Are We Building Sustainable Software? Adoption, Challenges, and

Early-Stage Strategies

Thalita Reis

, Andr

e Ara

ujo

, Rodrigo Gusm

, Artur Farias

, Jos

e Silva

and

Alenilton Silva

Computing Institute, Federal University of Alagoas, Av. Lourival Melo Mota, S/N, Cidade Universit

aria, Macei

o, Brazil

Keywords:

Green Software Engineering, Sustainability, Software Life Cycle, Energy Efﬁciency, Best Practices.

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.

1 INTRODUCTION

The rising environmental impact of digital technolo-

gies has drawn global concern, especially regarding

the energy use and carbon emissions of software sys-

tems (Patel et al., 2024). As software drives inno-

vation, it increases the demand for computational re-

sources and ecological footprints (Gupta et al., 2021).

In response, Green Software Engineering (GSE) fo-

cuses on integrating sustainability into the software

lifecycle (Atadoga et al., 2024). By embedding eco-

conscious decisions in design, development, deploy-

ment, and maintenance, GSE aims to reduce ecologi-

cal harm while preserving performance and usability

(Atadoga et al., 2024).

The push for GSE adoption stems from the urgent

call for sustainable digital transformation (van Gils

and Weigand, 2020). Governments, stakeholders, and

https://orcid.org/0009-0002-4024-0394

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8321-2268

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1993-5044

https://orcid.org/0009-0005-5576-124X

https://orcid.org/0009-0001-0225-2696

https://orcid.org/0009-0008-2989-3996

society are pressuring organizations to meet environ-

mental goals, optimizing data centers, hardware, and

software processes. GSE offers beneﬁts such as re-

duced costs, greater energy efﬁciency, and stronger

corporate responsibility. Increasing climate aware-

ness reinforces the need to treat energy and carbon

as key non-functional requirements.

Academic and industry initiatives have promoted

GSE through frameworks, metrics, tools, and method-

ologies for sustainable software development (Abur,

2024) (Calero and Piattini, 2015). The Green Soft-

ware Foundation, for instance, provides principles

and resources to guide practice (Chandrasekaran and

Subburaman, 2023). However, despite this progress,

literature still lacks empirical evidence on the real-

world adoption of GSE practices (Danushi et al.,

2024), highlighting the need for further study.

The limited adoption of Green Software Engineer-

ing (GSE) presents key challenges. Without sustain-

ability, software may become inefﬁcient, consume

excessive resources, and incur higher environmen-

tal costs. Development teams often lack awareness,

tools, and guidelines to assess and improve energy

efﬁciency. This absence of green practices ham-

pers environmental goals and affects scalability, cost-

Reis, T., Araújo, A., Gusmão, R., Farias, A., Silva, J. and Silva, A.

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

DOI: 10.5220/0013656100003985

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies (WEBIST 2025), pages 113-120

ISBN: 978-989-758-772-6; ISSN: 2184-3252

113

efﬁciency, and maintainability. Neglecting sustain-

ability in software contributes to broader digital in-

frastructure issues.

This article examines the current adoption of GSE

practices in the software industry. It reviews and syn-

thesizes literature to determine whether GSE princi-

ples are being applied in practice. The central ques-

tion is: Is there documented evidence in the litera-

ture of adopting Green Software Engineering prac-

tices in the software industry? The goal is to enhance

understanding of sustainability in software develop-

ment and guide future research and practice, identify-

ing which practices are adopted and at what stages of

the development life cycle.

The article is organized as follows: Section 2 de-

ﬁnes key GSE principles, providing the theoretical

foundation. Section 3 explains the review method-

ology, including study selection, analysis, and main

ﬁndings. Section 4 discusses research gaps and chal-

lenges. Section 5 proposes ways to embed sustain-

ability in requirements engineering. Section 6 con-

cludes by summarizing contributions and suggesting

directions for future work.

