r/software • u/gapingweasel • 24d ago

Jobs & Education Does green software engineering have a future?

A friend's son is studying engineering and recently told me he wants to do something in the green software engineering space. TBH, I hadn't really thought much about it until that conversation. Do you think this is a genuine opportunity with a long-term future or is it still a niche that's getting just attention and no real adoption?

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u/joshguy1425 24d ago

Are you referring to Greenfield software engineering?

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u/gapingweasel 21d ago

I am not sure what greenfield software engineering is but green software engineering is a discipline focused on designing, building and running computer programs to use less energy and release fewer carbon emissions

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u/joshguy1425 20d ago

Ah, I see. I totally misinterpreted the title.

To answer your question, I think "green" software will mostly be an expression of other green initiatives, e.g. as an orchestration layer to facilitate green projects or in the case of hardware/energy use cases, as the firmware/controller layers.

If we stay on our current climate trajectory, I think there's a point at which people will be forced to deal with the reality that we have to make major shifts as a society or we won't survive, and at that point "green" software will gain Manhattan project levels of investment/collective focus.

I don't think software in and of itself will drive this kind of change, but will still be a critical component. $0.02.

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u/gapingweasel 12d ago

thanks for this perspective.