Environment Variables

Host Chris Adams is joined by special guest Philipp Wiesner, a research associate and PhD student at TU Berlin, to discuss how computing systems can better align energy consumption with clean energy availability. Contributing to Project Vessim, Philipp explains how researchers are now able to model different energy consumption scenarios, from solar and wind power integration to the complexities of modern grids despite the scarcity of available testing environments. They discuss federated learning and its role in carbon-aware designs, along with challenges in tracking real energy savings. Tune in to learn about the future of carbon-aware computing and the tools being developed to help software become more sustainable.

Learn more about our people:

• Chris Adams: LinkedIn | GitHub | Website
• Philipp Wiesner: LinkedIn |GitHub | Portfolio

Find out more about the GSF:

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

News:

• Let's Wait Awhile: How Temporal Workload Shifting Can Reduce Carbon Emissions in the Cloud [03:26]
• FedZero: Leveraging Renewable Excess Energy in Federated Learning | Proceedings of the 15th ACM International Conference on Future and Sustainable Energy Systems [11:56] 
• Vessim: A Testbed for Carbon-Aware Applications and Systems 
• Cucumber: Renewable-Aware Admission Control for Delay-Tolerant Cloud and Edge Workloads 

Events:

• 1st International Workshop on Low Carbon Computing |  (December 3) [41:26]
• Code Green: The Intersection of Software Engineering and Sustainability | (September 12 at 11:00 am AEST · Virtual) [44:41]
• Doing for Sustainability, What Open Source Did for Software | (September 16 at 11:20 CEST · Vienna) [45:02]
• Engineering a Greener Future for IT | (September 18 at 5:00 pm BST · London) [45:24]
• Collaborating On Digital Sustainability | (September 18 at 6:00 pm BST · Brighton) [45:33]
• Green IO London | (September 19th - 9:00-18:00 - London) [45:45]

Resources:

• Environment Variables | Episode 9 w/ Philippe Wiesner [02:48]
• Vessim: A Testbed for Carbon-Aware Applications and Systems [04:42]
• Towards More Carbon-Efficient Federated Learning (Flower Monthly 2024-04) [13:18]  
• Vessim | GitHub [24:02]
• FedZero | GitHub 
• Let's Wait Awhile | GitHub 
• Kepler [26:08]
• GitHub - green-coding-solutions/cloud-energy: Cloud Energy is an XGBoost & linear model based on the energy data from the SPECPower database for the cloud to estimate wattage consumption of server by just a few input variables [26:14]
• [2210.04951] Ecovisor: A Virtual Energy System for Carbon-Efficient Applications [29:14]
• The Trouble with European Green Electricity Certificates | Industry Decarbonization Newsletter [40:07]
• Software‐in‐the‐loop simulation for developing and testing carbon‐aware applications - Wiesner - 2023 

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:

Philipp Wiesner: Optimizing energy usage for when the sun is shining and the wind is blowing, of course it makes sense. But the big problem is that these green energy certificates, these guarantees of origin certificates, are traded independently of the physical flow of energy.

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. Today, we're diving into the world of carbon-aware computing, how computing systems can align the energy consumption with the availability of clean energy.

Natural cycles govern all kinds of things we do. We mostly go to bed at night, and the food we eat is often influenced by what season we're in, and so on. This also shows up in how energy is available to us. You can see how day follows night in the output from a solar panel. And broadly speaking, it tends to be windier around winter than it is in the summer.

Even when we burn fossil fuels, we're basically digging up energy stored millions of years ago. As we move away from fossil fuels though, where we get to use the sunlight that was conveniently stored for us, we move towards a system based around harvesting energy, like we harvest food. The way we consume energy needs to adapt as well.

This week we are joined by two PhD researchers, Silke Kaiser and Chiara Fusar Bassini, from the Hertie School in Berlin. With host Chris Adams they discuss their use of data science and machine learning and how they are using them to tackle some of today’s most pressing environmental challenges. Silke shares insights into her research on predicting cycling traffic in cities to better inform urban planning and promote sustainable transport, while Chiara discusses her work on analyzing European energy data to support the renewable energy transition. Together, they explore the intersection of technology, data, and policy, highlighting the importance of data-driven decision-making in achieving sustainability goals.

