What is a carbon handprint?
I've recently started reading "Building Green Software" as part of an online book club and, in the introduction, the authors reference the potential "carbon handprint" of software.
I wasn't familiar with this term, so I decided to dig into it to learn more and share what I learned here.
What is a carbon handprint?
To borrow from the book I was just talking about, the carbon handprint of software refers to "the application of new software to help speed up decarbonization in other sectors."
An example of what this can look like is having a virtual conference instead of an in-person one using Zoom or some other video conferencing software.
The carbon handprint here is that less carbon is emitted by removing the need for people to travel to the venue. If the virtual conference involves hundreds of people who would otherwise have travelled from all over the world to attend, the reduction of emissions can be significant.
How does this differ from a "carbon footprint"?
A carbon footprint focuses on the carbon emissions emitted from the building and running of the software, and is commonly measured using the 3 scopes in the GHG protocol.
In contrast, the carbon handprint focuses on removing carbon emissions in other industries. As a result, it can be challenging to precisely measure the software's impact.
Thinking about the carbon handprint of software, though, encourages us to consider the wider effects of the software we're building, as opposed to focusing on efficiencies in our tech stacks so as to keep the direct carbon emissions related to the running of our software down.
It should be noted though, that while improving the carbon handprint of software can be a good goal, there can be other unintended side effects that are not positive.
For instance, the training of AI models (e.g.: LLMs) is notoriously energy-intensive, and requires further thought and design to mitigate those energy demands so as not to create a net-negative impact.
Why carbon handprints matter
Given the increasing focus on reducing carbon emissions across all carbon-emitting industries, and the integral role technology and software play in the world today, being aware of our software's carbon handprint is not just about being a good global citizen, there are likely business opportunities to be found as well.
As companies become subject to more regulation where there is a monetary cost to emitting carbon, such as the European Union's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, tools speeding up decarbonization will likely increase in demand.
Resources/references used in writing this article:
Anne Currie
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