Salesforce has launched the groundbreaking ‘Green Code’ initiative during its World Tour NYC event. ‘Green Code’ represents a concerted effort to mitigate the carbon footprint associated with the software development process and promote sustainability within the tech industry.
The IT sector is responsible for up to 3.9% of global greenhouse gas emissions, a figure almost on par with the emissions produced by the airline and shipping industries. With organizations increasingly relying on software to drive their operations and digital transformations, these emissions are projected to rise significantly.
Fortunately, small adjustments in software development can result in substantial reductions in a company’s carbon footprint and its operating costs. For instance, Salesforce’s MuleSoft achieved a 14% decrease in its yearly public cloud infrastructure spending by optimizing strategies such as identifying and decommissioning underutilized systems and migrating storage to more energy-efficient alternatives. According to recent Salesforce research, 75% of technologists aspire to develop software applications that have a lesser impact on the environment.
The ‘Sustainability Guide for Salesforce Technology’ provides practical advice for eco-friendly app design and code writing. In Design & UX, designers are encouraged to prioritize sustainability, aiming for quicker user experiences and streamlined data flows. Architecture decisions, including the selection of deployment models, can lead to cost savings and reduced environmental impact, with the use of reusable APIs aiding in code efficiency.
Sustainable code development is highlighted as essential, as energy-efficient software code can significantly cut emissions, particularly at scale, with Salesforce Lightning apps offering up to a 60% performance boost while consuming less energy. Furthermore, effective carbon emissions reduction can be achieved through strategic capacity placement and workload scheduling, supported by innovations like Hyperforce, a public cloud infrastructure built on 100% renewable energy, providing sustainability and enhanced functionality to customers.
Salesforce’s ‘Green Code’ initiative underscores the company’s dedication to sustainable IT practices, especially in reducing carbon emissions from its data center infrastructure. This commitment aligns with its Climate Action Plan, which targets a significant reduction in its carbon footprint. To track its progress, Salesforce has introduced a metric called Carbon to Serve, which measures the emissions of its data centers relative to the work performed by its applications. Since establishing this metric in 2020, Salesforce has achieved a 26% reduction in emissions and remains committed to further reducing its carbon footprint in the future.