FUTURED. ZAL Magazin 2025

ZAL GMBH
GreenCode helps lower power
usage from inefficient software.
14
GREENCODE VS.
POWER-HUNGRY
SOFTWARE
CONTACT
Dr. Johannes Passand
johannes.passand@zal.aero
Software is an often-overlooked climate
factor: the rising energy consumption of inefficient
applications is increasingly seen as
a contributor to global emissions. Project
GreenCode aims to change this: a framework
designed to help developers make
their code more sustainable.
Software drives many modern devices – from
controlling a simple coffee machine to processing
complex data in industrial applications. The
requirements for software are diverse: security,
performance, scalability and reliability. However,
one aspect often falls by the wayside: energy-efficient
programming. Under pressure of tight
deadlines, energy consumption is often overlooked.
But careless programming can result in
unnecessary loops and memory operations,
overloading the device. Switching to a more efficient
programming language alone can reduce
energy consumption by up to 70 percent.
A TOOL FOR EFFICIENCY CHECKS
With ambitious sustainability goals and the
growing use of energy-hungry AI models, this
issue is now coming into sharper focus. A study