Lukas Wegmeth & Tobias Vente, both fourth-year Ph.D. students at the Intelligent Systems Group, were invited to SFI MediaFutures in Bergen, Norway, to give a talk on the sustainability of Recommender Systems on April 4th, 2025. Prof. Sole Pera also gave an invited talk on responsible Recommender Systems on the same day.
In their talk, “Green Recommender Systems: Minimizing Carbon Footprint for Sustainable Personalization,” Lukas & Tobias explored the hidden environmental costs of recommender systems research and presented actionable strategies to reduce their carbon footprint. Drawing on eye-opening data, such as that a single RecSys paper in 2023 emitted as much CO₂e as one person flying from New York to Melbourne, they highlighted the disproportionate energy consumption of algorithms, datasets, and hardware. They introduced five key guidelines for Green Recommender Systems design: eliminating needless computations, optimizing hardware choices, prioritizing renewable energy sources, measuring and reporting emissions (using tools like EMERS), and responsibly offsetting unavoidable impacts. The talk culminated in a call to action, urging the community to adopt a ‘green way’ by balancing performance with planetary responsibility.
The invitation came as a follow-up to lively discussions on the sustainability of recommender systems with Prof. Christoph Trattner, the director of the SFI MediaFutures, at last year’s ACM RecSys Conference in Bari, where Lukas & Tobias presented their reproducibility paper “From Clicks to Carbon: The Environmental Toll of Recommender Systems.”
The talk host, SFI MediaFutures, is a leading research center based in Bergen, Norway, dedicated to exploring the intersection of media, technology, and society. As part of the Norwegian Research Council’s prestigious Centre for Research-Based Innovation (SFI), MediaFutures brings together academia, industry, and innovators to address the challenges and opportunities of digital media in the age of AI, big data, and algorithmic systems. Their interdisciplinary approach fosters cutting-edge research in responsible media design, user engagement, and the ethical implications of emerging technologies.
Lukas & Tobias were honored to be invited by such a forward-thinking institution to share their insights on Green Recommender Systems and engage with their vibrant community of researchers and practitioners. SFI MediaFutures also wrote an excellent article about this talk series on their website.
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