Tech giants like Microsoft, Accenture Plc, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are working with nonprofits organizations like the Linux Foundation and some climate groups to share ways and develop low-carbon emitting software which would help in reducing the emissions of energy-starved networks of high powered computers in the data centers. Thought Works, Microsoft’s GitHub, and software consultancy are planning to develop tools and standards for measuring the climate impact of software and would work on software training. According to the experts, data centers makeup about 1% of global electricity demand today and are expected to increase by 3% to 8% over the next decade.
Alphabet Inc. and Google have announced plans to reduce emissions from their data centers, and many companies have announced carbon-neutral targets. To do this, software developers need to learn a new skill called green software engineering in the same way as they were given the training to avoid vulnerabilities in your code earlier.
“The purpose is to develop applications that we consider carbon-efficient,” said Asim Hussain, Microsoft’s senior cloud developer who will serve as the foundation’s CEO. While it is difficult to determine exactly how much CO2 individual software programs are emitting, groups like the Green Software Foundation are studying metrics such as power consumption, the efficient use of microprocessors, and CO2 emissions across networks. “As in areas like data science and cybersecurity, there will be opportunities for engineers to specialize in green software development, but anyone who creates software needs at least some experience with Microsoft developers,” said Jeff Sandquist, Microsoft’s vice president of developer relations. “This would be the responsibility of all members of the development team, just as we do when we look at safety, performance, or reliability, he said.
