š CAT Newsletter #191 - 2023-10-08
CAT 191 - 2023-10-08
Hey CATs,
Welcome to issue 191 of the climateAction.tech (CAT) Newsletter - your weekly summary of what's happening inside the CAT community, and in the wider world of climate and tech. New to CAT or looking to re-discover the community? Try outĀ our onboarding checklist.
Remember you can unsubscribe from this newsletter at any time - the link is at the bottom.
Stay safe & healthy š š š±
CAT Community News
šŖ Mini grants
Weāre happy to announce our first funded mini-grant project! š
Over the next two months Mark Butcher will be working on aĀ research project to learn which KPIs and targets motivate enterprise IT development and DevOps teams to reduce their digital carbon emissions. The aim is to identify fact-based KPIs and targets that can be used by enterprise IT organisation to drive digital decarbonisation. The outcomes will be shared with the community when ready!
If you have any questions about the project or ideas for how to reach the wider global communities of developers, reach out toĀ @Mark Butcher.
And if you'd like to apply for funding during the next round of mini grants, pleaseĀ fill out this formĀ (projects will be evaluated in December). To learn more about the process and how we evaluate projects, check out ourĀ Mini grants Outline page.
āļø From the blog
CAT volunteer profile:Ā Check out Elisa's story hereĀ & learn about her work and volunteering in her community, how she's practicing sustainable tech, what's happening in London, and what keeps her motivated. Thank you Elisa for sharing your story and volunteering at CAT!
#ļøā£ Slack channel highlight
#carbon-footprint: Do you work on open source projects? Thibaud asked whether you report on the carbon footprint of those projects, or discuss it with your contributors? Share your thoughts
š Online CAT events for the rest of the year
ā¶ļø Thu, Nov 2 - Americas, Europe, Africa:Ā Watch Party: Workplace organising in the tech industry
š Tue, Nov 21 - Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania:Ā CAT 2023 ā year in review and celebrationĀ (share your 2023 project/win/actionĀ here)
š Thu, Dec 14 - Americas, Europe, Africa:Ā CAT 2023 ā year in review and celebrationĀ (share your 2023 project/win/actionĀ here)
A few upcoming local events were shared inĀ #local-vancouver,Ā #local-spain,Ā #local-ottawa,Ā #local-oregon,Ā #local-new-york,Ā #local-italy, andĀ #local-australia!
š© Community networking
Our next round ofĀ #cat-rouletteĀ matches will go out onĀ Fri, Oct 13! Join the channel, pick your region andĀ DonutĀ matches you with other channel members every other week! More info
š± A cutting from Branch
Introducing Branch Issue 6 - a letter from the editors
You wait ages for an issue of Branch, and then a bunch of ...er.. Branches all come along at once. Hot on the heels of Branch 5 - Carbon Computing comes Branch 6 - Green Screen. This letter from the editors gives a sneak peek at what's covered in this new issue.
ā Looking for volunteers
š CAT online event volunteer ā¢ minimum 2hrs / month
Help organise and/or run our online events. You can sign up to do this for just a few months or stick around for longer.
šĀ CAT Submitted Events
Want an event listed here? Use this event listing form to submit the details so we can add it in the newsletter.
Wed Oct 11 2023 - Tech meets sustainable clothing - hybrid event
Join us for our hybrid event with great talks combining tech and sustainability. The event theme is tech meets clothing, with three brilliant speakers based in the South West - Tim Kindberg from Sust and Jen Wagner & Gary Lake from LAYBL.
Wed Oct 11 2023 - IEA: Government and Industry Exchange on Data Centres and Energy Efficiency
The IEAās Digital Demand-Driven Electricity Networks (3DEN) Initiative and the Energy Efficiency Hub are bringing together speakers from the firms like Google, Microsoft, NGOs like Green Web Foundation, and the public sector to discuss how to curb emissions from data centres.
Thu Oct 12 2023 - Bay Area MCJ climateTech meetup
Casual networking for climate tech people from My Climate Journey community and climate tech friends
Check #external-events in the CAT slack for more.
