Member Story
How Pindy Bhullar, Sean O'Keefe, and contributors from eight GSF member organisations built SOFT — the Sustainable Organisational Framework for Technology — the first ratified standard for embedding green software practices across an entire organisation.
Organisations involved
8
Companies contributed to building the framework
4
Global organisations piloting SOFT as of October 2025
4
Operational domains — Strategy, Implementation, Operational, Compliance
2025
Year SOFT was ratified as the first org-wide green software framework
The Problem
By 2023, the Green Software Foundation had built an impressive toolkit: the SCI specification for measuring software carbon intensity, the Carbon Aware SDK for shifting workloads to cleaner energy, Impact Framework for standardised measurement, and Green Software Patterns for code-level guidance. Organisations had the instruments. What they lacked was a way to use them systematically across an entire operation.
The pattern surfaced repeatedly across member organisations. Individual teams ran successful sustainability pilots in IT, but those pilots couldn’t cross departmental boundaries. Procurement continued buying without carbon considerations. Operations deployed without energy awareness. Executive decision-making lacked the data pipelines to factor in software emissions.
For Pindy Bhullar, working as ESG Technology Lead at UBS, this wasn’t abstract. UBS had sustainability commitments, and teams wanted to act on them. But as she walked colleagues through the SCI Specification — defining software boundaries, setting functional units, breaking down embodied emissions — she kept hitting the same wall: the tools worked inside a team, but they couldn’t cross departmental lines. Procurement, operations, and executive decision-making each remained islands. The gap wasn’t knowledge — it was organisational architecture.
“Organizations had the tools, yet they struggled to use them systematically across their operations.” — SOFT Ratification Article, Green Software Foundation
The Journey
Personal origins
The story begins not in a boardroom but on a sailing boat. Pindy Bhullar joined an Exxpedition voyage collecting ocean samples for plastic analysis. On the final night, the group debated how to translate their experiences into action. Pindy drew a simple triangle connecting projects, technology, and sustainability — and began a PhD research journey into how organisations could embed green software at every level.
Read Pindy's story →At UBS
As ESG Technology and Sustainable Technology Lead at UBS, Pindy established the Sustainable Technology Guild — an internal group formed once UBS became a GSF member — that helped the firm cut emissions by sharing best practices. She applied the SCI Specification at UBS, walking teams through the three key stages: defining software boundaries, setting the functional unit, and breaking down operational and embodied emissions. But she saw that measurement alone wasn't enough: organisations needed a framework for transformation, not just tools.
Read the full account →2023
Pindy raised what was initially called TOSS (Transforming Organisations for Sustainable Software) within the GSF Standards Working Group. Co-chaired with Sean O'Keefe from Microsoft, the project was designed to address carbon emissions holistically — recognising that carbon emissions from software don't fall solely under technology departments. Eight member organisations joined the effort: HSBC, Microsoft, Avanade, BCG X, Cisco, NTT DATA, Siemens, and UBS.
About the SOFT project →November 2025
The Sustainable Organisational Framework for Technology (SOFT) was ratified, covering four essential areas: Strategy (governance and net-zero alignment), Implementation (data collection and tool deployment), Operational (embedding practices into daily work — code review checklists, carbon-aware deployment, procurement guidelines), and Compliance & Regulations (alignment with CSRD, CSDDD, and the EU AI Act). Built to complement the GSF's Maturity Matrix Model, SOFT provides decision trees, capability assessments, templates, checklists, and maturity matrices for CTOs, developers, and sustainability leads alike.
Read the ratification announcement →Early 2026
By October 2025, four global GSF member organisations were already piloting the framework. The team is developing a two-level SOFT course and gathering pilot feedback to inform SOFT v2.0, planned for early 2026. The framework is designed to evolve with industry innovations, new sustainability standards, and ongoing research.
SOFT on GitHub →SOFT gives changemakers the structured approach they need to reduce carbon emissions from software operations while achieving their business objectives.
Green Software Foundation
Who came together
Pindy Bhullar
Technology Sustainability Consultant
HSBC
Project lead who identified the scaling gap through PhD research. Started at UBS where she applied the SCI Specification and founded the Sustainable Technology Guild, then co-chaired SOFT development from inception to ratification.
Sean O'Keefe
Engineer
Microsoft
Co-chair of the SOFT project, bringing Microsoft's organisational transformation experience to the framework design.
Gadhu Sundaram
VP of Application Service
NTT DATA UK
Demonstrated how collaborative, standards-based efforts can scale green software practices across global clients.
In their words
"Collaboration is essential at every level: within teams, across organizations, and even between institutions. It's not solely the responsibility of software engineers. When the various layers of organizations — micro, meso, and macro — collaborate effectively, we pave the way for a greener future. "
Pindy Bhullar
Technology Sustainability Consultant, HSBC
"Explore options, question your current status quo, and if you see gaps, don't shy away from brainstorming and sharing solutions in the open source. Also, remember to put energy usage and carbon emissions in your DevOps cycles. "
Pindy Bhullar
Technology Sustainability Consultant, HSBC
"In recent years, there has been a lack of industry-wide best practices and education on how technology can help engineers contribute to net zero. "
Natalie Pullin & Tim Smolcic
HSBC Technology, on why HSBC joined the Green Software Foundation
Guiding organizations in adopting, implementing, and transforming sustainable software practices across entire operations.
A spotlight on how our members are decarbonizing software with the GSF.
Pindy Bhullar is responsible for ESG architecture at UBS and a Ph.D. Researcher. Her reputation as a values-driven leader with an ethical compass is widely recognized, earning her the respect of peers, team members, and top management.
"Our aim is to pioneer, along with the GSF, in co-creating innovations and solutions to benefit the technology industry’s approach to green software."
SOFT was built by organisations who came together through the Green Software Foundation. If your teams have the tools but lack the architecture to scale green software, join us to pilot SOFT and contribute to v2.0.
Ready to assess your organisation? Explore the SOFT Framework on GitHub.