Learn more about our people:

• Chris Adams: LinkedIn | GitHub | Website
• Silke Kaiser: LinkedIn | Website
• Chiara Fusar Bassini: LinkedIn

Find out more about the GSF:

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

News:

• From counting stations to to city wide estimates: data driven bicycle volume extrapolation | Silke Kaiser [09:46] 
• Pedalling Towards a Greener Future: The Impact of Cycling and Active Transport on Climate Change and Public Health - Catalyse [12:46]
• Chapter 10: Transport | IPCC [14:10]
• Estimating Coal Power Plant Operation From Satellite Images with Computer Vision [24:11]
• Does the EU AI Act really call for tracking inference as well as training in AI models? [38:27]
• What is the methodology used to measure the carbon footprint of training Llama 3.1? [41:12]
• Climate policies that achieved major emission reductions: Global evidence from two decades | Science [44:27]
• Microsoft employees spent years fighting the tech giant's oil ties. Now, they’re speaking out. | Grist [46:51]
• A review of the ENTSO-E Transparency Platform 

Resources:

• How does AI and ML Impact Climate Change? | EV Ep 5 [05:38]
• French Revolution: Cyclists Now Outnumber Motorists In Paris [07:25]
• Berlin’s Efforts to Reduce Driving Stalled by German Car Culture [07:42]
• Emissions of Carbon Dioxide in the Transportation Sector | Congressional Budget Office [16:47]
• Electricity Maps [21:59]
• Machine Learning for Sustainable Energy Systems | Annual Reviews [30:41] 
• CodeCarbon [40:49]
• Light bulbs have energy ratings — so why can’t AI chatbots? [42:16]
• The Chronic Potentialitis of Digital Enablement | Vlad Coraoma [46:10]
• Blackout (Elsberg novel) - Wikipedia
• International Energy Agency - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics
• Taxation - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics
• How fast is Germany cutting its greenhouse gas emissions? – DW – 07/10/2023
• Tackling Climate Change with Machine Learning | ACM Computing Surveys 

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:

Silke Kaiser: I like the term of fighting fire with fire. You know, you're trying to make it better, but you're making it maybe even worse. But I think if we make some smart choices along the way, I rather like to compare it to the idea of fighting a forest fire with a controlled burn. What I'm trying to say is that there are different approaches that we can actually also reduce the emissions caused by AI.

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 updates and news in the world of sustainable software development. I'm your host Chris Adams. It's important to understand that when we talk about sustainability and technology, it's easy to mix up sustainability of software with sustainability through software. Sustainability of software development is about understanding the direct impacts of technology and doing as much as we can to reduce it without delivering a worse experience for people using the software. Here, we car...

TWiGS host Chris Adams is joined once again by Gaël Duez to discuss the latest news in green software around AI. They discuss insights from recent reports by Google, Meta, and Amazon, as well as looking at the implementation of the GSF’s Software Carbon Intensity metric. Similarly, the conversation touches on the distribution of renewable energies and the use of different means of measuring carbon in reporting, and how this can affect the behavior of consumers and organizations alike. Tune in for an enlightening discussion on the latest in green software.

Learn more about our people:

• Chris Adams: LinkedIn | GitHub | Website
• Gaël Duez: LinkedIn | Website

Find out more about the GSF:

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

News:

• Green Coding AI [05:02]
• Sustainability: How Did Amazon, Azure, Google Perform in 2023? - The New Stack [19:33]
• Big Tech’s bid to rewrite the rules on net zero [34:20]
• Can AWS really reduce the carbon footprint of AI workloads by 99% or is it 'greenwashing'? [43:36]
• Are the CO2 emission reductions promised by cloud providers realistic ? | Boavizta [44:44]
• Mark Butcher on LinkedIn: #sustainability #scope2 | 58 comments [45:09]
• AWS, Digital Realty, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Schneider Electric call for greater supplier transparency on Scope 3 emissions 

Events:

• Green IO London 2024 [1:01:15]
• CNCF Cloud Native Sustainability Week 2024 [1:05:48]

Resources:

• The Week in Green Software: Complex Carbon Accounting with Gaël Duez [03:54]
• EcoLogits tracks the energy consumption and environmental footprint of using generative AI models through APIs. [06:43]
• https://hotcarbon.org/assets/2024/pdf/hotcarbon24-final109.pdf [11:02]
• Making an image with generative AI uses as much energy as charging your phone | MIT Technology Review [15:21]
• Energy Star Ratings for AI Models [15:53]
• http://CodeCarbon.io [17:02]
• https://github.com/mrchrisadams/djangocon-eu-2024-workshop/issues/1 
• Marketplace · GitHub [18:40]
• Why have Irish energy companies been told to drop 'misleading' 100% renewable claims? | Euronews [30:24]
• RE100 TECHNICAL CRITERIA [31:04]
• https://github.com/Green-Software-Foundation/real-time-cloud/issues/59 [31:42]
• ISO/IEC 21031:2024 - Information technology — Software Carbon Intensity (SCI) specification 
• Asim Hussain on LinkedIn: Hey, so according to a new carbon offset standard (CCP), 32% of the… | 27 comments [50:41]
• Making sense of the energy reporting deadlines for datacentres in Europe 
• The bigger picture: A data centre revolution - Green Web Foundation [1:00:20] 
• Green Coding 

