Introduction to Green in Software Engineering

Sustainability is gaining importance worldwide, reinforced by several initiatives with wide media coverage such as the Earth hour; this is a worldwide grassroots movement uniting people to protect the planet, organised by the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature). Other organisations such as the United Nations (UN) also highlight the importance of reducing energy consumption and our carbon footprint, including this issue in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In Rio+20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, the world leaders approved an agreement entitled ‘The Future We Want’, where it is stated that ‘We recognize the critical role of technology as well as the importance of promoting innovation, in particular in developing countries. We invite governments, as appropriate, to create enabling frameworks that foster environmentally sound technology, research and development, and innovation, including in support of green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication. . .’. Clean and efficient energy as a societal challenge has also been included by the European Union in Horizon 2020, the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme with nearly €80 billion of funding available from 2014 to 2020. Other initiatives related to environmental sustainability can likewise be found in other countries.