Sustainable software development
Sustainable software development is a must for companies that wish to be sustainable. We will work with you to realize your potential across all the dimensions of sustainability.
What is sustainable software development?
The four dimensions of sustainability
Sustainable software development aims to design and develop software to meet the requirements of the present without jeopardizing the opportunities of future generations. This approach integrates social, environmental, economic, and technical aspects.
We call these the four dimensions of sustainability because, for us, technical sustainability is an equally important stepping stone towards developing software sustainably.
A careful choice of processes and technologies is crucial for the security, stability, and scalability of software and enables effective and efficient use in the coming years.
Would you care for an example?
The four dimensions of sustainability cannot always be realized simultaneously or completely, as they sometimes clearly conflict with each other. The advantages and disadvantages of the different areas need to be weighed up.
We can decide to turn on the camera during a video conference and are happy when we can see our discussion partners. This contributes to thesocial dimension. In this case, however, we are ignoring the ecological component (camera on ≙ more data transfer ≙ higher energy consumption).
Which dimension is more important? There isn't a clear answer here.
How sustainable software development works
Companies should be heavily involved in sustainable software development. Companies that implement sustainable IT solutions and actively take measures to reduce CO2 emissions benefit from an enhanced reputation. Moreover, investments in sustainable solutions almost always pay off financially in the medium and long term.
We can improve software robustness, reduce the environmental footprint, minimize costs, and expand the user base by adopting the four dimensions of sustainability throughout the software development process. This is not just about the product itself, but also about interactions with other areas in the organization.
Sandy Tiltmann
Co-Head of Sustainable Software
Sustainable commitment has a long-term positive effect on a company's performance and, as a side effect, has a positive impact on the environment.
Sandy Tiltmann
Co-Head of Sustainable Software
Why codecentric?
As a certified "B Corp", it is important to us that our work has a positive impact on the economy, society, and the environment. In order to maintain our "B Corp" certification in the future, we strive for continuous improvements and attach great importance to implementing this in a verifiable manner.
We don’t just work through tickets, but ask critical questions in order to create sustainable added value with and for you. Our long-standing expertise in IT consulting is primarily in the area of technical sustainability.
Our approach involves a thorough analysis of your challenges to identify the right technologies for you. We not only consider your technical requirements, but also the environmental impact of the various technologies. We also select technologies that will be supported and evolved over the long term to ensure high stability and scalability. We also focus on optimizing code to minimize resource use.
Efficient algorithms and programming practices reduce energy consumption and improve software performance. We support you in choosing a sustainable infrastructure for your software and attach great importance to the long-term maintainability of your software. Clean code, good documentation, and the use of proven development practices ensure that your software will continue to be easily extensible and customizable.
We reduce manual maintenance overhead by implementing automation techniques.
We share our extensive IT expertise with you and provide your team with the necessary knowledge through training courses and workshops so that they can continue with sustainable software development.
Sustainable software development – these are the levers
More sustainability in software development - what we can offer you
Green DevOps Check – greater sustainability and lower costs
Run the Green DevOps Check and optimize your IT for efficient applications. Our assessment and analysis will provide you with specific recommendations for reducing CO₂ emissions and IT costs. We will offer you a roadmap for implementation and actively support you in implementing the recommended measures.
Automatic sustainability analysis: Website optimization for efficiency and usability
Our WebSustainify Service enables you to increase the sustainability of your website while improving the user experience. Using our platform, we analyze relevant aspects of your website and generate a detailed report. This report contains specific recommendations for optimization, so that you can quickly achieve your goal.
If desired, we can support you in implementing measures to make your website faster, more efficient and more accessible to more visitors.
Your "green" website: Measure and reduce your CO₂ footprint
Do you wish to measure and reduce your website’s carbon footprint? We will show you how to measure and optimize your entire website with minimal effort. Using a before-and-after comparison, we demonstrate the impact of each adjustment and point out the potential for further improvement. You will also learn more about the relationship between sustainability and accessibility. You can expand your user base by making your website accessible and user-friendly for people of all ages, social status, ethnicity, gender – with or without impairment.
Simply the best: Analyzing and simplifying systems
We humans tend to accumulate and add to things instead of questioning and simplifying them. Systems grow over time until they reach a state that slows down further development. Unneeded or over-complex features, manual steps, and outdated libraries make things run more slowly.
Support is provided at various levels – from the product level to user experience and technical architecture, as well as code customization. We can provide rapid assistance thanks to our many years of experience in analyzing systems and software architectures and implementing enhancements.