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:

Gaël Duez: We cannot fully rely on companies agreeing on how they should measure their own environmental impact, even if they are well meaning, with tons of great people trying to do the right things, etc. It's not a black and white world out there, but there is a question at some point of financial pressure, shareholder pressures in many of these companies.

They're just stronger than the entire stakeholder's pressure.

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 updates from the world of sustainable software development. I'm your host, Chris Adams. Round about this time last year, Gaël Duez, the voice of the Green IO podcast, came on to Environment Variables, This Week in Green Software to talk tech, sustainability, and moving from France to live on La Reunion Island.

And the ups and downs of co...

Host Chris Adams and guest Romain Jacob delve into the often-overlooked energy demands of networking infrastructure to discover A Greener Internet that Sleeps More. While AI and data centers usually dominate the conversation, networking still consumes significant power, comparable to the energy usage of entire countries. They discuss innovative practices to make the internet greener, such as putting networks to sleep during low usage periods and extending the life of hardware. Romain talks about his recent Hypnos paper, which won Best Paper at HotCarbon 2024. He shares his team’s award-winning research on how energy demand for networking kit powering the internet can be reduced by simply by powering down links when not in use.

Learn more about our people:

• Chris Adams: LinkedIn | GitHub | Website
• Romain Jacob: LinkedIn | Website

Find out more about the GSF:

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

Resources:

• SCION Architecture [11:30]
• Environmental Impacts of Internet Technology (eimpact) [17:15]
• Why we should be intentional about the mental models we use for thinking when we think about digital sustainability | Chris Adams [18:30] 
• A Sleep Study for ISP Networks: Evaluating Link Sleeping on Real World Data | Romain Jacob, Lukas Röllin and Laurent Vanbever [18:59]
• Network energy use not directly proportional to data volume: The power model approach for more reliable network energy consumption calculations | David Mytton [38:55]
• Co2.js - The Issue | The Green Web Foundation [42:57]
• Rethinking Allocation in High-Baseload Systems: A Demand-Proportional Network Electricity Intensity Metric — University of Bristol | Daniel Schien [43:53] 
• Introducing Web Sustainability Guidelines | 2023 | Blog | W3C [49:31]
• Greening of Streaming [52:16]
• Network Power Zoo | ETH Zurich [54:46]

Other source material:   

• A Primer on Optimistic UI | Imhoff
• Response Time Limits: Article by Jakob Nielsen | NN Group
• Optimistic UI Patterns for Improved Perceived Performance | Simon Hearne
• Reducing the Energy Footprint of Cellular Networks with Delay-Tolerant Users | IEEE Journals & Magazine 

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:
Romain Jacob: We used to consider that energy is cheap. Energy is there. We don't need to worry too much about it. So it's just simpler to plug the thing in, assume energy is there. You can draw power as much as you want, whenever you want, for as much as you want. And it's time to get away from that.

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 edition of Environment Variables, where we bring you the latest news and updates from the world of sustainable software development. I'm your host, Chris Adams. Back in episode 10 of this podcast in September 2022, we did a deep dive into the subject of green networking, because while a lot of the time people talk about the energy demands of AI and data centers, in 2024, in absolute terms, the amount of power consumed by networking was still larger.

Back then in 2022, the best figures, when we looked at this, came from the AI, which put the energy usage of data networks at around 250 terawatt hours per year. So that's about the same as all of Spain's energy usage in 2023, so that's not nothing. Now, it's a few years later, 2024, and the best figures from the same agency, the IEA, now give us a range of between 260 and 360 terawatt hours, which could be anything up to a jump of 50 percent in three years now.

Now because of much of this power is coming from fossil fuels, this is a real problem, climate wise. So what can we do about this? With me to explore this once again, is my friend Romain Jacob, who helped guide us through the subject in 2022, along with Dr. Yves Schouler at Intel at the time.

His team's recent research won the Best Paper Award at HotCarbon, the conference that has fast become a fixture on the green IT and digital sustainability circuit. So he seemed a good person to ask about this. Romain, thank you so much for joining me for this podcast. Can I give you the floor to introduce yourself before we revisit the world of green networks?

