Sustain Open Source, sustain the planet: A new conversation
Open Source software powers progress, but its environmental footprint remains largely unexplored.
Since 2017, SustainOSS has been a community of people who think about what we can do to make Open Source software more sustainable. We’ve talked about making better ways of compensating coders, building better communities and welcoming more diverse voices into the Open Source ecosystem.
Many of these conversations have taken place on the Sustain Podcast. However, almost none of these conversations have been about the intersection of open source and environmental sustainability.
It’s all over the news that software energy consumption is bad for the climate. What’s rarely talked about, though, is how the software enables climate science and sustainable technology, especially when it’s Open Source. It’s the glue that brings together scientists from all disciplines—biosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere—to create the highly complex collaborative earth and climate models that allow us to forecast what our future might look like if we continue to behave as we have in the past.
This is why we created the OSS for Climate podcast. It’s a new initiative from the Sustain ecosystem hosted by Richard Littauer, the main host for the Sustain Podcast, who has recorded hundreds of conversations on this topic.
This podcast, a collaboration with OpenSustain.tech, a free community accelerating open and sustainable technology, aims to bridge the gap in discussions about how Open Source can be a key driver for climate action and sustainability.
Shining a light on those who take action
OSS for Climate highlights individuals and projects, aiming to provide support in terms of funding, sustainability, and onboarding new contributors. It will explore the systematic changes Open Source can provide for climate action, addressing issues of transparency and trust, and emphasizing the critical role open source plays in our efforts to combat climate change.
We need a place to give a voice to the people behind the projects, to better understand their needs and perspectives on how open source can accelerate action on the climate crisis. Our first study, The Open Source Sustainability Ecosystem, showed us that such interviews are essential to understanding the very nature of open software’s impact in this area. Seeing the clear connections in our research, we decided to extend its reach by creating a podcast, making the interviews accessible to a wider audience.
Driven by this belief in the synergy between Open Source and climate action, we launched the Open Source Software for Climate podcast, asking Richard Littauer to host. His expertise makes him the perfect guide as we explore how a thriving Open Source ecosystem can, in turn, sustain the natural environment we all share. His qualifications for hosting this podcast are unmatched. An Open Source wizard, community builder, and soon-to-be Ph.D. ecologist with a passion for birding, he’s already interviewed over 300 key figures in the Open Source community.
Comprehensive coverage
On OpenSustain.tech we’ve listed around 1,400 projects with an active community. Almost all of them are relevant to climate change. Even if you just look at climate models, the amount of software needed to make good predictions is significant.
If you include everything that affects the climate, everything that is affected by the climate and all the technologies needed to adapt to and combat climate change, you end up with a significant number of projects. Some of these are massive projects that are used by tens of thousands of developers; others are dependencies, part of the digital infrastructure that underpins our shared world.
Involving diverse stakeholders
Solving a global problem such as climate change requires global collaboration between different fields, making Open Source the most relevant methodology for combining knowledge and skills.
This includes not only scientists, but likewise entrepreneurs, activists, politicians and citizens who are empowered by Open Source to participate in the implementation of solutions. We want to know how Open Source can change the spread of climate solutions in the world, how climate justice can be archived by enabling access to technology and knowledge for those who are most vulnerable and affected.
How to get involved
Our mission is to promote and support the entire Open Source community in the area of climate and sustainability. To do this, we combined data science based on Open Source analytics and data mining with ecosyste.ms to discover not just those who are the loudest, but the people who are making significant contributions in the background.
Stay tuned for insightful episodes that bring to light the important work being done at the intersection of Open Source and climate action. Listen to OSS for Climate for a deeper understanding of how Open Source software can contribute to a sustainable future.
Feeling inspired and ready to join the mission? We’d love to hear from you. If you know of a remarkable person or project we should feature, reach out directly to Richard Littauer or connect with the OpenSustain.tech community on Mastodon.
