ITCC’s Irene Kitsara, European Standardization Initiatives Director at IEEE, gave welcome remarks at the first EcoCompute 2024 Conference in Munich, Germany on 25-26 April 2024. The event was the occasion to connect with the green ICT community and representatives of software developers, sustainability engineers, open source and hardware representatives to discuss the current issue of energy and resource consumption of digital infrastructures. ITCC highlighted on this occasion IEEE upcoming standardization work in the field of AI environmental impact assessment.
ITCC, as the event’s Silver Sponsor, answered a few questions prior to the event:
How is ITCC positioned in terms of hardware and software sustainability?
ITCC, based in the IEEE Global Office in Vienna, Austria, supports partnerships with leading institutions to advance pragmatic technical approaches and solutions to climate change—and to drive global innovation through targeted collaboration and knowledge sharing. Through our initiatives, we provide neutral and practical expertise for institutions as they explore and implement technology to address climate change. ITCC facilitates the exchange and foster collaboration among people working at the intersection of sustainability and technology. Our work in recent months has been to look at several themes in the green digital transformation. We recently organized a series of 6 webinars on these themes to see how technology can be both a contributor to fighting climate change, but also acknowledge its own impact on the planet.
What is ITCC’s match with EcoCompute?
At IEEE there are several initiatives in sustainable computing, for instance the work done by IEEE Young Professionals Climate and Sustainability Task Force which recently organized an event on Sustainable Computing. In addition, the IEEE Computer Society and the IEEE Power & Energy Society both have programmes that contribute to advancement in the area. Moreover, there is work within the IEEE Standards Association | IEEE SA including the work of the IEEE Communication Society Green ICT Standards Committee (GreenICT-SC) and the Sustainability for Connectivity and Telecom Systems Industry Connection.
What would you like to communicate to the EcoCompute community?
ITCC was launched mid-2023 as a bridge between the technical community and leading organizations working at the nexus of technology and sustainability. Individuals and organizations can cooperate and engage with us through our ‘Engage with Us’ page. We are especially looking to partner with organizations to advance the development of standards or organize events where issues such as the impact of technology on climate can be discussed and actions/guidelines can be drafted to address current gaps that may exist. Individuals can join communities of practice in IEEE or contribute to our website, sharing their expertise and ideas on sustainability and technology through our blog platform.
Read more about the EcoCompute 2024 Conference.