At Thrive 2050, we are building a Digital Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (dMRV) tool to support vital nature-based projects in peatland, forestry, and agriculture. Our core mission is to empower effective climate action by providing accurate and scalable technology for these projects.
As we develop digital solutions to help in the fight against climate change, we have been troubled by a question: What if the software we are building is part of the problem?
Global digital infrastructure consumes significant resources, which contributes to the pressure on the planet’s critical global processes. This is a challenge — IT now contributes as much CO2 globally as the Aviation sector does. But it is also an opportunity for direct action. We believe that the software we are building to help solve climate problems must also minimise its own environmental impact.
Thrive 2050 and Green Software
We have adopted the practices and principles of Green Software within the Thrive 2050 dMRV platform.
Green Software by Design: Efficiency is intrinsically linked to sustainability. By minimising computational load, we use less energy, water, and other resources and achieve a smaller environmental footprint. This aligns nicely with one of the main concerns of any business, but especially a startup like ours, - cost. If we can achieve the same result with less resources then this directly translates to lower costs for our company.
Green Software in Practice: Employing strategies like serverless architectures, responsible AI usage, and Minimal Viable Data (MVD) helps us to maintain this efficiency while also limiting complexity within the platform. Less is more.
Spreading the word: The green software movement is growing but it is still in the early stages of this growth. We recognise that to achieve the potential impact of these principles and practises then they must be shared across our industry. We haven’t just adopted these practices - we are spreading the word about this approach and the impact it can have on sustainability. In 2024 we founded the Green Software Ireland community with the goal of creating a national hub for sustainable software development.
Thrive 2050 and Green Software Ireland (GSI)
Our role within the community is to actively sponsor the community’s activities through organising meetups and developing resources. This is a direct extension of our commitment to enabling effective climate action through technology. The potential impact of many organisations adopting green software principles and practices can affect real change.
Our community has grown to over 400 members. You can join the community on our Meetup page at https://www.meetup.com/green_software_ireland/ and on Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/company/green-software-ireland. The target audience is broad and inclusive. Green Software Ireland is for everyone who interacts with digital technology. This includes engineers, architects, product design and management, leadership and anyone interested in sustainability and the environment.
Initially all our meetups were virtual events which enabled us to reach people across the world with an interest in green software. Since July of this year (2025) we have been joined by Toast who provide co-sponsorship of the community and a venue in central Dublin.
Some examples of recent talks at our events are:
- The Responsible AI Product Mindset: Driving Value Through Data Minimisation
Adriana Ignat, an ex-Google Product Management executive and founder of VEKT AI, will challenge the “more data is always better” assumption for AI. She’ll introduce mindsets and frameworks for Product Managers and engineers to define the minimum viable data set (MVD) required to achieve a product’s core value. Learn how excessive data is a security, compliance, and massive environmental liability, and how to successfully guide your teams toward building more responsible and sustainable AI.
- Green Product Thinking
Leah Schwarz and Niall Hunt from Toast presented - When talking about green software, we often focus on reducing energy spend and carbon impact. But what if we’re missing the environmental impact that comes from the products we build? This talk will demonstrate how integrating sustainable features into existing products, like Toast’s Food Waste Tracker and Packaging Preferences tools, can help customers adopt greener habits at scale.
- Quantifying the Public Health Impact of Data Centres in Ireland
Conor Muldoon and Michael Bane presented.
- Scaling the sustainable software engineering mindset
Karl Kyck and Alan Carolan presented.
Goals and Next Steps
The overarching goal of our community is to make sustainable software practices the default - because green software is good software.
We hold regular events and invite you to join the conversation and contribute your expertise.
To stay up to date with all the latest info and news you can join our Linkedin group at https://www.linkedin.com/company/green-software-ireland
You can also follow us on Meetup where all events are posted - https://www.meetup.com/green_software_ireland/
We believe that when technology is built with environmental sustainability at its core, it is a powerful tool in the fight against climate change. Join us in building a greener digital future.