The Five Dimensions of Sustainability in Software Engineering

Introduction

When people hear “sustainable software,” they often think only about green IT or energy efficiency. But sustainability in software engineering is much broader.

The Karlskrona Manifesto for Sustainability Design identifies five key dimensions that must be considered together: environmental, social, economic, technical, and individual.

This article breaks down each of these dimensions and explains why they matter for software professionals, educators, and industry leaders.

The Five Dimensions of Sustainability

• Environmental

  Covers long-term effects of human activity on ecosystems — from reducing energy consumption to minimizing e-waste and supporting biodiversity.

• Social

  Focuses on equity, inclusion, trust, and ethical use of technology, ensuring software empowers rather than excludes communities.

• Economic

  Ensures that digital products create value and remain financially viable over time without sacrificing other sustainability goals.

• Technical

  Addresses maintainability, adaptability, and resilience — building systems that can evolve without accumulating crippling technical debt.

• Individual

  Centers on well-being, autonomy, and personal growth of the people directly interacting with or affected by software systems.

Why They Matter Together

No single dimension is enough on its own. For example:

• Trade-offs exist

  A highly efficient app (environmental) may still exclude users with disabilities (social).

• Systemic impacts

  Software that improves financial viability (economic) but increases technical fragility (technical) risks collapse over time.

• Human element

  Even the greenest system is not sustainable if it harms individual well-being or mental health (individual).

The real challenge is balancing all five dimensions and recognizing how decisions in one area ripple across the others.

Linking Dimensions to Impact Orders

The Karlskrona Manifesto also distinguishes three orders of impact:

• First order

  Direct effects of running software — such as electricity consumed by servers or devices.

• Second order

  Changes in behavior or practices enabled by software — for instance, teleconferencing replacing business flights.

• Third order

  Long-term systemic changes — such as shifting entire industries toward digital-first and remote work.

These orders of impact cut across all five dimensions, reminding us that software influences both the micro and macro scale of sustainability.

Conclusion

Sustainability in software engineering is multidimensional. It is not just about energy efficiency, but about designing systems that respect the environment, empower society, remain economically viable, stay technically resilient, and protect individual well-being.

References

1. Becker, C., et al. (2015). Karlskrona Manifesto for Sustainability Design.