Three pillars of impact
GCF operates through three integrated pillars — each addressing a distinct dimension of sustainable technology, together forming India's most comprehensive ecosystem for Sustainable IT and AI.
GCF is a Section 8 not-for-profit founded by sustainability practitioners to address the growing environmental cost of digital technology. It functions as a community platform, a standards body, a consulting practice, and a policy engagement vehicle — all working toward the same goal: making IT and AI sustainable at scale in India.
GCF created the Sustainable IT Framework — a six-principle methodology covering Measure, Design, Extend, Optimise, Report, and Govern — now adopted by organisations across India for BRSR Principle 6 compliance and ESG disclosure. GCF chairs the Sustainable IT Council in the Global South Foundation Network (GSFN) and co-chairs the Sustainable IT Research Board aligned with the United Nations.
- Sustainable IT Manifesto & Framework — India's reference standard
- Corporate Membership & Advisory Board — practitioner community
- SIT Rating — independent sustainability assessment for organisations
- BRSR & Carbon Consulting — strategy, materiality, improvement
- GreenMind Hackathon — India's Sustainable AI innovation platform
- Policy engagement — STPI, KDEM, IndiaAI Mission, Government of India
GCF Academy is India's first cross-functional Sustainable AI Training Programme — built to bring sustainability literacy to every level of an organisation and every stream of a university. The Academy does not treat sustainability as a specialist subject: it is embedded into the skills every IT professional, student, and leader needs.
The flagship Sustainable AI Training Programme (SATP) is a 320-hour, 23-credit university embedding framework spanning five modules and nine discipline tracks — from GreenOps and Sustainable AI to Carbon Accounting and Circular IT. Practitioner certifications, a hackathon track, and startup incubation pathways complete the ecosystem.
- SATP — 5 modules, 320 hrs, 23 credits, 9 discipline tracks for universities
- GreenOps Master 101 & 201 — student GreenOps certification pathway
- Sustainable AI 101 & 201 — student AI sustainability certification
- GreenOps Foundation & Advanced — practitioner corporate programmes
- Sustainable AI Foundation & Advanced — practitioner corporate programmes
- Sustainable IT Foundation — awareness workshop for all audiences
The Sustainable AI Centre of Excellence is India's first dedicated research and innovation lab for sustainable AI — hosted at Sir M V School of Architecture, Design & Planning, Bangalore. With a ₹50L compute infrastructure purpose-built for low-carbon AI, the CoE proves that powerful AI does not require GPU-scale carbon footprints.
The CoE runs on Kompact AI — the CPU-native inference engine developed by Ziroh Labs and IIT Madras — delivering 50–80% energy reduction versus conventional GPU deployments. It hosts student research cohorts (Christ University Cohort 1: 23 engineers, 6 teams), incubates startups, and generates real-world evidence for GCF's policy and consulting work.
- Intel Xeon + 512GB RAM — purpose-built low-carbon compute cluster
- Kompact AI (Ziroh Labs / IIT Madras) — CPU-native, 50-80% energy reduction
- GreenBuild v4/v5 — sustainable AI architecture methodology
- Student research, startup incubation & capstone project hub
- BirchLogic SustainIT — real-time carbon tracking for all workloads
- EIS (Energy Intensity Score) — GCF's AI carbon measurement standard