Studio Ab Ovo - Edwin Visser - Platform Development Manager at Ab Ovo - about Sustainable or Green IT

What does sustainable IT really mean? And how much impact does software have on global carbon emissions?

In this episode of Studio Ab Ovo, Martijn Meerman talks with Edwin Visser, Platform Development Manager at Ab Ovo, about the hidden environmental impact of IT infrastructure, software development, cloud computing, and AI.

The conversation goes far beyond the obvious image of energy-hungry data centers. Edwin explains how carbon emissions are already created during the manufacturing and transport of hardware, why the location of data centers matters, and how programming languages themselves can dramatically influence energy consumption.

One of the most surprising insights? The same software can require up to 70 times more energy depending on the coding language used.

Together they explore:

• Why the IT sector already produces emissions comparable to the aviation industry
• The concept of “embodied carbon” in hardware
• How operational efficiency can reduce emissions by a factor of ten
• Why efficient software architecture matters more than ever
• How Ab Ovo’s Eco Logic Platform generates optimized C code for greener software
• The hidden energy waste of “zombie workloads”
• Why simply turning systems off can have a massive impact
• How measuring energy use on a function level helps optimize applications
• The relationship between AI growth and rising energy demand

Edwin also shares practical examples from real customer environments, including how one configuration change reduced CPU usage by 90% for a single process running 86,000 times per day.

This episode offers an eye-opening look into the future of sustainable software engineering and shows how architecture, design and code can play a crucial role in reducing carbon emissions worldwide.

If you work in IT, software development, cloud infrastructure, sustainability, or digital transformation, this conversation will change the way you think about technology.

🎧 Listen now and discover how greener software starts with smarter choices.

#SustainableIT #GreenIT #SoftwareDevelopment #AI #DataCenters #CloudComputing #CarbonReduction #AbOvo #EcoLogicPlatform #TechInnovation #DigitalTransformation #SoftwareArchitecture #EnergyEfficiency

Our mission is to improve the operational processes, to support the sustainability targets, and enhance the profitability of our customers with more efficient resource usage and streamlined processes.

We do this because we care.

We thrive in complexity. We embrace innovative, business-minded thinking and cherish devotion and passion. The perfect combination of talented colleagues, strong industry ties & eagerness to create eco-friendly solutions.

Always Hands-On

We take a no-nonsense, down-to-earth approach to tackling challenges by rolling up our sleeves. We go the extra mile to deliver high quality results that provide the most value to our customers.

Always Together

We believe in better together – with our customers and with our teams. By bringing people, processes, and data together we create mutual benefits that have an impact on our customers and society. 

www.ab-ovo.com
https://www.linkedin.com/company/ab-ovo/

Transcript

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MARTIJN MEERMAN 0:03
 Hi there, welcome viewers and listeners today in another podcast of Studio Ab Ovo. Today with Edwin Visser, the Platform Development Manager.

EDWIN VISSER 0:18
 My role within Ab Ovo is that I’m responsible for all our R&D developments and the continuous improvements of our development platform, the Eco Logic Platform.

MARTIJN MEERMAN 0:33
 Today we’re not just talking about technical improvements, but also what they imply for sustainability.

EDWIN VISSER 0:40
 At Ab Ovo we have a huge focus on sustainability and green IT. Today I wanted to talk about how IT itself can be made greener and more sustainable, but also where the carbon emissions from IT are actually coming from. Why is IT contributing so much to global carbon emissions?

MARTIJN MEERMAN 1:09
 So beyond the obvious — not just what you see, but also everything happening behind the scenes.

EDWIN VISSER 1:15
 Exactly. It’s a big chain, and every step along the way creates carbon emissions. Two years ago already, the IT sector was responsible for roughly four percent of all carbon emissions worldwide.

MARTIJN MEERMAN 1:39
 Wow.

EDWIN VISSER 1:40
 That puts it in the same league as the aviation industry. With the rise of AI models and large language models like ChatGPT, Claude and Mistral, that number has increased even more in the last two years and will likely continue to grow. Thinking about environmentally friendly software solutions is becoming more pressing, and that’s why we at Ab Ovo are working on it.

MARTIJN MEERMAN 2:17
 So it’s not just software, but also the hardware side and everything beyond that.

EDWIN VISSER 2:23
 Exactly. When we look at carbon emissions from IT, the first thing people think about is data centers using huge amounts of energy. But carbon emissions start even before a server reaches a data center. Manufacturing and transporting servers already creates carbon. That’s what we call embodied carbon.

MARTIJN MEERMAN 2:59
 Carbon embodied in the hardware itself.

EDWIN VISSER 3:01
 Yes. Every product has a carbon footprint from manufacturing alone — phones, cars, servers, everything. In some products, embodied carbon is even higher than the emissions from using the product. For example, with the iPhone 14, around 80% of all emissions during its lifespan come from manufacturing, shipping and delivery. Only 20% comes from actually using it.