Romain Jacob: Chris, welcome. I'm very happy to be back on the podcast to talk a little bit more about this. Hello, I'm Romain, I'm a postdoctoral researcher at ETH Zurich in Switzerland. I've been working in sustainability for two to three years now, more or less full time, as much as full time research happens in academia. And yeah, I was, I had the pleasure to present some of our technical work at HotCarbon and I'm sure we're going to deep dive into a bit more in the podcast.

Chris Adams: Okay. Thank you, Romain. And for people who are new to this podcast, my name is Chris Adams. I am the executive director of the Green Web Foundation. We're a Dutch nonprofit focused on reaching a f...

Producer Chris Skipper is joined by guests Marjolein Pordon of ladylowcode.com fame and Andri Johnston from Cambridge University Press & Assessment to discuss the sustainability challenges associated with AI's increasing energy demands and the role of data centers in addressing these challenges. Marjolein emphasizes the need for sustainable infrastructure and the potential synergy between low-code platforms and AI. Andri shares insights from CUP&A's efforts to understand and mitigate digital carbon emissions, highlighting the importance of transparency and accurate reporting from cloud service providers like AWS. 

Learn more about our people:

• Andri Johnston: LinkedIn
• Marjolein Pordon: LinkedIn | Website
• Chris Skipper: LinkedIn 

Find out more about the GSF:

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

News:

• AI energy demand is ruining Google's environmental goals [06:06]
• How AWS helps reduce carbon footprint of AI workloads [12:58]
• Roundtable: Data Center Sustainability Plays for the AI Era [23:33]
• AI is starving for more power. Can quantum computing help? – Computerworld [34:28]  

Events:

• Metatalent.ai on LinkedIn: "Thought Leadership Webinar For AI: Your Replacement, or Your Advantage?" [40:10]
• Climate-Conscious Websites for a More Sustainable Net  [40:38]

Resources:

• AI water footprint suggests that large language models are thirsty [24:15]
• Underwater data center voyage hits the doldrums - Verdict [26:16]
• How data centers at public pools can keep swimmers warm - The Verge [26:36]

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!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we preview the first episode of CXO Bytes. Join host Sanjay Podder as he talks to leaders in technology, sustainability, and AI in their pursuit of a sustainable future through green software. Joined by Dr. Ong Chen Hui, Assistant CEO of Singapore's Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), the discussion focuses on Singapore's comprehensive approach to digital sustainability. Dr. Ong highlights IMDA's efforts to drive green software adoption across various sectors, emphasizing the importance of efficiency in data centers and the broader ICT ecosystem. Listen to the full episode via the links below.

Listen to CXO Bytes:

• Spotify
• Apple
• YouTube

Find out more about the GSF:

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

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: Hello, and welcome to Environment Variables. This is Chris Skipper, the podcast producer, bringing you a very special episode of Environment Variables. Today, I'm excited to share with you a preview from our new podcast series, CXO Bytes. Hosted by Sanjay Poddar, Chairperson of the Green Software Foundation.

CXObytes dives deep into the intersection of innovation and sustainability within the tech industry. In each episode, Sanjay will be joined by industry leaders from the C Suite to explore practical strategies for greening software while driving enterprise growth. So without further ado, let's get started.

Let's listen in on a sneak peek of the first episode. 

Sanjay Podder: Hello and welcome to CXO Bytes, a podcast brought to you by the Green Software Foundation and dedicated to supporting chiefs of information, technology, sustainability, and AI as they aim to shape a sustainable future through green software. We will uncover the strategies and a big green move that's helped drive results for business and for the planet.

I am your host, Sanjay Podder.

Hello everyone. Welcome to CXO Bytes. This is our inaugural podcast on how do you use green software for building a sustainable future. This is a new podcast series and the whole idea behind it is, you know, embracing a culture of green software, it needs to come from the top. And we therefore want to talk with decision makers, with business leaders, with leaders who are running nation states like Singapore, for example, at C level.

You know, how are they driving this culture change when it comes to digital sustainability and green software, for example?

Today I am super excited to invite Dr. Ong. She is the Assistant CEO of IMDA, which is the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore. And we are going to chat on how IMDA is championing digital sustainability as well as green software. Welcome, Dr. Ong.

Dr. Ong Chen Hui: Thank you for having me on your inaugural podcast on green software.

Sanjay Podder: And you know, I had my own selfish reason for inviting you because while the Green Software Foundation has been interacting with many, many large businesses across the world, IMDA and Singapore GovTech, these are two members of Green Software Foundation who represent the government, right?

