Environment Variables - podcast cover

Environment Variables

Green Software Foundationpodcasts.castplus.fm
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.
Last refreshed:
Follow this podcast in the Metacast mobile app to refresh it and see new episodes.
Download Metacast podcast app
Podcasts are better in Metacast mobile app
Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more

Episodes

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

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 em...

Apr 26, 202345 minEp. 25

The Week in Green Software: The Hidden Cost of AI

This week host Chris Adams is joined by Asim Hussain and Environment Variables regular Sara Bergman to discuss the hidden costs of generative AI. What’s really at the tip of this iceberg and how far down does it go? They also discuss just how thirsty AI chatbots really are and developments in platform engineering. Finally, we share some opportunities for development from the world of green software. Learn more about our people: Chris Adams: LinkedIn / GitHub / Website Sara Bergman: LinkedIn / Tw...

Apr 19, 202341 minEp. 24

The Week in Green Software: Generative AI and Cloud Zombies

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. Learn mo...

Apr 12, 202326 minEp. 23

The Week in Green Software: Netflix, Refurbishment and Anti-Greenwashing Laws

On this episode of The Week in Green Software, Chris Adams and Asim Hussain discuss the latest research on streaming emissions from Netflix and DIMPACT, the environmental impact of refurbished tech from Back Market, The European Commission's Right to Repair Law and their proposal for an Anti Greenwashing Law which is being echoed across the channel with the UK’s Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill. Asim also discovers an alternative to central heating with his hot TV! The usual exciti...

Apr 05, 202344 minEp. 22

The Week in Green Software: Calculating Software Emissions with Navveen Balani & Srini Rakhunathan

Host Asim Hussain is joined by two of only a handful of people to try and calculate the emissions of software; Navveen Balani of Accenture and Srini Rakhunathan of Microsoft. In this episode of TWiGS Navveen does a deep dive into the processes behind Accenture’s use of the SCI Specification to calculate a measure to track and, ultimately, reduce the carbon emissions of one of its internal reference applications. Asim also quizzes Srini on the upcoming CarbonQL project by the Green Software Found...

Mar 22, 202336 minEp. 21

The Week in Green Software: Web 3.0 and Energy Standards for Software

This episode of TWiGS has Chris Adams at the helm again with guests Asim Hussain and Anne Currie. They talk about the impact of Web 3.0 and why the future of immutable blockchains needs to be open source and sustainable and perhaps isn’t the only solution out there. They also talk about recent news from the BBC, AWS and highlight some great resources for you to expand your knowledge in the world of sustainable software. Learn more about our people: Chris Adams: LinkedIn / GitHub / Website Anne C...

Mar 15, 202341 minEp. 20

The Week in Green Software: Greenwashing

In this the latest episode of The Week in Green Software, Chris Adams is joined by first time Environment Variables guest Tammy McClellan and regulars Anne Currie and Asim Hussain. They discuss the concept of greenwashing; what it is and how companies can avoid it, and why green IT is no longer an option for the tech sector. They cover various statistics about the environmental impact of data centers and cloud computing, the importance of optimizing code and algorithms to reduce emissions, and h...

Mar 08, 202333 minEp. 19

The Week in Green Software: How Green is Your Cloud?

TWiGS returns this week with host Asim Hussain being joined by (now guest) Chris Adams. They talk about the environmental impact of the cloud and while some of the big cloud providers, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft’s Azure, and Google Cloud, have introduced initiatives designed to increase the sustainability of individual data centres and reduce their overall carbon footprints, will it be enough to help reduce carbon emissions produced by cloud computing? They also cover Microsoft’s S...

Mar 01, 202351 minEp. 18

The Week in Green Software: Generative AI & The Environment, The Cloud & DevSusOps

The Week in Green Software (or TWiGS) is back with a new format! This time host Chris Adams is joined by Anne Currie and Asim Hussain to talk about news about AI and the environment (with a particular focus on Chat GPT and Bing), the environmental impact of the cloud, the Corporate Sustainable Software Market report, and some exciting opportunities to explore, learn, and contribute to green software. Learn more about our people: Chris Adams: LinkedIn / GitHub / Website Anne Currie: LinkedIn / We...

