Tell us about your career path, interest in green software and your journey to the Green Software Foundation
Throughout my career, I’ve wholeheartedly believed in the power of industry collaboration in driving meaningful change. I got a taste of this as the founder and COO of Bitnami, which was acquired by VMware, and then again when I joined the board of the Linux Foundation. But I was so passionate to join GitHub because of its ability to have a large, positive impact on the world. GitHub is home to more than 73 million developers. This community is diverse and engaged, and GitHub is uniquely positioned to be the point of connection across developers to support change and inspire action against climate change.
To make a true impact, green software development practices have to be embedded into the way every developer operates. My hope is that we can give developers, regardless of expertise in carbon-aware software development, the resources they need to incorporate and automate sustainability-conscious decision-making throughout their existing workflows. I’m very motivated to look at the ways GitHub and partners in the Green Software Foundation (GSF) can make this happen.
What do you, as an individual, expect to achieve by working with the GSF and in green software?
My goal is to help all developers be “green developers” by default. There’s so much we can collectively do to embed green best practices throughout the software development lifecycle. The reality is, every line of code impacts our planet, and a carbon-negative future depends on building carbon-consciousness into software development workflows from the first line of code until decommissioning. By banding together with other industry leaders, I’m confident we can create this standard in the industry.
What obstacles do you see to the cause of green software? How can we overcome them?
The biggest obstacle will be standardizing these best practices so that developers can easily and effortlessly put them into practice as they move from company to company. Even the concept of sustainability can vary depending on who you speak with. Building standards that every developer learns and applies no matter their industry or familiarity with carbon-aware development practices is no small feat. In some cases it’s going to completely change the way they build. Forming industry collectives like the Green Software Foundation is a great step in the right direction to overcoming this challenge.
Check out what our other Steering Committee members say about green software
Jeff Sandquist of Microsoft
Elise Zelechowski of Thoughtworks
Santiago Fontanarrosa of Globant
Toru Shimogaki of NTT DATA
Dan Lewis-Toakley of Thoughtworks
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