š¤Ā Podcasts
The latest climate-related podcast episodes. Don't forget, if you're looking around, there's a list of podcasts maintained by CATs
Environment Variables: Decarbonize Software 2023 Preview with Namrata Narayan
Join Chris Skipper and this weekās guest Namrata Narayan in discussing the upcoming Decarbonize Software 2023 event taking place this November, as well as the role Namrata plays in the GSF. In this episode, they cover the relationships between different member organizations and their role in green software and how they can work toward the same goals in a competitive environment
Zero: It's done. The future is electric cars
The rise of electric cars is staggering. In 2016, just 700,000 electric cars were sold worldwide, this year itāll be over 14 million. However, we are still off-track to meet climate goals. Colin McKerracher, head of Advanced Transport at BloombergNEF, joins Zero to discuss how electric cars can get on track to meet net-zero targets, why China has succeeded where others havenāt, and when weāll finally see more electric cars on the roads than those burning fossil fuels.
Outrage and Optimism: 216. Drilled, Baby, Drilled!
This week on O+O, our hosts, Christiana, Tom and Paul delve into the latest International Energy Agency report which sounds the death knell on the fossil fuel era and welcome award-winning investigative journalist Amy Westervelt onto the show. Join us as she shares her journey to launching Drilled and Critical Frequency, her podcast production company, and why sheās dedicating her time to unearth the nefarious actions of a few PR firms that enable incumbents to keep a stake in the climate crisis narrative.
š° News Highlights
Grist: EV tires wear down fast, and thatās a pollution problem
Swapping fossil-powered cars for EVs is a win for cutting CO2 emissions, but it may exacerbate particulate pollution from wear and tear on tires.
Politico: EU climate chiefs back radical new 90 percent emissions target
Something quietly enormous occurred this week: The EU took a major step toward pledging to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent by 2040, within a whisker of net zero before a child born today will finish school.
Work for Climate: Climate anxious? How taking action at work can help your mental health
Whether you work for a fossil-fuel loving bank or energy firm, a car manufacturer or a telco company ā aligning your career to your climate ethics could have huge mental health benefits, says University of Melbourne Associate Professor Dr. Grant Blashki. This article outlines how.
Common Dreams: Climate Researcher Threatened With Termination for Taking a Stand Against Flying
A climate researcher based in Kiel, Germany said Monday that he was prepared to lose his job at a globalization think tank, after his employer gave him an ultimatum and demanded he go against his climate-based objection to aviation travel in order to return to his place of work.
Green Web Foundation: How much of the internet is covered by credible Net Zero targets? An update
Over this summer, we ran a project with our friends at Wikirate ā a non profit dedicated to the idea of āWikipedia, for corporate social responsibility dataā ā to understand how much of the internet is covered by credible Net Zero targets. We finished collecting the data earlier this month ā read on to find out how it went, and what happens next, and how many tech firms pass "the bp test".
World Benchmarking Alliance: Greening Digital Companies - Monitoring Emissions and Climate Commitments 2023
This report, now in itās second edition, published in October 2023 and examines the emissions and energy usage of 200 leading tech companies worldwide. It not only assesses their climate data and targets but also serves as a valuable resource for companies to learn from best practices and enhance their emissions reduction performance.
Blocks and Files: Adobe adopts distributed 'airbnb for storage' service Storj for Premiere Pro storage cloud
Decentralized storage provider Storj has announced a new integration with Adobe Premiere Pro - profssional editing software used by artists and editors worldwide. Storj says it reduces cloud costs by up to 90 percent compared to traditional cloud providers, and also cuts carbon emissions by using existing, unused hard drive capacity. However, these hard drives have embodied carbon costs, so-called Scope 3 emissions accumulated during their manufacture, which will be shared between the drive owner and the drive renter.
The Guardian: Global carbon emissions from electric power may peak this year, report says
Carbon emissions from the global electricity sector may peak this year, after plateauing in the first half of 2023, because of a surge in wind and solar power, according to a climate thinktank Ember. A new report on global electricity generation found that the growth of renewables was so rapid that it was close to the incredibly fast rate required if the world is to hit the tripling of capacity by the end of the decade that experts believe is necessary to stay on the 1.5C pathway.