2 BACKGROUND

This section presents the theoretical background of

this study. It ﬁrst outlines the core principles of Green

Software Engineering, followed by a set of best prac-

tices proposed by the Green Software Foundation,

which will serve as the basis for analyzing their adop-

tion in the software industry.

2.1 Foundations of Green Software

Engineering

Green Software Engineering (GSE) integrates envi-

ronmental sustainability into the development, de-

ployment, and maintenance of software systems (Pen-

zenstadler et al., 2014). As the demand for computing

resources grows, the environmental impact of soft-

ware, particularly regarding energy consumption and

carbon emissions, has become a critical concern (An-

drae and Edler, 2015) (Belkhir and Elmeligi, 2018).

GSE addresses this challenge by embedding sustain-

ability as a core non-functional requirement across the

software lifecycle (Moreira et al., 2024).

Sustainable software is deﬁned not just by the

code but also by its interaction with hardware, net-

works, and cloud infrastructure (Andrikopoulos and

Lago, 2021). Inefﬁcient algorithms and poor deploy-

ment practices can result in excessive energy con-

sumption (Maryam et al., 2018). Thus, GSE pro-

motes a holistic approach throughout the entire soft-

ware lifecycle, from requirements engineering to de-

commissioning (Raisian et al., 2017).

Sustainable design considers the environmental

impact from the start, using lean development meth-

ods and reusable components to reduce resource

waste (Ibrahim et al., 2023). Modular software facili-

tates updates, extends lifespan, and reduces electronic

waste (Te Brinke et al., 2013). Lightweight applica-

tions and responsive design enable software to run ef-

ﬁciently on various devices, minimizing the need for

energy-intensive hardware (Turan and S¸ahin, 2017).

Adopting established guidelines and best practices

is essential to supporting sustainable software devel-

opment. These principles form the foundation for

strategies that promote responsible and environmen-

tally conscious engineering (Matthew et al., 2024),

focusing on both technical aspects like code optimiza-

tion and organizational approaches that foster a cul-

ture of sustainability.

2.2 Best Practices for Green Software

Development

The Green Software Foundation has proposed a set

of principles to guide the development of sustainable

software systems, aiming to reduce energy consump-

tion and carbon emissions throughout the software

lifecycle (Green Software Foundation, 2021). This

section presents seven key practices that developers

and organizations can adopt to align software engi-

neering processes with environmental sustainability

goals.

• BP1 - Focus on high-consumption features and

common usage scenarios: Identify and optimize

energy-intensive and frequently used features to

maximize environmental beneﬁts.

• BP2 - Reduce data usage: Minimize unneces-

sary data exchange by using efﬁcient caching,

compressing and aggregating data, and reducing

media and image sizes.

• BP3 - Remove or refactor unused features:

Eliminate obsolete features to improve energy ef-

ﬁciency, reduce execution overhead, and simplify

future updates.

• BP4 - Eliminate ineffective loops and idle com-

putations: Remove code that consumes energy

without functional beneﬁts, such as unnecessary

attempts to connect to unreachable servers.

• BP5 - Adapt application behavior to power

modes and device conditions: Adjust software

behavior based on device energy state, e.g., reduc-

ing background activities in power-saving mode.

WEBIST 2025 - 21st International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies

114

• BP6 - Limit computational accuracy to opera-

tional needs: Avoid excessive precision when un-

necessary, such as approximating geolocation for

locating nearby friends to save energy.

• BP7 - Monitor real-time energy consumption:

Track energy usage during runtime to identify and

optimize high-impact components.

These practices provide a framework for analyz-

ing their adoption by the software industry through-

out the development lifecycle. The Green Software

Foundation’s guidelines are relevant, clear, and inﬂu-

ential in both academic and industrial contexts, mak-

ing them a suitable reference to evaluate current prac-

tices and identify gaps in adopting environmentally

responsible software development approaches.

