As part of the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” the United Nations outlined Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) as “a plan of action for people, planet, and prosperity.” Recognizing the essential role of digital technology in sustainable development, the Linux Foundation launched LF Sustainability. This initiative seeks to understand how Linux Foundation projects align with the different dimensions of sustainable development. By identifying where and how these projects impact us, we can discern where the Linux Foundation community can direct resources to expand and deepen these efforts.
Linux Foundation’s projects support a variety of use cases and industry needs. Contributors to the Zephyr project are building small, scalable, real-time operating systems optimized for resource-constrained networks of devices. Such networks will help users to spin up an Internet of Things across multiple architectures, reduce their costs, and accelerate the launch of new products and services. Members of the Zephyr community imagine billions of connected embedded devices—simple connected sensors, LED wearables, modems, and small wireless gateways—that work to improve health and create decent jobs and equal opportunities on one hand, and support diverse business models and markets on the other, with monitoring tools to strengthen institutions.
As such, Zephyr meets several of the UN’s Sustainability Development Goals. 
For example, Zephyr supports systems such as electrical grid monitoring with on-device machine learning. The RTOS supports the transition to renewable energy and helped improve the efficiency and dependability of electricity grids. More efficient grids make for lower carbon emissions SDG 9.
Stewart explained how the latter supported the transition to renewable energy and helped improve the efficiency and dependability of electricity grids. More efficient grids make for lower carbon emissions (SDG 13 Climate Action).
“On various smart devices, if you see a device that has suddenly gone from a day battery life to a week battery life, then its manufacturer has likely switched to using Zephyr underneath the covers,” said Kate Stewart, Vice President of Dependable Embedded Systems at the Linux Foundaiton. “It is the breadth of implementations that makes Zephyr integral to digital innovation and infrastructure across industries where the Linux kernel is too big to fit.”
Example SDG goals that Zephyr meets includes:
- SDG 2 Zero Hunger: IoT Greenhouse Monitor
- SDG 3 Good Health and Well Being: Oticon Hearing Aids, Intellinium Safety Pods
- SDG 7 Affordable Clean Energy: Sodaq TRACK Solar, Bl!xt Zero, Vestas Wind Turbines, Golioth AC Power Monitor, Golioth DC Power Monitor, the Libre Solar Project
- SDG 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure: Pro Glove, Best Sensor Pump Monitor, Adhoc Smart Waste, Sensing LoRa tracker, Smart IoT Device Ram 1
- SDG 15 Life on Land: Reliable Reindeer Tracking and OpenCollar.io Initiative, GSP trackers for pets
Download the full Open Source for Sustainability report here.
Learn more about how Zephyr meets the SDGs at the Linux Foundation Member Summit, the annual gathering for member organizations, hosted in Monterey, California on October 24-26. Stewart will present, “Enabling UN Sustainable Development Goals: Zephyr Project Contributions” Tuesday, October 24 at 4:15 pm PDT.
For more information about the 2024 event, stay tuned by subscribing to the Zephyr quarterly newsletter or connect with us on @ZephyrIoT, Zephyr Project LinkedIn or the Zephyr Discord Channel to talk with community and TSC members.