The Blue Angel for software

The Blue Angel for software (UZ215) is the world’s first environmental label for software products and is awarded by the Federal Environment Agency and RAL. It evaluates resource efficiency, autonomy of use and hardware longevity. Certified software must run on hardware that is at least five years old, publish measured values publicly and provide security updates free of charge for at least five years after the end of deployment.

Key Takeaways

• The Blue Angel for software does not demand perfect efficiency, but transparency: manufacturers measure their energy consumption and publish the figures where the software can be purchased.
• Certified software must run on hardware that is at least five years old and the manufacturer must provide free security updates for at least another five years.
• In practice, the certification process takes around three months, not the one hoped for, because the RAL test alone takes up to three weeks.
• The Blue Angel can already be used as a differentiating feature in public tenders because it is the only recognized environmental label for software worldwide.

What the Blue Angel means for software

The Blue Angel for software is the world’s first environmental label for software. It is awarded by the Federal Environment Agency and RAL and is part of the German government’s ecolabel, which many people know from printer paper.

The Blue Angel has been awarded to software for some time, but originally only for desktop applications. This focus no longer fits the reality of today’s systems. the label was revised in 2024 and since then has also been valid for smaller server applications and mobile applications. To date, six software products bear the label; before the revision, there was only one.

Anyone who sees the label does not necessarily know that the software is particularly efficient. The actual statement is that the manufacturer has measured and published the resource consumption. The figures are disclosed instead of being kept to themselves.

Transparency instead of top marks: why the measurement becomes public

The core of the label is disclosure, not an efficiency ranking. Software is difficult to compare because the scope of functions is so different. However, as soon as the figures are public, there is an incentive to actually make the product more efficient.

The published values can be found where you can purchase the software. A summary document must be published, and there are also other documents with all the measured values. So you don’t just see the logo, you can also see how resource-efficient a product is.

In the future, this should lead to a comparable scale, similar to the energy efficiency class for refrigerators. This effect arises when several providers of comparable software are certified. Then you get a feeling for how much this type of software consumes.

What else the label requires in addition to energy consumption

The Blue Angel covers more than just resource efficiency. A second block revolves around autonomy of use. The idea behind this is that operators can continue to use the software even if the provider drops out.

Specifically, the label stipulates

• The software runs on hardware that is at least five years old.
• There are free security updates for at least five years after the end of deployment.
• Interfaces and data formats used must be documented.

The background is material: a lot of raw materials and emissions are involved in the manufacture of hardware. The longer devices remain in use, the better the balance. For you as a customer, this means a guarantee that you will be able to operate the software yourself for a long time, even without the original manufacturer. This is the antithesis of planned obsolescence and subscription models that keep you in the contract primarily because of the updates.

How energy consumption is measured

Consumption can be measured in two ways. If you operate the software live and control your own data center including all values, you can measure real operation over a longer period of time.

The second way is more common: you define the standard usage scenarios for your software and measure these. Even on a specially set up system, this is very time-consuming.

In this case, there is the Green Metrics Tool from Green Coding Solutions in Berlin, which is self-certified and designed for the Blue Angel. It maps the life cycle phases of the software, carries out the measurements and provides the figures along with Excel tables. The provider’s servers are seven to eight years old, which means that the hardware age criterion is also fulfilled. The tool automatically spits out CPU utilization, RAM usage and other values.

One criterion links consumption and production: the energy consumed in real operation over a year of use must be less than the energy used in production. The label does not yet have a direct answer to the increasing hunger for energy in agentic coding, but it is constantly being developed further.

The path to certification is taking longer than expected

Allow more time than you might think at first glance. A realistic amount of time is around three months of work, including around three weeks of testing at RAL alone, depending on the workload.

At the beginning there is an auditor. Around 20 people are certified as auditors. No one is allowed to audit their own software themselves, so you always need an external person.

The technical core is the complete dockerization of the application. The entire process must be fully automated: from the empty computer to setting up the database and search index and importing the data to the finished scenario and subsequent demolition. The application is then tested at least ten times on the test server.

A blue angel exporter generates the basic documents from the measurement. A total of seven documents must be completed, describing the functionality, interfaces and data formats, among other things. The auditor checks everything, everyone involved signs, then it’s off to RAL. In the best case scenario, the seal follows after the auditor’s review.

Recertification: a status is valid for one year

Certification is valid for one year, after which you have to reassess. Software lives on in new versions, which is why the label always reflects a specific status.

An auditor is no longer required for recertification. You take new measurements and send the documents directly to RAL, who will check them again. There is a limit to the energy consumption of the scenarios: it must not have increased by more than 10 percent compared to the previous year, unless there are good reasons for this. If the standard usage scenarios do not change at all, the measurement basis remains stable anyway.

What certification costs

The costs are divided into audit fees and RAL fees. You negotiate the fee with the auditor; it often depends on the number of scenarios to be audited plus a prime rate. There is no fixed table for this.

The structure is clearer with RAL. Each application costs around 600 euros, plus an annual fee depending on turnover. For new software with a turnover of less than one million euros, this is around 750 euros per year.

There is some relief for open source software: those who do not generate any turnover with the product can be exempted from the RAL fees.

The Blue Angel pays off as marketing

No company certifies out of pure altruism, and it doesn’t have to. The practical added value lies in a form of attention that can hardly be bought in any other way.

Anita Schüttler had her company’s commercial software certified in order to set a good example and be able to talk about the process. The investment amounted to several thousand euros plus working time. For the visibility generated, especially with new software, it was a good deal.

Talking is one thing, doing is more blatant. It’s a way of underlining your commitment. Anita Schüttler

The label leads to other conversations and a second look at the product. If you’ve been involved in green software for a long time, certification underpins your own commitment.

Why the label is gaining weight in tenders

In public sector tenders, the topic already appears as a criterion that can be used to collect extra points. An eco-label is usually mentioned there, not the Blue Angel by name. Because it is currently the only ecolabel for software, it can be used to gain an advantage.

So far, the focus on energy efficiency has been strongly on data centers and hardware. However, the real driver of consumption is software. For hardware and data centers to be efficient, the software must also be efficient.

Where to start if you want to certify

The first port of call is the Blue Angel website for software under the designation UZ215. There you will find the award criteria, which are quite extensive.

Instead of working your way through the paper alone, it is worth contacting them directly. The page lists who is active as an auditor. Seek a conversation, get advice or sit in on a lecture on the topic. This is much easier than trying to work through the criteria on your own.