Green IO Newsletter - February 2026

Building a greener digital world, one byte at a time

Hello responsible technologist!

It’s only February, and 2026 already feels like a F1 race. Serious cash and fuel injection, Big Tech bosses jostling for pole position at the Delhi AI Summit (the first in the Global South), several yellow flags have been waved, (prominent AI safety researchers quitting) and only time will tell if any guardrails put in place can become AI’s ‘halo’.

Yet, there are many projects, good practices and initiatives out there, that strive to deliver responsible tech on all levels, and so we would love to hear your positive stories. As you can see, our conference program is expanding this year, so please do submit your proposals (hit the button below in ‘Conference’ section) for any new research, use cases, tools or inspiring presentations that you want to share.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Jill TELLIER

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

🎙️ Podcast episodes

#E74 Streaming, Networks and Sustainability with Dom Robinson Listen

#E73 Gerry McGovern vs the Growth Death Cult with Gerry McGovern Listen

#E72 Making Sustainability Easy to Discover with Chris Adams Listen

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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 now open for all the 2026 Green IO conferences!

Submit your talk here

Singapore, April 14^th - April 15^th

A third edition focusing on “Intelligence with Intention“. Get an early bird ticket here.

New-York, May 13^th - May 14^th
“AI as a controversial force for sustainability“ is the theme of this second edition. Early bird tickets are available here.

Amsterdam, June 9^th - June 10^th
First conference in the Netherlands! 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! Early bird tickets will be available soon.

Paris, Dec. 2^nd - Dec 3^rd
Expect another edition with a wide European line-up. Early bird tickets will be available soon.

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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

EV has two great recent episodes, with E120 exploring the business advantages of sustainability, and E119 diving into greener prompting. This podcast from MJC focuses on datacenter power availability, looking at how AI datacenters should be treated as flexible, rather than fixed, loads. Zooming out on a broader scale, O+O E349 asks the wider question of who really does wield the power in climate transition, examining the increasingly brazen influence of politics and money. And, one for a rainy afternoon (2h+!), the man behind Claude & Anthropic, Dario Amodei, is probed by Dwarkesh Patel on RL scaling, AI in the wider economy, the impact of regulation, the Cournot competition / equilibrium and much more.

Bonus: The boot is on the other foot, as Gaël is the star guest in an episode of ‘DSI & des Hommes’, where discussions focus on the resulting impact of decisions and choices, over and above that of performance (FR only).

# Read… Our coffee-break reading this month

Top of the list this month is Gerry McGovern’s new book : 99^th Day: A Warning about Technology. His leitmotiv ? “We must protect and resist.”…

Elon Musk acquires xAI, fueling jittery commentaries on shifting power balances re: control of distribution and compute, and Siemens invests in the US grid, responding to soaring electricity demand, thus demonstrating its long‑term commitment to the US market.

Plus, AWS releases the AWS European Sovereign Cloud in a bid to address European Sovereignty concerns within the public sector, though only time will tell if it is capable of resisting U.S. government data requests.

MIT releases its State of AI in Business report 2025, investigating whether the adoption of AI does really lead to transformation of business models. It states that the potential of AI & agentic systems means careful choices need to be made about technology, partnerships, and organizational design.

The last few weeks have also seen much activity around AI safety and guardrails, giving rise to interesting policies, such as those by Cambridgeshire County Council trying to limit the carbon impact of AI, new laws (California) addressing AI behavior in emotional, medical or high stake situations, or new initiatives such as The Digital Strength Initiative, and also the publication of the weighty International AI Safety report 2026.

# Tools… Skill-up for a sustainable future

Microsoft updates its SCI scores for Azure workloads.

Following on from their presentation at Green IO Paris 2025 & related info in the December newsletter, here is the latest link to the GSF/Amadeus Carmen tool.

# Participate…

An introductory, hands-on Sustainable AI course from Sasha Luccioni in conjunction with LinkedIn Learning.

The 'Collectif NRS' (focuses on sustainable and responsible digital practices in the Quebec province) is organizing a competition to reward organizations that are actively involved in developing responsible and sustainable digital solutions in response to the major ethical, environmental and social challenges facing our society. Learn more and apply.

# Attend… Meet fellow responsible technologists

IEEE GreenTech, 25-27 March, Boulder, Colorado (USA)

VOXXED DAYS Amsterdam, 1 -2 April, Amsterdam (NLD)

ICSE & Greens‘26, 12-18 April, Rio De Janeiro (BRA)

Hack Summit, 22-23 April, Lausanne (CHE)

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

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

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One last positive thought!

The US Government is now publishing power plant–level water data, including monthly and even per-minute water withdrawal, consumption, and discharge.

(Thanks to Shaolei Ren for the post)