November of last year, OVO Energy sponsored a study finding that “If every Brit sent one less thank you email a day, we would save 16,433 tonnes of carbon a year — the same as 81,152 flights [from the UK] to Madrid.”

How could sending fewer emails have anything to do with greenhouse gas emissions? As it turns out, the two are connected.

When humanity wastefully runs software and web services, hardware fights to keep up. In time, equipment sucks electricity and eventually wears out.

The Guardian noted:

Almost everything we do online increases our carbon footprint. As a perverse example, Antivirus Company [McAfee] reports that the electricity needed just to transmit the trillions of spam e-mails sent every year is equivalent to powering two million homes in the United States and generates the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions as that produced by three million cars.

But waste extends more than just to consumer “overuse.” Software engineers recognize that good code not only relieves stress on hardware and power generation — it actually further enables programmers to implement more efficient solutions.

What is “Good” or “Proper” Code?

For starters, good or proper code works. In the short term, this standard may seem like stating the obvious.

From a long-term perspective, good code works as expected at all times.

Rushed code appears to work in initial testing and fails to compute when a new variable comes into play.

Proper code is also easy to maintain and reuse. When proper code exists, the next generation of software engineers can quickly troubleshoot and upgrade code for more eco-friendly processing.

Five Reasons Why Writing Proper Code Matters

Proper code is a benefit that few notice. In contrast, even non-programmers will notice the effects of bad code. Here are five ways the absence of proper code deteriorates our overall quality of life.

#1: Bad code runs servers and hardware more than necessary.

Just because the Internet has saved our personal computers some general wear and tear doesn’t mean that servers aren’t paying the price.

Good code powering web services and the Cloud ensure that servers last longer and run more efficiently. Bad code does just the opposite.

#coding #environment #programming #sustainable-development #sustainability #code #carbon-footprint #open-source