Toward the formulation of CO₂ emission calculation rules for decarbonization in the software field

~Participation in "the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry 2023 Support Project for Formulating Rules for Calculating Carbon Footprint by Product to Promote GX"~

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Akira Shimada, President & CEO; hereinafter "NTT"), in collaboration with NTT Data Group Corporation, NTT Advanced Technology Corporation, NTT TechnoCross Corporation, NTT COMWARE CORPORATION, QUNIE CORPORATION, Hitachi Ltd., NEC Corporation, and Fujitsu Limited, will participate in the " the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry 2023 Support Project for Formulating Rules for Calculating Carbon Footprint by Product to Promote GX ^(*1) ".

With the aim of encouraging decarbonization efforts in the software field, which has been promoted mainly in hardware, this project will establish the first CFP^(*2) calculation rules for software in Japan, and promote visualization of CO₂ emissions from software under standard calculation rules. We also aim to contribute to CO₂ reduction throughout the global supply chain.

1. Background

The IT industry's share of global power consumption was around 10% in 2015 and is expected to exceed 20% by 2030 ^(*3). Under these circumstances, reducing CO₂ emissions is also becoming increasingly important in the software industry. The Green Software Foundation ^(*4) was established in May 2021 with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the ICT sector by 45% by 2030, as stipulated in the Paris Agreement. Its mission is to develop development standards and best practices for development tools necessary for reducing CO₂ emissions through software (green software development) and to disseminate them to the industry.

Currently, when calculating CO₂ emissions from software, CO₂ emissions are generally calculated based on software development costs ^(*5). However, software development costs do not necessarily include efforts to reduce CO₂ emissions during development. Therefore, it is necessary to establish standard calculation rules other than software development costs that promote CO₂ emission reductions throughout the supply chain.

2. Efforts to establish green software development and operation technologies

In 2021, NTT began research and development on green software development and operation technologies with the concept of using less power and less hardware to decarbonize the software sector.

Through power consumption measurement experiments during software development, we have established methods for collecting and visualizing CO₂ emission data and reducing CO₂ emissions, studied rules for calculating CO₂ emissions, and guidelines and tools for visualizing and reducing CO₂ emissions of software in place of software development costs, and held a Green Software Liaison Meeting with the aim of spreading this information within the NTT Group ^(*6).

Figure 1 Overview of green software development and operation technology

3. Project Overview

The purpose of this project is to establish uniform calculation rules in the software industry for fair calculation and comparison of green software with a view to global standards.

NTT will propose a standard CFP calculation rule for software based on its knowledge of power consumption measurement technology and LCA analysis of software during software development through research and development on green software, and will discuss and build consensus with core member companies^(*7) participating in this project.

Figure 2 Schedule for the project

4. Future plans

NTT will formulate guidelines and conduct demonstration experiments to calculate and visualize CO₂ emissions based on the calculation rules established through this project, with establishing global standard calculation rules to achieve decarbonization in the software field. We will also promote research and development of green software development and operation technologies to further reduce CO₂ emissions in the software field in the future.

Figure 3 Future vision of green software development and operation technology

<Glossary>

^*1Decision on Participating Groups in Support Project for Formulating Rules for Calculating Carbon Footprints by Product to Promote GX
https://www.bcg.com/ja-jp/press/7august2023-cfp-product-specific-calculation-rule-support

^*2CFP (Carbon Footprint of Products)
Calculated from the perspective of life cycle assessment (LCA) of CO₂ emissions in the supply chain of the company's products
➢ Carbon Footprint Report
https://www.meti.go.jp/shingikai/energy_environment/carbon_footprint/20230331_report.html
➢ Carbon Footprint Guidelines
https://www.meti.go.jp/shingikai/energy_environment/carbon_footprint/pdf/20230526_3_1.pdf

^*3How to stop data centres from gobbling up the world's electricity(Nature)
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06610-y

^*4Green Software Foundation
https://greensoftware.foundation/

^*5Guideline for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Eco-Efficiency Evaluation (The Japan Forum on Eco-efficiency)
https://lca-forum.org/environment/eco/pdf/05.pdf

^*6Efforts to establish green software development and operation technologies
https://www.bcm.co.jp/site/2023/05/sic/2305-ntt-sic-01-04.pdf

^*7core member companies participating in this project
NTT Data Group Corporation, NTT Advanced Technology Corporation, NTT TechnoCross Corporation, NTT COMWARE CORPORATION, QUNIE CORPORATION, Hitachi Ltd., NEC Corporation, and Fujitsu Limited