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iSAQB Advanced Level: Green Software - Development of Resource-Efficient Applications (GREEN)

Trainer(s): Jan Hendrik Kuperus, duration: 3 days (3x 8 hours)

Upcoming dates

• 16 - 18 November 2026 Utrecht · EN · €2195 ex VAT
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Introduction

Software has an energy bill, and someone is going to ask you about it. In three days you learn about ways to measure the footprint of a software system, find where the waste actually sits, and change the architecture to bring it down. This accredited iSAQB Advanced Level module is worth 20 credit points.

Detailed description

Every architectural decision has an energy footprint. The protocol you pick, the way your ORM loads data, how often your pipeline runs, which cloud region you deploy in: it all adds up, and most teams have no numbers at all. Meanwhile the CSRD is putting emissions on the board agenda, procurement is starting to ask about scope 3, and cloud bills keep climbing.

This training gives you the numbers and the levers. You start with where IT emissions actually come from, why published figures vary so much, and what the three fields of action are: use less energy, use less hardware, and use energy when and where the grid is greenest. You work through the Greenhouse Gas Protocol scopes on a concrete system, so you can tell which of your emissions are yours and which belong to your cloud provider.

From there it becomes measurement. The Software Carbon Intensity metric is the backbone of the course: what E, I, M and R mean, how to pick a functional unit that survives contact with reality, and which tools give you real data at the web, application, infrastructure and cloud layers. You also look at the honest limits, including the estimation problem in network emissions and what cloud provider dashboards do not tell you.

Then you make things better. Code and data handling first: algorithmic complexity, collection and index choices, caching, the N+1 query problem, eager versus lazy loading, serialisation formats. Then architecture: monolith versus distributed versus serverless, synchronous versus asynchronous communication, text versus binary protocols, database models, and the Green Software Foundation patterns for time shifting, location shifting and demand shaping. The Prime Video case study shows what happens when a distributed design is walked back on purpose.

Day three moves to operations and process. PUE and idle overhead, cloud service and deployment models, how to evaluate a provider without falling for annual matching claims, and the operational antipatterns that quietly cost the most: overprovisioning, zombie resources, always-on non-production, missing autoscaling. AI gets its own chapter, because training and inference can dominate the footprint of an otherwise modest application. The course closes with the development process itself: pipelines as a workload, build triggers and caching, and the test pyramid read as an energy model.

One case runs through the whole training. An educational publisher with an e-learning platform, which you scan on day one, measure on day two, intervene in on day two, and verify on day three. Every exercise comes with a worked example solution, so you leave with a method you can repeat on your own systems on Monday.

Prerequisites

You need practical experience in designing or building software systems. Familiarity with software architecture concepts at the level of the iSAQB CPSA Foundation Level is assumed, and knowledge of cloud and deployment basics helps.

To use the credit points from this training towards the CPSA Advanced Level certification, you need a valid CPSA Foundation Level certificate, at least three years of full-time professional IT experience and involvement in the design of at least two different IT systems. You can attend the training without meeting those requirements, you just cannot sit the Advanced Level exam yet.

Target audience

Software architects and senior developers who make design decisions with a long shelf life. Tech leads, platform and cloud engineers who own the operational side and see the bills. Anyone who is asked to explain or reduce the energy consumption of the systems they build, whether that question comes from finance, from a sustainability report or from a customer.

Learning goals

This training follows the official iSAQB GREEN curriculum. The complete list of learning goals is published at https://public.isaqb.org/curriculum-green/curriculum-green-en.html

After this training you can:

• Quantify where the energy consumption of an IT system actually comes from, including embodied carbon

• Assign emissions to the right Greenhouse Gas Protocol scope and explain what the CSRD asks of your organisation

• Apply the Software Carbon Intensity metric and pick measurement tools per layer

• Write quality scenarios for energy efficiency and handle the trade-offs with elasticity, scalability, modularity and resilience

• Optimise code, data models and data access for resource consumption

• Assess architectural styles, protocols, data formats and database models on their energy behaviour

• Apply carbon-aware patterns: time shifting, location shifting and demand shaping

• Evaluate cloud service models, deployment models and providers, and recognise operational antipatterns