And we all know the very important role that government will play in sustainability in general. So I wanted to understand from you, you know, how are you looking into this space? So we will talk a lot about that. The other aspect is probably to begin with, for our audience, a perspective on what is IMDA.

You know, what is your specific remit, what you are trying to do in Singapore, if you can give us, you know, a few insights into that.

Dr. Ong Chen Hui: Okay, so here in Singapore, of course, climate change is actually something that is a bit of a existential thing for us, us being a small nation state and we're also an island, to us, climate change and the associated rising sea level is a matter of concern. Right? So, as a result, we have put in a green plan that states our, sustainability goals by the time we reach 2050. And this is actually a whole government effort. So, I don't think it is a case where it's one ministry or one agency that's responsible for the whole world. It is about the whole of government working together in order to make sure that we meet the goals of our Green Plan.

Now, what are some of the things that we are doing? Many things, for example, the National Environment Agency is actually rolling out some of the regulations. We have things like e-waste management, for example. Just now you mentioned GovTech, which is our sister agency. GovTech is also rolling out green procurement when they're actually procuring software solutions. Within IMDA, we are responsible for some of the industry development. We're also what we call a sectoral lead of the ICT sector. So, our own green strategy, comprised broadly of three different strokes. The first is about greening ourselves as an organization.

The second is really about greening the sector that we are responsible for, that we are leading. So, in that case, there will be things like the telecommunications sector, the media sector. And the third thing we want to do is to enable our ICT solution providers to provide green solutions to the broader economy so that we can scale the adoption, we can ease the friction out there in the ecosystem.

So essentially, that's greening ourselves, greening the sector, as the lead. And the third is really to kind of provide solutions through the ecosystem so that the wider community can actually benefit.

Sanjay Podder: Now this is really a full 360 degree kind of approach and it is phenomenal. And, I was, I was wondering, you know, and you mentioned briefly on Singapore being an island state. I was thinking, why digital sustainability? What will happen if Singapore decides not to do it, for example, right? Do you have a point of view, say, because, you know, there are many different levers of, sustainability, you know, I can understand the larger sustainability, but what is the importance of digital sustainability?

Do you think it's an important enough lever or maybe you can look at nature biodiversity or something else, right? So specifically for digital sustainability. What is it that triggers IMDA that this is a important initiative? And I'm, I'm seeing this is my second year in Asia Tech that, you know, this is something you give a lot of importance to.

Bringin...

In this episode of Environment Variables, host Chris Adams is joined by Asim Hussain to dive into the complexities of AI's growing energy demands and its environmental impact. They discuss innovative approaches to sustainability, such as using fungi to manage building waste in data centers and the potential for greener materials and practices. The conversation also covers software optimizations to reduce AI's carbon footprint, emphasizing that energy inefficiency cannot be outsourced. They highlight the importance of integrated sustainable practices in tech development, particularly in the face of increasing AI power consumption projections.

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:

• Mushrooms eat building waste at Meta's Gallatin data center - DCD [03:35]
• Building with Mushrooms to Reduce Drywall Waste — or Cooking Up a New Future for Data Center Construction - Meta Sustainability [06:59]
• Solutions for AI's Energy Inefficiency Can't Be Outsourced - Bloomberg [15:42]
• BitNet: Scaling 1-bit Transformers for Large Language Models - Microsoft Research [16:34]
• Balance effects of AI with profits tax and green levy, says IMF | International Monetary Fund (IMF) | The Guardian [31:09]
• Fiscal Policy Can Help Broaden the Gains of AI to Humanity [31:24]  
• [2406.09645] Carbon accounting in the Cloud: a methodology for allocating emissions across data center users [37:52]

Events:

• HotCarbon - Workshop on Sustainable Computer Systems - July 9, 2024 [48:33]
• IEEE CLOUD 2024 International Conference on Cloud Computing - July 7 to 13 [48:53] 
• Masterclass: Become a Sustainable UX Designer  - July 8 [49:44]
• The Software Measurement Landscape - Workshop 2 - July 9 [50:12]

Resources:

• Software Carbon Intensity (SCI) Specification [10:58]
• Episode 56 - Mushroom recycling with Joanne Rodriguez, Mycocycle - DCD 
• Mushrooms eat building waste at Meta's Gallatin data center - DCD 
• Options to make software greener without changing the code, and how to remember them | Chris Adams [30:17]

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: And now there's a big hoorah in our space because like AI's now gone and

our automation has now gotten the point where even our jobs are now we're all really like nervous and upset and but you know this has been the pressure that we've been applying to the rest of the world with all the industry for decades and decades and it's just now coming to us and affecting us so you know we don't really have a leg to stand on I'd say.

