GreenDIGIT: Make Digital Infrastructures Greener

Green Numbers instead of Grey Emissions

Digital technologies already account for 3–4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, with a rising trend. In particular, data centers and networks consume large amounts of energy, while data-intensive processes further increase the importance of research infrastructures (RIs). This parallel development makes sustainable solutions urgently necessary. GreenDIGIT addresses this challenge by pursuing an approach that deliberately combines physical infrastructures, monitoring tools, and user-side optimizations to systematically reduce environmental impact.

On this basis, GreenDIGIT is developing a reference architecture for sustainable RIs that integrates the entire lifecycle. It captures and optimizes energy efficiency, environmental impacts, and operational models, thereby creating a foundation for informed decision-making. Building on this, methods for impact assessment as well as technical and policy recommendations are developed. Complementary training programs ensure that all involved stakeholders can practically apply and further develop these approaches.

Open Science as a Core Component

A central element of this sustainable transformation lies in research reproducibility in the sense of Open Science. By sharing data, methods, and results at an early stage, researchers avoid duplication of effort and save resources. Tools such as version-controlled systems, Jupyter Notebooks, and workflow management support this process technically. At the same time, heterogeneous edge-cloud infrastructures require flexible solutions that seamlessly integrate experiment management and data integration.

Reproducible experiments can be executed across different environments and used more efficiently, improving both resource utilization and the robustness of scientific results. As a result, the need for repeated computations is significantly reduced. To unlock this potential, the project develops an integrated “Reproducibility as a Service” environment that systematically brings together automation, standardization, data management, and collaboration.

These technical and methodological approaches are closely interconnected and support the overarching goals of GreenDIGIT: the project analyzes existing practices in European Research Infrastructures, develops sustainable design principles based on this analysis, and provides innovative technologies for reducing energy consumption. At the same time, it empowers researchers through appropriate tools and knowledge transfer to actively contribute to a more environmentally responsible use of digital infrastructures in the long term.