challenges, and triumphs of the people making a real impact on our environment through software.

We're no longer gatekeeping what it takes to set new standards and norms to green software. So, what does it take to inject sustainability into every aspect of software development? How are organizations and passionate climate activists in software turning ambitious goals into practical, actionable results?

Let's find out on this special Backstage episode. For this initial episode, we'll be looking at the Transforming Organizations for Sustainable Software project, better known as the TOSS project. Leading this project is the inimitable Pindy Bhullar, who provided us with some soundbites. This initiative is really important in the Green Software Foundation's broader mission to reduce carbon emissions through software.

It's all about providing changemakers in organizations with the tools, methodologies, and frameworks they need to embed green software practices and drive real, measurable change. Firstly, we asked Pindy to give us an overview of the TOSS project. It's goals and why it's so crucial for the foundation.

Pindy Bhullar: Transforming Organizations for Sustainable Software is the acronym for TOSS. Businesses will be able to utilize the TOSS framework as a guide to lay the groundwork for managing change and also improving software operations in the future. Software practices within organizations can be integrated with sustainability in a cohesive and agile manner, rather than addressing green software practices in an isolated approach.

For a company to fully benefit from sustainable transformation of their software development processes, we need to review all aspects of technology. The TOSS framework is designed to be embedded across multiple aspects of its business operations. Dividing the task framework along four pillars has allowed for simultaneous top down and bottom up reinforcement of sustainable practices, as well as the integration of new tools, processes, and regulations that emerge over time.

The four pillars include aim to foster a dynamic foundation for companies to understand where to act now, to adjust later, and expand with an organizational sustainable software transformation. The four pillars are strategy, implementation, operational, compliance, and regulations. And within each of the pillars, we have designed a decision tree that will be constructed to guide organizations in transforming their software journey. 

 The Green Software Foundation has created the specification to calculate carbon emissions from software, the SCI, and also developed the Impact Framework to enable firms to calculate their emissions. But in order for firms to transform their technology operations, we need to embed best practices across the wider organization.

Chris Skipper: It's clear that by integratin...

This Week in Green Software, the affable Anne Currie is joined by Sara Bergman, Senior Software Engineer at Microsoft and co-author of Building Green Software. Together, they dive into the complexities of sustainable data in relation to AI and cloud computing. They explore the environmental impact of managing and storing vast quantities of data, and question the feasibility of making these processes more eco-friendly. The discussion touches on cloud providers' carbon reporting, the importance of using AI responsibly, and how businesses can optimize their cloud use to minimize their environmental footprint. Tune in for an insightful conversation on balancing technological advancements with sustainability in the age of AI.

Learn more about our people:

• Anne Currie: LinkedIn | Website
• Sara Bergman: LinkedIn

Find out more about the GSF:

• The Green Software Foundation Website 
• Sign up to the Green Software Foundation Newsletter

News:

• Report: Thinking about using AI? - Green Web Foundation [03:54]
• Why Cloud Provider GHG Reporting isn’t enough: The Case for Product-Level Accountability [14:16]
• Is sustainable data storage a paradox? | TechRadar [33:03]

Events:

• GSF Global Summit in London Summit (October 1 at 6 pm BST · London) [37:56]
• GSF Global Summit inGlobal Summit Munich Summit 2024 (October 1 at 1:30 pm CEST · Munich):
• GSF Global Summit in Green Software Summit Hamburg (October 1 at 1:30 CEST · Hamburg)
• GSF Global Summit in Dublin (October 8 at 9:00 am BST · Dublin): 
• Green Software Summit Berlin (October 9 at 6:30 pm · Berlin): 
• GSF Global Summit in Singapore Edition 2024 (October 9 and 9:00 am SGT · Singapore):
• GSF Global Summit in2024 Tokyo (October 9 at 6:00 pm JST · Tokyo):     

Resources:

• Building Green Software [Book] [02:04]
• Greening Digital and the Rebound Effect | Environment Variables [11:36]
• GitHub - Green-Software-Foundation/real-time-cloud [21:35]
• Green Software Maturity Matrix [21:55]

If you enjoyed this episode then please either:

• Follow, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts
• Follow and rate on Spotify
• Watch our videos on The Green Software Foundation YouTube Channel!

Connect with us on Twitter, Github and LinkedIn!

TRANSCRIPT BELOW:

Sara Bergman: What data do we need to take in order to take meaningful action? Like, what is the level that, of course, yeah, if I could get minute by minute, like there's tons of stuff we could do and correlations we could draw, but what is the level of data that we would need to start taking meaningful action? And I think that could unlock a lot of good things.

Chris Adams: Hello, and welcome to Environment Variables, brought to you by the Green Software Foundation. In each episode, we discuss the latest news and events surrounding green software. On our show, you can expect candid conversations with top experts in their field who have a passion for how to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of software.

I'm your host, Chris Adams.

