Leadership Update: Meet Ryan Sholin, Co-Chair of the Policy Working Group
Moving green software policy from estimates to evidence.
We’re excited to introduce Ryan Sholin, Strategic Account Manager at Electricity Maps, who recently stepped into the role of Co-Chair of our Policy Working Group (PWG), alongside Chris Adams of the Green Web Foundation.
Meet the New Co-Chair
Building on his experience advising Fortune 100 companies and federal agencies on digital infrastructure, carbon accounting and energy policy, Ryan brings a data-first perspective to how policy shapes the way software is built and run.
“The GSF helps bridge the gap between code and environmental policy, and I’m excited to serve on the PWG to connect those dots. To make progress on sustainability goals, policy needs to be practical for engineers and grounded in technical reality and real data,” says Ryan.
At Electricity Maps, he focuses on granular, location-specific, and real-time carbon intensity data. That experience shapes Ryan’s approach to policy work. As he explains, “Broad annual carbon metrics are no longer sufficient for digital infrastructure. We need to know where and when compute is using energy to properly account for it.”
Earlier this year, in response to the GHG Protocol’s Scope 2 public consultation, he advocated on behalf of the GSF and Electricity Maps for moving cloud carbon accounting away from annual or monthly data and toward hourly grid signals. “This shift,” he argues, “pushes organizations to adopt time- and location-shifting compute strategies, such as running heavy AI training workloads when local renewable generation peaks, to drive measurable grid impact over paper compliance.”
Driving the PWG Mission
As Co-Chair, Ryan advances PWG’s work across several initiatives, from open grid data to EU policy consultations. This includes contributions to the Real-Time Cloud project, an open dataset that maps cloud regions to the electricity grids that power them.
The group also prepares responses to policy consultations, such as to the EU’s Cloud and AI Development Act, and reviews how GSF specifications align with the EU’s new data center rating scheme.
“Our focus is translating complex legislative requirements into developer-friendly frameworks,” Ryan shares. “For the community, this means clear, practical guidance on how to build compliant, carbon-aware software without needing deep regulatory experience.”
Transparency remains a key hurdle. Cloud providers’ sustainability reports often use inconsistent metrics and units, and no single standard yet connects workload-level carbon intensity to facility-level reporting.
“Right now,” adds Ryan, “we are often stuck relying on good-enough estimations after the fact. To change that, we need hyperscalers and major AI vendors to open up and provide granular, hourly usage, energy, and carbon emissions data.”
Looking Ahead
For Ryan, the importance of granular data extends beyond carbon. Together with the Software Standards Working Group (SSWG), the PWG has been exploring how much water computing consumes and how it should be measured, through the Software Water Intensity (SWI) project.
“From my perspective at Electricity Maps,” he notes, “a key question is the water impact of the electricity powering the data centers where our workloads run.”
As data center moratoriums spread across US states, the PWG is also looking at what transparency and disclosure requirements should come next.
“As we think ahead, moving from retrospective guessing to accurate, real-time, and predictable data is essential if policy is going to drive real environmental impact without hindering software innovation,” says Ryan.
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Our Steering members are Accenture, Google, NTT DATA Corporation, Siemens, and UBS.