Nowadays, software is pervasive in our everyday lives. Its sustainability and
environmental impact have become major factors to be considered in the
development of software systems. Millennials-the newer generation of university
students-are particularly keen to learn about and contribute to a more
sustainable and green society. The need for training on green and sustainable
topics in software engineering has been reflected in a number of recent
studies. The goal of this paper is to get a first understanding of what is the
current state of teaching sustainability in the software engineering community,
what are the motivations behind the current state of teaching, and what can be
done to improve it. To this end, we report the findings from a targeted survey
of 33 academics on the presence of green and sustainable software engineering
in higher education. The major findings from the collected data suggest that
sustainability is under-represented in the curricula, while the current focus
of teaching is on energy efficiency delivered through a fact-based approach.
The reasons vary from lack of awareness, teaching material and suitable
technologies, to the high effort required to teach sustainability. Finally, we
provide recommendations for educators willing to teach sustainability in
software engineering that can help to suit millennial students needs.Comment: The paper will be presented at the 1st International Workshop on
Software Engineering Curricula for Millennials (SECM2017