Combatting Software-Driven Environmental Harm With Free Software

Digital technology is a major contributor to environmental harm, whether in the ‚tsunami‘ of e-waste filling landfills or the CO2 emissions currently on a par with with aviation industry.

Oft overlooked is that software plays a crucial role. For instance, software bloat means less powerful hardware may stop working and end up as toxic waste in landfills, while new devices are manufactured unnecessarily — the production of which costs far more energy than their actual usage. Moreover, software bloat and inefficient coding result in software that has higher energy demands, sometimes only to achieve the same output. Digital sustainability is in many ways a question of software.

The Blue Angel ecolabel, the official environmental label of the German government, began certifying software in 2020. In the award criteria, sustainability is closely linked with transparency and user autonomy. This connection has been one of the motivations behind the KDE Eco initiative since its beginning in 2021. In this talk I will present the environmental harm driven by software, with a focus on e-waste and energy consumption. I will link the values of Free and Open Source software to sustainable software design.

Presentation in English. Questions/discussion can be in English and German.

You will receive the BigBlueButton link after registering for this event.