3 METHODOLOGY

The methodological approach of this study was struc-

tured in three stages, as shown in Figure 1. The ﬁrst

stage was an exploratory study, which aimed to un-

derstand the context and select sustainable software

guidelines for the research. The guidelines chosen

were those proposed in (Green Software Foundation,

2021), focusing on software design and coding prac-

tices, which served as the basis for analyzing sustain-

able practices in the reviewed studies.

The second stage involved deﬁning a strategy for

the literature review, including selection criteria and

the search string shown in Figure 1. The temporal

scope covered 2013-2024 to include up-to-date re-

search, as green software engineering is an evolv-

ing ﬁeld. The search was conducted in ACM, IEEE

Xplore, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Springer, retriev-

ing 802 articles. After applying inclusion and exclu-

sion criteria, 87 relevant articles remained.

In the second phase of analysis, the articles were

further reﬁned based on the application of green soft-

ware engineering practices in the software develop-

ment life cycle or in real or simulated environments.

This resulted in a sample of 18 studies, which were

used for data extraction and analysis. The selected

articles focused on the practical development of sus-

tainable solutions, identifying both contributions and

challenges in the ﬁeld. The results are presented in

the following section.

4 LITERATURE REVIEW

This section comprises three parts: state-of-the-art

analysis, discussion, and identiﬁed challenges. The

ﬁrst presents key research and approaches aligned

with the study’s guiding questions. The discussion

contrasts ﬁndings from selected works, highlighting

thematic intersections. Finally, the challenges outline

gaps and opportunities for future research.

4.1 State of the Art Analysis

This study analyzed eighteen articles on green soft-

ware development, outlining practices for energy ef-

ﬁciency across the software life cycle. These prac-

tices focus on code analysis and optimization, archi-

tectural decisions, and tool integration, addressing the

increasing demand for computational resources amid

limited energy availability.

A key strategy found is the correlation between

code metrics and energy consumption. Studies like

(Hindle, 2015) and (Sahar et al., 2019) show that

object-oriented attributes (e.g., coupling, complexity,

inheritance) inﬂuence energy use. Predictive mod-

els using machine learning, as in (Beghoura et al.,

2014) (Alvi et al., 2021), estimate energy consump-

tion early, guiding eco-conscious development.

Code refactoring and managing energy debt also

reduce energy usage over time. (Maia et al., 2020)

and (Sehgal et al., 2022) show that addressing code

smells lowers energy consumption, especially in mo-

bile apps. The concept of energy debt quantiﬁes the

cost of poor code quality, helping prioritize sustain-

able maintenance.

Studies like (Procaccianti et al., 2016) and (Melfe

et al., 2018) provide evidence-based guidelines for

energy efﬁciency. The former evaluates MySQL and

Apache, showing reduced energy use; the latter as-

sesses Haskell data structures, emphasizing DRAM

and compiler optimizations, both using robust metrics

and benchmarks.

Tool integration into development environments

supports systematic adoption of green practices.

HADAS (Munoz, 2017) (Munoz et al., 2017), FEET-

INGS (Mancebo et al., 2021), PortAuthority (Ford

and Zong, 2021), and E-Debitum (Maia et al., 2020)

enable energy-aware architecture choices and con-

sumption analysis. Their integration with IDEs

streamlines eco-conscious workﬂows.

Architectural choices also impact energy perfor-

mance. (Khomh and Abtahizadeh, 2018) and (Zhan

et al., 2014) show that using microservices, load bal-

ancing, and cloud ofﬂoading affects energy efﬁciency.

Selecting suitable patterns improves both sustainabil-

ity and service quality, especially at scale.

Testing and coding practices also contribute. (Jab-

barvand et al., 2016) proposes test suite minimiza-

tion that maintains fault detection while reducing test

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

115

Figure 1: Methodological Approach.

runs. (Rocheteau et al., 2014) conﬁrms empirically

that Java best practices enhance energy efﬁciency, of-

fering practical eco-design guidance.