š¼Ā Jobs
Remember only jobs listing salary ranges are listed here - to get your job listed, you need to list a salary range. Folks can still look in the #jobs channel.
Ecosia - Platform Engineer - ā¬62,000 to ā¬76,000 - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
We are looking for a Platform Engineer (all genders) with expertise in cloud-native application development and in developer experience best practices to join us remotely or in our Berlin office.
As an engineer on our remote-first (comfortable working within and adjacent to the CET time zone) Platform team, you will improve & scale Ecosiaās cloud infrastructure and make development frictionless and operationally safe.
Elemental Excelerator - Director of Innovation (Industry & Water) - $97,400 - $163,500 USD - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
For this position, we are looking for an individual who can help develop a set of investment themes, recruit companies, design projects, manage deliverables and reporting, provide thought partnerships on portfolio company strategy, and work with the other Directors of Innovation across sectors and organization functions. This role will focus on Elementalās companies across the industry, drinking water and wastewater portfolios, and will report to the Managing Director, Portfolio.
Icebreaker One - Core - Project Support - cĀ£28k - Permanent - Totally remote
Non-profit Icebreaker Oneās mission is to make data work harder to deliver net-zero outcomes. This role will support the delivery of projects through working closely with the Programme Director, Senior Project Manager and Account Manager. It involves liaising and collaborating with other members of Icebreaker One to help ensure the successful delivery of IB1ās research and development projects.
Icebreaker One - Project Manager (Strategic Innovation Projects) - Up to Ā£500/day - Contract: 2 days/wk, ASAP - March 2024 - Totally remote
Non-profit Icebreaker Oneās mission is to make data work harder to deliver net-zero outcomes. This role will liaise and collaborate to help set up and run our wider project management work as well as ensure the successful delivery of our R&D services.
QuantumScape - multiple roles - Salary ranges from $116k to $213k - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
We develop improved batteries for electric vehicles that could lengthen range, decrease charging time, improve safety, and be more recyclable than lithium ion batteries. We are hiring in a number of roles, including cybersecurity, data science, data engineering, and software engineering.
The Green Web Foundation - Fellow - 6k EUR - 6 months part time - Flexible - remote ok
The Green Web Foundation is calling for the next cohort of fellows, to work on projects at the intersection of digital rights and climate justice. You work on your project at this intersection, sharing what you are learning with monthly blog posts, joining the weekly cohort calls, and in return we provide mentorship, a stipend, and an optional budget for your project. We understand that the effects of climate change are felt disproportionately by the global south / global majority. This is why we especially encourage people who identify as Most Affected People and Areas (MAPA) to apply.
Monthly CAT thank you
š For adding knowledge toĀ Outline:Ā @mrchrisadamsĀ @melissaĀ @Mary MaĀ @Elisa
š° For supporting us financially onĀ Open Collective:Ā @Mike Gifford (CivicActions)Ā @fershadĀ @ToddĀ @Michael NapperĀ @Chris PointonĀ @James CrowleyĀ @asimĀ @HeatherBĀ @Nic WistreichĀ @Thibaud ColasĀ @Michelle BarkerĀ @Poppe Guthrie and all you lovely anonymous CATs
ā¤ļø Ā ForĀ volunteeringĀ within the community:@HannahĀ @roundcrisisĀ @SiĆ“nĀ @Brett DuboffĀ @ElisaĀ @Åukasz MastalerzĀ @Claire ThornewillĀ @Owen RogersĀ @Tom KennesĀ @AĆÆdaĀ @Caroline SchneiderĀ @Nat DarkeĀ @Clare Tomassian (she/her)Ā @Ben TongueĀ @DanĀ @Matt SirkisĀ @GaĆ«l DuezĀ @Poppe GuthrieĀ @Evan HahnĀ @Alja IsakoviÄĀ @MarloĀ @Mary Ma
And another extra special shout-out toĀ @GaĆ«l DuezĀ for his 1-year volunteering anniversary!Ā š