Microsoft has partnered with Accenture, GitHub, and ThoughtWorks to create a new foundation dedicated to putting sustainability and green initiatives at the heart of software engineering. Software development was the focus of the company's Build 2021 developer conference. However, Microsoft and other companies have begun to wonder how the future of the software industry will affect the environment, especially with global data centers now accounting for one percent of global electricity demand and between three and eight percent over the next decade. To address the software industry's impact on the global environment, Microsoft, Acenture, GitHub, and ThoughtWorks have created a new nonprofit organization called the Green Software Foundation with Linux Foundation and Joint Development Foundation Projects LLC.
Green Software Foundation
The goal of the Green Software Foundation is to create a trusted ecosystem of leading people, standards, tools, and practices for creating green software. The foundation itself was born out of a mutual desire and need to collaborate in the software industry on sustainability to contribute to the broader goals of the information and technology industry. the Paris Climate Agreement. Microsoft Chairman Brad Smith explained why the software giant decided to become one of the founding members of the Green Software Foundation in a blog post: “The scientific consensus is clear: the world faces a carbon problem. urgent. We will all need to work together to create innovative solutions to dramatically reduce emissions. Today, Microsoft is partnering with organizations focused on an environmentally sustainable future to drive the adoption of green software development to help our customers and partners around the world reduce their carbon footprint. "The Green Software Foundation is open to any organization with a common commitment to sustainability and an interest in the principles of green software development, which means we will likely see other companies join the foundation soon.