The Sustainability Mythbuster

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Martin Lippert, Spring Tools Lead & Sustainability Ambassador @ VMware February 2023 The Sustainability Mythbuster from a software engineering perspective

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We need to decarbonize the entire world of software engineering hardware production commute to/from work heating / cooling datacenter operation (energy) energy production network data transfer business travel food at work accommodation energy consumption . . . . . . . . . . . . conferences virtual meetings / zoom calls

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This is Extremely Difficult

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We talk about CO2eq

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We talk about CO2eq equivalent (this includes other greenhouse gas emissions)

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Sometimes it sounds like we are already close, almost done we are running on 100% renewable energy this () is 100% carbon neutral we aim for net-zero by 20xx the green cloud we are producing renewable energy on-site we switched to a di ff erent language zero waste we do virtual meetings only we deploy to a public cloud, that takes care of everything

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"We produce, run, operate 100 %Carbon Neutral"

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"We are at Net Zero"

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Reducing Emissions Eliminate (do not emit carbon) Offset (continue emit carbon) Compensate (ask someone else to not emit carbon) Neutralize (remove existing carbon from atmosphere)

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Reducing Emissions Eliminate (do not emit carbon) Offset (continue emit carbon) Compensate (ask someone else to not emit carbon) Neutralize (remove existing carbon from atmosphere) Carbon Neutral

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Reducing Emissions Eliminate (do not emit carbon) Offset (continue emit carbon) Compensate (ask someone else to not emit carbon) Neutralize (remove existing carbon from atmosphere) Net Zero

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What carbon offsetting means Invest in a project with a positive impact on carbon emissions (somewhere in the world)

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Example Cookstoves

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Example Preserving Trees

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Example Planting Trees

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Carbon Offsetting doesn’t solve the problem We need to eliminate the emissions

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"We are running on 100% renewable energy"

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What it means We buy as much renewable energy as we consume in total

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You are not running your workloads on 100% renewable energy all the time

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"We are producing 100% green energy (on-site)"

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Same problem - you are not running your workloads on 100% renewable energy all the time

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There is not enough renewable energy production (yet) - wasting green energy causes more fossil energy production somewhere else

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"If not used, it doesn’t consume energy"

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Reserved Resources consume energy (~50%)

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Zombies are a real problem Related study: Jonathan Koomey & Jon Taylor: „Zombie/Comatose Server Redux“, http://anthesisgroup.com/zombie-servers-redux/

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Really think about your container resource requirements

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"Hardware will be more efficient"

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Don’t ignore the rebound effect

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data centers will consume 10% of world- wide energy by 2030

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"software is getting slower more rapidly than hardware is becoming faster" (Wirth’s law)