EcoCompute: The Future of Sustainability in the Tech Industry

Last week, the conference EcoCompute took place at the House of Communication in Munich - the first tech conference on sustainability in software and hardware. The Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI) co-hosted the conference, and representatives from the project ECO:DIGIT by adesso SE, Siemens, and GI were in attendance. Additionally, the project was introduced in a presentation by Carolin Rubner from Siemens.

Sustainability is of utmost importance in technology and cloud-native development. Discussions at EcoCompute focused on measurement techniques and concrete steps to reduce emissions. It became clear once again how crucial it is to raise awareness about the carbon footprint of software among developers, managers, and decision-makers, and to disseminate methods and best practices for CO2 reduction. ECO:DIGIT contributes significantly by developing a comprehensive methodology and an automated assessment environment for capturing energy and resources from, among others, cloud applications.

Special thanks go to Arne Tarara, Geerd-Dietger Hoffmann, and Michelle Grüne from Green Coding Solutions GmbH for organizing the conference, as well as to the numerous speakers who presented their innovative projects and research findings in this field. With over 120 participants, the conference marks an important beginning - now the journey towards more sustainability in software and hardware must continue.

In addition to their commitment to digital sustainability, EcoCompute presented a comprehensive sustainability concept. For instance, exclusively vegetarian food was served, and there was explicitly no conference swag bag or paper program to reduce waste and support sustainability efforts. Furthermore, the lanyards and badge holders were returned for reuse. The badges were printed on seed paper, which can be planted after the conference to grow a variety of flowers as a reminder of the event and in anticipation of the next year's conference.