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Environment Variables

Environment Variables

Green Software Foundation

Each episode we discuss the latest news regarding how to reduce the emissions of software and how the industry is dealing with its own environmental impact. Brought to you by The Green Software Foundation.
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Top 10 Environment Variables Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Environment Variables episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Environment Variables for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Environment Variables episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Environment Variables - The Week in Green Software: Obscuring AI's Real Carbon Footprint

The Week in Green Software: Obscuring AI's Real Carbon Footprint

Environment Variables

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09/19/24 • 43 min

Host Chris Adams is joined by Asim Hussain to dive into The Week in Green Software, exploring the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence and how the growing adoption of AI technology affects carbon emissions, as well as the growing complexities in the measurement and reduction of these. They discuss a primer on AI's direct environmental footprint, regulatory trends in Europe and the US, and the complexities surrounding the renewable energy credits tech companies use to offset emissions. The conversation touches on real-time cloud data initiatives, carbon accounting in AI, and the future challenges of balancing sustainability with technological innovation.
Learn more about our people:Find out more about the GSF:News:Events:Resources:If you enjoyed this episode then please either:TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
Asim Hussain: Three, four years ago, everybody treated all carbon offsets the same. They didn't realize there was nuance between them. Now that's changed. Everybody needs to now pay attention to the same thing in terms of renewable energy. If you do not pay attention to the fact that there is a lot of ...
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Environment Variables - The Week in Green Software: Generative AI and Cloud Zombies

The Week in Green Software: Generative AI and Cloud Zombies

Environment Variables

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04/12/23 • 26 min

Chris Adams is joined by cloud sustainability advocate and founder of Cloud Sustainably, Aerin Booth in this episode of TWiGS brought to you by the Green Software Foundation. On this episode Aerin provides his insight into the cloud to discuss cloud zombies, the effect that generative AI is having on the environment and exciting developments from Xbox (including a list of some of Aerin’s favourite nostalgic games!). We also touch on GreenOps and the future for green software developers.
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Transcript Below:
Aerin Booth: When I think about anything we choose to do, not only in terms of carbon and IT, but in our life, if it doesn't have purpose, it's almost a waste. And we forget that we're not really building things for ourselves in technology. We're trying to build services for one, helps people in their day-to-day lives and hopefully save the freaking planet in the next upcoming climate change catastrophe the rest of our lives.
Chris Adams: Hello and welcome to Environment Variables, brought to you by the Green Software Foundation. In each episode, we discuss the latest news and events surrounding green software. On our show, you can expect candid conversations with top experts in their field who have a passion for how to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of software.
I'm your host, Chris Adams. Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Week in Green Software, where we bring you the latest news and updates from the world of sustainable software development. I'm your host, Chris Adams, and in this episode we'll be discussing generative AI worrying impact that I could be having on the environment.
We'l...
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Environment Variables - Greening Low Code

Greening Low Code

Environment Variables

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04/04/24 • 36 min

In this episode of Environment Variables, host Chris Adams engages in a fascinating discussion with Marjolein Pordon, a quality consultant at Praegus, about the exciting synergy between sustainability and low code platforms. They explore how low code tools not only streamline software development but also play a crucial role in reducing carbon emissions. Marjolein shares insights into the early integration of sustainability considerations in the development cycle, and together, they demystify the misconception that companies' unique needs necessitate custom software solutions, highlighting the efficiency and environmental benefits of leveraging shared components in low code environments.
Learn more about our people:Find out more about the GSF:News:Resources:If you enjoyed this episode then please either:Connect with us on Twitter, Github and LinkedIn!
TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
Marjolein Pordon: With all the emails we send, inclusive, reply all, the, "yes, I'll see you in a minute." All those kinds of emails, there are 12 000 times from earth to the moon with a car on carbon emission. That's huge.
Chris Adams: Hello, and welcome to Environment Variables, brought to you by the Green Software Foundation. In each episode, we discuss the latest news and events surrounding green software. On our show, you can expect candid conversations with top experts in their field who have a passion for how to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of software.
I'm your host, Chris Adams.
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Environment Variables, the podcast where we bring you the latest news and updates from the world of sustainable software development. I'm your host, Chris Adams. When we talk about green software, we often talk about optimizing code we already have, or finding out ways to make the energy we use less carbon intensive.
So for the computation we do end up using, we end up with less pollution in the form of greenhouse gases and so on being emitted as a byproduct of our work. However, there's another way to look at this. If we accept that the most efficient database query possible is one that you don't have to make because you've designed a system not to need them,
then you can argue that the most efficient system can be one that you haven't had to spend loads of time, energy and money building, building an entirely custom version of, because you found an existing set of components that work well together. This is essentially the argument made when pe...
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Environment Variables - Fact Check: Ola Fagerström and Microsoft's Surface Emissions Estimator

