Projects in Green Software Engineering

Green Coding

Research Project "Green Coding"

Project duration: 06/2022 bis 11/2023

Software as the basis of the Internet has a significant impact on energy consumption, energy efficiency and the useful life of hardware and thus on the Internet's energy and resource consumption. Despite its great importance, general regulation or recommendations for sustainable software is still in its infancy. There are no legal requirements for energy efficiency either in Europe or in Germany.

In Germany, a first, important step forward has already been taken with the "Blue Angel for resource- and energy-efficient software products". The voluntary certification confirms that a software product is resource-conserving and energy-efficient, can run on older hardware, and can be updated over the long term. In addition, certified software is characterized by a high degree of transparency and autonomy. In order to impart the tools for environmentally and energy-conscious programming already in the training of programmers, the development and initiation of university curriculum recommendations is necessary.

Goals

As societies and economies are becoming more and more reliant on various internet-based and software-driven processes, close attention should be paid to the environmental impact and available concepts that may allow us to use resources more efficiently. Green Coding methods seem to be promising approaches that have become increasingly popular among experts and researchers. However, the Green Coding and Green ICT discussion still lacks awareness about the systematic interrelations among the technical, economic, and environmental aspects of ICT. With our research, we aim to take a holistic approach and pay close attention to these interrelations. Further, we address different stakeholder groups which are relevant for greening the web: software developers, Internet-related companies, and computer science degree programs and their students in universities.

In this project, we therefore want to take a holistic approach and involve various stakeholder groups relevant to the greening of the web: Software developers, Internet-related companies, and computer science majors and their students at universities. Central goals are

Analyze current green coding practices and interview experts and other stakeholders to determine what concepts of green coding already exist and how they can be applied
Stakeholder workshops and online surveys will be used to analyze which concepts of environmentally friendly software engineering already exist in the Internet industry
Identify ways in which green coding concepts can be integrated into the curricula of existing degree programs.