Green IO Newsletter - March 2026

Building a greener digital world, one byte at a time

Hello responsible technologist!

These days, I keep thinking about Fernand. Do you know Fernand? A successful farmer in the French countryside in the late 40s, owning many hectares, managing “métayers”. Then came the US tractors, then the fertilizers, then the government incentives. Did he foresee that his world would be forever changed? That he would fire all his workers? That peasants would shrink from nearly 30% of the French active population to barely 1.5% today? That food would become a commodity? That his soil — and his grandchildren's health — would bear the true cost of that technological revolution, decades later? Would he have been scared? Angry? Excited? After all, with land and capital, he was arguably on the winning side of the disruption. But did he know that?

I find myself doing that mental exercise more and more — stepping outside the noise of the ongoing AI revolution to ask uncomfortable questions about where we're actually headed. Humanities help. Crossing viewpoints too. It's one of the reasons Green IO is gently broadening its lens this year, while staying firmly anchored in our core mission of reducing Tech's environmental footprint. Expect us to explore a bit more of non-tech perspectives, a bit more of what "tech for good" genuinely means — not the greenwashed, techno-solutionist version, but the honest, rigorous one.

That curiosity is very much alive in this community — and the 2026 conference season reflects it. The support of local volunteers across the globe has already produced stellar lineups for Singapore and New York, with Amsterdam and Munich following close behind. The (low-carbon) energy is already there — and that makes all the difference.

Gaël

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

🎙️ Podcast episodes

#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

#E74 Streaming, Networks and Sustainability with Dom Robinson 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 now open for all the 2026 Green IO conferences!

Singapore, April 14 - 15

A third edition focusing on “Intelligence with Intention“. Explore the full agenda and get your ticket here.

New-York, May 13^th - May 14^th
“AI as a controversial force for sustainability“ is the theme of this second edition. Check the speakers and get your 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

EV TWiGS E124 digs into EnergyNet and the idea of routing electricity more like the internet, and covers the latest AI energy and greenwashing debates, including a quick look at policy and research angles, whilst EV TWiGS E134 Shift-Left Sustainability discusses why environmental impact should be considered early in the software development lifecycle rather than after deployment. Plus EV TWiGS E136 explores the importance of hourly carbon accounting.

And two recent industry focused podcasts from MJC: as solar clipping and curtailment leave vast amounts of clean power stranded, Rune’s CEO explains how their “RELIC” units turn waste into usable compute; and Emerald AI showcases how it can turn datacenters into grid allies.

# Watch… Sometimes video is worth its environmental footprint

As businesses increasingly prefer to remove and sell on RAM individually, without the laptop, the crisis in the second hand computer market & repair shops is deepening. And, find out how to apply W3C Web Sustainability Guidelines.

# Read… Our coffee-break reading this month

The last few weeks have seen a lot of interest around hardware: ADEME’s (French National Environmental Agency) report on GPU lifecycle for IA; the Sage Asset Management report 2026 showing how ESG priorities are evolving with device lifecycle extensions, reuse and digital equity initiatives; the Public Interest Principles for Datacenters; Lenovo’s latest attempt to boost circularity (though still some way to go) with the release of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon; plus, the updated (3^rd) version of the E-Waste statistics methodology.

For those interested in civic movements, the Nantes Citizen’s Watch Collective has produced the International Manifesto for a Universal and Constitutional Right to be Offline, and a group of democracy activists has launched a boycott campaign ‘QuitGPT’, due to grave concerns about AI companies contributing to the rise of authoritarianism in the US.

Green IO Paris 2025 speaker Ismael Velasco has posted a series of commentaries on the agentic inference energy explosion, the Green IT collective (FR) has produced an open-source good practice repository for GenAI use, the GSF has produced a written statement concerning datacenters as flexible grid participants, and the GridWise Alliance has also brought together stakeholders to examine how AI is being applied across the power sector.

Plus, a bonus for all of you who made it this far: The AI Periodic Table Explained: Making Sense of Modern AI (2026), puts forward an interesting approach to organizing LLMs, RAG, agents, and safety tools into a coherent framework.

# Tools… Skill-up for a sustainable future

The SGA has developed three Power Saving Plugins, which dynamically detect when players become idle and enable developers to integrate automatic energy-saving modes across the most widely used engines. 

ISO/IEC TS 2012561:2026 is the new standard on digital services eco-design, focusing on reducing the environmental impacts of a digital service during all stages of its life cycle.

Recommendation ITU-T L.1801 (02/2026) - guidelines for assessing the environmental impact of AI systems, plus a neat little explainer from Nathaniel Burola.

EcoLogits has released an update for its methodology on how to estimate the general latency for a request.

Open Compute has released OCP ESUN 1.0 Specification, its first major spec for AI infrastructure.

# Study… We’re never too old to learn

Small Bottle, Big Pipe: Quantifying and Addressing the Impact of Data Centers on Public Water Systems. This study aims to quantify and assess the potential impact of data centers on public water systems in the United States, as both the total and peak water consumption need to be measured.

How Interface Design Choices Lead to Indirect Environmental Impacts Through Use Intensification unpacks the different mechanisms leading to use intensification and to indirect effects, through an empirical evaluation of Messaging Apps.

Greening of Streaming ‘Watt Lab’ - Hackathon Data Analysis details how bitrate, resolution, and content characteristics affect energy consumption across the streaming chain.

# Participate… One byte at a time

The Resilient AI Challenge focuses on advancing practical solutions for AI model compression. This challenge is open to the research community, companies, start-ups, and innovators who aim to advance the field of model efficiency.

The EC has launched a technical assistance study to support the development of a regulation establishing Minimum Performance Standards for Datacenters in Europe. Access the stakeholder registration link here.

Two-times, Green IO speaker Dr. Romain Jacob (ETH Zürich) has co-launched a study to assess the state of practice in networking hardware upgrades in telecommunication networks. Participate in the survey here if you work in telco.

Plus, sign up to the Boavizta Hackathon to progress the BoAmps project.

# Attend… Meet fellow responsible technologists

VOXXED DAYS Amsterdam, 1 -2 April 2026, Amsterdam (NLD)

ICSE & Greens‘26, 12-18 April 2026, Rio De Janeiro (BRA)

Hack Summit, 22-23 April 2026, Lausanne (CHE)

2nd Data Center Energy Efficiency & Sustainability Summit, 29-30 April 2026, London (UK)

2026 Open Compute Project EMEA Summit, 29-30 April 2026, Barcelona (ESP)

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

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

ICT4S 8-12 June 2026, Bern (CHE)

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

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

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One last positive thought!

The Way To(fu) Go?

Researchers from the City University of Hong Kong and Southern University of Science and Technology have developed a new water-based, eco-friendly battery based on tofu brine.