đ CAT Newsletter 218 - 2024-05-05
CAT 218 - 2024-04-05
Hey CATs,
Welcome to issue 218 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 out our onboarding checklist.
Remember you can unsubscribe from this newsletter at any time - the link is at the bottom.
Stay safe & healthy đ đ đ±
CAT Community News
#ïžâŁ Slack channel highlights
#5-introductions: After a conversation in #6-cat-community-feedback, @Mohit established a new format for the introductions channel! Whether you're new or re-introducing yourself to the community, please follow the format in @Mohit's pinned post!
#local-italy: We've got a new channel host for #local-italy - @Nicola Bonotto is volunteering to coordinate any virtual or in-person meeting between the members of this channel, share local climate content/news/petitions/events, and discuss climate and technology in Italy!
And we've done another channel cleanup! Channel 2 was renamed to #2-greener-software to make the purpose of our community clearer to new joiners.
- It's a space to share news, projects, individual efforts towards making software & the tech industry more sustainable. Kind of like an umbrella for all the #greener- channels.
- Please help this channel grow by posting or forwarding important discussions from the #greener- channels
We also deleted a few channels and we brought back #carbon-footprint by popular demand!
đ§ Knowledge base deepdive
Websites for booking train journeys in Europe: Making plans for a summer trip across Europe? Log into the CAT knowledge base with your CAT Slack account to discover websites that can help you plan a more sustainable journey, and help a fellow CAT green their travel by updating the recommendations.
đ CAT events
Wed, May 1 - Amsterdam [in person]: @Jenny D is trying to coordinate a #local-netherlands meetup (more info)
Fri, May 17 - Zurich [in person]: Zurich hackathon (more info)
Tue, May 21 - Vienna [in person]:Â CAT meetup
Other local events are being planned in #local-aotearoa and events were shared in #local-australia, #local-germany, #local-italy, #local-new-york, and #local-uk.
đ© Community networking
Get to know other CATs and make some friends in the community. Every 2 weeks, we match 2-3 CATs so you can connect over a quick 30-minute call. Simply join #cat-roulette, pick your region and wait for a message from Donut about your match! Our next round of matches will go out on Fri, May 10. More info
Media, events, and news
đș CAT recommendations
đ± A cutting from Branch
Branch Issue 8 is out!
Issue 8 of Branch, the online magazine written by and for people who dream of a sustainable and just internet for all, is finally out! Full of writing by CATs, for CATs, it covers the intersection of technology and climate justice, and with the theme "Finding beauty in the imperfect".
Read the letter from the editors, Hannah Smith of the Green Web Foundation and Marketa Benisek of Wholegrain Digital for a preview, or just dive into any of the other 22 new pieces.
â¶ïž CAT videos
10-15 minute videos providing accessible explainers to climate related issues.
PBS Terra: Does "Every Little Thing" REALLY Stop Climate Change?
Recycling, planting trees, and going vegan are just a handful of the many ways to reduce our carbon footprint. Companies and countries do it too, performing small individual tasks anywhere at any time to "save the planet." But these small actions have little impact when compared to the vast polluting and emissions-intensive systems that underpin modern society. In this episode, join Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant to explore how making individuals fully responsible for reducing emissions can be counterproductive to combat climate change.
đ€Â Podcasts
The latest climate-related podcast episodes. Don't forget, if you're looking around, there's a list of podcasts maintained by CATs
Outrage and Optimism 244: Movies, Mosses, and Stories to Change The World
This week, Tom and Christiana are in Seattle recording in the Amazon studio where they are joined by special guest Kara Hurst, Chief Sustainability Officer at Amazon. Together they bring you an eclectic mix of topics of outrage and optimism ranging from the introduction of the Bechdel test for climate change, storytelling with the national geographic and mosses!
Shift Key: How Jigar Shah Thinks About Risk
Jigar Shah might have more control over America's new wave of industrial policy â not to mention its climate policy â than anyone not named Joe Biden. And he's not even a Cabinet-level official. As director of the Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office, which is akin to its in-house bank, Shah oversees how roughly $400 billion in lending authority will be spent. That money will help finance new EV factories, geothermal wells, carbon capture sites, and more.
