Green Coding: How Software Engineers are Creating More Sustainable Practices

The amount of energy a data centre consumes is certainly not a secret within the tech industry, the millions of data centres across the world actually account for about 1% of global electricity demand. As the focus shifts to creating more sustainable and greener practices, data centre providers are investing time and money into ensuring that their sites are as efficient as possible.

Tech giant Google has announced it wants to run its whole data centre estate on carbon-free energy by 2030. While Amazon Web Services (AWS) is set to power its entire operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025.

Both of these moves are encouraging and the shift to carbon-free and renewable energy will certainly make a difference, but the bigger picture of actually reducing the amount of energy needed to power these sites must be addressed if the industry is to make a significant impact on sustainability.

Adopting Green Coding

Utilising green coding best practices can make a big difference in the amount of energy needed to power data centres. Green coding practices follow a set of processes and principles that aim to reduce the energy consumption of software. The green coding approach requires software engineers to consider the code they are writing and its efficiency.

Adopting this approach can help coding become greener almost instantly and the ability to write longer and less refined code means software engineers have near limitless programming capabilities.

The Need for Sustainable Practices

The acceleration of digital transformation in recent years has driven our dependence on data centres, and this is only set to exponentially grow as every aspect of modern life is driven by data. Combine the growing reliance on data centres with a net-zero future and it is easy to see why action across the tech industry must be considered.

Striking a balance between green coding and high programming quality will be key. Software engineers and developers will need to understand when file sizes can be decreased without compromising quality and could actually reduce energy consumption.

An example of green coding in practice would be a mobile banking app with 500k users reducing the resolution of screen images could save more than two days of operating time usage a year. If the industry widely adopts green coding the energy savings and boost in sustainability could be huge.

Why choose Digitech?

At Digitech, our team of recruiters and strategists bring a breadth of knowledge and vast experience in the tech industry. From understanding market conditions to ensuring the tech recruitment journey is smooth, we can help you source the best tech talent and reduce your time to hire.

Whether you need a contingent resource to meet a peak in demand, are looking to hire for a permanent position or want to engage with contract workers, we can help you find candidates that have the right skill set and are a good fit for your business. Get in touch with us to discuss your requirements and see how we can help.