š CAT Newsletter #205 - 2023-02-04
Hey CATs,
Welcome to issue 205 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
#ļøā£ Slack channel highlights
- #local-leeds: Did you join the in-person event on Feb 1st? Why not share your reflections in the channel?
- #mobility:Ā C shared a report about micro mobility. What is the approach to micro mobility where you live?
- #greener-infra:Ā MĀ asked about any recommendations for greener infra related online courses inĀ this post
Local conversations happened inĀ #local-switzerland,Ā #local-france,Ā #local-switzerlandĀ andĀ #local-netherlands
CAT Events
Tue, Feb 6 - Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania:Ā Welcome (back) to CAT
Mon, Feb 26 - London [in person]:Ā CAT co-owned event with Code Green London
More events were shared inĀ #local-uk
š© Community networking
Get to know other CATs and make some friends in the community.Ā Every 2 weeks, we match 2-3 CATs so you can connect over a quick 30-minute call. Simply joinĀ #cat-roulette, pick your region and wait for a message fromĀ DonutĀ about your match! Our next round of matches will go out onĀ Fri, Feb 16. More info
š Get involved
Help put together these community news. Reach out toĀ @SandraĀ if you want to get involved.Ā More info
Media, events, and news
šŗ CAT recommendations
š± A cutting from Branch
Open call for Branch Issue 8 (Spring 2024)
The next issue of Branch will be released at the end of April 2024 and sets out to explore the theme āfinding beauty in the imperfectā.
Weāre looking for people who want to showcase their thoughts and ideas on this topic in our edition. You donāt have to be an experienced writer, nor work in tech, but you will need a take on the theme, finding beauty in the imperfect.
š¬ CAT Videos
CAT videos, geddit? 10-15 minute videos providing accessible explainers to climate related issues.
Planet A: Heat Pumps: How cold rivers could heat your home
Heating our homes with cold water! Sounds absurd? Itās not. Heat pumps are revolutionizing the way we heat and cool our homes and cities. We went to the German city of Mannheim to find out how.
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
Catalyst with Shayle Khan: Whatās really happening in the U.S. EV market?
Sales are growing fast despite gloomy headlines. What gives? In this episode, Shayle talks to BloombergNEF EV analyst Corey Cantor. They talk about the changing outlook on the speed of EV adoption as the focus shifts from early adopters to the mass market. They talk through the persistent challenges EVs face, like slow charger rollout and lack of more affordable options.
Carbon copy: US power demand is set to boom. How will we meet it?
AI, manufacturing, and electrification are doubling power demand forecasts. But we donāt need fancy tech breakthroughs to serve it.
Environment Variables: The Week in Green Software - Embodied Carbon
This Week in Green Software, host Chris Adams is joined by Gabi Beyer and Brendan Kamp from re:cinq to talk about the recent initiatives to and consequences of the prolonging of the lifecycle of technology. The challenges of measuring carbon emissions in personal laptops and cloud services are discussed, highlighting the complexities of quantifying environmental impact, as well as companies reporting on these metrics. Tune in for a lively discussion on sustainable software development.
Greenio: #31 - Estimating IT footprint: the ABB Motion case study with Fiona Leibundgut and Thomas Mosser
In many big corporations, IT is never number one, number two, even number three for GHG emission sources (and other environmental factors). But everyone working in the digital sustainability sector knows that, actually, little streams make big rivers with the digital sector accouting for around 4% of global emissions. In this episode we explore a very concrete case of measuring IT footprint in a massive corporation: ABB Motion with Thomas Mosser (ABB) and Fiona Leibundgut (SparkIT Consulting). How to kick start, how to leverage the Resilio tool which they chose, how to scale, etc. And the insights shared can be used in smaller organisations as well!
Submitted Events
Want an event listed here? Use this event listing form to submit the details so we can add it in the newsletter.
Thu Feb 08 2024 - Mastering Carbon Reporting: A Webinar for UK SMEs
On behalf of the British Business Bank, Icebreaker One researched 270 carbon accounting and reporting tools tailored for SMEs. Join our webinar to dive into the report, find out what we learned, and understand which solution is most suitable for your business.