On this week's episode, Rob sits down with Shah to discuss the philosophy that he brings to his role.
Environment Variables: Building Green Software
In this episode of Environment Variables, host Chris Adams explores the theme of Community Publishing and Greening Software, by talking to Branch Magazine's Hannah Smith and Marketa Benisek. They discuss community publishing and the lessons learned from producing Branch Magazine. The discussion covers the complexities of adopting digital sustainability and how Branch Magazine, through its innovative, carbon-aware design, has been a platform for expressing these nuanced themes in sustainability and how finding beauty in the imperfect might just be the answer to all your problems!
Green IO #37 - How to be a climate-conscious product manager with Antonia Landi and François Burra
In product management, there is a strong culture of adapting to change, testing, and rapid learning. How can product leaders include climate considerations into the build and run of digital services and scale sustainable practices? In this episode, Gael interviews two hands-on experts and daily practitioners in product management on how to become a climate-conscious PMs. Antonia Landi, based in Germany, is a strong voice in ProductOps, and François Burra, based in Canada, is the co-author of the Climate Product Management Playbook
đ 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 May 09 2024 - Creating a winning pitch deck for fundraising
Our virtual event will give founders plenty of advice and actionable tips to create a winning pitch deck to secure that all-important investment.
We're excited to have Arjun Jairaj (A/O) and Amy Varney (Systemiq), two seasoned investors, sharing their insights as our speakers.
Thu May 16 2024 - Climate Action Week Sydney - Does Cloud Co$t the Earth?
"Does Cloud Cost the Earth?", Every decision in the cloud has a 'cost, an economic cost, and an environmental cost. We're asking if decision making is costing businesses and the planet more than it should. Is it the technology or is it the way we are using it?
Thu May 16 2024 - Building a Climate Action Habit Into a Busy Life
Whether you're at the start of your climate and nature journey, or you've been taking action for a while but feel in a bit of a rut, this session will leave you feeling energised and ready to be part of building a better world. Use code CAT for a free ticket.
Fri May 17 2024 - Climate Solutions Intensive â A two-day deep dive into strategy, scenarios, and systems thinking (California)
The course delves into climate solutions, impacts, and system structures. Gain clarity on high-leverage actions you or your team can take to address the climate and equity challenges, using En-ROADSâa global simulator Climate Interactive co-developed with MIT
Thu May 30 2024 - Introduction to Digital Sustainability Workshop
This in-person workshop in Brighton on 30 May will pilot a Digital Sustainability Strategy card game. All welcome and free to participate, but places are limited. We'll explore the use of creativity and play to increase awareness and share best practice around sustainable ICT.
đ° News Highlights
Carbon Brief: Analysis - Mexico election 2024: What the manifestos say on energy and climate change
Mexican citizens will go to the polls on 2 June 2024 to elect a new president, a new legislature and thousands of other local government officials. Three candidates â two of whom are women â are contending to succeed the current leftwing president AndrĂ©s Manuel LĂłpez Obrador. This could be the first time a woman is elected as president of Mexico.
In the interactive grid below, Carbon Brief compares the three presidential candidates' proposals on energy, climate and biodiversity, based on manifestos, official webpages and other key official documents.
Grist: The world agreed to create a climate reparations fund. Now comes the hard part.
After three decades of work, advocates for developing countries scored a major win at last year's United Nations climate change conference in Dubai: World leaders unanimously agreed to set up a climate reparations fund. Now the tedious, unsexy â and often boring â work of setting up the fund is just beginning.Â
This week, a 26-member board is meeting for the first time to discuss the administrative and institutional policies required to operationalize the fund and dole money out to developing countries in need.
