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Einen Sammelband in einer renommierten Buchreihe herauszugeben, ist heute eine Erfahrung der besonderen Art. Noch konsequenter als bei Zeitschriften werden alle Arbeiten mit Ausnahme des Marketings auf Herausgeber und niedrig qualifizierte Arbeitskrafte in Billiglohnlandern abgewalzt. Erfahrungsbericht eines Herausgebers.

The accelerating world-wide growth in demand for energy has led to the conceptualization of a “smart grid”, wherea variety of decentralized, intermittent, renewable energy sources (for example, wind, solar, and wave) would provide most or all of the power required by small-scale “micro-grids” servicing hundreds to thousands of consumers. Such a smart grid will require consumers to transition from passive to active participation in order to optimize the efficiency and effectiveness of the grid’s electrical capabilities.This paper presents a software stack comprised of two open source software systems, Makahiki and WattDepot, which together are designed to engage consumers in energy issues through a combination of education, real-time feedback, incentives, and game mechanics. We detail the novel features of Makahiki and WattDepot, along with our initial experiences using them to implement an energy challenge called the Kukui Cup. Satisfying the radically different requirements and operating assumptions of the next generation smart grid requires new kinds of software that enable research and experimentation into the ways that electrical energy production and consumption can be collected, analyzed, visualized, and provided to consumers. Since 2009, we have been designing, implementing, and evaluating an open source software "stack" to facilitate this research. This software stack consists of two custom systems called WattDepot and Makahiki, along with the open source components they rely upon (Java, Restlet, Postgres, Python, Django, Memcache). In this paper, we detail the novel features of WattDepot and Makahiki, our experiences using them for research and education, and additional ways they can be used for next generation energy research and education.

The two big fields of sustainability and Information andCommunication Technology (ICT) are Green IT (how can wemake ICT itself more sustainable) and Green by IT (how can weencourage sustainability by ICT). Taking a deeper look,software links these two areas: Regarding Green IT, there are alot of solutions to build and use hardware in a more energyefficient way. But the debate how energy-intensive softwaremight be is just beginning. In contrast, Green by IT is oftensoftware-based, e.g. by tools that help to optimize logistics andautomate processes to save energy. But until now there are noconsiderations about the energy saving potential of softwareitself. Therefore, it is useful to take a closer look at what greensoftware and green software engineering are. In our paper, wewill describe a reference model for green and sustainablesoftware, as well as its engineering and also give somedefinitions. Though, we will just give a short introduction of themodel itself and, to distinguish our work from our previousresearch, zoom in on the sub model “Sustainability Criteria forSoftware Products”. Additionally, we describe a model tomeasure the energy efficiency of software and give an exampleof measuring results in our contribution. The next step is toclearly differentiate from other measurement models to positionour approach within other efforts of software’s energyconsumption.

There is a growing consensus that ICT can contribute to the reduction of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, both by increasing the efficiency of existing processes and by enabling substitution effects to usher in more energy efficient patterns of production and consumption. While, however, many studies based on theoretical reduction potentials have been presented, in practice it has only been possible to cite a few examples of such reductions thus far. This article presents the results of a field experiment for one particular domain in which ICT can be substituted for more carbon-intensive technologies: using advanced videoconferencing technology to reduce intercontinental conference travel and thus travel-related GHG emissions. We organized a large resource management conference simultaneously on two continents and assessed the emissions caused by the attendees' travel and by the additional ICT equipment utilized to connect the two venues. We further assessed, based on a survey, the emissions in the alternative scenarios of holding the conference at either one of the places, and the satisfaction of the participants with the two-site conference format. The results show that reductions of 37% and 50% in travel-related GHG emissions were attained as compared to the single-site alternatives, although more people took part than in any of these alternatives. At the same time, the attendees' experience was clearly positive, showing that the multiple-site format can serve as an acceptable alternative to the traditional one-site format of holding an international conference.

As has been discussed for decades, a reduction of the input of natural resources into industrial production and consumption by a factor of 4-10 is a necessary condition for Sustainable Development. This paper discusses the potential contribution of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to such a dematerialization of the industrial societies and introduces a conceptual framework which accounts for positive and negative impacts of ICT on physical flows. This framework addresses three levels: the ICT life cycle itself, life cycles of other products influenced by ICT applications, and patterns of production and consumption. The conclusion is that ICT will only contribute to Sustainable Development if this technology is recognized and used as an enabler of a deep structural change; a transition towards an economic system in which value-creation is mainly based on information processing while keeping the physical properties of material within some limits that ensure that it can be recycled. This structural change will include the transition from a material-property-transfer mode to a service-transfer mode of consumption in areas where this is technically feasible and beneficial in terms of resource productivity. In such a post-industrial society, which may also be called a sustainable information society, open technological standards will play a crucial role, since they allow for complexity reduction while keeping competition alive, thus minimizing the risk of unmastered complexity in new critical infrastructures.

The Environmental Informatics community could recently celebrate its 20th anniversary [Tochtermann et al. 2006; Hilty et al. 2006a]. The application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to problems of environmental research and management has made considerable progress and contributes to sustainable development [Hilty et al. 2004a]. Moreover, ICT has the potential to virtualize processes that would otherwise consume considerable amounts of material and energy; virtual meetings, for instance, could avoid 97–98% of the CO2 emissions of physical meetings [Hischier and Hilty 2002].

(Beitrag in CD-ROM)