Anne Currie: Hello, and my name is Anne and welcome to 

The Week in Green Software. So this week, you won't be hearing the usual dulcet tones of Chris Adams. I'll be joining you, Anne Currie, and we'll be delving into the tricky, but interesting world of sustainable data, whether it's possible to store and manage huge quantities of data, which we will need now, particularly for AI, in a way that's eco friendly.

Or is that impossible? Well, look, I'm going to leap through to the end and say, we have to do it. And therefore it is not impossible. It just has to be done. We'll find a way of doing it. And there are ways of doing it, which we'll be talking about today. we'll also be exploring why big cloud providers' carbon reporting isn't really telling us the full story.

Or, well, we are not interpreting it in the way that it was designed to be interpreted. And we need to be more careful about that. We're reading more into it than is true. And we need to be much, much more explicit about what the carbon reports from people like AWS and Azure actually mean.

We'll also be talking about data centers and AI. And that's something that my guest today is an expert in. And talking about my guest, joining me today is my co-author on Building Green Software, the book on what we need to do to make the tech industry green, and also Environment Variables regular, the lovely Sara Bergman.

So Sara, do you want to introduce yourself?

Sara Bergman: Yeah, hi. Thanks for having me on again. Always lovely to be here. I'm so excited to have a chat with you, Anne. Yeah, my name is Sara Bergman. I am a senior software engineer at Watttime. Microsoft, author of Building Green Software. And like here, I'm always asked, what have you been up to recently? Nowadays, I'm like, what have I been up to recently?

I did a fun thing, though. I had the talk for the Norwegian, because I live in Norway, and the Norwegian tax authorities about green software. And that was really fun. I love it when Because they are actually very far ahead in their journey, they're one of the most innovative companies when it comes to IT, so it was really fun to come out and have a chat with them.

Anne Currie: That's great. And I should introduce myself as well. My name is Anne Currie and I am co-author of O'Reilly's new Building Green Software along wit...

Host Chris Adams sits down with CEO Olivier Corradi and Tech Lead Íngrid Munné Collado of Electricity Maps, a company that leverages data to enable decarbonization of electricity grids. They discuss the complexities of carbon intensity data, the role of accurate forecasting in renewable energy, and how this data helps optimize electricity usage for sustainability. Olivier explains the origins of Electricity Maps, their goal of providing real-time carbon footprint insights, and their theory of change—targeting citizens, corporations, and institutions to create a greener future. Tune in to hear about the history, frontiers, and future of this engaging field.

Learn more about our people:

• Chris Adams: LinkedIn | GitHub | Website
• Olivier Corradi: LinkedIn | Website | X
• Íngrid Munné Collado: LinkedIn | Website | X

Find out more about the GSF:

• The Green Software Foundation Website 
• Sign up to the Green Software Foundation Newsletter

News:

• Our Road to Impact: How we contribute to fixing climate change [04:56]
• [1812.06679] Real-Time Carbon Accounting Method for the European Electricity Markets [20:24]
• SCI Specification Achieves ISO Standard Status | GSF [21:24]
• Electricity Maps | Client Story: Monta [29:52]
• How to save costs and emissions with a flexible electricity load? [33:32]
• How the prices can change by location | X [34:28]
• Another example in Texas | X 
• Marginal vs average: which one to use for real-time decisions? | Electricity Maps [39:21]
• eCO₂grid | 50Hertz [41:58]
• Investigating Apple's Clean Grid Forecast 

Resources:

• Energy, Business, Climate & Geopolitics | Commons For Future [09:58]
• Commons For Future [10:02]
• The Week in Green Software: Mapping Green Software on the Grid [10:32]
• Open Source | Electricity Maps [10:53]
• How to trace back the origin of electricity [15:28]
• GitHub - electricitymaps/electricitymaps-contrib: A real-time visualisation of the CO2 emissions of electricity consumption [19:26]
• Online Browsing Platform (OBP) [21:33]
• Finland extends nuclear reactor outage, sees power prices soar | Reuters [35:15]
• Breaking borders: The future of Europe’s electricity is in interconnectors | Ember [35:49]
• Carlos Pérez Linkenheil on LinkedIn: #energymarket #electricityprices #epexspot #dynamictariff | 23 comments
• Increasing renewables without regulation or curtailment mechanisms - Lion Hirth | LinkedIn 
• Giant Batteries Are Transforming the Way the U.S. Uses Electricity 
• Solar will get too cheap to connect to the power grid. [35:57] 
• The reasons for negative prices - by Julien Jomaux [37:41]
• Making Testbeds for Carbon Aware Computing [38:04} 
• Avoid restricting the SCI by prescribing a specific metric. [38:33]
• MARGINAL EMISSIONS RATE – A PRIMER [40:00]
• On the Implications of Choosing Average versus Marginal Carbon Intensity Signals on Carbon-aware Optimizations | Proceedings of the 15th ACM International Conference on Future and Sustainable Energy Systems [45:19]
• On the Implications of Choosing Average versus Marginal Carbon Intensity Signals on Carbon-aware Optimizations
• On the Limitations of Carbon-Aware Temporal and Spatial Workload Shifting in the Cloud | Proceedings of the Nineteenth European Conference on Computer Systems [45:41]
• [2306.06502] On the Limitations of Carbon-Aware Temporal and Spatial Workload Shifting in the Cloud
• Tammy Sukprasert | Move Your Workloads To Sweden! | #53 - Disseminate | Acast
• Methodology + Validation - WattTime
• VERACI-T      