Canary Media: Chart: One in five new cars sold this year will be battery-powered
It's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day messiness of the transitioning auto industry, but if you take a step back, the long-term trend is clear. More than one-fifth of the vehicles sold worldwide will be an EV or a PHEV this year. In 2018, just about 2 percent of cars sold fit into this category.Â
Green Web Foundation: Why we joined the Real Time Cloud Carbon Footprint working group in the Green Software Foundation
"Last year, we joined the Real Time Cloud working group in the Green Software Foundation, a project that has set out to define consistent, standard ways to report the carbon intensity of the computing hours sold by large cloud providers. We speak to friendly infrastructure specialist Ross Fairbanks, who maintains our cloud carbon intensity software libraries written in Go, and represents the Green Web Foundation in the working group, to learn more. "
Tom's Hardware: New PCB design is repeatably recyclable â vitrimer PCBs could save millions of tons in eWaste, say UW researchers
Standard PCBs are known for being fireproof and chemical-proof, but as a result, they are notoriously difficult to reuse or recycle in any way. However, research published by the University of Washington points towards a new way of making more environmentally-conscious, actually recyclable PCBs. The new so-called 'vPCBs' (or vitrimer PCBs) are repeatedly recyclable, with very little material going to waste during the recycling process.
Reuters: How Volvo landed a cheap Chinese EV on U.S. shores in a trade war
A made-in-China electric vehicle will hit U.S. dealers this summer offering power and efficiency similar to the Tesla Model Y, the world's best-selling EV, but for about $8,000 less.
The EX30 from Volvo Cars the Swedish luxury brand owned by China's Geely foreshadows the fierce competitive threat U.S. automakers could face from Chinese EV manufacturers that have surged far ahead of global rivals, especially on affordability. The $35,000 window sticker of Volvo's compact SUV hits a sweet spot in the U.S. market, where most buyers cannot afford most EVs
Heatmap: The Oil Money Funding Trump's Legal Defense
ith $6.4 million, you could pay to remove 4,923 tons of carbon from the atmosphere. You could buy 533 used Chevy Bolts â far more than enough to give one to every incoming freshman at Swarthmore College â or supply an entire county with low- and no-emissions buses.
Or, if you're the oil and gas industry, you could donate it to the former president of the United States to help cover his mounting legal fees.
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.
TransitionZero - Product Manager - ÂŁ 44,286.17 - ÂŁ51,808.55 - Permanent - Onsite only
We are a climate analytics not-for-profit established in 2021. We're building easy to use energy transition modelling software to give governments, businesses and investors the tools to understand and decide how to transition to carbon free energy. The Product Manager will work collaboratively with the Head of Product on the product strategy and roadmap for our energy systems modelling software. A key aspect of the role will be to drive usage of and engagement with the product.
Marble - Founder in Residence, Geothermal - Anywhere - 2.5-3K per month - Contract - Flexible - remote ok
Dive into the geothermal revolution and help unlock clean, sustainable energy for our planet. We're on the hunt for entrepreneurial engineers/scientists from geothermal, oil & gas, or similar sectors. If you're passionate about innovation and ready to explore cutting-edge approaches to power the net zero economy, we want you.
ExpectAI - Full Stack Engineer & Data Scientist - ÂŁ35-45K, commensurate with experience - Permanent -
Join me in building ExpectAI's climate action platform that enables our customers to find and take profitable decarbonisation actions with confidence
Icebreaker One - Trust Framework Solutions Architect - Up to ÂŁ500/day - Contract - 3 days/wk until Dec 2024 - Totally remote
Icebreaker One is a UK-headquartered non-profit working to improve data sharing between organisations in order to accelerate the transition to net zero. Inspired by the explosion of financial service innovation brought about by Open Banking, we are applying the same model, known as a Trust Framework, to collaboratively design, govern and operate secure data sharing infrastructure across the economy. The Trust Framework Solutions Architect will help organisations from startups to PLCs understand and participate in these ecosystems from a technical perspective.
Terawatt Infrastructure - Senior Manager, Grants & Incentives - $160,000-$180,000 - Permanent - Onsite only
Looking for someone to lead critical grant and incentive acquisition and execution strategies in the EV space! Terawatt is an EV fleet charging company looking to decarbonize fleet transportation.
The Chancery Lane Project - Principal User Researcher - ÂŁ60k to ÂŁ70k - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
The Chancery Lane Project helps organisations reduce emissions using the power of legal contracts. We do this because contracts govern the entire global economy, and changing these contracts is one of the fastest ways of tackling the climate crisis. We're looking for a Principal User Researcher to set the standards for research in the organisation, lead research in the most critical areas of our work and train others to do their own disposable, lightweight research.
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