Sustainability in real-world and legacy systems is

feasible. (Nguyena and Chitchyan, 2013) shows that

reengineering legacy systems with sustainability in

mind improves performance and reduces CO2 emis-

sions. (Oyedeji et al., 2019) validates a framework

applying the Karlskrona Manifesto, aligning software

with SDGs and promoting incremental, cultural inte-

gration of sustainability.

4.2 Discussion

The articles analyzed were examined using the seven

core design and coding practices outlined in Section

2.2 to identify practical applications of Green Soft-

ware Engineering guidelines. Figure 2 illustrates the

best practices referenced. This investigation mapped

not only the adoption of sustainability-oriented prac-

tices but also the challenges in implementing them

across the software development lifecycle. The analy-

sis reveals both successful green practices and barriers

limiting their broader adoption in the industry.

Table 1 presents a detailed analysis of sustainable

practices in software development. It organizes in-

formation on which practices are adopted and their

presence across the software life cycle phases de-

ﬁned by SWEBOK (Washizaki, 2024). The data re-

veal a limited and fragmented application of the pro-

posed guidelines. While the table includes recur-

ring practices, such as managing energy-intensive fea-

tures, refactoring unused resources, and adapting ap-

plications to usage context, few studies apply multiple

Figure 2: Best Practices for Green Software Development.

practices simultaneously.

Most studies focus on improving code structure,

particularly by removing unnecessary loops, refactor-

ing, and feature control. In contrast, practices involv-

ing runtime environment integration, like real-time

energy monitoring and context-aware adaptation, are

WEBIST 2025 - 21st International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies

116

Table 1: Comparative Analysis of Green Software Engineering Practices and Lifecycle Phases.

Related Work

Best Practices Lifecycle Phases

BP1 BP2 BP3 BP4 BP5 BP6 BP7 P1 P2 P3 P4

(Hindle, 2015) • ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ • •

(Sahar et al., 2019) • ◦ ◦ • ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ • •

(Beghoura et al., 2014) • ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ • • ◦ ◦ •

(Zhan et al., 2014) • ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ • ◦ ◦ • ◦

(Munoz et al., 2017) • • ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ • ◦ • •

(Ford and Zong, 2021) • ◦ ◦ • ◦ ◦ • ◦ ◦ • •

(Khomh and Abtahizadeh, 2018) • ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ • ◦ • • ◦

(Munoz, 2017) • • ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ • • • •

(Mancebo et al., 2021) • • ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ • • • • •

(Alvi et al., 2021) • ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ • •

(Procaccianti et al., 2016) • ◦ • ◦ • ◦ • ◦ ◦ • ◦

(Melfe et al., 2018) ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ • ◦ ◦ • ◦

(Jabbarvand et al., 2016) • ◦ ◦ • ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ • •

(Rocheteau et al., 2014) • ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ • ◦ ◦ • ◦

(Oyedeji et al., 2019) • ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ • • ◦ • •

(Maia et al., 2020) • ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ • •

(Sehgal et al., 2022) • ◦ • ◦ ◦ ◦ • ◦ ◦ • •

(Nguyena and Chitchyan, 2013) • ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ • • ◦ • •

Note: P1 = Requirements elicitation and speciﬁcation; P2 = Prototyping; P3 = Development; P4 = Maintenance and

evolution.

less common. This reﬂects a dominant focus on inter-

nal software elements, overlooking how software in-

teracts with runtime conditions and hardware, which

limits the impact of green practices.

Regarding life cycle coverage, sustainable prac-

tices are mostly applied during development and

maintenance phases, suggesting a reactive approach.

Early phases like requirements elicitation and proto-

typing are rarely addressed, despite their inﬂuence on

later stages. This gap neglects strategic decisions that

could shape sustainability from the outset.

The ﬁndings highlight a need to integrate sus-

tainability earlier in the life cycle, including deﬁn-

ing green requirements, energy-aware prototyping,

and designing architectures with built-in sustainable

principles. Additionally, the lack of standardization

across studies hinders comparison, replication, and

the consolidation of a solid theoretical and practical

foundation.

