Goldman Sachs is the first financial service player to sign up to a new Green Software Foundation founded by Microsoft, Accenture, GitHub and ThoughtWorks.
The nonprofit will work to build a trusted ecosystem of people, standards, tooling and leading practices for building green software.
The partners note that while they have all made their own commitments to help address the global climate crisis, the software industry needs to take strong coordinated action.
Says a statement: "With data centres around the world accounting for one per cent of global electricity demand, and projections to consume three to eight per cent in the next decade, it’s imperative we address this as an industry."
Inviting others to join, the foundation says its aim is to help the software industry contribute to the information and communications technology sector’s broader targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45% by 2030, in line with the Paris Climate Agreement.
Brad Smith, president, Microsoft, says: "The scientific consensus is clear: the world confronts an urgent carbon problem. It will take all of us working together to create innovative solutions to drastically reduce emissions."
Goldman's decision to sign on as a general member comes on the heels of it joining OS-Climate, a cross-industry initiative hosted by the Linux Foundation that is seeking to shift global investment toward zero-carbon emissions through the development of comprehensive Open Source data sets and evaluation tools.