Batch jobs, backups, CI and model retraining run at fixed times chosen years ago, regardless of how clean the electricity is.
The fix you can use today
Find jobs that can wait a few hours.
Schedule them against a carbon-intensity forecast (Great Britain's forecasts run more than 96 hours ahead).
Keep deadlines and SLAs as hard limits.
The Green Software Foundation suggests running flexible jobs when the grid is cleaner. GreenCode draws on these patterns when it checks software.
Tools that help
GreenCode Constitution skill (GreenCode researchers): open-source energy principles and a catalogue of 37 energy anti-patterns that an AI coding agent can follow to find and fix waste like this
Carbon Aware SDK (Green Software Foundation): an API and CLI for grid carbon-intensity data, so flexible work can move to cleaner times or places
Carbon Intensity API: regional carbon-intensity forecasts for Great Britain, more than 96 hours ahead
How GreenCode helps
GreenCode helps tackle this by holding its own heavy AI jobs for cleaner power. It also keeps its AI lean, with small fine-tuned models, retrieval so a model reads only what it needs, and each request routed to the smallest capable component. More on this.