MARTIJN MEERMAN 3:21
 So the physical part is incredibly important.

EDWIN VISSER 3:22
 It is. The same applies to IT infrastructure. Extending the lifespan of servers, laptops and devices significantly reduces their carbon footprint. Instead of replacing employee laptops every four years, why not after five or six?

MARTIJN MEERMAN 5:03
 Software development also plays a role, because applications keep getting heavier, requiring more powerful laptops and phones.

EDWIN VISSER 5:39
 That’s true. Cloud software shifts the processing to data centers, which increases demand for larger data centers. But we’re also seeing regulations and public pressure pushing manufacturers to support devices for longer periods. Operating systems are now supported longer than before.

MARTIJN MEERMAN 6:18
 Okay.

EDWIN VISSER 6:18
 At the same time, the number of data centers is growing rapidly because of cloud demand. The energy usage of those data centers creates more emissions. Data centers consume electricity not only for computation, but also for cooling the hardware.

MARTIJN MEERMAN 7:27
 Would it be more efficient to build data centers in colder places like Scandinavia?

EDWIN VISSER 7:40
 For cooling, yes, colder climates help. But it also depends on the source of electricity. A data center in Africa powered by solar energy could still have lower emissions. One important metric is the Power Usage Effectiveness, or PUE, which measures how efficiently a data center uses energy.

Another important factor is carbon intensity: the amount of carbon emitted per kilowatt hour. Norway, for example, has very low carbon intensity because of renewable energy. The Netherlands has roughly ten times higher carbon intensity.

MARTIJN MEERMAN 10:16
 So choosing the location of your data center can drastically change the carbon footprint of your software.

EDWIN VISSER 10:32
 Exactly. Operational efficiency means making smart choices about locations, hardware lifespan and infrastructure. That alone can reduce carbon emissions by a factor of ten.

MARTIJN MEERMAN 12:34
 That’s already a massive impact.

EDWIN VISSER 12:49
 It is. But we took it a step further at Ab Ovo. Data centers only exist because software runs on them. So we asked ourselves: can we make software itself more energy efficient?

MARTIJN MEERMAN 13:48
 So efficient software needs less power to achieve the same result.

EDWIN VISSER 13:59
 Exactly. Even the programming language itself matters. At Ab Ovo we generate optimized C code because C is among the most energy-efficient programming languages available.

MARTIJN MEERMAN 14:46
 Efficient in the sense that the computer needs fewer resources to perform the task.

EDWIN VISSER 15:01
 Correct. C originated at a time when hardware was expensive and scarce, so efficiency was critical. Modern languages are easier for humans to read and faster to develop in, but they require extra translation layers before the computer can execute them. That means the chip has to work harder.

There’s a factor of 70 to 80 difference in energy efficiency between C and Python. The same software can require up to 70 times more energy depending on the language used.

MARTIJN MEERMAN 18:51
 So software became easier for developers, but much heavier for hardware.

EDWIN VISSER 19:24
 Exactly. That made sense when hardware and energy were abundant. But now sustainability matters. With our Eco Logic Platform, we combine the efficiency of C with modern development methods. We generate optimized C code automatically, allowing developers to work efficiently while still delivering highly energy-efficient software.

MARTIJN MEERMAN 20:45
 That’s incredible.

EDWIN VISSER 20:46
 By combining operational efficiency and software efficiency, you can reduce carbon emissions up to a thousandfold.

MARTIJN MEERMAN 21:07
 That’s huge, especially with current energy costs.

EDWIN VISSER 21:32
 Exactly. And we also built measurement systems into our platform. We can measure energy consumption on a function level, every button click, every process, every interface call.

MARTIJN MEERMAN 25:51
 So you can identify hotspots in the software.

EDWIN VISSER 26:09
 Exactly. Sometimes improvements come from code optimization, but sometimes from changing configuration or user behavior. For one customer, a function was running 86,000 times per day unnecessarily. By reconfiguring it, we reduced CPU usage for that function by 90%.

MARTIJN MEERMAN 28:27
 That’s an enormous reduction.

EDWIN VISSER 28:35
 One of the biggest opportunities is simply turning things off. We call it “light switch ops.” Just like turning off lights at home, many business applications and servers continue running 24/7 even when nobody uses them.

At Ab Ovo, we reversed that mindset. By default, environments are turned off unless someone explicitly needs them running. That reduced processing significantly and even postponed the need to buy new servers.

MARTIJN MEERMAN 34:07
 That’s really eye-opening.

EDWIN VISSER 34:31
 The core message is simple: architecture, design and code matter. Reduce embodied carbon by using hardware longer. Choose your data center locations wisely. And optimize the efficiency of your software itself. That’s how you reduce carbon emissions in IT.

MARTIJN MEERMAN 35:18
 Thank you very much.