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; This 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. Today, in our news roundup, we're diving into some of the pressing issues at the intersection of AI and sustainability.

So, with AI rapidly advancing, the energy demands of training and running these models are also seen to be skyrocketing. Posing significant challenges for the environment. We'll also be touching on some legislation for promoting sustainable business practices amongst AI companies and the potential for a green levy to drive investment for greener eco-friendly technologies.

We'll also be talking about some of the latest papers that have been published for people trying to understand and get grips on cloud carbon emissions. And finally, we'll touch on some of the exciting events in the green software community, including conferences, workshops, and masterclasses aimed at fostering sustainable development practices.

Joining me today for today's news roundup is my longtime friend, Asim Hussain of the Green Software Foundation. Asim, for people who've never listened to the podcast before, can I give you the floor to introduce yourself and some of your background? 

Asim Hussain: Yeah, sure. So my name's Asim Hussain. I am the executive director of the Green Software Foundation. And yeah, I've been at the intersection of sustainability and software. I've been very lucky to be thinking about the same question about the intersection of sustainability and software for quite a few years now. And yeah, I've been well, mate. I've been, I've just come back from a vacation, which has been long...

On this episode of TWiGS, host Anne Currie is joined by Navveen Balani of Accenture and fellow GSF member. This conversation navigates the landscapes of, and intersections between GreenOps, DevOps, and FinOps, as well as the vital role of Infrastructure as Code in marrying financial and ecological efficiencies in cloud operations. Lastly, they tackle the intersection of cybersecurity and AI development, emphasizing the need for green software principles to fortify AI systems while minimizing energy use. 

Learn more about our people:

• Anne Currie: LinkedIn | GitHub | Website
• Navveen Balani: LinkedIn | Website

Find out more about the GSF:

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

News:

• Green coding - CloudBolt: Cloud efficiency... beyond dollars, pounds & pennies [03:17] 
• Why you should switch to green coding for a net-zero future [16:08]
• The role of cybersecurity in AI system development [31:28]
• Mexico elects Claudia Sheinbaum as its first female president [40:00]

Resources:

• Cloud Native Computing Foundation [14:36]

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:

Navveen Balani: Definitely, I would say there is some synergy between security and green software and certain, I would say, features of green software principles can also be applied to security domain, right, to make it more energy-efficient.

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: Welcome to another edition of the Week in Green Software, where we bring you the latest news and updates from the world of sustainable software development. Today, I'm your host, Anne Currie. So you're not quite hearing the usual dulcet tones of Chris Adams. You will have to do with me instead. But as usual, we'll be talking about the world of green software and what's, what's going on at the moment.

And today we're going to talk a little bit about how being green matches with FinOps, which I think is very true. And I think that's a really important part of the story. So we'll be talking a little bit about that. We'll also be talking a little bit about code and code efficiency, which I'm much more...

You have to be very careful about code efficiency. So that's, that's the part that we need to be really careful about. What's the context there when we talk about code efficiency. And finally, we'll talk about the intersection of cybersecurity and AI developments, and we'll be talking a little bit about GreenOps.

And there is a new Green Software Foundation project, GreenOps project, which is aimed to look about how we can embrace AI and use AI without totally throwing all our green principles out of the window. And I think that is absolutely doable, but we need to think about it. We need to go in, in a very knowing way.

So as I said, I am your host today, Anne Currie. But first I'm going to introduce our guest, Navveen. Navveen, do you want to, do you want to introduce yourself?

Navveen Balani: Thank you Anne. Hi everyone. I'm Navveen Balani. I'm the Managing Director and Chief Technologist for the Techno and Sustainability Innovation Group at Accenture, working at the intersection of technology and sustainability. I'm also the co chair of the Standards Working Group and the Impact Engine Framework at the Green Software Foundation.

I'm a Google Cloud Certified Fellow, a LinkedIn Top Voice, and author of several reading books. Very glad to be part of this podcast.

Anne Currie: Thank you very much, Navveen. It's very good to have you. So just a bit of context for me. My name is Anne Currie. I am one of the co-chairs of the community group of the Green Software Foundation. And I am also one of the authors of the new O'Reilly book, Building Green Software. So that's, fills you in a little bit on my background.

So before we dive in to the articles this week that we're going to be talking about, it's just a reminder that everything we talk about will be linked in the show notes at the bottom of the episode. So you can, you can read the articles that we're talking about. You don't just have to rely on us telling you what was in the article.

