Green software: Devices could last longer and be more efficient

The software not only allows devices to work longer, but also reduces carbon emissions while it is running.

Mobile phone applications need to be energy efficient because the phone has limited battery power.

But most software runs on servers in data centers, where there are no such power restrictions.

“You don’t even think about how much power you consume when building server applications, so you don’t do anything to optimize,” says Asim Hussain, executive director of the Green Software Foundation. “There are hardly any tools to even measure it.”

The Software Carbon Intensity (SCI) specification helps measure the carbon footprint of software, and earlier this year has become a global industry standard, external. The calculations are based on both the emissions from running the software and the carbon from the hardware that runs it.

The idea is to have a carbon intensity indicator that software developers could use to track progress in trying to reduce emissions from their software.

The specification was created by the Green Software Foundation, which has more than 60 members from Microsoft, Intel and Google.

“We describe green software as software that is energy and hardware efficient, meaning it uses the least amount of physical resources possible, resulting in fewer emissions,” says Mr Hussain.

“We also take into account carbon emissions, which means we have to do more when the electricity is clean and less when it’s dirty.”