Practical Adoption of Green Coding: A Comparative Study Across Organizations in Finland and Globally

As the environmental impact of digital technologies gains increasing attention, green coding has emerged as a critical aspect of green software engineering. This study investigates the practical adoption of green coding practices in organizations in Finland and globally to understand how they approach green coding in their software-development workflow. This study adopts a qualitative research methodology, combining a systematic literature review and semi-structured interviews. Key findings indicate that while organizations adhere to academic-recommended coding practices such as caching, lazy loading, asynchronous processing, microservices, and content/UI optimization, industry prioritization often depends on business needs, with less emphasis on energy-efficient programming languages or priority in green coding, especially in organizations outside the EU. Interestingly, in larger organizations, such as banks, green coding initiatives are mostly driven from the bottom up and led by software engineers. This reflects a positive change. However, innovative academic proposals, such as large language model (LLM)-based assistants for recommending green libraries, remain prototypes without industrial adoption. While LLM-based assistants show potential in recommending greener libraries, their current energy demand raises questions about net sustainability. Future research should evaluate their carbon trade-offs to ensure these tools contribute positively to sustainability goals. This study underscores the need for closer collaboration between academia and industry to promote the practical adoption of effective tools, along with standardized guidelines and sustainability-oriented education, to enable the wider adoption of green coding practices.