Thu Feb 08 2024 - Bristol energy and decarbonisation (hybrid event)
Join us for our hybrid event with great talks celebrating two fantastic energy sustainability initiatives which are working together for a better Bristol city ā Bristol Energy Network, Laura Penny and Bristol City Leap, James Sterling.
Thu Feb 08 2024 - Using AI / Technology for Waste and Recycling
This month Working in Sustainable Technology are exploring how innovate UK companies are using AI / Technology in order to improve, streamline and make the processing of waste and recycling greener.
š«Speaker 1: Alisa Pritchard: Greyparrot š«Speaker 2: Michael Groves: Topolytics
Fri Feb 09 2024 - Anglet Demo Day
Anglet is hosting another demo day next week on February 8th at 5pm PST - We'll have a panel of VCs from Elemental, Climate Papa, and Deloitte. If you're an early stage climate founder please apply. 3 of Anglet's recent investments have come from demo day participants!
Fri Feb 09 2024 - DIGITAL IMPACT PITCH : Discover the impact of digital on our lives & planet + how to act !
The Digital Impact Pitch is a short interactive conference aiming to explain the hidden part of digital technology and its implications on planet and people. It gives also the participants a better understanding on what types of responsible practices matter most.
Thu Feb 15 2024 - How to: use everyday climate action as a source of joy - with Cass Hebron
Cass is a climate communications consultant and founder of The Green Fix.
In this session Cass will explore the ways in which our everyday activism can have a positive impact on our personal and community wellbeing. Use the code CATS for a free ticket.
Thu Feb 15 2024 - Mastering Carbon Reporting: A Webinar for UK SMEs #2
On behalf of the British Business Bank, Icebreaker One researched 270 carbon accounting and reporting tools tailored for SMEs. Join our webinars to dive into the report, find out what we learned, and understand which solution is most suitable for your business.
Tue Feb 20 2024 - From Observations to Impact: A Deep Dive into the Impact Framework
Impact Framework is a way to accurately compute and report the environmental impacts of software applications.
In this talk, Asim Hussain discuss some of the challenges with software measurement and then dive deep into Impact Framework and how to measure software using it.
Check #external-events in the CAT slack for more.
š° News Highlights
The Guardian: Biden hits pause on natural gas projects amid plans for carbon āmega bombsā
Joe Bidenās administration has hit the brakes on the USās surging exports of gas, effectively pausing a string of planned projects that have been decried by environmentalists as carbon āmega bombsā that risk pushing the world further towards climate breakdown. On Friday, the White House announced that it was pausing all pending export permits for liquified natural gas (LNG) until the Department of Energy could come up with an updated criteria for approvals that consider the impact of climate change. According to one analysis, if all proposed LNG projects were to go ahead and ship gas overseas, it would result in 3.2bn tons of greenhouse gases ā equivalent to the entire emissions of the European Union.
Nathaniel Bullard: Decarbonization - Stocks and flows, abundance and scarcity, net zero
Seasoned climate tech journalist Nat Bullard's annual deck - incredibly information dense, and full of fascinating insights. "My annual presentation on the state of decarbonization told with climate, capital markets, technology, and sector data. A coherent view of the future begins with the clearest possible view of the present."
Ars Technica: Over 2 percent of the USās electricity generation now goes to bitcoin
What exactly is bitcoin mining doing to the electric grid? In the last few years, the US has seen a boom in cryptocurrency mining, and the government is now trying to track exactly what that means for the consumption of electricity. While its analysis is preliminary, the Energy Information Agency (EIA) estimates that large-scale cryptocurrency operations are now consuming over 2 percent of the US's electricity. That's roughly the equivalent of having added an additional state to the grid over just the last three years.
Yale Climate Communications: What Makes Yale Climate Connections Stories Work?