4.3 Challenges and Gaps Identiﬁed

The analysis of the state of the art revealed gaps hin-

dering the adoption of sustainable practices through-

out the software life cycle. Many studies focus on

isolated aspects without considering integrated ap-

proaches that align with software project realities.

Additionally, the lack of standardized metrics makes

it difﬁcult to compare ﬁndings and replicate results.

Most experiments are conducted in controlled envi-

ronments, which differ from real-world usage condi-

tions. These challenges highlight the need for further

research addressing all stages of the development pro-

cess, from the early phases to the creation of oper-

ational frameworks applicable within organizational

contexts.

Based on this analysis, six key challenges were

identiﬁed and are discussed below.

• Limited focus on the early stages of the soft-

ware life cycle: Most studies focus on develop-

ment and maintenance phases, neglecting early

stages like requirements elicitation and prototyp-

ing, which are crucial for deﬁning sustainable

strategies from the start.

• Fragmented adoption of sustainable best prac-

tices: Studies often apply one or two best prac-

tices in isolation, without considering integrated

approaches combining multiple green practices

across development.

• Limited attention to contextual and adaptive

practices: Best practices like adapting to device

contexts and monitoring real-time energy con-

sumption are rarely explored, even though they

are vital for reducing energy waste in dynamic

systems.

• Lack of standardization in terminology, appli-

cation, and measurement: The absence of uni-

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

117

form deﬁnitions and evaluation methods hinders

comparison and replication of studies, underscor-

ing the need for standardized terminology and

benchmarks.

• Shortage of longitudinal studies in real usage

environments: Most studies are conducted in

controlled environments, not reﬂecting real-world

energy behavior. Longitudinal studies are needed

to validate sustainable practices in realistic set-

tings.

• Lack of operational frameworks aligned with

organizational realities: There is a shortage

of practical models to incorporate sustainability

principles into software development processes,

particularly in agile and DevOps environments,

which hinders institutionalization.

These challenges emphasize the need for a com-

prehensive approach to sustainable software develop-

ment. Adopting best practices consistently across all

stages of the software life cycle, alongside applied re-

search, standardized metrics, and frameworks aligned

with organizational realities, will help integrate sus-

tainability into the development process.

5 INTEGRATING

SUSTAINABILITY INTO THE

REQUIREMENTS PHASE

One of the main gaps identiﬁed in the literature

concerns the limited attention given to incorporating

green software engineering practices during the early

stages of the software development life cycle. In par-

ticular, the requirements engineering phase, which is

responsible for capturing and specifying stakeholder

needs, is rarely explored as a space for integrating

sustainability concerns. This represents a missed op-

portunity, as many strategic decisions directly affect-

ing energy consumption and environmental impact

are deﬁned at this stage.

To address this gap, we propose a set of alterna-

tives to support the inclusion of sustainability from

the early stages of the software development process.

These alternatives are illustrated in Figure 3.

First, it is essential to treat sustainability as a non-

functional requirement (NFR) to be elicited, docu-

mented, and validated alongside performance, secu-

rity, and usability. This includes requirements such as

“the system shall minimize energy consumption dur-

ing idle states” or “the application shall allow the user

to select energy-saving modes.”

Second, adopting goal-oriented requirements en-

gineering (GORE) (Uysal, 2022) approaches can be

Figure 3: Strategies for Integrating Sustainability into the

Requirements Engineering Process.

helpful to model sustainability goals explicitly, link-

ing them to functional and technical decisions. Ap-

proaches such as i* (Cabot et al., 2009) and KAOS

(Zardari and Bahsoon, 2011) can support the rep-

resentation of trade-offs between sustainability ob-

jectives and other system goals, promoting more in-

formed decision-making in the early phases.

