Development of Carbon Footprint Calculation rules for software products
Decarbonize the software industry and reduce emissions throughout the supply chain

News Highlights:

Tokyo - March 29, 2024 - As part of its efforts to decarbonize the software sector, NTT Corporation (NTT), together with NTT DATA Group Corporation, NTT Advanced Technology Corporation, NTT TechnoCross Corporation, NTT COMWARE CORPORATION, Ltd., QUNIE CORPORATION, Hitachi, Ltd., NEC Corporation, and Fujitsu Limited, has developed calculation rules that can reflect the efforts of developers to reduce CO₂ emissions of contract software products.¹ This calculation rule enables calculation and comparison of the CO₂ emissions of contract development software products under the "Carbon Footprint Guidelines" of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.²
　We will continue to develop these rules and contribute to the carbon neutrality of our supply chain.

1. Background

Power consumption and CO₂ emissions in the ICT industry are increasing, and their share of global power consumption is projected to exceed 20% in 2030.³ The establishment of the Green Software Foundation⁴ by the world's leading software-related companies to reduce CO₂ emissions has raised the importance of reducing CO₂ emissions in the software field. NTT has been engaged in R&D of green software development and operation technologies for decarbonizing the software sector and has been promoting the development of guidelines for visualization and reduction of CO₂ emissions from software and their dissemination within the NTT Group.
　In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the calculation and disclosure of CO₂ emissions in product level, and the need for creating a market where green products are selected based on the calculation and reduction of CO₂ emissions throughout the supply chain, including Scope 3 in addition to Scope 1 and 2 of the GHG Protocol. However, with regard to the calculation of CO₂ emissions of software products, a problem was that no standard calculation method was established other than the calculation on a monetary basis using the information on development costs, and it was difficult to reflect the reduction efforts of developers. Therefore, together with companies with a similar awareness of issues, in August 2023, we participated in the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's Study Group on Product Carbon Footprint Calculations and Verification for Supply Chain-Wide Carbon Neutrality⁵ (hereinafter referred to as the Study Group), which was an open call for applications, and have been working to examine calculation rules for software products.

2. Results

As one of the first calculation rules consistent with the "Carbon Footprint Guidelines" of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.², we have established a calculation rule for the amount of CO₂ emissions from contract development software products. This calculation rule applies to the calculation of CO₂ emissions at the software development stage, covering the period from order receipt to production. We believe that this would be the basis for calculating the amount of CO₂ emissions from software products and that we have taken the first step toward realizing green procurement of software products.

3. Key points of the calculation rules

As an initial study, we proceeded with the examination of calculation rules based on contracted software products. Since contract development software products are manufactured based on product-specific requirements, CO₂ emissions generated during development are mainly due to developers' activities. Therefore, it is not easy to grasp the amount of activity in the calculation of CO₂ emissions compared to mass-produced products such as tangible industrial products. The two key points of the calculation rules we established are as follows.

Figure 1 Life Cycle Flow of Contracted Development Software Products, Defining Calculation Scope and Process

4．NTT's contribution

NTT has been engaged in R&D on green software development and operation technology since 2021 and has conducted experiments to measure power consumption during software development to analyze processes that can be major sources of CO₂ emissions. Based on the results, we studied the scope of calculation and the method of collecting necessary data for calculating the amount of CO₂ emissions. Using these insights, we proposed a draft calculation method and led discussions and consensus-building with participating companies.

5. Future works

We aim to improve the practicality of the rules and build a global consensus through demonstration experiments using the calculation rules and further discussions with companies in the software industry. In the future, we will contribute to the reduction of CO₂ emissions throughout the supply chain by realizing green procurement of software products.

Figure 2 Future Initiatives Utilizing the Calculation Rules

Figure 3 Vision for Green Software Development and Operation Technology

¹The rules are posted at the Life Cycle Assessment Society of Japan (secretariat: Japan Environmental Management Association for Industry).
https://lca-forum.org/member/guidelines.html

²The Ministry of Economy (MOE), Trade and Industry (METI) "Carbon Footprint Guidelines" (In Japanese)
https://www.meti.go.jp/shingikai/energy_environment/carbon_footprint/pdf/20230526_3.pdf

³Andrae, A.S.G and Elder, T. On Global Electricity Usage of Communication Technology: Trends to 2030. Challenges 2015, 6, pp. 117-157
https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/6/1/117

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

⁵Study Group on Product Carbon Footprint Calculations and Verification for Supply Chain-Wide Carbon Neutrality (In Japanese)
https://www.meti.go.jp/policy/energy_environment/kankyou_keizai/shien_productquantificationrules.html

About NTT

NTT contributes to a sustainable society through the power of innovation. We are a leading global technology company providing services to consumers and businesses as a mobile operator, infrastructure, networks, applications, and consulting provider. Our offerings include digital business consulting, managed application services, workplace and cloud solutions, data center and edge computing, all supported by our deep global industry expertise. We are over $97B in revenue and 330,000 employees, with $3.6B in annual R&D investments. Our operations span across 80+ countries and regions, allowing us to serve clients in over 190 of them. We serve over 75% of Fortune Global 100 companies, thousands of other enterprise and government clients and millions of consumers.