• Judge the footprint of AI systems and choose between edge and cloud, batch and real-time, and model optimisation techniques

• Reduce the resource consumption of your pipelines, infrastructure and test strategy

Topics covered

• Climate change, the role of IT, and the three fields of action: energy efficiency, hardware efficiency and emission efficiency

• Regulation and reporting: CSRD, ESG, Blue Angel, TCO, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol scopes, ISO 14064-1 and science based targets

• Stakeholders, system archetypes and prioritisation: where the leverage actually is

• Quality models: energy efficiency in ISO 25010 and arc42, and quality scenarios you can verify

• The Software Carbon Intensity metric, measurement methods per layer and integrating measurement into CI/CD

• Energy-efficient code: complexity, collections, indexes, caching and energy code smells

• Data handling: serialisation formats, ORM pitfalls, N+1 queries, over- and under-fetching, data lifecycle

• Architectural styles: monolith, distributed and serverless, stateless versus stateful, cloud-native density

• Communication: synchronous versus asynchronous, text versus binary, gRPC, HTTP evolution, GraphQL, WebSockets, compression

• Databases: choosing the model before the product, maintenance, managed versus self-hosted

• Green IT patterns and the Web Sustainability Guidelines for the presentation layer

• Operations: PUE, idle overhead, cloud service and deployment models, provider evaluation beyond greenwashing, operational antipatterns and cloud CO2 optimisation

• AI and sustainability: training versus inference, edge versus cloud, model optimisation and the rebound effect

• The development process: pipelines as a workload, trigger policies, artefact caching and the test pyramid as an energy model

Training outline

Three days, 9:00 to 17:00, with four hands-on exercises on one running case: the e-learning platform of an educational publisher.

• Day 1: Role of IT in global emissions, regulations and quality models. Where IT emissions come from, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, stakeholders and prioritisation, quality models, and the first half of measurement. Exercise 1: heuristic scan of the case.

• Day 2: Measuring and improving software emissions. Measurement tools per layer and in the pipeline, energy-efficient code and data handling, architectural styles, communication, databases, Green IT patterns and the Web Sustainability Guidelines. Exercise 2: measure. Exercise 3: intervene.

• Day 3: Sustainability in operations, AI and CI/CD. Data centres and cloud models, provider evaluation, operational antipatterns and cloud optimisation, AI and sustainability, and the energy-efficient development process. Exercise 4: verify.

Course format

This is an in-person classroom training that can be delivered at an OpenValue office or as an in-company training around the world. Feel free to contact us at training@openvalue.nl for inquiries for in-company training offerings for your team(s).

Certification

This is an accredited iSAQB Advanced Level training. On completion you receive a certificate of attendance worth 20 credit points: 10 for methodical competence and 10 for technical competence.

The CPSA Advanced Level certification requires a valid Foundation Level certificate and 70 credit points from at least three accredited Advanced Level modules, with a minimum of 10 points in each of the three competence areas. The certification itself consists of a written assignment and an interview with two independent examiners, arranged through a certification body. That exam is not part of this training and is not included in the price. The full process is described at https://www.isaqb.org/certifications/cpsa-certifications/cpsa-advanced-level/

Next steps

GREEN covers methodical and technical competence. To reach the 70 credit points you combine it with other Advanced Level modules, and you will need at least 10 points in communicative competence as well.

Check out OpenValue’s entire training portfolio at www.openvalue.training or in your learning management system. Contact us at training@openvalue.nl for personal learning advice or customized on-demand training, and just ask your OpenValue trainer during the training course.

Provided training material

All participants receive the complete slide decks for the three days, the exercise material with worked example solutions, and a reference list per chapter with the standards, tools and further reading from the curriculum. You also receive the official iSAQB certificate of attendance that carries the 20 credit points.

About our trainer

Jan Hendrik Kuperus is an experienced software architect, founder of Yoink (software development experts with a green heart) and an accredited iSAQB trainer. He teaches the iSAQB CPSA Foundation Level training and works hands-on with clients on software architecture, event-driven systems and sustainable software goals. He combines day-to-day project work with training, so the examples in the room come from real systems rather than slides.

Practical details

Register for a date

• 16 - 18 November 2026 Utrecht · EN · €2195 ex VAT
  Register