Publication: March/April 2026
The energy footprint of software, software engineering, and software-intensive systems poses a significant concern.
Energy-hungry software-intensive systems, such as blockchain applications and cryptocurrencies, the pervasive integration and usage of central cloud and edge services and applications, along with AI-enabled systems, contribute to this issue. In addition, the global digital transformation of all industry sectors is accelerating the steep increase in software energy demands.
Green clean software pertains to the minimization of the energy needed to execute and use software-intensive systems. Adopting renewable energy resources to “feed” software execution is simply not enough, so reducing the carbon footprint must go hand in hand with minimizing the energy footprint.
The other way around, software-intensive systems may be used to support green processes that aim at reducing the environmental impact on the sector, society, and planet Earth. Examples include software supporting the production and consumption of renewable energy resources, smart software for green-oriented behavioral change (e.g., adopting green public transportation and sustainable work practices), and the combination of energy optimization and digitalization (so-called twin transition).
In addition, software sustainability from an environmental perspective may also concern software engineering and its processes: the energy used to develop, evolve, and maintain software-intensive systems is non-negligible and needs to be addressed.
This IEEE Software Special Theme issue aims to target both the green clean software, and the green through software dimensions, with special emphasis on the role played by green software engineering.
Possible topics:
- Practices and tactics for green clean software sustainability
- Green AI, AI for green
- Sustainability in data centers and high-performance computing
- Digital sufficiency
- Tradeoffs and balancing ecologic and technical software qualities
- Green clean software quality assessment
- Software sustainability by design
- Architecting for environmental sustainability
- Green quality metrics for software products and software engineering processes
- Standards, labels, indicators, and metrics for green clean software sustainability
- Sustainability reporting and the role of green clean software sustainability
- Green clean cloud and edge software
- Innovation, industrial adoption, and challenges related to green clean software sustainability
Submission Guidelines
Manuscripts must not exceed 4,200 words, including figures and tables, which count for 250 words each. Submissions in excess of these limits may be rejected without refereeing. The articles we deem within the theme and scope will be peer reviewed and are subject to editing for magazine style, clarity, organization, and space. Be sure to include the name of the theme you’re submitting for. Articles should have a practical orientation and be written in a style accessible to practitioners. Overly complex, purely research-oriented, or highly theoretical aren’t appropriate, however articles providing scientific evidence are welcome if they focus on practical and industrial contexts. IEEE Software doesn’t republish material published previously in other venues, including other periodicals and formal conference or workshop proceedings, whether previous publication was in print or electronic form.
Questions? Contact the Lead Guest Editor at p.lago@vu.nl.
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- Patricia Lago (Lead Guest Editor), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Henry Muccini, University of L’Aquila, Italy
- Luis Cruz, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
- Eoin Woods, Endava, UK
