An analysis of Carbon footprint of software development in Cradle-to-gate

Abstract

Electricity consumption in the ICT industry is increasing. Software operating on ICT devices contributes to this rise, as its behaviors affect the electricity consumption of the devices. Consequently, reducing environmental impact in the software field is important. However, existing studies scarcely investigated details of the environmental impacts of software, especially during its development phase. In this study, the carbon footprint during software development phase were calculated using three small-scale, non-commercial software development projects in order to clarify emission pattern of software-related GHG. The emissions were 131 kg-CO2eq, 369 kg-CO2eq, 923 kg-CO2eq, respectively. In all projects, major sources of emissions were production and use of ICT devices, air-conditioning and lighting at production sites, business trips and the use of network services. The results showed that emissions from developers’ activities constitute a notable proportion, which is the features of software-related GHG emissions. Regarding electricity consumption from use of ICT devices, there were some trends in consumption patterns between development stages and tasks.