If you enjoyed this episode then please either:

• Follow, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts
• Follow and rate on Spotify
• Watch our videos on The Green Software Foundation YouTube Channel!
• Connect with us on

Host Chris Adams is joined by Asim Hussain to dive into The Week in Green Software, exploring the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence and how the growing adoption of AI technology affects carbon emissions, as well as the growing complexities in the measurement and reduction of these. They discuss a primer on AI's direct environmental footprint, regulatory trends in Europe and the US, and the complexities surrounding the renewable energy credits tech companies use to offset emissions. The conversation touches on real-time cloud data initiatives, carbon accounting in AI, and the future challenges of balancing sustainability with technological innovation.

Learn more about our people:

• Chris Adams: LinkedIn | GitHub | Website
• Asim Hussain: LinkedIn | Website

Find out more about the GSF:

• The Green Software Foundation Website 
• Sign up to the Green Software Foundation Newsletter

News:

• The Environmental Impacts of AI -- Primer | Hugging Face[03:12]
• How Tech Companies Are Obscuring AI's Real Carbon Footprint | Bloomberg [22:25]
• AI analysed 1,500 policies to cut emissions. These ones worked | Nature [32:48] 

Events:

• Green IO Conference 2024 London Dates and City Locations - Sustainable Tech Partner for Green IT Service Providers 

Resources:

• Does the EU AI Act really call for tracking inference as well as training in AI models? | Chris Adams [12:21]
• Simon Willison on openai [14:15]
• EnergyStarAI (AI Energy Star Project) | Hugging Face [16:12]
• Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct · Hugging Face [21:28]
• Jevons paradox and greening software—why increasing efficiency makes sense | ASIM.DEV [21:51]
• Olivier Corradi [27:43]
• Real-Time Cloud | GSF [28:41]
• GitHub - Green-Software-Foundation/real-time-cloud
• Reviewing the evidence we accept for Green hosting verification | Green Web Foundation [31:06] 
• The Week in Green Software: Modeling Carbon Aware Software | TWiGS with Iegor Riepin [37:18] 

If you enjoyed this episode then please either:

• Follow, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts
• Follow and rate on Spotify
• Watch our videos on The Green Software Foundation YouTube Channel!
• Connect with us on Twitter, Github and LinkedIn!

TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
Asim Hussain: Three, four years ago, everybody treated all carbon offsets the same. They didn't realize there was nuance between them. Now that's changed. Everybody needs to now pay attention to the same thing in terms of renewable energy. If you do not pay attention to the fact that there is a lot of variability in a lot of this stuff, it's all going to get tarnished with the same brush in the future and any renewable energy claim is not going to be trusted.

Chris Adams: Hello, and welcome to Environment Variables, brought to you by the Green Software Foundation. In each episode, we discuss the latest news and events surrounding green software. On our show, you can expect candid conversations with top experts in their field who have a passion for how to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of software.

I'm your host, Chris Adams.

Hello, and welcome to the Week in Green Software, where we bring you the latest news and updates from the world of sustainable software development. I'm your host, Chris Adams. This is our news roundup show in the Green Software Foundation podcast. So we aren't doing a domain expert news roundup. Deep dive where we go into a deep narrow subject, but rather we're taking a more broader view.

So we'll try to add some context and commentary to the stories that have been shared with us that we discuss with our guests. With me today is my friend, colleague and mushroom enthusiast Asim Hussain of the Green Software Foundation. Asim, it's really good to see you again. How are your holidays?

Asim Hussain: Yeah, it's been quite a long time off and just gently dipping my toes back into the swing of things. Glad to be on the show. It's a nice gentle introduction back into the world of green software. So, glad to be here again, Chris. Asim Hussain, I'm the executive director of the Green Software Foundation.

And yeah, I spend my day probably similar to you thinking about how to advocate for green software. What do we need? What do we want? What are the questions that need to be answered and what are the levers that we need to pull to get action taken in this space?

Chris Adams: Reduce the environmental impact of digital services. Yeah. Okay, cool. Thanks. I should introduce myself as well. Hello, folks. My name is Chris Adams. I am the executive director of the Green Web Foundation. That's a smaller, a different organization. We are a Dutch non profit focused around reaching a fossil free internet by 2030.

And we do that using open as a lever. So we do loads and loads of stuff with open source, open culture, and things like that. As a quick reminder, we're going to share all the stories that we have and any projects or things that come up, we'll add to the show notes. So if you want to continue your quest to learn more about green software and how to reduce the environmental impact of digital services yourself, just look at podcast.greensoftware.foundation to see this. If you're ...