Third, using sustainability-aware personas and

scenarios during requirements elicitation can help

stakeholders consider the system’s broader environ-

mental impact. For example, specifying usage con-

texts with limited energy availability, such as mobile

or embedded systems in remote areas, can help antic-

ipate adaptation needs in the design phase.

Finally, integrating sustainability checklists and

quality models, such as ISO/IEC 25010 (Qiang et al.,

2024) extended with environmental attributes, into

the validation process can ensure that sustainability

is considered systematically. These practices can as-

sist development teams in identifying and prioritizing

green practices that are both feasible and aligned with

project goals and constraints.

6 CONCLUSIONS

Green Software Engineering (GSE) has emerged in

response to growing environmental concerns in the

software industry. As software systems become crit-

ical across sectors, integrating sustainability into de-

velopment is key for responsible digital transforma-

tion. This study explores whether sustainable prac-

tices are adopted in industry contexts and their appli-

cation throughout the software life cycle.

The analysis showed that while several promis-

ing initiatives exist, sustainability practices are still

limited and fragmented. Code optimization, feature

control, and refactoring are more commonly applied

during development and maintenance, while early

WEBIST 2025 - 21st International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies

118

stages like requirements elicitation and prototyping

are largely overlooked despite their potential impact

on sustainability decisions.

This study contributes by proposing alternatives

to integrate sustainability into the often-neglected

requirements elicitation phase, including treating

sustainability as a non-functional requirement, us-

ing goal-oriented modeling, sustainability-aware per-

sonas, and validation tools adapted to environmental

attributes.

The ﬁndings also reveal challenges, such as a lack

of context-aware approaches, limited standardization

of metrics and terminology, and a shortage of em-

pirical studies in real-world environments. There is

also a gap in practical frameworks for incorporating

sustainability into established development processes

like agile and DevOps, hindering the development of

a consistent knowledge base.

Future work should focus on creating adaptable

frameworks and tools to support sustainability across

all software development stages, alongside empirical

studies, standardized metrics, and improvements in

real-time energy monitoring techniques.

REFERENCES

Abur, V. (2024). The dimension of green coding in soft-

ware quality control processes. In 2024 9th Inter-

national Conference on Computer Science and Engi-

neering (UBMK), pages 1–6. IEEE.

Alvi, H. M., Majeed, H., Mujtaba, H., and Beg, M. O.

(2021). Mlee: Method level energy estimation—a ma-

chine learning approach. Sustainable Computing: In-

formatics and Systems, 32:100594.

Andrae, A. S. and Edler, T. (2015). On global electricity

usage of communication technology: trends to 2030.

Challenges, 6(1):117–157.

Andrikopoulos, V. and Lago, P. (2021). Software sustain-

ability in the age of everything as a service. Next-

Gen Digital Services. A Retrospective and Roadmap

for Service Computing of the Future: Essays Dedi-

cated to Michael Papazoglou on the Occasion of His

65th Birthday and His Retirement, pages 35–47.

Atadoga, A., Umoga, U. J., Lottu, O. A., and Sodiy, E.

(2024). Tools, techniques, and trends in sustain-

able software engineering: A critical review of cur-

rent practices and future directions. World Journal

of Advanced Engineering Technology and Sciences,

11(1):231–239.

Beghoura, M. A., Boubetra, A., and Boukerram, A. (2014).

Green applications awareness: nonlinear energy con-

sumption model for green evaluation. In 2014 Eighth

International Conference on Next Generation Mobile

Apps, Services and Technologies, pages 48–53. IEEE.

Belkhir, L. and Elmeligi, A. (2018). Assessing ict global

emissions footprint: Trends to 2040 & recommenda-

tions. Journal of cleaner production, 177:448–463.

Cabot, J., Easterbrook, S., Horkoff, J., Lessard, L., Liaskos,

S., and Maz

on, J.-N. (2009). Integrating sustainabil-

ity in decision-making processes: A modelling strat-

egy. In 2009 31st International Conference on Soft-

ware Engineering-Companion Volume, pages 207–

210. IEEE.

Calero, C. and Piattini, M. (2015). Introduction to green in

software engineering. Springer.

