The Green Software Foundation Turns Five
Cheers to another five years of standards, tools, and people building greener software.
In 2021, four organizations—Accenture, GitHub, Microsoft, and Thoughtworks—came together to put sustainability at the core of software engineering, driven by the growing need to decarbonize software and the belief that bringing the industry together to build consensus would get us closer to a shared goal.
The mission was clear: to build the ecosystem of standards, tools, and people the industry needed to make software more sustainable.
Explore the milestones that shaped GSF into the global consortium of nearly 70 organizations it is today.
2021 Setting the Foundation
- GSF launched under the Linux Foundation, founded by Accenture, GitHub, Microsoft, and ThoughtWorks.
- Launched Awesome Green Software, a platform for discovering and contributing to green software solutions, led by Ahmad Antar and Abid Ali (Digital Emissions).
- Formed the Software Standards Working Group and began work on the Software Carbon Intensity (SCI) specification.
- Formed The Open Source, Policy, and Community Working Groups.
2022 Principles and Tools
- Launched the GSF weekly newsletter.
- Published Principles of Green Software Engineering.
- The Environment Variables podcast went live
- Launched The Carbon Aware SDK led by Vaughan Knight (Microsoft).
- Hosted our first CarbonHack hackathon and first GSF Global Summit with events across 14 countries.
- Launched the Green Software Practitioner course, making green software knowledge accessible to practitioners across organizations.
- Our membership grew to ~40 organizations worldwide.
2023 Measurement Goes Public
- We published the State of Green Software report.
- Launched the Green Software Patterns Catalogue.
- Published the SCI specification under the leadership of Navveen Balani (Accenture) and Henry Richardson (WattTime), and member organizations submitted first public SCI use cases.
- We launched the Green Software Champions program.
2024 Legitimacy and Global Impact
- SCI became ISO 21031, the first internationally recognized standard to measure software emissions.
- Launched the Green AI Committee to shape the GSF’s strategy in building knowledge, standards, and tooling for more sustainable AI systems.
- Sanjay Podder (Accenture) elected as Chairperson and Chris Lloyd-Jones (Avande) as Vice Chair
- The Impact Framework graduated under the leadership of Navveen Balani and Srinivasan Rakhunathan (Microsoft), making it easier to calculate and share the environmental impacts of software.
- The CXO Bytes podcast hosted by Sanjay Podder (Accenture) went live.
- Carbon Aware SDK graduated to a flagship project.
- We formed a new partnership with Sustainable.IT
2025 Standards at Scale
- Four specifications ratified: Sustainable Organizational Framework for Technology (SOFT) under the leadership of Pindy Bhullar (UBS), Impact Framework, Policy Radar led by Chris Adams (Green Web Foundation), and SCI for AI led by Navveen Balani and Henry Richardson.
- Gadhu Sundaram (NTT DATA) elected as Chairperson.
- We started work on the Software Energy Efficiency (SEE) specification.
- The GSF Meetup Network reached 10,000 members
- SSIA merged into the GSF, and we launched the Hardware Standards Working Group.
- Launched the Green Software Movement Platform, a home for our learning and community content.
- Formed strategic partnerships with W3C, GDSA, and IASA.
- The SCI for Web Assembly launched, led by Chris Adams (Green Web Foundation) and Adam Newman (ClimateAction.tech)
- The Green Software Practitioner course hit 130,000+ completions.
- Our membership base reached 68 organizations.
2026 Regulations and Reach
- Contributed to the Green Software for Business guide published by IMDA (Singapore).
- Amadeus transfers Carmen (Carbon Measurement Engine) to the GSF.
- Launched SCI for AI Bootcamp with four member organizations working together to implement the specification.
- Asim Hussain steps down after almost five years leading the Foundation as Chair and then as Executive Director.
- Navveen Balani joins as a new Executive Director.
- Taiwan Institute of Economic Research signed up as a member.
- The Green Software Movement platform reached nearly 5,000 members.
- G7 French Presidency featured SCI for AI on a list of approaches aimed at enhancing the measurement, monitoring, and reporting on the energy and resource requirements of AI models.
- Launched SWI (Software Water Intensity) specification under the leadership of Yi Ding (Purdue University).
- We released a new vision for green software that covers water, energy, and waste, beyond carbon.
Building on Our Values
GSF’s activities and achievements over the past five years reflect a commitment to advancing open collaboration and consensus as a tool for building impact-driven sustainability solutions for adoption and benefit across the industry.
Get Involved
The GSF is governed by Accenture, Google, NTT Data, Siemens, and UBS. If your organization wants to align with global sustainability leaders on efforts across carbon, water, energy, and waste, we invite you to join us as a member.