Coding efficiently, saving resources: Project shows ways to greener software

Inefficient code is often a burden on the environment because it consumes unnecessary resources. The “Potentials of Green Coding” project, which the Gesellschaft für Informatik (GI), the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft (HTW) Berlin and the Birkenfeld Environmental Campus of the Trier University of Applied Sciences have started together, aims to tackle this problem.

So far, according to the project partners, the Green Code concept has been considered in isolation in research, teaching and economic contexts. In the long term, however, it could not prevail in this way. That is why they are aimed both at teaching at universities and at the economy. This is the only way the transformation can succeed, they write in a press release at the start.

Identify green code concepts

To this end, the project should first take stock of which green coding concepts are already being used and where, says Volker Wohlgemuth from HTW Berlin. One also wants to analyze how the technical, economic and ecological dimensions of IT are related.

The next step is to look at teaching and develop concepts for how green coding can also be integrated into university curricula. The aim is also to show business how the unavoidable negative effects of digitization on the environment can at least be reduced with efficient code.

Environmental impact acknowledged, too little is done

It is now well known that software has a major impact on the environmental compatibility and energy efficiency of hardware, for example through additional loads generated by the software. On the other hand, it can also quickly become the cause of resource wastage itself, for example in the case of automated, uncontrolled data mining.

However, so far there has been a lack of extensive guidelines and information on what constitutes sustainable code. The new ‘Blue Angel for resource- and energy-efficient software products’ is a good start, but it is a voluntary certification and “a lot more needs to be done to raise awareness of environmentally and energy-conscious programming”, says Stefan Naumann from the Environmental Campus Birkenfeld.