Green Software Foundation Announces Intent to Launch Green Software & AI Academy to Build the Skills Needed for Sustainable AI

DELAWARE—August 6, 2026—The Green Software Foundation (GSF), a nonprofit organization under the Linux Foundation, today announced its intent to launch the Green Software & AI Academy to equip technology professionals to measure and reduce the environmental impact of AI systems across carbon, energy, water, and waste. The Foundation also invited organizations that share its mission to join GSF and contribute practical expertise to the Academy’s development and pilot. 

During the pilot phase, participating members will help shape the Foundation’s first professional training and credentialing program to reflect real hiring and workforce development needs. 

“Every AI system carries two costs: an environmental one and an operating one. The engineering choices behind an AI system shape both. The Academy will equip professionals to measure those impacts through open standards and improve environmental and operational performance,” said Navveen Balani, Executive Director of the Green Software Foundation.

#The Need for a Common Approach

While AI adoption is advancing faster than the industry’s ability to manage its environmental impact, many organizations have struggled to translate their sustainability commitments into actions across code, models, infrastructure, procurement, and policy. 

Without a shared framework, companies are building these capabilities independently, using different measures, terminology, and training approaches, making it difficult to assess skills or collaborate effectively across teams and functions. Organizations also face growing pressure to report the environmental impact of software and AI, but emerging regulations such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the EU AI Act do not provide a comprehensive technical methodology for measuring those impacts consistently.

The Academy is designed to close that gap by turning open GSF standards into role-based learning. Building on GSF’s experience translating green software standards and practices into education that has reached more than 130,000 practitioners worldwide, it will give professionals a common, standards-based approach to addressing the environmental impact of AI systems—together with credentials that demonstrate their ability to apply it in practice.

#Building Shared Skills Across the AI Ecosystem 

The Academy is planned to launch with five Green AI credentials for leaders, developers, architects, ML and AI practitioners, and policymakers. Green Software credentials are expected to follow in subsequent quarters, extending the Academy across the full software stack.

The Academy is built on GSF’s principles and commitment to open, community-driven and vendor-neutral tools and standards: 

• Grounded in open standards. The curriculum will be built on GSF standards, including the Software Carbon Intensity (SCI) specification, standardized as ISO/IEC 21031:2024, the GSF-ratified SCI for AI specification, and the Software Energy Intensity (SEI) and Software Water Intensity (SWI) specifications. 
• Environmental impact and operational efficiency addressed together. By learning how to reduce AI’s impacts, practitioners will also understand how to identify unnecessary computation and inefficient use of infrastructure, helping organizations improve both environmental and operational performance.
• Designed around the roles that shape AI outcomes. The environmental impact of AI is shaped by decisions across multiple roles. The Academy’s credentials will be tailored to the responsibilities and decisions of each audience.

#Rollout and Participation 

The Academy will roll out in phases, with the pilot beginning in early October. The Academy is expected to open to professionals globally in early 2027, informed by early feedback to ensure the program is relevant across industries and audiences. 

To join the Foundation and participate in the Academy’s pilot, contact the team directly:

Navveen Balani, Executive Director at: [email protected]

Jamie Cowan, Head of Global Partnerships at: [email protected]

Supporting quotes

“At GSF, we have done the hard work of building the standards to measure the environmental impact of software and AI. The Academy is the natural next step: putting those standards into the hands of the people who build, buy, and govern technology every day. Enterprises need a common language across teams, suppliers and regulators, and a trusted, vendor-neutral credential they can use to guide hiring and workforce development. The Academy will give them both,” said Gadhu Sundaram, Chair of the Green Software Foundation and Vice President at NTT DATA.

“Building AI responsibly at scale is an engineering challenge, and engineering challenges are solved by skilled people. Driving sustainable AI requires action across the entire stack from model optimization to energy-efficient infrastructure. The Green Software & AI Academy bridges the gap between standards and execution, equipping practitioners to move from sustainability commitments to measurable impact,” said Jonathan Turnbull, Vice-Chair of the Green Software Foundation and Environment & AI lead at Google.

About Green Software Foundation

The Green Software Foundation (GSF) is a nonprofit organization under the Linux Foundation. It aims to create a trusted ecosystem of people, standards, tooling, and best practices for building green software across carbon, energy, water, and waste. Members of the GSF represent a balanced mix of for-profits, nonprofits, and academia from around the globe and include several Fortune Global 500 firms. The Foundation operates by consensus. Three Working Groups—Standards, Policy, and Hardware—and the Green AI Committee currently oversee the Foundation’s ongoing projects.

Steering Members include Accenture, Google, NTT DATA, Siemens, and UBS.  

Media contact

Gosia Fricze, Green Software Foundation, at [email protected]