Green IO Newsletter - April 2026

Building a greener digital world, one byte at a time

Hello responsible technologist!

Green IO Singapore's third edition delivered what matters: sharp conversations, honest debates, and a community that keeps showing up. A genuine thank you to Thibaut Meurgue-Guyard, Madeline Toh, our speakers, volunteers, and everyone who attended.
Yet a question keeps nagging: where are the corporations? Individual practitioners fill our rooms — engineers, designers, researchers who get it. Their employers, less so. Companies send the cheque for the AI investment but rarely send anyone to reckon with its consequences.

I'll address this gap directly in my opening remarks at Green IO New York next week. The two issues — corporate accountability and AI as a force for sustainability — are more connected than they first appear. East Coast readers, hope to see you there.

Gaël

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What’s been happening lately in the Green IO community?

🎙️ Podcast episodes

#E78 Can AI be applied for Sustainability? It’s complicated… with Jeremy Tamanini Watch | Listen

#E77 The Dilemma of using AI for Sustainable Software Engineers with Natasha Ann Lum Watch | Listen

#E76 Shifting Social Norms in Sustainability Leadership with Andrea Learned Watch | Listen

#E75 What the Research Says About Green IT Solutions with with Gauthier Roussilhe Watch | Listen

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🔔 Never miss an episode!

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🎤 Green IO conferences in 2026

Got something to share? We welcome inspirational talks, new research, latest use cases, new tools … CFP are still open some remaining Green IO conferences!

New-York, May 13^th - May 14^th
“AI as a controversial force for sustainability“ with the most direct line-up we've ever programmed on AI's environmental contradictions.No corporate PR, no techno-solutionism — just practitioners, researchers and community advocates putting hard numbers on hard questions. Full agenda and tickets here.

Amsterdam, June 9^th - June 10^th
First conference in the Netherlands! It will all be about “Making Sustainability Practical“. Early bird tickets are available here.

Munich, July 8^th - July 9^th
"From measuring to achieving: industrializing IT Sustainability" will be discussed between experts and practitioners from all the DACH region. Early bird tickets are available here.

London, Sept. 30^th - Oct. 1^st
A bigger venue for the N°1 Green IT conference in the UK. Save the date! Apply to be a speaker here, get your early bird tickets here.

Paris, Dec. 2^nd - Dec 3^rd
Big news! Green IO Paris doubles its size in 2026 with 2 tracks: an English-speaking and a brand new French-speaking one. Two languages. One mission. Expect another edition with a wide European line-up as well as the entire French ecosystem. The call for speakers is now officially open - apply here! Early bird tickets are available here.

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# Couldn’t attend? # Listen # Watch # Read # Tools # Study # Participate # Attend

What else has popped up on our Tech & Sustainability radar?

Listen… We’re all ears

We can never miss out on our usual EV podcast feast, starting with TWiGS E137: Local AI & Lean Observability, which explores the challenges and opportunities in making sustainability a standard part of software design, plus EV E138: Does faster AI mean Greener AI details how AI models do not always use less energy, particularly when multiple models run in parallel.

#E32 from Net Zero Compare also emphasizes how software remains an overlooked source of emissions and how companies can address it, highlighting at the same time the limits of traditional ESG reporting.

Decolonize Tech with Rania Youssef packs a punch on the importance of decolonizing the digital world and ecology in general.

Plus, a quick intro on the importance of maintaining a global supply of helium, tech’s favorite noble gas, and listen out for Anne Currie’s forthcoming new podcast Asynchronous & Unreliable which will focus on the key concepts behind modern software engineering and AI.

# Watch… Sometimes video is worth its environmental footprint

Nolwenn Godard, our very own Green IO USA lead, is the star guest on ‘Any Job can be Climate Job’. Plus, a dive into the anthropomorphic design and perception of generative AI systems. (See also research papers in study section.)

# Read… Our coffee-break reading this month

*THE* report of the month, State of the Fossil Free Internet, from Green Web Foundation has just been released and its not for the faint hearted. A must-read.

As AI build-outs, Tech lobbying, and issues over data confidentiality continue (see also some counter arguments), so does the community backlash (US, UK, France) around terrestrial datacenter construction. There is increasing fervor, too, around Orbital Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), yet some are not shying away from questioning the economics of such projects, the viability, the risks involved, or the environmental impacts. And it seems that the concept of living within planetary boundaries is taking on an entirely new meaning…

The new white paper from the Software Standards Working Group maps SCI to the reporting requirements European organizations face under new regulations, and importance of software is echoed in an IEEE article about measuring data center sustainability, which pleads that though it is critical to reduce the impact of datacenters, we should really be focusing more on device and code efficiency.