Fact Check: Ola Fagerström and Microsoft's Surface Emissions Estimator

Environment Variables

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04/26/23 • 45 min

In this episode, we have a very special guest for an episode of Fact Check on Environmental Variables, Ola Fagerström from Microsoft Surface joins host Asim Hussain to talk about his work on the Microsoft's Surface Emissions Estimator - an important tool that helps measure the carbon footprint of the device. Ola talks about how difficult it was to take into account everything from materials used, to manufacturing, to packaging, and even end-of-life disposal to give an accurate estimate of the emissions produced by each device; and how these principles can be applied to other areas of green software development.
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Transcription Below:
Ola Fagerström: When is the first company going to start to say, we only allow eight tabs open? Because if you start to have, I'm just making numbers up, 16 tabs, you might run to your boss and say, Hey, I need a device with the 32 gigs of memory because my memory is constantly filled. Yeah, sorry. We put a policy that you can only have eight tabs open because that will save on the memory, and therefore we can buy cheaper or devices that are actually greener.
Asim Hussain: Hello, and welcome to Environment Variables, brought to you by the Green Software Foundation. In each episode, we discuss the latest news and events surrounding green software. On our show, you can expect candid conversations with top experts in their field who have a passion for how to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of software.
I'm your host, Asim Hussain.
So welcome to Environment Variables, where we bring you the latest news and updates from the world of sustainable software development. I'm your host, Asim Hussain. In this episode, we have a very special guest for an episode of Fact check on Environment Variables from Microsoft Surface. We have technology specialist Ola Fagerström.
Ola Fagerström: Hi there, Asim. What a nice, uh, way to get introduced as a special guest and.
Asim Hussain: Probably worse ways of being introduced isn't there? Not so special guest anyway. Ola, like it's great to have you on the show. Obviously we were colleagues at Microsoft, we're both circling kind of the sustainability space. I'm not at Microsoft anymore. So to give our listeners some context, could yo...
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Environment Variables - The Week in Green Software: The Sustainable Data Paradox

The Week in Green Software: The Sustainable Data Paradox

Environment Variables

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10/03/24 • 42 min

This Week in Green Software, the affable Anne Currie is joined by Sara Bergman, Senior Software Engineer at Microsoft and co-author of Building Green Software. Together, they dive into the complexities of sustainable data in relation to AI and cloud computing. They explore the environmental impact of managing and storing vast quantities of data, and question the feasibility of making these processes more eco-friendly. The discussion touches on cloud providers' carbon reporting, the importance of using AI responsibly, and how businesses can optimize their cloud use to minimize their environmental footprint. Tune in for an insightful conversation on balancing technological advancements with sustainability in the age of AI.
Learn more about our people:Find out more about the GSF:News:Events:Resources:If you enjoyed this episode then please either:Connect with us on Twitter, Github and LinkedIn!
TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
Sara Bergman: What data do we need to take in order to take meaningful action? Like, what is the level that, of course, yeah, if I could get minute by minute, like there's tons of stuff we could do and correlations we could draw, but what is the level of data that we would need to start taking meaningful action? And I think that could unlock a lot of good things.
Chris Adams: Hello, and welcome to Environment Variables, brought to you by the Green Software Foundation. In each episode, we di...
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Environment Variables - The Week in Green Software: Wooden Data Centers

The Week in Green Software: Wooden Data Centers

Environment Variables

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11/21/24 • 55 min

This Week in Green Software, host Chris Adams and Asim Hussain, Executive Director of the GSF discuss the latest developments in sustainable software, exploring topics like Microsoft's innovative use of cross-laminated timber in data centers to reduce embodied carbon, the environmental challenges of generative AI hardware, and the groundbreaking Real Time Cloud dataset. They delve into the impact of new international energy efficiency directives, the interplay between geopolitics and sustainability, and surprising developments in China's approach to sustainable technology. Packed with insights, this episode offers an in-depth look at the intersection of technology and climate action.
Learn more about our people:Find out more about the GSF:News:Resources:If you enjoyed this episode then please either:
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Environment Variables - A Greener Internet that Sleeps More

A Greener Internet that Sleeps More

Environment Variables

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07/25/24 • 59 min

Host Chris Adams and guest Romain Jacob delve into the often-overlooked energy demands of networking infrastructure to discover A Greener Internet that Sleeps More. While AI and data centers usually dominate the conversation, networking still consumes significant power, comparable to the energy usage of entire countries. They discuss innovative practices to make the internet greener, such as putting networks to sleep during low usage periods and extending the life of hardware. Romain talks about his recent Hypnos paper, which won Best Paper at HotCarbon 2024. He shares his team’s award-winning research on how energy demand for networking kit powering the internet can be reduced by simply by powering down links when not in use.
Learn more about our people:Find out more about the GSF:Resources:Other source material: If you enjoyed this episode then please either:TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
Romain Jacob: We used to consider that energy is cheap. Energy is there. We don't need to worry too much about it. So it's just simpler to plug the thing in, assume energy is there. You can draw power as much as you want, whenever you want, for as much as you want. And it's time to get away from that.
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Environment Variables - The Week in Green Software: Transparency in Emissions Reporting

