Studying the Impact of User Feedback on Software Energy Consumption

With the rise in greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE), the need for sustainable solutions amid the environmental crisis is growing. Information and communication technologies (ICT) reduce emissions in other sectors, but they also have a rising carbon footprint and increased energy consumption. Our societies today rely on these technologies, and human needs and interactions are the main driving force behind their widespread use. Therefore, it is crucial to address the human role in energy consumption and carbon emission of ICT. Our work aims at raising end user awareness about ICT, and in particular about software, with an objective of reducing software energy through user behavior change. Motivated by a lack of user-centric approaches in energy feedback systems, we propose rigorous field experiments and surveys using persuasive technologies to optimize software energy consumption in ICT. We propose to first categorize feedback characteristics and audiences through a taxonomy. Then, we aim to study feedback impact on user awareness and software energy reduction through quantitative and qualitative field studies.