Write your awesome label here.
Water

Read a software water number, know what it covers, and know when it cannot be compared.

Six short modules in plain language: why water reaches every software role, the four layers of software water, consumption versus withdrawal, how to read a water number and state what it leaves out, why a litre in one place is not a litre in another, and the small things each role can do. No prerequisites and no calculation required.
2h 50m
of learning
6
modules
12 question
final assessment
80%
to pass
Certification
on completion

Software Water Essentials

What
How
Tools
Who

How the course works

Basic on purpose

Plain language throughout, no opinions, no arithmetic to perform. The outcome is to recognize, interpret and question a water number, not to calculate a full SWI.

Draft status stated everywhere

The Software Water Intensity specification is draft v0.1.0, a work in progress and subject to change. Every module says so where it cites the spec.

One worked example, carried through

Northbridge, the same constructed organization used across the catalogue, so the figures stay consistent from module to module.

What this course helps with

The dimension most teams have not started on

Carbon has a ratified standard and years of practice behind it. Water is newer, the specification is still in draft, and most software teams have never been asked the question. This course is the entry point.

Numbers that arrive without a basis

One service reports 12 mL per request, another 9 mL. Module 4 walks that comparison and reaches the honest answer: not comparable as stated, and here is exactly why.

A liter is not a liter

The same volume means something different in a water-stressed basin. Module 5 explains stress adjustment, and why the AWARE and Aqueduct scales cannot be swapped for one another.

Who this is for

  • Every software role — developers, testers, architects, data and platform engineers, product and delivery

  • Sustainability practitioners adding water to work that so far covers only carbon

  • Anyone who has been handed a water figure and asked whether it can be used

  • No prerequisites and no engineering seniority assumed

Related courses:

This is a cross-role feeder course. For producing footprint figures rather than reading them, see SCI for AI Practitioner: The Measurement Lab. For the placement and capacity decisions that change a water number, see Green and Efficient Architect and GreenOps Practitioner.

What you will work with

The four layers

Building, electricity, hardware and the stress conversion — the structure everything else in the course hangs from.

The Northbridge worked entry

1,000 kWh in a month at a WUE of 0.3 L/kWh gives 300 L direct; a grid factor of 1.5 L/kWh gives 1,500 L indirect; across 100,000 requests that is roughly 18 mL per request. Illustrative figures — and quantified operational water only, embodied not yet quantified, so a partial result rather than a complete SWI.

The reading card

Eight questions to ask of any water figure, from how much and which kind to what is missing, ending with whether it can be compared or filled in for the Northbridge entry.

What you will be able to do

  • Explain how software uses water, and which water decisions your role influences
  • Say which of the four layers a water figure covers: direct, indirect, embodied or the stress conversion
  • Tell water consumption apart from withdrawal, and report each separately
  • Read a water figure and state what it includes, what it omits, and whether it was measured, allocated or modeled
  • Explain stress-adjusted water, and report the unadjusted figure beside it
  • Choose the small actions open to you, such as saving energy or deleting unread data, and describe their effect without overstating it

Course Lessons

The full course

Every module ends with an application exercise and a worked solution.

01

The Prompt Footprint

Introduces the five-dimensional view: cost, carbon, energy, water, embodied hardware. Establishes SCI for AI as the standards anchor. Positions the regulatory landscape (CSRD, EU AI Act, procurement disclosure) as the why now for Footprint literacy.
Before You Begin
Modules

02

The Specification Lever

How prompt intent quality drives Footprint. The GSF Intent Framework introduced. Trade-offs: over-specification wastes tokens, under-specification wastes retries. Worked examples across capability tiers.
Modules

03

The Structure Lever

Prompt organization: system messages, few-shot examples, output constraints, formatting instructions. Where structure earns its tokens and where it doesn't.
Modules

04

The Reasoning Depth Lever

When to invoke chain-of-thought, tree-of-thought, extended reasoning modes; when not to. The GSF Reasoning Budget: task-class taxonomy for reasoning depth decisions.
Modules

05

The Model Selection Lever

The most consequential single decision in inference efficiency. Capability tiers and routing decisions. The GSF Model Fit Test protocol. Same task across tiers, measured.
Halfway Check-in
Modules

06

The Orchestration Lever

Where agents leak resource: tool selection, chain depth, redundant retrieval, missing caching. Token budgets as a first-class design constraint. Case study from the supply-chain agent paper (70–90% workflow-level savings).
Modules

07

Measuring the Prompt Footprint

Hands-on demonstrations with EcoLogits, CodeCarbon, AI Energy Score. Producing numbers a CSRD auditor can read. The measurement chain from token count to gCO₂eq.
Modules

08

Procurement & Disclosure

What to ask your LLM vendor. What CSRD and the EU AI Act will require. The GSF Procurement question bank organized by Footprint dimension.
Modules

09

Course Completion

50 questions, 120 minutes. Pass Marks: 85%
Final Assessment
Share Your Feedback

Assessment & Certification

How you are assessed

  • A five-question knowledge check after every module, drawn at random from that module’s 15-question pool
  • A final assessment of 12 questions — two from each module, from a pool of 90
  • 80% to pass, 30 minutes, retake available after 30 days
  • Questions test interpretation and judgement, not recall of figures that date

What you earn

GSF Certification
Software Water Essentials
  • Issued on passing the final assessment
  • Valid for 2 years, refreshed by a short update module
  • Shareable credential for your profile, CV and tender responses

Time to complete

Reading and exercises
2h 50m across 6 modules
Knowledge checks
About 5 minutes per module
Final assessment
30 minutes
Typical completion
1–2 weeks at a module per session, entirely self-paced

Join the Pilot

The GSF Academy is currently in pilot. If your organization would like to enrol learners and issue GSF certifications to your teams, tell us what you need, and we'll follow up to discuss access, pricing, and enrolment.

Request Access for Your Organization

Question required

 Your name

Question required

 Work Email

Question required

 Tell us about your organisation

Answer goes here
0/0
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Chars: 0
Words: 0

Which courses are most relevant to you?