Green software oregon

Ryan Woods. Atlanta, CA. Tom K. Phoenix, AZ. Rob Lenniger. Simon KA. Atlanta, GA. This is the best new piece of equipment you can buy to help shave strokes of your score!

Jack Doe. How did I even putt before I had this? It takes the guesswork out of the game! Tony Blair. Custom Wholesale Program. Green Books on Your Phone! Without doubt, software is the backbone of virtually all the intelligent solutions designed to support the environment. In many instances, however, software is also part and parcel of a rapidly growing carbon footprint. In fact, recent and proliferating digital technologies have begun to worsen many of the environmental problems they are aimed at solving.

But companies can make software an integral part of their sustainability efforts by taking its carbon footprint into account in the way it is designed, developed, and deployed and by rethinking some aspects of how the data centers that provide cloud-based services operate. The problem lies in the way software is developed for use — and then in the way it is used. Software runs on hardware, and as the former continues to grow, so does reliance on the machines to make it run.

For example, blockchain drives some of the most advanced green solutions available such as microgrids that allow residents to trade environmentally friendly energy. And this software innovation is also behind the development of cryptocurrency. In , researchers at the University of Cambridge estimated that the energy needed to maintain the Bitcoin network surpassed that of the entire nation of Switzerland.

The very development of software can be energy intensive. For example, consider what we learned when we trained an artificial intelligence AI model on a small, publicly available dataset of iris flowers.

The AI model achieved accuracy of The next 1. The last 0. Now consider that same example in the context of the bigger picture of AI overall. Training a single neural network model today can emit as much carbon as five cars in their lifetimes. And the amount of computational power required to run large AI training models has been increasing exponentially , with a 3.

Nor would limiting software-driven innovation be a viable response. However, companies can make software an integral part of their sustainability efforts by judging its performance on its energy efficiency as much as on traditional parameters e.

Ultimately, the rewards would outweigh the challenges: The early, increased scrutiny that building green software requires translates into a higher-quality product: leaner, cleaner, and more fit for its purpose.

These qualities also offset additional upfront costs. Green software will help large companies meet their ESG targets, an increasingly important performance measure for stakeholders. So how can companies go green with their software?

No single company that we know of is engaged fully in this process as we describe it and reaping the full benefits of purposefully green software. However, a growing number of businesses — including Google, Volkswagen, and Rainforest itself a software testing company — are deploying a variety of the following approaches and techniques.

Articulate a strategy that guides trade-offs and allows for flexibility. The Green Button initiative is an industry-led effort that responds to a White House call-to-action to provide utility customers with easy and secure access to their energy usage information in a consumer-friendly and computer-friendly format.

Customers are able to securely download their own detailed energy usage with a simple click of a literal "Green Button" on electric utilities' websites. Click for a sample file. With their own data in hand, consumers can take advantage of a growing array of online services to help them manage energy use and save on their bills.

Voluntary adoption of a consensus industry standard by utilities and companies across the country both enables and incentivizes software developers and other entrepreneurs to build innovative applications, products and services which will help consumers manager energy use by, for example, programming their home energy management devices, sizing and financing rooftop solar panels, and helping a contractor to verify their home energy savings more cost-effectively.

Adoption of the Green Button data standard will also benefit utilities that receive numerous requests for data, are administering energy efficiency programs, are looking for avenues for greater customer engagement, and in many other ways. The Green Button initiative was officially launched in January To date, a total over 50 utilities and electricity suppliers have signed on to the initiative. In total, these commitments ensure that over 60 million homes and businesses will be able to securely access their own energy information in a standard format.