Feb 23, 202346 minEp. 17

The Week in Green Software: Green Software Legislation

For our first episode of 2023, we have an episode of The Week in Green Software where Ismael Velasco looks at the dense legislative landscape around green software and technology and energy regulations. Everything from France’s Digital Environmental Footprint Reduction Legislation to the UK’s Greening Government ICT and Digital Services Strategy; Ismael will help you make sense of it all! Learn more about our people: Ismael Velasco: LinkedIn / Twitter Find out more about the GSF: The Green Softw...

Jan 18, 202343 minEp. 16

Community Clouds and Energy Islands with Dawn Nafus and Laura Watts

We’ve moved from a more decentralised internet running on centralised power, to a more centralised internet running on more decentralised power. Is this the only computing model of the future? What would a decentralised internet running on decentralised power look like? We see hints of what this looks like at the edge of the internet, but also the edge of the grid, and this is an area our two guests Dawn Nafus of Intel and Laura Watts of the University of Edinburgh have spent quite a lot of time...

Dec 05, 202244 minEp. 15

Fact Check: Sara Bergman & Software Carbon Intensity

Welcome to Fact Check on the Environment Variables podcast! Fact Check is a new segment where we take a deeper dive into the bigger questions in a one-to-one discussion with a special guest. Host Ismael Velasco, is joined by EV regular Sara Bergman, a senior software engineer at Microsoft, and an individual contributor to the Green Software Foundation’s Software Carbon Intensity project. They discuss Sara’s green software journey, the Software Carbon Intensity ISO standard, why it excludes carbo...

Nov 18, 202254 minEp. 14

The Week in Green Software: Disintegration vs Integration

👉 State of Green Software Survey - click this link to access! 👈 This Week in Green Software Episode, host Ismael Velasco takes you through the recent key events and happenings in the world of green software. He outlines a range of reports coming out from The WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, IPCC, UNEP, UNFCCC, IEA and many other acronyms to boot! He also highlights huge positive (and negative) changes in Big Tech and how you can be part of the crest of the wave of change in green software. Timings...

Nov 10, 202251 minEp. 13

The Week in Green Software: An Introduction

Welcome to our first episode of The Week in Green Software hosted by Ismael Velasco. This new segment on The Environment Variables Podcast will be a bite size smorgasbord of news, events, resources and tools that will help you discover how to get involved in the world of software-focused climate action. Check out the links below for all the resources mentioned in this podcast! Learn more about our people: Ismael Velasco: LinkedIn / Twitter Episode resources: The Green Software Foundation Website...

Oct 24, 202250 minEp. 11

Green Networks

👉 State of Green Software Survey - click this link to access! 👈 Environment Variables is back! Chris Adams hosts our Green Networks focused episode and he is joined by Eve Schooler, Principal Engineer and Director of Emerging IoT Networks at Intel and Romain Jacob of ETH Zurich. They discuss how can we reduce the energy produced by networks? How could we leverage current research to make the internet more energy efficient? Learn more about our guests: Chris Adams: LinkedIn / GitHub / Website R...

Sep 12, 202242 minEp. 10

From Carbon Aware to Carbon Intelligent

In this episode of Environment Variables Chris Adams is joined by Colleen Josephson of VMWare, Philipp Wiesner of TU Berlin and Sara Bergman of Microsoft as they discuss the opportunities with making first carbon aware and then carbon intelligent computing. Variability, curtailment, disaggregation, 5G, 6G (!), delay-tolerant networks, intermittent computing, IoT and even a short segue about Raspberry Pi’s all make an appearance in this action-packed episode! Learn more about our guests: Chris Ad...

Aug 08, 202249 minEp. 9

How do we Teach Green Software?

👉 State of Green Software Survey - click this link to access! 👈 The future of Green Software lies in education. In this episode host Chris Adams is joined by Luis Cruz of TU Delft and Sara Bergman of Microsoft as they discuss how to teach and learn to make Green Software. With Luis’ unique insight as a professor, he is able to bring us up to date with pedagogical approaches that are laying the groundwork for future software engineers. Learn more about our guests: Chris Adams: LinkedIn / GitHub...

