Carbonara: Carbon Tracker for Software Development

The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector is one of the largest CO2 emission causers, currently responsible for approximately 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions - equivalent to the entire aviation industry. This figure continues to grow as our digital transformation accelerates, with projections suggesting it could reach up to 14% by 2040.

Therefore, it is obligatory in the climate crisis to incorporate energy saving into software engineering.

The Challenge: Assessment Comes Too Late

While exact CO2 estimation for IT remains an unsolved challenge, a range of tools exist that can give hints about carbon emissions. But they all have one fundamental problem: They only come later in the software life cycle, when it is often too late to make substantial changes.

Most existing carbon assessment tools operate at the infrastructure or deployment level, providing feedback only after architectural decisions have been made and code has been written. By this point, the most impactful opportunities for emissions reduction have already passed.

Enter Carbonara: Early-Stage Carbon Assessment

This is where Carbonara comes to play: A developer tool, integrating in the most common code editors and CI pipelines to not only provide assessment of potential carbon emissions of architectural decisions, but also practical guidance on how to reduce them.

Carbonara shifts carbon assessment left in the development lifecycle, enabling:

• Real-time feedback during coding and architectural decisions
• Integration with popular IDEs and development workflows
• CI/CD pipeline integration for continuous carbon tracking
• Actionable recommendations tailored to your specific codebase
• Team collaboration features for shared sustainability goals

Community-Driven & Open Source

We are excited to have been funded by BMBF and Prototype Fund, supported by Open Knowledge Foundation Deutschland (OKFN). This funding allows us to develop Carbonara as a truly open and accessible tool for the entire software development community.

Our project is open for anyone who wants to join us, as:

• Data providers - help us build comprehensive emissions databases
• Assessment tool developers - contribute measurement methodologies
• Software engineers - integrate and improve the core platform
• UX designers - make carbon tracking intuitive and actionable
• Domain experts - bring knowledge from climate science and sustainability
• Developer-testers - help us validate and improve the tools

Getting Started

We’re in the early stages of building Carbonara and looking for collaborators, testers, and supporters to help shape the future of sustainable software development.

Want to stay updated or get involved? Here’s how:

1. Get in Touch: Reach out to us through our contact form to stay posted on progress
2. Join the Discussion: Share your ideas about carbon tracking in software development
3. Become an Early Collaborator: Help us define requirements and test early prototypes
4. Spread the Word: Tell your network about the importance of sustainable software engineering

“The best time to start thinking about carbon emissions is during the design phase, not after deployment.” — Climate Tech Researcher

Join the Movement

Software has the power to either accelerate or help solve the climate crisis. With tools like Carbonara, we can ensure it’s the latter.

Ready to join us? We’d love to hear from you - whether you’re a developer, designer, climate expert, or just someone who cares about sustainable tech.

Want to contribute? Drop us a line and let us know your background and how you’d like to help build the future of sustainable software development.