A really interesting inside look at the techniques Yale Climate Connections uses for impact climate story telling, with detailed, worked examples of the principles they use to guide their work.
Salon: "Striking back hard": Climate change protesters on how fossil fuel companies try to squash dissent
Climate change is a major existential crisis, but those who bring attention to it are often unduly punished.
Green Web Foundation: https://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/news/why-we-endorsed-the-us-ai-environmental-impacts-act/
Yesterday, Senator Ed Markey introduced the first legislation to explicitly refer to the environmental impacts of AI , together with several other members of Congress in the USA. Earlier in January we had been approached for feedback about a draft version of the bill, and we were happy to publicly endorse it. In this post we outline why we did so, and explain how it's different to legislation it might be comnpared to.
Manuel Leduc: Sustainability at FOSDEM 2024
FOSDEM is the largest open source conference in Europe, with nearly a thousand speakers in 2024. This post highlights some of the talks linked to sustainability in the Open Source world presented during the event, with slides, and videos.
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.
RouteZero - Full-stack software engineer - Ā£30-35k - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
RouteZero is hiring a full-stack developer (Flutter and Typescript). We're decarbonising our customer's largest source of emissions: travel. We aim to prevent millions of tonnes of COā entering the atmosphere by helping customers deploy the most effective carbon-cutting actions, from low-carbon travel booking to carbon budgets and social influence tools.
Elemental Excelerator - Portfolio Experience Analyst - $54,600 - $85,400 - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
This role will be responsible for activating our community of engaged founders through the development of program communications, founder tools, newsletters, and general outreach, as well as supporting the organization and execution of portfolio-facing events and Elemental's accelerator program tracks. This is a dynamic position that works both cross-collaboratively within the organization to provide transparency across portfolio team initiatives, and directly with companies to help them scale and make a positive impact.
Elemental Excelerator - Policy Lab Senior Operations Manager - $86,500-$140,100/year - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
Elemental is seeking a passionate self-starter to serve as a Policy Lab Senior Operations. This position will report to Elemental's Managing Director, Policy and support our work and systems to help Elemental's portfolio companies and key policy leaders scale climate solutions with deep community impact. The role will also work closely with our Senior Policy Advisor who leads our Policy Fellows program and with our Senior Manager of Portfolio Experience who supervises coaching and other supports for our portfolio companies. The role requires excellent collaboration skills, strong workflow management, strong execution and attention to detail, and ability to create and maintain systems that assess key trends and data to enable innovation and impact in our team's work.
Elemental Excelerator - Developer in Residence - The starting hourly rate for this opportunity is $150/hr. - Contract - Flexible - remote ok
Elemental is seeking a Developer in Residence to join our team and support our portfolio of climate tech entrepreneurs as they navigate the complexities of deploying a first-of-a-kind (FOAK) or early commercial climate tech project. In addition to bringing your expertise as a project developer to 1:1 and group work with our portfolio companies, you will serve as a thought partner to Elemental as we work to develop and build out more support offerings for our portfolio, including a roster of specialized project developers to support their journey.
Ford Foundation - Technology Fellow - 117k - 136k USD - Permanent - Onsite only
Ford Foundation's Natural Resources and Climate Change International (NRCC-I) team is hiring a Technology Fellow to join their team. The Tech Fellow will integrate into the NRCC team on a two-year contract, , and will also be a part of the broader Technology Fellowship Program, which was created to support integrated learning and action at the intersection of social justice and technology throughout the work of the foundation.
The Nature Conservancy - Agile Team Coach - $88,300 - $132,500 - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
At The Nature Conservancy, "Alongside communities, weāre urgently clearing obstacles and finding solutions to the climate and biodiversity crises...To make the highest possible impact on the climate and biodiversity crises between now and 2030, weāre developing breakthrough ideas, amplifying local leaders and influencing policy." This position is with the IT department in the Worldwide Office. IT teams this position will support develop and maintain systems for data analytics and tracking, membership efforts, geospatial systems, and more.