The Week in Green Software: Transparency in Emissions Reporting

Environment Variables

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02/27/25 • 53 min

For this episode of TWiGS, Chris and Asim discuss the latest developments in emissions reporting, AI energy efficiency, and green software initiatives. They explore the AI Energy Score project by Hugging Face, which aims to provide an efficiency benchmark for AI models, and compare it with other emissions measurement approaches, including the Software Carbon Intensity (SCI) for AI. The conversation also touches on key policy shifts, such as the U.S. executive order on AI data center energy sourcing, and the growing debate on regulating the data center industry. Plus, they dive into the Beginner's Guide to Power and Energy Measurement for Computing and Machine Learning, a must-read for anyone looking to understand energy efficiency in AI.
Learn more about our people:Find out more about the GSF:News:Events:Resources:If you enjoyed this episode then please either:TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
Asim Hussain: There's this assumption out there that we're trying to hunt for the right, true essentialist value of measurement, and it really isn't like that
Chris Adams: Hello, and welcome to Environment Variables, brought to you by the Green Software Foundation. In each episode, we discuss the latest news and events surrounding green software. On our show, you can expect ...
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Environment Variables - Environment Variables Year Two Roundup

Environment Variables Year Two Roundup

Environment Variables

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05/23/24 • 31 min

Join us for a special episode of Environment Variables as we celebrate over a year two years of bringing you the best insights on Green Software! In this episode, we explore the key insights and voices that have contributed to the weaving of sustainability through our conversations this year. Tune in for a refresher on the most interesting discussions on the progress, challenges, and future of green software development.
Find out more about the GSF:Episodes:If you enjoyed this episode then please either:TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
Chris Skipper: Hello and welcome to this special Year 2 Roundup episode of Environment Variables. I'm Chris Skipper, the producer behind the scenes. As we mark the second anniversary of this podcast, it's a perfect moment to reflect on the journey we've undertaken with the Green Software Foundation over the last year, and how that has been encapsulated through our episodes.
From its inception, Environment Variables has aimed to be more than just a podcast. It's a platform for advocacy and education on sustainable software practices. Over the past year, We've seen the Green Software Foundation grow and evolve, and we've been right there to document and discuss each milestone.
This podcast has not only followed the foundation's developments, but also mirrored the broader shifts towards sustainability and tech, bringing these insights right to your ears. Today, rather than revisiting our top episodes, we will explore how the themes of sustainability have woven through our discussions.
Highlighting key insights and the impactful voices that have contributed to this dialogue. You'll hear about the progress, the challenges, and what lies ahead for green software development. For your listening pleasure, as always, links to each of the episodes will be down in the show notes below. Or, if you want to listen to all of the episodes of Environment Variables, you can head to podcast.greensoftware.foundation, preferably after this episode, please, to hear them all. So, without further ado, let's dive into the collective journey of the past year with Environment Variables.Chris Skipper: To kick us off, let's start off wit...
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Environment Variables - Remembering Abhishek Gupta: How does AI and ML Impact Climate Change?

Remembering Abhishek Gupta: How does AI and ML Impact Climate Change?

Environment Variables

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10/17/24 • 43 min

In this episode, we honor the memory of Abhishek Gupta, who was an instrumental figure in the Green Software Foundation and a Co-Chair of the Standards Working Group. Abhishek's work was pivotal in the development of the Software Carbon Intensity (SCI) Specification, now adopted globally. His tireless efforts shaped the future of green software, leaving an indelible mark on the industry. As we remember Abhishek, we reflect on his legacy of sustainability, leadership, and friendship, celebrating the remarkable impact he had on both his colleagues and the world. We are airing an old episode that featured Abhishek Gupta, Episode 5 of Environment Variables. Where host Chris Adams is joined by Will Buchanan of Azure ML (Microsoft), Abhishek Gupta; the chair of the Standards Working Group for the Green Software Foundation and Lynn Kaack, assistant professor at the Hertie School in Berlin to discuss how artificial intelligence and machine learning impact climate change. They discuss boundaries, Jevons paradox, the EU AI Act, inferencing and supplying us with a plethora of materials regarding ML and AI and the climate!
In Memoriam: Abhishek Gupta:

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