Unused functions, abandoned feature flags and dependencies nobody calls are still built, tested, scanned, shipped and loaded. A heavy library pulled in for one helper adds weight to every build and deploy.
The fix you can use today
Remove code paths and flags that nothing reaches.
Generate a software bill of materials and remove dependencies nothing imports.
Replace a heavy library used for one small feature.
GreenCode researchers list dead code and unused libraries as an energy waste to fix.
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
SPDX: the open standard format for software bills of materials, listing every dependency with version and licence
How GreenCode helps
GreenCode helps tackle this by mapping a codebase into a searchable index with a complete SPDX software bill of materials, so unused and deficient dependencies can be found and replaced. More on this.
