Sustainability becomes more and more a success factor for every company: For finding and keeping both clients as well as talent. Many companies are using agile development already successfully. Thus, leveraging agility for greater sustainability seems to be a promising approach. This is the topic, I’m exploring together with Claudia Melo.*

Want to know where you and your team stand and how you can reach greater sustainability? Take the Agile Sustainability Assessment and start improving, one step at a time. And/or drop us a note to learn more about how far you got or how you and your ecosystem can benefit even more from implementing agile sustainability.

Do you want to make a difference and don’t know where to start? Check out the Agile Sustainability Initiative!

Our work is based on the United Nations‘ Agenda 2030 which aims for  17 sustainable development goals. These goals are focusing on the following three areas, as defined also by the Triple Bottom Line:

– Social (People): Aiming for equity, health, and livability
– Environmental (Planet): Protecting the planet
– Economic (Profit): Improving the lives & prospects of everyone, everywhere

The Agile Manifesto can be used as a guide for taking the environmental, social, and economic footprint of products (and their creation) into account. We use a workshop format to explore how the principles can contribute to your organization to sustainability, and how a greater awareness can change your current way of working and contribute to increasing sustainability.

*I am trained as pollution control commissioner on ecological environmentalism and Dr. Claudia Melo has worked as an Agile Coach/Software Engineer for the United Nations, she is now Director of Engineering & Tech Organizational Design at Loft.

Upcoming Events on Sustainability (find here all upcoming events)

OOP 2023 online, Germany, February 6-9, 2023
– Talk on Wie nachhaltig ist ein agiles Team oder Unternehmen? (How sustainable is an agile team or company?) February, 8
– Panelist on Finding the right balance in sustainability. February, 9

Agile India 2023 Bengaluru, India, March 15-19, 2023
– Talk on Let’s get more – social, environmental, and economic – sustainability based on data! March, 18

Agility Today 2023 New Delhi, India, March 15-19, 2023
– Talk & Workshop tbd, March, 25

ACCU 2023 Bristol, UK, April 19-22, 2023
– Talk on Let’s get more – social, environmental, and economic – sustainability based on data! April, 19

Links to articles & recordings

Articles, Books, Podcasts

– Experience report (in relation to XP 2022) with Steve Holyer on: How Agile Can Make a Difference for Climate Action and Sustainability.
– Agile’s impact on Global Sustainability, hosted by Robin Woods, Unlocking Agile
– Klima-Panel zusammen mit Marina Köhn und Max Schulze (Panel on Climate Change in German), gehosted von Eberhard Wolff, Software Architektur im Stream
– Leveraging the Agile Manifesto for More Sustainability . Article published by infoQ.
– Sustainability: Delivering Agility’s Promise (pre-printed draft), chapter in Software Sustainability edited by Coral Calero et.al and published by Springer International Publishing, 2021
– How Software Impacts our Planet. Podcast with Robby Russell in the Maintainable Software Podcast.
– Sustainability: Key to Success. Blog post published by Agile Alliance
– Ethical Decisions in a Wicked World: the Role of Technologists, Entrepreneurs, and Organizations. By Claudia Melo published by infoQ.

Slides & Video Recordings

– Talk on Let’s get – social, environmental, and economic – sustainability based on data! with Claudia Melo & Steve Holyer  @ Comparative Agility online, November 28, 2022
– Keynote at Agile World 2022 on Agile for Future: Mit Agilität zu mehr Nachhaltigkeit, online, July 4
– Talk on Agile for Future: Mit dem Agilen Manifest zu mehr Nachhaltigkeit! (slides) (More Sustainability with the Agile Manifesto), at OOP 2022 (February 02, 2022)
– Workshop co-presented with Claudia Melo on Can we leverage the Agile Manifesto to reduce our Carbon Footprint (slides), at OOP 2022 (January 31st, 2022)
– Keynote on Agile comes with a responsibility for sustainability. Are you aware of it? (slides) at Agile Testing Days, Potsdam, Germany (November 17)
– Keynote as a conversation with Gabrielle Benefield & Alistair Cockburn on Sustainable Disruption, Where We Go From Here at Agile 2021 (July 19)
– Workshop co-presented with Claudia Melo on What’s the Impact of the Agile Manifesto on our Carbon Footprint? at Agile 2021 (July 20)
– Legacy for Future: Nachhaltigkeit beginnt mit Code (in German) at the Legacy & Innovation Meetup, Nr. 14 (July 14, 2021)
– Real Cross-functional Teams for Creating real and better Products (video recording). This co-presentation of Jutta & Maryse Meinen focuses on the social aspect of sustainability. The session has been presented at the Agile Camp Berlin 2021 on May 27.