Chandrasekaran, S. and Subburaman, S. P. (2023). Green-

ing the digital frontier: A sustainable approach to soft-

ware solutions. International Journal of Science and

Research (IJSR), 12(3):1820–1823. Fully Refereed —

Open Access — Double Blind Peer Reviewed Journal.

Danushi, O., Forti, S., and Soldani, J. (2024). Envi-

ronmentally sustainable software design and develop-

ment: a systematic literature review. arXiv preprint

arXiv:2407.19901.

Ford, B. W. and Zong, Z. (2021). Portauthority: Inte-

grating energy efﬁciency analysis into cross-platform

development cycles via dynamic program analysis.

Sustainable Computing: Informatics and Systems,

30:100530.

Green Software Foundation (2021). 10 recommendations

for green software development. Acesso em: 30 mar.

2025.

Gupta, U., Kim, Y. G., Lee, S., Tse, J., Lee, H.-H. S., Wei,

G.-Y., Brooks, D., and Wu, C.-J. (2021). Chasing car-

bon: The elusive environmental footprint of comput-

ing. In 2021 IEEE International Symposium on High-

Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA), pages

854–867. IEEE.

Hindle, A. (2015). Green mining: a methodology of relating

software change and conﬁguration to power consump-

tion. Empirical Software Engineering, 20:374–409.

Ibrahim, S. R. A., Sallehudin, H., and Yahaya, J. (2023).

Exploring software development waste and lean ap-

proach in green perspective. In 2023 International

Conference on Electrical Engineering and Informat-

ics (ICEEI), pages 1–6. IEEE.

Jabbarvand, R., Sadeghi, A., Bagheri, H., and Malek, S.

(2016). Energy-aware test-suite minimization for an-

droid apps. In Proceedings of the 25th International

Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis, pages

425–436.

Khomh, F. and Abtahizadeh, S. A. (2018). Understanding

the impact of cloud patterns on performance and en-

ergy consumption. Journal of Systems and Software,

141:151–170.

Maia, D., Couto, M., Saraiva, J., and Pereira, R. (2020). E-

debitum: managing software energy debt. In Proceed-

ings of the 35th IEEE/ACM International Conference

on Automated Software Engineering, pages 170–177.

Mancebo, J., Calero, C., Garc

ıa, F., Moraga, M.

A., and

de Guzm

an, I. G.-R. (2021). Feetings: framework

for energy efﬁciency testing to improve environmental

goal of the software. Sustainable Computing: Infor-

matics and Systems, 30:100558.

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

119

Maryam, K., Sardaraz, M., and Tahir, M. (2018). Evolu-

tionary algorithms in cloud computing from the per-

spective of energy consumption: A review. In 2018

14th international conference on emerging technolo-

gies (ICET), pages 1–6. IEEE.

Matthew, U. O., Asuni, O., and Fatai, L. O. (2024). Green

software engineering development paradigm: An ap-

proach to a sustainable renewable energy future. In

Advancing Software Engineering Through AI, Feder-

ated Learning, and Large Language Models, pages

281–294. IGI Global.

Melfe, G., Fonseca, A., and Fernandes, J. P. (2018). Help-

ing developers write energy efﬁcient haskell through a

data-structure evaluation. In Proceedings of the 6th In-

ternational Workshop on Green and Sustainable Soft-

ware, pages 9–15.

Moreira, A., Lago, P., Heldal, R., Betz, S., Brooks, I.,

Capilla, R., Coroam

a, V. C., Duboc, L., Fernandes,

J. P., Leiﬂer, O., et al. (2024). A roadmap for inte-

grating sustainability into software engineering edu-

cation. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering

and Methodology.