So, well, let's, let's move first to the first article from today, which was in Computer Weekly. And it was called Green Coding. It was, it was a, basically a puff piece by a company called CloudBolt who do a look at code efficiency, cloud frequency. So taking it beyond FinOps, beyond dollars, pounds, and pennies.

So actually, but it was a very good article, I thought. I was very pleased to see it in Computer Weekly. So it was fundamentally, it was about how GreenOps and FinOps are very aligned. They're very combined. And, and I can, I'm in complete agreement on that. It's a good article. It doesn't say, tell you anything that you probably, that you won't know alreby knowingwing that FinOps and GreenOps are quite aligned and they're all aligned through the fact that in the end, being green, a lot of being green, not all of being green, but a lot of being green is about cutting down on how many machines you, and how much electricity you are using to run your systems, which, which generally speaking cuts down on the cost.

So cost is somewhat of a proxy measure. It's not a perfect proxy measure, but it's somewhat of a proxy measure. So the question that Chris Skipper, our excellent editor has left me and Navveen to discuss is about considering th...

TWiGS host Chris Adams is joined by Asim Hussain the executive director of the GSF to talk about the recent hackathon hosted by the GSF : Carbon Hack 24. Asim goes through some of his favourite projects that featured work with the Impact Framework including some surprising choices! They also cover some interesting news from the world of cloud service providers and the new CSDDD developments. Asim also talks about how mushrooms are out and bread is in!

Learn more about our people:

• Chris Adams: LinkedIn | GitHub | Website
• Tom Greenwood: LinkedIn | Website

Find out more about the GSF:

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

News & Topics:

• GreenOps, FinOps, and the Sustainable Cloud | Forrester [6:03]
• EU: New CSDDD compromise finally accepted by Member States | Linklaters [30:02] 
• Carbon Hack 24 Recap: Asim’s Favourites: [50:12]
  • Facebook Open Sourcing the code behind its Power and Water Efficiency Dashboards [51:40]
  • Grasp [52:22]
  • Amazon Packages for Delivery [56:08]
  • Kubernetes Focused Project [56:40]
  • GreenerMeet: Assessing Energy Usage & Carbon Emissions in Zoom Conferences [57:04]

Resources:

• The Baking Forecast | ShouldIbake.com [2:57]
• Hetzner [17:09]
• DigitalOcean [17:32]
• BackMarket [18:04]
• Sesame Open Hardware [20:32]
• DjangoCon [23:18]
• Green Metrics Tool [23:57]
• How does AI and ML Impact Climate Change? | Environment Variables Ep 4 [36:49]
• Green Digital Coalition [44:15]
• In-depth Q&A: How does climate change drive human migration? [54:32]
•  All the winners of Carbon Hack 24 

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: And I'm just sitting there thinking, we are old. These are the kids of the future, you know, maybe gave me so much hope, like these are 16 year old kids, and they were doing some incredibly advanced green software measurement, reporting, zoom, understanding curtailment, understanding like how to measure this stuff.

And I was like, ooh, we've got a, we've got a good future ahead of us.

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, the podcast where we talk about sustainable software development. I'm your host, Chris Adams. This week, our format is This Week in Green Software, where rather than doing a deep dive into some of the specifics of green software, we're going to look at some of the news stories that have been making the rounds and provide a bit of commentary and analysis on this. And joining me today is my good friend Asim Hussain, the executive director of the Green Software Foundation. Asim, I'll hand over to you to introduce yourself a bit more than what I've just shared so far, if that's okay with you.

Asim Hussain: Yeah, of course. Yeah. Thanks. I really love these, having these podcast episodes with you and talking through this material. Asim Hussain, Executive Director of the Green Software Foundation and been, you know, lucky enough to be at the intersection of sustainability and software for quite a few years. So based in the UK and excited to be on the podcast again.

Chris Adams: Thank you, Asim. And when I last spoke to you on the podcast, the recurring thing is your history of growing all kinds of delicious mushrooms. How are the myco friends doing?

Asim Hussain: Not good, not good. I've lost, my green thumb or my blue thumb. Maybe if that's how you would, talk about it. But yeah, no, I've lost my, I've lost the thumb. I now bake bread is, the thing that I do, which is equally disappointing, to be honest with you. I just love doing stuff, which is like very, the people, you put a lot of effort in and then you get kind of like middling results is kind of my, seems to be my hobbies of, the day, hobbies du jour.

Yeah.