Jul 25, 202243 minEp. 8

Accessibility and Green Software

This episode is taken from a recent panel discussion from the Green Software Foundation’s Global Summit of 2022. EV regulars, Chris Adams and Asim Hussain are joined by Anne Currie, Chris Lloyd-Jones and Elise Zelechowski as they discuss Accessibility and Green Software. What’s driving interest in Green Software? What ESG principles are being adopted by companies and what is needed to drive accountability and accessibility in this sphere? Where does the main driver for Green Software come from w...

Jul 11, 202231 minEp. 7

The Price of Oil and Gas and Green Software

This week Asim Hussain and Chris Adams are joined by Sara Bergman of Microsoft and Henry Richardson of Wattime.org to discuss the current global surge in oil and gas prices. Why is the price of oil and gas so damn high at the moment? How does intermittency influence the price surge? Are high gas prices actually good for society as a whole? How does Green Software come into play? All this including a wrap-up of the Green Software Foundation Summit. Learn more about our guests: Chris Adams: Linked...

Jun 27, 202240 minEp. 6

How does AI and ML Impact Climate Change?

This week Chris Adams takes over the reins from Asim Hussain to discuss how does artificial intelligence and machine learning impact climate change. He 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. They discuss boundaries, Jevon’s paradox, the EU AI Act, inferencing and supply us with a plethora of materials regarding ML and AI and t...

Jun 13, 202240 minEp. 5

How can Open Source Help Reduce Software Emissions?

In this episode Asim Hussain is joined by guest Chris Lloyd-Jones; Head of Open Technologies at Avanade and co-chair of the Open Source Working Group at the Green Software Foundation, and Dan Lewis-Toakley; Green Cloud Lead at ThoughtWorks and co-chair of the Open Source Working Group at the Green Software Foundation. They discuss the benefits of open source versus closed source, what tools are already out there and how open source can help reduce software emissions. Learn more about our guests:...

May 30, 202247 minEp. 4

How do we make Green Changes in Organisations?

In this episode Asim Hussain is joined by guest Anne Currie; Tech Ethicist at Container Solutions and Lecturer in Tech Ethics at the University of Hertfordshire. What are the real factors that drive organisations choices around increasing efficiency within their organisation? What needs to happen for senior leaders to make sacrifices for sustainability? Can regulation push for real change inside organisations? They discuss the role of middle managers, developers and their love for ops people! Le...

May 16, 202249 minEp. 3

Carbon Aware Computing

In this episode Asim Hussain is joined by guests Scott Chamberlin formerly of Microsoft and Henry Richardson of Watttime as they discuss how time-shifting, location-shifting, curtailment and other terms are important to Carbon Aware Computing. How can we build sustainable software that reduces the impact on the environment and how these decisions may just lie in the hands of the developers instead of the CSR teams. Learn more about our guests: Scott Chamberlin: LinkedIn Asim Hussain: LinkedIn / ...

May 02, 202240 minEp. 2

Amazon's Customer Carbon Footprint Tool

In this episode Asim is joined by guests Chris Adams, Sara Bergman and Danielle Erickson and they discuss the impact that Amazon’s Customer Carbon Footprint Tool is having on the green software landscape. How do services like AWS affect climate change and what are the effects on the environment of these huge data centres? We also learn about how you can use heat from greenhouses to grow tomatoes! Learn more about our guests: Chris Adams: LinkedIn / GitHub / Website Sara Bergman: LinkedIn / Twitt...

Apr 11, 202245 minEp. 1

Welcome to Environment Variables

Join your host Asim Hussain on Environment Variables, a podcast from The Green Software Foundation, and a bunch of experts from varying software and tech fields. In each episode we’ll talk about the latest news regarding how to reduce the emissions of software and how the industry is dealing with its own environmental impact. Find out more: The Green Software Foundation Website Connect with us on Twitter , GitHub and LinkedIn ! Asim Hussain: Twitter / GitHub / LinkedIn...

Apr 07, 202254 sec0
For the best experience, listen in Metacast app for iOS or Android