The mission of SIGsus
For IREB, sustainability is crucial for the future of digital solutions. The SIGsus promotes sustainable practices in Requirements Engineering and Digital Design.
The goal of SIGsus is to provide orientation in the early phases in order to support the development of sustainable digital solutions. To this end, it equips practitioners and researchers with guidance and tools.
Requirements Engineers and Digital Designers are the people who raise awareness of the various dimensions of sustainability during design. With the client, they negotiate how sustainability constrains; from stakeholders, they elicit collective sustainability values and personal sustainability goals; in the system’s design, they specify sustainability-related qualities. This assures that well-founded decisions regarding sustainability are explicitly considered.
Key objectives of SIGsus
- Integration of sustainability as a cross-cutting topic in Requirements Engineering und Digital Design
- Communication and raising awareness
- Promotion of standardization
- Promotion of Green IT practices
- Elaboration of Green-by-IT strategies
- Knowledge transfer, education, and best practices
- Networking and collaboration in industry and research
- Research and practice-driven innovation
In the acronym SIGsus, the lowercase letters “sus” refer to the musical notation for suspended chords, which implies a dissonance that needs to be resolved to restore harmony. To restore the ecological balance, we need what you hear when you pronounce SIGsus: success.
IREB Roundtable Summary Report: Educating Sustainability in Software Engineering Research and Practice
On March 11, 2025, IREB hosted a roundtable discussion on “Education for Sustainability in Research and Practice of Software Engineering”, streamed live on LinkedIn.
Teaching sustainability is essential. It empowers students and practitioners to develop a shared understanding, adopt a sustainability mindset, and gain knowledge about relevant concepts and tools.
The panel discussion was well-attended, engaging, and sparked valuable questions from the audience – contributing meaningful insights to the conversation.
Watch the recording on YouTube and read our summary report.
Digital Sustainability Survey
The IREB Special Interest Group SIGsus invites you to participate in the Digital Sustainability Survey. Through this survey, SIGsus aims to gather insights into real-world practices, challenges, and opportunities shaping sustainability in software engineering. By participating, you will help us to:
- identify current trends and challenges regarding the integration and consideration of sustainability in software development
- improve IREB curricula and resources, ensuring that practitioners like you have access to cutting-edge knowledge and tools.
The Digital Sustainability Survey is performed annually to investigate any shifts in the perception and role of Digital Sustainability.
The results and insights from this survey will be published on our socials and on ireb.org.
Members of SIGsus
The SIGsus is an international network of members from a wide range of professional backgrounds, but with a shared vision for a more sustainable world through and with technology.
- Jan Bieser
- Christian Bock
- Melanie Gertschen
- Eduard C. Groen, Head of Group
- Jan Groenefeld
- Thorsten Jonas
- Philipp Kersting
- Meira Levy
- Aydin Mir Mohammadi
- Ana Moreira
- Nitish Patkar
- Birgit Penzenstadler
- Yen Dieu Pham
- Marcela Ruiz
- Kay Schulz-Langer
- Norbert Seyff
- Colin Venters
- Ingo Waclawczyk
- Michael Wahler
Get in touch!
Contact us to find out more.