Green coding: Greater efficiency for your software
The market offers a wide variety of programming languages and software development tools. The choice of programming language not only determines the performance of your application, but also has a great influence on CO₂ consumption. Execution time of serverless functions in the cloud influences the resulting costs.
Our comparison of Java, Typescript and Rust code execution in AWS Lambdas reveals the difference between the programming languages. We also show when switching programming language is particularly beneficial and when the effect is less pronounced.
Do you have any further questions?
Your sustainable software product deserves the best support – from the first idea through to long-term maintenance.
Service Lead & Solution Consultant
Service Lead Sustainable Software
Service Lead & Solution Consultant
Service Lead Sustainable Software
Here's more on sustainable software development
In the following contributions, our experts look at the topic of “sustainability in software development” from different angles:
27.6.2024
What technical sustainability can achieve
What environmental sustainability can achieve
What economic sustainability can achieve
What social sustainability can achieve
Marco Paga
Service Lead & Solution Consultant
Do you have any questions about the four dimensions of sustainability?
What technical sustainability can achieve
The most important features of sustainable software are that it is easy to maintain, rarely fails, is safe, and is always available. It is essential to actively incorporate these aspects during programming and to use as many automation systems as possible in order to minimize maintenance effort and security risks.
These are some possible starting points for you:
Establishment of a state-of-the-art platform to support development and operations
Automated testing, dependency updates, and deployment
Security auditing
Maintenance
Monitoring and alerting
What environmental sustainability can achieve
Environmental sustainability takes account of the aspects of environmental protection and resource conservation. The focus here is on the conscious use of water, energy and finite raw materials. This can be achieved, for example, through greater energy efficiency, renewable energy, and environmentally friendly products.
These are some possible starting points for you:
Hardware selection and prolonged use of hardware
Compressed file formats
Caching strategy
Data reduction
Only load and display relevant images and videos
Use animations instead of videos: use modern CSS techniques to avoid them altogether
Resource-efficient programming languages
Transparency about CO₂ consumption
What economic sustainability can achieve
The commercial success of your business is of central importance. Our bespoke solutions and optimized processes help you to reduce costs, increase efficiency and create long-term added value in your software.
These are some possible starting points for you:
Building blocks
Pattern library
AI-assisted coding
Automated testing, dependency updates, and deployment
What social sustainability can achieve
Socially sustainable software is accessible and useful to all regardless of age, social status, ethnicity, gender, and impairment. Protecting data and privacy is just as important as autonomy of use.
These are some possible starting points for you:
Minimum data transfer, maximum data protection
Minimal and yet transparent user tracking
Consideration for visual, hearing, mental and physical impairments
Diversity in text and image
End-users decide on data processing
What technical sustainability can achieve
What environmental sustainability can achieve
What economic sustainability can achieve
What social sustainability can achieve
What technical sustainability can achieve
The most important features of sustainable software are that it is easy to maintain, rarely fails, is safe, and is always available. It is essential to actively incorporate these aspects during programming and to use as many automation systems as possible in order to minimize maintenance effort and security risks.
These are some possible starting points for you:
Establishment of a state-of-the-art platform to support development and operations
Automated testing, dependency updates, and deployment
Security auditing
Maintenance
Monitoring and alerting
What environmental sustainability can achieve
Environmental sustainability takes account of the aspects of environmental protection and resource conservation. The focus here is on the conscious use of water, energy and finite raw materials. This can be achieved, for example, through greater energy efficiency, renewable energy, and environmentally friendly products.
These are some possible starting points for you:
Hardware selection and prolonged use of hardware
Compressed file formats
Caching strategy
Data reduction
Only load and display relevant images and videos
Use animations instead of videos: use modern CSS techniques to avoid them altogether
Resource-efficient programming languages
Transparency about CO₂ consumption
What economic sustainability can achieve
The commercial success of your business is of central importance. Our bespoke solutions and optimized processes help you to reduce costs, increase efficiency and create long-term added value in your software.
These are some possible starting points for you:
Building blocks
Pattern library
AI-assisted coding
Automated testing, dependency updates, and deployment
What social sustainability can achieve
Socially sustainable software is accessible and useful to all regardless of age, social status, ethnicity, gender, and impairment. Protecting data and privacy is just as important as autonomy of use.
These are some possible starting points for you:
Minimum data transfer, maximum data protection
Minimal and yet transparent user tracking
Consideration for visual, hearing, mental and physical impairments
Diversity in text and image
End-users decide on data processing