Carbon Aware SDK

A toolkit for building carbon-aware applications.

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Overview

The Carbon Aware SDK is an open-source project from the Green Software Foundation. It's a WebAPI and command-line tool that allows developers to fetch and use grid carbon intensity data from various providers. This enables the creation of 'carbon-aware' applications that can intelligently shift workloads to times or regions where the electricity grid is powered by more renewable sources, thus reducing emissions.

✨ Key Features

  • Provides a standardized WebAPI to query carbon intensity data
  • Supports multiple data sources (e.g., WattTime, Electricity Maps)
  • Calculates the best time window or location to run a workload for lowest emissions
  • Command Line Interface (CLI) for easy scripting and integration
  • Enables 'load shifting' and 'location shifting' of compute workloads

🎯 Key Differentiators

  • Open-source and vendor-neutral
  • Standardizes access to multiple carbon intensity data providers
  • Focuses on actionable reduction, not just measurement

Unique Value: Provides developers with the tools to actively reduce software emissions by aligning compute workloads with the availability of renewable energy on the grid.

🎯 Use Cases (4)

Scheduling batch jobs to run during times of low carbon intensity Deploying containerized workloads to regions with cleaner energy grids Building carbon-aware AI model training pipelines Powering carbon-aware features in user-facing applications

✅ Best For

  • Integrating into Kubernetes schedulers to make pod placement carbon-aware
  • Delaying non-critical batch processing until the grid is cleaner

💡 Check With Vendor

Verify these considerations match your specific requirements:

  • Latency-sensitive applications that cannot be time-shifted
  • Carbon footprint measurement and reporting (it's for reduction)

🏆 Alternatives

Proprietary implementations by cloud providers

As an open-source standard, it prevents vendor lock-in and promotes a common, community-driven approach to building carbon-aware software.

💻 Platforms

API Desktop (CLI)

🔌 Integrations

WattTime API Electricity Maps API Kubernetes (via schedulers) CI/CD pipelines

💰 Pricing

Contact for pricing
Free Tier Available

Free tier: The SDK is free and open-source. Data provider APIs may have their own costs.

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