How do companies manage the environmental sustainability of AI? An interview study about green AI efforts and regulations
Tue 10 Jun 2025 11:00 - 11:30 at ALE E1.18 - Research Papers Block 1 - Tuesday
Tue 10 Jun 2025 11:30 - 12:00 at ALE E1.18 - Research Papers Block 1 - Tuesday
Tue 10 Jun 2025 16:45 - 17:15 at ALE H1.49 - Remote Paper Session 1b - Tuesday
With the ever-growing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), AI-based software and its negative impact on the environment are no longer negligible, and studying and mitigating this impact has become a critical area of research. However, it is currently unclear which role environmental sustainability plays during AI adoption in industry and how AI regulations influence Green AI practices and decision-making in industry. We therefore aim to investigate the Green AI perception and management of industry practitioners. To this end, we conducted a total of 11 interviews with participants from 10 different organizations that adopted AI-based software. The interviews explored three main themes: AI adoption, current efforts in mitigating the negative environmental impact of AI, and the influence of the EU AI Act and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Our findings indicate that 9 of 11 participants prioritized business efficiency during AI adoption, with minimal consideration of environmental sustainability. Monitoring and mitigation of AI’s environmental impact were very limited. Only one participant monitored negative environmental effects. Regarding applied mitigation practices, six participants reported no actions, with the others sporadically mentioning techniques like prompt engineering, relying on smaller models, or not overusing AI. Awareness and compliance with the EU AI Act are low, with only one participant reporting on its influence, while the CSRD drove sustainability reporting efforts primarily in larger companies. All in all, our findings reflect a lack of urgency and priority for sustainable AI among these companies. We suggest that current regulations are not very effective, which has implications for policymakers. Additionally, there is a need to raise industry awareness, but also to provide user-friendly techniques and tools for Green AI practices.
Tue 10 JunDisplayed time zone: Dublin change
16:45 - 17:15 | |||
16:45 30mResearch paper | Evaluating the Energy Profile of Tasks Managed by Build Automation Tools in Continuous Integration Workflows. The Case of Apache Maven and Gradle Research Papers A: Sergio Queiroz de Medeiros Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, A: Romain Lefeuvre University of Rennes, A: Quentin Perez INSA Rennes, A: Benoit Combemale University of Rennes, Inria, CNRS, IRISA | ||
16:45 30mResearch paper | Container-Level Energy Observability in Kubernetes Clusters Research Papers A: Bjorn Pijnacker , A: Brian Setz University of Groningen, A: Vasilios Andrikopoulos University of Groningen | ||
16:45 30mResearch paper | How do companies manage the environmental sustainability of AI? An interview study about green AI efforts and regulations Research Papers Ashmita Sampatsing , Sophie Vos , Emma Beauxis Aussalet , Justus Bogner Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Pre-print | ||
This room will be in use throughout the week for:
- Workshops on Monday and Friday
- Research Papers on Tuesday to Thursday
For the research paper sessions, there will be five tables, with a paper at each table. The author will have 30 minutes to discuss the paper with the group at each table, and will repeat this three times in the 90 minute paper session.
This room will be in use throughout the week for:
- Workshops on Monday and Friday
- Research Papers on Tuesday to Thursday
For the research paper sessions, there will be five tables, with a paper at each table. The author will have 30 minutes to discuss the paper with the group at each table, and will repeat this three times in the 90 minute paper session.
This room will be in use throughout the week for:
- Workshops on Monday and Friday
- Research Papers on Tuesday to Thursday
For the research paper sessions, there will be five tables, with a paper at each table. The author will have 30 minutes to discuss the paper with the group at each table, and will repeat this three times in the 90 minute paper session.
This room will be in use throughout the week for:
- Workshops on Monday and Friday
- Research Papers on Tuesday to Thursday
For the research paper sessions, there will be five tables, with a paper at each table. The author will have 30 minutes to discuss the paper with the group at each table, and will repeat this three times in the 90 minute paper session.
For the parallel paper video presentations, there will be 3 hybrid tables, with a paper at each table. The author will have 30 minutes to discuss the paper with the group at each table, and will repeat this three times in the 90 minute session.