After several years of surges in carbon credits purchases (for projects that extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and sequester it for extended periods) by Big Tech, it is interesting to read that Microsoft has now paused its carbon credits purchases. A question of recent stockpiling for future use meaning 2030 carbon negative commitments will be reached, or a change in their long term climate strategy by descaling carbon removal? And what does it mean for the boom in AI datacenter expansion? Either way, as one of the largest buyers, their pause will have ramifications on the carbon market.

Plus, a reminder of two useful documents, both launched at the India AI Impact Summit 2026: the Expert Engagement Group on AI & Climate recommendations report, with its double agenda on building sustainable and resource efficient AI systems and leveraging AI for climate action; and the Equitable AI Transitions Playbook, which presents a comprehensive and people centered approach to managing AI-driven transformation in the world of work. See here for other Summit outputs and resources.

Following on from last month’s podcast with Dom Robinson and the ‘WattLab’ hackathon analysis referenced in our March newsletter, GoS has now set out its 2026 agenda with its Policy & Guidelines Lab examining how reporting frameworks can better reflect streaming systems' energy usage.

And a new series from AI + Planetary Justice Alliance focuses on mineral extraction, complementing their ‘raw materials Zine’ outlining key minerals and metals essential to the production of AI. Plus their new project The AI Wave.

All this in the context of a changing world climate, as the WMO State of the Climate Report 2025 shows how the Earth’s energy imbalance (the rate at which energy enters and leaves the Earth system) is one of the key climate indicators to follow.

Bonus: a short and sweet resumé on Frugal AI, and another about the importance of broadening the vision of carbon / grid aware computing to sustainability aware computing.

# Tools… Skill-up for a sustainable future

Carbonara is a developer tool providing an assessment of potential carbon emissions of architectural decisions, and practical guidance on how to reduce them.

CO2.js v0.18 has updated the default carbon estimation model with version 4 of the Sustainable Web Design Model (SWDM). It also see the addition of open, year grid intensity and fuel-mix data from from Electricity Maps.

Ecograder has deployed improvements to the dashboard and reports to its beta version with a clear focus on the soon to be released WSG.

The AI Supply Chain Impact Framework from AI + planetary Justice Alliance is both a mapping and accountability instrument. You can also get involved - see doc for details.

EcoLogits API is a language agnostic tool for measuring and understanding the environmental footprint of AI usage.

AWS has announced its Sustainability Console, giving direct access to Scope 1, 2 & 3 emissions attributed to any AWS usage. To be thoroughly investigated by experts…

# Study… We’re never too old to learn

‘Tu(r)ning AI Green: Exploring Energy Efficiency Cascading With Orthogonal Optimization’ is one of six articles accepted for this IEEE Computer Society special issue on Green Clean Software Sustainability.

Green prompt engineering for sustainable generative AI gives ideas on how to overcome sub-optimal prompts.

The Association for Computational Linguistics has published a comprehensive survey of energy requirements of speculative decoding strategies, with a detailed analysis on how various factors influence energy optimizations.

Purer than pure: how purity reshapes the upstream materiality of the semiconductor industry maps the ultra-pure materials used in microchips

Environmental impact and net-zero pathways for sustainable artificial intelligence servers in the USA (thanks CAT newsletter 311- 2026-04-12) explores the reality of the AI server industry’s net-zero aspirations.

Microsoft Research Montréal explores the blurry human / machine landscape : Dehumanizing Machines : Mitigating Anthropomorphic Behaviors and A Taxonomy of Linguistic Expressions that Contribute to Anthropomorphism of Language Technologies.

# Participate… One byte at a time

Have your say on the European Commission’s draft regulation shaping a common EU-wide rating scheme for data centers in the EU. (See also the dashboard for reporting info.)

Hubblo is developing DCWatch, a collaborative digital platform designed to map, estimate, and analyze the impacts of data centers at the national, European, and global levels. If you are interested in supporting part of the project or would like additional information, get in contact via bpetit@hubblo.org

# Attend… Meet fellow responsible technologists

SC4RC, 4 – 8 May 2026, Geneva (CHE) and online

IA : Le grand enfumage, 12 May 2026, Paris (FRA)

AsiaTech x Singapore 20-22 May 2026, Singapore (SGP)

GSF Fossil free internet briefing, 27 May, Online

ICT4S 8-12 June 2026, Bern (CHE)

The Paris Conference (AI & digital ethics) 11-12 June 2026, Paris (FRA)

Sustainable IT Days, 17-18 June 2026, Al Hoceïma (MAR)

Climate Innovation Forum (London Climate Action Week), 22 June 2026, London (UK)

Agilists4Planet, 9-10 July 2026, Online

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One last positive thought!

Happy belated Earth Day! We hope you feasted on these positive news.