Green Software Commitment
This page brings together our work on green software, best practice and the latest developments. You’ll be able to see how we’re harnessing sustainable design to help our clients reach their sustainability goals.
“The internet is the greatest, most energy intense, machine that has ever existed”. [1]
What is Green Software?
Green software is designed and developed to operate with reduced energy consumption, reduced (not offset) carbon emissions and minimise its environmental impact. It combines climate science with service design and thoughtful software engineering to create software that is more sustainable.
At Kainos we’ve made a commitment to green software as part of our Net Zero target to help our customers meet their climate and sustainability goals. We know that all organisations need to act to reduce their carbon footprint to meet Net Zero goals and comply with regulation. Digital is an important part of this solution.
We want to see a future where all software is green software. Where it will be routine to measure the impact of your digital services and take action to reduce its environmental footprint.
Green Software Misconceptions
Our team have created many new digital services that have been used by millions to transform productivity for users. We are using this experience to apply Green Sofware best practice to make our software more sustainable for our customers. But more than this our team is highlighting the latest thinking to contribute to this best practice:
1. Digital doesn't have a carbon or environmental footprint. Read why digital is not green by default from Peter Campbell, Director of Green Software.
2. Moving to the use of renewable energy eliminates software's environmental footprint. Read why rewewable energy is only part of the solution to reduce the footprint from software services from our Director of Green Software.
“As an industry we don’t use 68% of the data we collect” [2]
3. There is no waste generated from software services. Read how more sustainable software engineering will help to reduce the impact of digital waste, data waste and device waste from Caoimhin Graham, Cloud Practice Technology Lead.
4. Green software isn't just about hardware optimisation. Building sustainability into product design from the start will help transform the environmental impact of software design. Read how design thinking can help, by Nikos Karaoulanis, Head of Design.
5. Green software goes beyond just technology, and must consider the experiences we build, the problems our solutions solve, and the value they add. Nikos Karaoulanis (Head of Design) takes the case for green design further; considering key green design principles and guidelines for building sustainable digital projects and services.
6. How do businesses begin to understand and measure their environmental impact? It can be a tricky thing to do and there are 7 common traps that you need to look out for.
Our Green Software Commitment
Kainos has already made an ambitious commitment to SBTi Net Zero by 2025. We are now matching this with a commitment to apply sustainability to help reduce our customers’ environmental footprint from our software services. This is our Green Software Commitment.
Our commitment to our customers and the environment means by 2024 we will:
- Integrate Green Software best practice into all new software services, meaning Kainos’ software will be carbon-aware software.
- Enable and educate our customers and partners to understand better how to apply it.
- Measure the carbon footprint of the development and operation of software to allow planning and optimisation.
The aim of this commitment is to reduce the environmental impact from software services. This will help our customers as they seek to reduce their Scope 3 carbon emissions and wider impact on nature.
From now on everything we design and work on will use green software practices. This is our Green Software Commitment.
“If data growth continues at this rate, by 2053 we’ll have to mine the equivalent of Mount Everest every year in raw material to make all the storage we’ll need” [3]
Read more about the topic in our new book
Contact Us
We’d like to talk to you about how we can help address your climate goals. To start a conversation, fill out the form below and we’ll be in touch.