How Do Companies Manage the Environmental Sustainability of AI? An Interview Study About Green AI Efforts and Regulations

With the ever-growing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), AI-based software and its negative impact on the environment are no longer negligible. Studying and mitigating this impact has become a critical area of research, as the adoption of AI technologies accelerates across various industries. However, it is currently unclear which role environmental sustainability plays during AI adoption in industry and which Green AI practices users of AI-based software apply. Moreover, little is known about how AI regulations influence Green AI practices and decision-making in industry. We therefore aim to investigate the Green AI perception and management of industry practitioners. To this end, we conducted a total of 11 interviews with participants from 10 different organizations that adopted AI-based software. The interviews explored three main themes: AI adoption, current efforts in mitigating the negative environmental impact of AI, and the influence of the EU AI Act and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) on the first two themes. Our findings indicate that 9 of 11 participants prioritized business efficiency during AI adoption, with minimal consideration of environmental sustainability. Monitoring and mitigation of AI's environmental impact were very limited. Only a single participant monitored negative environmental effects, with four others at least tracking model token usage. Regarding applied mitigation practices, six participants reported no actions, with the others sporadically mentioning techniques like prompt engineering, relying on smaller models, or not overusing AI. Awareness and compliance with the EU AI Act are low, with only one participant reporting on its influence, while the CSRD drove sustainability reporting efforts primarily in larger companies, as noted by six participants. All in all, our findings reflect a lack of urgency and priority for sustainable AI among these companies, with the main focus being the successful initial implementation and introduction of AI-based software. We suggest that current regulations are not very effective in this regard, which has implications for policymakers. Additionally, there is a need to raise industry awareness, but also to provide user-friendly techniques and tools to lower entry barriers for Green AI practices.