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Sustainable software products - Towards assessment criteria for resource and energy efficiency

  • Many authors have proposed criteria to assess the “environmental friendliness” or “sustainability” of software products. However, a causal model that links observable properties of a software product to conditions of it being green or (more general) sustainable is still missing. Such a causal model is necessary because software products are intangible goods and, as such, only have indirect effects on the physical world. In particular, software products are not subject to any wear and tear, they can be copied without great effort, and generate no waste or emissions when being disposed of. Viewed in isolation, software seems to be a perfectly sustainable type of product. In real life, however, software products with the same or similar functionality can differ substantially in the burden they place on natural resources, especially if the sequence of released versions and resulting hardware obsolescence is taken into account. In this article, we present a model describing the causal chains from software products to their impacts on natural resources, including energy sources, from a life-cycle perspective. We focus on (i) the demands of software for hardware capacities (local, remote, and in the connecting network) and the resulting hardware energy demand, (ii) the expectations of users regarding such demands and how these affect hardware operating life, and (iii) the autonomy of users in managing their software use with regard to resource efficiency. We propose a hierarchical set of criteria and indicators to assess these impacts. We demonstrate the application of this set of criteria, including the definition of standard usage scenarios for chosen categories of software products. We further discuss the practicability of this type of assessment, its acceptability for several stakeholders and potential consequences for the eco-labeling of software products and sustainable software design.

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Verfasserangaben:Eva KernORCiD, Lorenz M. Hilty, Achim GuldnerORCiD, Yuliyan V. Maksimov, Andreas Filler, Jens Gröger, Stefan Naumann
URN:urn:nbn:de:hbz:tr5-1784
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2018.02.044
Titel des übergeordneten Werkes (Englisch):Future Generation Computer Systems
Verlag:Elsevier
Dokumentart:Wissenschaftlicher Artikel (Fachzeitschriften)
Sprache:Englisch
Datum des OPUS-Uploads:15.11.2022
Datum der Erstveröffentlichung:22.04.2018
Veröffentlichende Hochschule:Hochschule Trier
Datum der Freischaltung:15.11.2022
Freies Schlagwort / Tag:energy-aware software; environmental criteria for software; green software; model of software impacts; resource efficiency; sustainability indicators
GND-Schlagwort:Software; Nachhaltigkeit; Green-IT
Jahrgang:86
Seitenzahl:12
Erste Seite:199
Letzte Seite:210
Einrichtungen:Institute / ISS - Institut für Softwaresysteme in Wirtschaft, Umwelt und Verwaltung
DDC-Klassifikation:0 Informatik, Informationswissenschaft, allgemeine Werke / 00 Informatik, Wissen, Systeme
Lizenz (Deutsch):License LogoCreative Commons - CC BY-NC-ND - Namensnennung - Nicht kommerziell - Keine Bearbeitungen 4.0 International