The Hidden Impact of Software: Building a Greener Digital World

This workshop dives into the environmental impact of software development, often an overlooked aspect of sustainability. We'll explore how code efficiency and design choices can significantly influence the digital landscape's energy consumption and resource utilisation. This workshop equips you with the knowledge to make software choices that minimise environmental footprint and empower you to move towards a greener digital future.

Transcript

1. Hi, I'm Matt Wheeler Co-Founder & Digital Director @ madeby.studio The Hidden Impact of Software: Building a Greener Digital World. @mattmultiplied @mattmultiplied
2. We pride ourselves on our commitment to technical excellence, building digital solutions with sustainability & accessibility ingrained at every step of the process. High performing responsible websites.
3. Let's do some introductions. 1
4. Who are you and why did you decide to join this workshop? ~30 seconds each
5. Why should we green our software? 🌿 2
6. The aviation industry accounts for 2.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Our World in Data, 2020
7. Internet use accounts for ???% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
8. Internet use accounts for 3.7% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Energuide, 2020
9. By 2025 internet use could account for ???% of all global greenhouse gas emissions and use ??? of all electricity.
10. By 2025 internet use could account for 5.5% of all global greenhouse gas emissions and use 20% of all electricity. Anders S.G. Andrae - Huawei Technologies, 2017
12. 92% of software practitioners are concerned about climate change. State of Green Software, 2023
13. "Green Hosting" solves all our problems. 3
15. Variability of carbon intensity​ ​ . 1
18. Dispatchability & curtailment. 2
19. Dispatchable generation refers to sources of electricity that can be programmed on demand at the request of power grid operators, according to market needs. e.g. Fossil fuels
20. Curtailment is the deliberate reduction in output below what could have been produced in order to balance energy supply and demand or due to transmission constraints. e.g. Renewable power sources
21. Marginal carbon intensity & energy markets. 3
25. Demand shifting. 4
26. Spatial shifting
27. Temporal shifting
28. Demand shaping. 5
30. 12 recommendations for green software development 🌿 4
31. Use Green Hosting for your websites and applications. 1
32. Use Cloud Hosting to maximise the utilisation of server resources. 2
33. 3 Maximise the lifespan hardware such as servers, laptops and phones.
34. Reduce, cache, optimise and minimise the exchange of data. 4
35. Remove or refactor unused features. 5
36. Detect and remove loops which can’t achieve their intended purpose. 6
37. Carefully consider features, design and their delivery. 7
38. Limit computational accuracy of the application to the desired level. 8
39. Monitor the energy consumption of the application. 9
40. Consider your choice of language. 10
41. 11 Focus on and control features with higher power consumption.
42. Follow software development best practises. 12
43. Planting the seeds for sustainable change 🌿 5
44. It's not something that can happen overnight.
45. • • • • • • • Easy access to knowledge. Support to undertake training. Positive organisational reinforcement. The tools to measure green software metrics. Awareness of the importance of green software. Capacity to adopt the practices of green software. Accurate information about writing green software. It takes a whole shift in mindset and workflow.
46. Top-down organisational change and bottom-up employee advocacy.
47. • • • • • • Alignment with values. Increase in software performance. Better code quality and maintainability. Employee fulfilment, happiness and impact. Cost reduction due to reduced energy consumption. Added value to software if considering investment/exits. When going top-down consider the following.
48. • • • • • • Raising awareness between teams. Create a local group to share knowledge. Consider sustainability in sprint retrospectives. Cost reduction when following sustainable practises. Performance benefits when following sustainable practises. Integrate tools to provide numerical values on sustainability. Or you can take the grassroots approach.
49. Bringing together the North’s GreenTech community to connect, share knowledge and collaborate. Thursday 18th July 2024 links.greentechgathering.co.uk hello@greentechgathering.co.uk Thursday 18th July 17:30-20:30 📍The Ambler Club, St. Paul's House, 23 Park Square S, Leeds LS1 2ND
50. Ultimately, it's all about reducing wastage.
51. The Green Web Foundation​ 🔗
52. Web Sustainability Guidelines 1.0 🔗
53. Green Software Foundation​ 🔗
54. Matt Wheeler matt@madeby.studio @mattmultiplied Thank you! Any questions? Digital Enterprise Top 100 | Great British Entrepreneur Awards Finalist | Santander X Entrepreneurship Awards Nominee | Leeds Digital Festival Thrive Award Nominee | SME News - Most Innovative Web Design Agency 2024 | Santander X Global Awards 2021 UK Finalist | Yorkshire 42 Under 42 2022 | Northern Enterprise Awards - Best Graphic Design & Development Company 2022 | BIMA 100 Champions for Change: Planet