Qflow - Business Development Manager - UK - Up to Ā£60K (plus up to double OTE) - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
After successfully raising an oversubscribed Series A investment round, our technical team is now growing. We are seeking a talented Business Development Manager who is eager to contribute to building a sustainable future. If you are passionate about sustainability, believe that with cutting-edge technology we can address tangible issues, you value radical transparency, unstoppable tenacity and encourage collaboration and curiosity within your team, this opportunity is tailor-made for you.
Weāre looking for someone that can identify and develop new business opportunities, building and maintaining relationships with key clients and growing the company's customer. Developing and implementing Qflowās business development strategies, you will help to drive revenue growth and market share.
GitHub - Environmental Sustainability Senior Program Manager - USD $89,200.00 - USD $236,600.00 /Yr. - Permanent - Totally remote
This Senior Program Manager role will be responsible for further developing GitHubās environmental sustainability vision, establishing and leading cross company sustainability governance through programming, product, and tooling. This individual will be accountable for growing our culture of sustainability, activating our employee and developer communities to contribute to the protection of our world.
Verna - Senior Full-Stack Software Engineer - Ā£80-90k + share options - Permanent - Totally remote
Verna builds software to help people manage land in the best way for the environment ā enhancing biodiversity and drawing down carbon, whilst making sustainable returns. Weāve raised over Ā£2m funding from private investors, including Octopus Ventures, and the UK Government. Our first products are in the market with good customer engagement: ForestFounder helps landowners and policymakers unlock treeplanting opportunities, and Mycelia supports regulators to implement Biodiversity Net Gain. We are looking for a senior software engineer. While this is a full-stack role, the emphasis will be on back-end engineering. You will need to work in Elixir. Prior experience with Elixir or Erlang is preferable, but we will consider candidates with prior experience of other functional languages.
University of Vienna - University assistant predoctoral (PhD student) - The basic monthly salary of EUR 3277,30 (on a full-time basis) increases if we can credit professional experience. - Contract - Onsite only
The aim of the PhD project is to address issues of environmental and climate mobility with the help of GeoAI and knowledge graphs. Growing empirical evidence on the relation between climate change and human mobility remains ambiguous, as research highlights nonlinearity, multicausality, and context dependency. The division is widening between detailed, micro-level case studies with valuable local insights but limited generalizability, and macro-level global and national assessments that often miss local nuances. A key challenge is to integrate & analyze data across different layers, scales, and stakeholders. Such data are challenging to model computationally, because they encode different perspectives. These difficulties in handling multi-perspective data have substantial consequences for analyzing such data and, thus, quantifying migration pressure, resilience, etc., be it using established methods or novel techniques from GeoAI or spatially-explicit machine learning.
Supercritical - Director of Climate Science; Climate Scientist - Director of Climate Science: Ā£110k - Ā£130k; Climate Scientist: Ā£52,5k - Ā£62,5k - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
You will play a vital role in helping us achieve our goal of removing 500m tonnes over the next 10 years and to become the number one marketplace for carbon removal by volume globally by 2025.
Marble - Process Engineer - Full Time - Competitive compensation and equity package based on profile & experience. - Permanent - Onsite only
Marble is a climate tech venture studio. Our mission: bring the world at least one gigaton closer to net zero and create a future that thrives. This role is for a new stealth company created by Marble which uses cutting edge electrochemistry and advanced energy storage technologies for net zero emissions, with a total impact potential in the multi gigaton scale.
Marble - Engineer, Electrochemistry & Energy storage - Full time - Competitive compensation and equity package based on profile & experiences. - Permanent - Onsite only
Marble is a climate tech venture studio. Our mission: bring the world at least one gigaton closer to net zero and create a future that thrives. This role is for a new stealth company created by Marble which uses cutting edge electrochemistry and advanced energy storage technologies for net zero emissions, with a total impact potential in the multi gigaton scale.
We are looking for a mission-driven and experienced research engineer specialised in electrochemistry and energy storage, to build the first fully integrated prototype of a unique technology with a 10x improvement potential on current benchmarks.
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