Munoz, D.-J. (2017). Achieving energy efﬁciency using a

software product line approach. In Proceedings of the

21st International Systems and Software Product Line

Conference-Volume B, pages 131–138.

Munoz, D.-J., Pinto, M., and Fuentes, L. (2017). Green soft-

ware development and research with the hadas toolkit.

In Proceedings of the 11th European conference on

software architecture: companion proceedings, pages

205–211.

Nguyena, N. and Chitchyan, R. (2013). Systems re-design

for sustainability: Petshop case study.

Oyedeji, S., Adisa, M. O., Penzenstadler, B., and Wolf, A.

(2019). Validation study of a framework for sustain-

able software system design and development. sus-

tainable development, 3(4):5.

Patel, U. A., Patel, S., and Nanavati, J. (2024). Towards a

greener future: Harnessing green computing to reduce

ict carbon emissions. In 2024 7th International Con-

ference on Circuit Power and Computing Technolo-

gies (ICCPCT), volume 1, pages 960–969. IEEE.

Penzenstadler, B., Raturi, A., Richardson, D., and Tomlin-

son, B. (2014). Safety, security, now sustainability:

The nonfunctional requirement for the 21st century.

IEEE software, 31(3):40–47.

Procaccianti, G., Fern

andez, H., and Lago, P. (2016). Em-

pirical evaluation of two best practices for energy-

efﬁcient software development. Journal of Systems

and Software, 117:185–198.

Qiang, Y., Pa, N. C., et al. (2024). Sustainable software

solutions: A tool integrating life cycle analysis and

iso quality models. International Journal on Ad-

vanced Science, Engineering & Information Technol-

ogy, 14(5).

Raisian, K., Yahaya, J., and Deraman, A. (2017). Sustain-

able software development life cycle process model

based on capability maturity model integration: A

study in malaysia. Journal of Theoretical & Applied

Information Technology, 95(21).

Rocheteau, J., Gaillard, V., and Belhaj, L. (2014). How

green are java best coding practices? In International

Conference on Smart Grids and Green IT Systems,

volume 2, pages 235–246. SCITEPRESS.

Sahar, H., Bangash, A. A., and Beg, M. O. (2019). To-

wards energy aware object-oriented development of

android applications. Sustainable Computing: Infor-

matics and Systems, 21:28–46.

Sehgal, R., Mehrotra, D., Nagpal, R., and Sharma, R.

(2022). Green software: Refactoring approach. Jour-

nal of King Saud University-Computer and Informa-

tion Sciences, 34(7):4635–4643.

Te Brinke, S., Malakuti, S., Bockisch, C., Bergmans, L.,

and Aks¸it, M. (2013). A design method for modular

energy-aware software. In Proceedings of the 28th An-

nual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing, pages

1180–1182.

Turan, B. O. and S¸ahin, K. (2017). Responsive web design

and comparative analysis of development frameworks.

The Turkish Online J. Des. Art Commun, 7(1):110–

121.

Uysal, M. P. (2022). Goal-oriented requirements engineer-

ing approach to energy management systems. In In-

ternational Symposium on Energy Management and

Sustainability, pages 221–230. Springer.

van Gils, B. and Weigand, H. (2020). Towards sustainable

digital transformation. In 2020 IEEE 22nd conference

on business informatics (CBI), volume 1, pages 104–

113. IEEE.

Washizaki, H., editor (2024). Guide to the Software Engi-

neering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK Guide), Ver-

sion 4.0. IEEE Computer Society.

Zardari, S. and Bahsoon, R. (2011). Cloud adoption: a goal-

oriented requirements engineering approach. In Pro-

ceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Soft-

ware Engineering for Cloud Computing, pages 29–35.

Zhan, K., Lung, C.-H., and Srivastava, P. (2014). A green

analysis of mobile cloud computing applications. In

Proceedings of the 29th Annual ACM Symposium on

Applied Computing, pages 357–362.

WEBIST 2025 - 21st International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies

120