Are We Building Sustainable Software? Adoption, Challenges, and Early-Stage Strategies

Thalita Reis, André Araújo, Rodrigo Gusmão, Artur Farias, José Silva, Alenilton Silva

2025

Abstract

The growing environmental impact of digital systems has brought sustainability to the forefront of software engineering research and practice. Green Software Engineering proposes a set of principles and practices aimed at reducing the energy consumption and carbon footprint of software systems. This study investigates the extent to which sustainable development practices are being adopted in the software industry and identifies the software life cycle stages in which they are applied. A structured literature review was conducted to analyze empirical evidence based on a set of design and coding practices focused on sustainability. The results reveal a fragmented and predominantly reactive adoption of these practices, with an emphasis on the development and maintenance phases. In contrast, earlier stages such as requirements elicitation and prototyping remain largely unexplored. The study also identifies key challenges, including the lack of standardization, limited real-world validation, and the absence of practical frameworks aligned with organizational processes. These findings highlight the need for comprehensive strategies and tools to support the integration of sustainability into all phases of the software development life cycle.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Reis T., Araújo A., Gusmão R., Farias A., Silva J. and Silva A. (2025). Are We Building Sustainable Software? Adoption, Challenges, and Early-Stage Strategies. In Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 1: WEBIST; ISBN 978-989-758-772-6, SciTePress, pages 113-120. DOI: 10.5220/0013656100003985

in Bibtex Style

@conference{webist25,
author={Thalita Reis and André Araújo and Rodrigo Gusmão and Artur Farias and José Silva and Alenilton Silva},
title={Are We Building Sustainable Software? Adoption, Challenges, and Early-Stage Strategies},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 1: WEBIST},
year={2025},
pages={113-120},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0013656100003985},
isbn={978-989-758-772-6},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 1: WEBIST
TI - Are We Building Sustainable Software? Adoption, Challenges, and Early-Stage Strategies
SN - 978-989-758-772-6
AU - Reis T.
AU - Araújo A.
AU - Gusmão R.
AU - Farias A.
AU - Silva J.
AU - Silva A.
PY - 2025
SP - 113
EP - 120
DO - 10.5220/0013656100003985
PB - SciTePress