What is KDE Eco?
KDE Eco is the umbrella term for the two KDE programs (i) "Free & open source Energy Efficiency Project" (FEEP) and (ii) "Blauer Engel for Free & Open Source Software" (BE4FOSS). These projects provide guidelines and support to KDE/FOSS communities in the development of eco-friendly software. This includes optimization of software so it uses less energy when running, for example, or so that it can run on older or less powerful hardware, thus generating less waste.

What is this forum about?
This forum provides a place for community support in making KDE/FOSS resource efficient and applying for software eco-certification.

Tell me more about FEEP!
The "Free & open source Energy Efficiency Project" (FEEP) is focused on developing tools to improve energy efficiency in FOSS development. The design and implementation of software will have a significant impact on the energy consumption of the systems it is part of. With the right tools, it is possible to quantify and then drive down energy consumption. This increased efficiency can contribute to a more sustainable use of energy as one of the shared resources of our planet.

Tell me more about BE4FOSS!
The project "Blauer Engel For Free & Open Source Software" (BE4FOSS) supports FEEP while promoting Blauer Engel eco-certification within FOSS communities. Obtaining the Blauer Engel eco-label for software occurs in 3 steps: (1) Measure, (2) Analyze, and (3) Certify.

• Measure energy consumption in dedicated labs, such as at KDAB Berlin.
• Analyze the results using statistical tools such as OSCAR (Open source Software Consumption Analysis in R).
• Certify software by submitting a report on the fulfillment of the Blauer Engel criteria.

What is the Blauer Engel eco-label for software?
In 2020 the Umweltbundesamt (‘German Environment Agency’) released the award criteria for obtaining the Blauer Engel eco-label for desktop software. The three main categories for certification include energy efficiency, extending the potential operating life of hardware, and user autonomy … all of which fit seamlessly with free and open source software. At the moment the Blauer Engel award criteria are only applicable to desktop software running locally, but in the future they will be extended to applications with remote processing as well.

You can find the basic award criteria here: https://www.blauer-engel.de/en/products/electric-devices/resources-and-energy-efficient-software-products.

The benefits of obtaining the Blauer Engel eco-label include:

• Recognition of reaching high standards for environmentally-friendly software design.
• Differentiating FOSS from the alternatives.
• Increasing the appeal of adoption for users.
• Promoting transparency in the ecological footprint of software.

What about other eco-labels?
At the moment BE4FOSS is focused primarily on Blauer Engel eco-certification, but there is no reason to exclude other eco-labels which can be awarded to software in the future.

Who is participating?
Anyone interested in making FOSS more resource efficient and working toward a sustainable, free software future.

Links
For some relevant links, please see: https://invent.kde.org/joseph/be4foss/-/blob/master/resources.md

Are there other places for discussing energy efficiency in FOSS devlopment?
You can also join the conversation at our mailing list or Matrix room!

• Energy Efficiency Mailing List: https://mail.kde.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/energy-efficiency
• Matrix Room: https://webchat.kde.org/#/room/#energy-efficiency:kde.org

Amazing !

I am considering installing Linux (Debian) on an old laptop and I'm exploring which DE to install.
My dream would be to have a light KDE install and am wondering how to achieve that. Which packages are necessary, which ones are facultative,
How to configure KDE to tone down all the fancy to keep only the essential.

If possible, I would love to contribute at my level to a tutorial/methodology on how to achieve that

Reply to thomross and not connected to KDE Eco!

thomross wrote:How to configure KDE to tone down all the fancy to keep only the essential.

You can check for dependency of kde-full
https://packages.debian.org/bullseye/kde-full

I think taskel will only install kde-standard
https://packages.debian.org/bullseye/kde-standard

So you can go through it to pick what you think is minimal and essential, for example
https://packages.debian.org/bullseye/plasma-desktop
Only includes tools and widgets necessary to get you to working desktop without any of kde-baseapps.

So you if you want to get minimal KDE while installing Debian uncheck all of DE, and before end drop to shell and just install manually components you think are necessary.

As for KDE Eco I am really wondering how much improvement can be done, for my ageing laptop could have few more years of usage.

Thank you @tia3100,

Actually, I did this work and tried it on a VM only for now. But I will definitely try it on the old laptop once I have my hands on it.
I will create a new topic to document this specific installation on this specific hardware (all the packages i installed and how I "down-riced" my KDE to be light enough) as an example

So this is all about how to eliminate pesky Python from desktop and JS scripts also? Or about KDE shutdown CPU 100% load (I'm still suspecting some python script). But anyway its great. Maybe for start Programs/Scripts in dophin should be marked for user but tags, or special icons, like a stars about their efficiency?