Chris Adams: Okay, so you've been culturing um, what's it, butter, sourdough and things like that?

Asim Hussain: Yeah, sourdough right now, yeah. I do have a sourdough starter that I, was gonna say keep refreshed, but I probably should say like, keep on the verge of starvation all the time. But yeah, no, it's actually quite fun. I make, I bake bread every weekend and I give it a go. Yeah.

Chris Adams: you for sharing that. Presumably, this is going to be carbon aware bread that you're using, that you're baking when the energy is green, because in the UK, you have the baking forecast. Are you familiar with the baking forecast?

Asim Hussain: I am not aware of the baking forecast.<...

In this episode of the TWiGS, host Chris Adams welcomes back Anne Currie, Sara Bergman, and Sarah Hsu, authors of the book Building Green Software. They dive into the latest updates and hot topics at the intersection of sustainability and software engineering. The discussion highlights the importance of making software and hardware more efficient and explores cutting-edge topics like serverless computing on Kubernetes with WebAssembly, the circular economy for electronics, and the potential for dynamic pricing in cloud services based on renewable energy availability. The episode emphasizes the ongoing energy transition and the need for innovative solutions to reduce the carbon footprint of technology.

Learn more about our people:

• Chris Adams: LinkedIn | GitHub | Website
• Anne Currie: LinkedIn | Website
• Sarah Hsu: LinkedIn 
• Sara Bergman: LinkedIn

Find out more about the GSF:

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

News:

• Introducing SpinKube [04:11] 
• Staggering quantities of energy transition metals are winding up in the garbage bin | Grist [10:25] 
• THE GLOBAL E WASTE MONITOR 2024 [10:50] 
• Analysis: Fossil fuels fall to record-low 2.4% of British electricity - Carbon Brief [16:27]
• https://github.com/open-telemetry/community/issues/2020 [23:03]
• Explore Traces | Honeycomb [24:40]
• https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/sustainability/report?icid=SustainabilityHomepage01Report2024 [30:20]

Events:

• https://ndcoslo.com/ [47:55]

Resources:

• Building Green Software 
• Environment Variables Podcast | Ep 67 Building Green Software 
• https://links.danielle.fyi/ [05:55]
• Working toward a net zero future: Evolving our work with energy companies - The Official Microsoft Blog 
• https://grist.org/accountability/microsoft-employees-spent-years-fighting-the-tech-giants-oil-ties-now-theyre-speaking-out/ 
• https://www.scaleway.com/en/ [37:54]

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:
Anne Currie: That is the nature of renewables, is that they are variably available, and we just have to, we have to take advantage of that, not fight against it, and not constantly wish we were in the fossil fuel age.

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 Green Software Foundation podcast, where we bring you the latest news and updates from the world of sustainable software development. I'm your host, Chris Adams. In this episode, we welcome back the authors of the book, Building Green Software, Anne Currie, Sara Bergman, and Sarah Hsu, for an episode of This Week in Green Software,

our roundup of what's happening and hot at the intersection of sustainability and software engineering. So Anne, Sara, Sarah, I know that you've been on the podcast before, but I wanted to just provide a bit of space for people who are new to this to let you introduce yourselves. Anne, it's okay if I give this floor to you before we run through the usual roster?

Anne Currie: Yeah, thanks Chris. So, my name is Anne Currie. I am the CEO of a training company, Strategically Green, and I have been in the tech industry for pretty much 30 years now, and I am one of the co-chairs of the Green Software Foundation Community Group.

Chris Adams: Cool. Thank you, Anne. All right. Sara, is it okay if I hand over the floor to you next?

Sara Bergman: Sure. Thanks for having me back. I always enjoy being on the podcast. So my name is Sara Bergman. I am a senior software engineer at Microsoft, where I work with the Microsoft 365 products, which is very fun and exciting. I'm also one of the co-authors of the book Building Green Software. And other things that are new in my life is I'm recently back at work after maternity leave.

So I'm still figuring it out, you know, what is life now?

Chris Adams: Well, welcome back and congratulations on, yeah, the new instances of Sara, I suppose. Yeah.

Okay. And moving on to other Sarah. Sarah Hsu, if I give space to you to introduce yourself.

Sarah Hsu: Hi everyone. It's nice to be back. So my name is LSara Hsu. I am an SRE working for a financial institution. I'm also a project lead for the green software course for the GSF and similar to Anne and Sara, we recently just published a book by O'Reilly called Building Green Software. Very excited to be back.

Chris Adams: Cool. Nice to see you again. And Sarah Hsu, we met in person f...