Episode 49 - How to actually do Green Software in my company? with Annie Freeman

#E49 Annie Freeman joins Gaël Duez in Episode 49 to explain how she kick-started an initiative to build and deploy an internal tool to monitor carbon emissions in the SaaS company Xero.

Kickstarting a green software initiative

In 2021, Annie was a young engineer just starting out in Xero. Although new to the company, she was eager to participate in an internal technology conference. Stimulated by a personal interest in green software, she submitted a proposal for a short talk. Her presentation was well received, generating interest and momentum internally within Xero, albeit on an informal basis. 

In early 2024 things moved up a gear through the opportunity of an internal week-long hackathon.

Annie led the April hackathon team to build a carbon footprint calculator for internal resources. Here they trialled (for free) an existing tool called Climatiq, an API for compliant carbon measurements. With access to some data on Xero’s key products, a proof-of-concept product was then put forward to the sustainability team to develop something tailor-made to develop actionable carbon metrics in-house.

Dual aspect of project

Since the April hackathon, Annie, Adrea Snow & colleagues have focused on 2 interrelated aspects:

-   Developing the Footprint tool, an in-house carbon calculator

-   The Xero Community of Practice

 Annie has been leading the CoP, introducing initial learning sessions on the concept of green software, the environmental impact of software, and progress so far. This was then expanded to offices in other countries. More recently, focus has been on the role of data centers, plus more open sessions to figure out what colleagues are really interested in, plus implementing best practices to improve efficiency.

Top tips

Although Annie admits that dedicated work time & staff are lacking to develop projects, “good connections with the sustainability team … [helped] get approval from top management”.  Based on experience, she also offers some ideas on how to instigate new projects:

• Data management is incredibly important – need quality data and people to interrogate it
• Project-based and voluntary approach is more appreciated than top-down directives
• Start small, don’t overburden co-worker
• Visualize data in different ways, to help highlight important issues
• Reach out to people in community – connect, discuss, exchange ideas, ask for advice, follow use cases & deploy best practice
• Use existing structures and opportunities within workplace (hackathons, seminars, conferences, team meetings)
• Off the shelf products can be a great way to get the ball rolling
   

Resources & Tools

Annie admits that there is still a need to change the internal culture as many are still focused on specific engineering tasks without necessarily thinking about the wider impacts. But to help us all along our green IT journey, Annie generously shares some useful tools, so listen to E49 here to find out more!