🌍 CAT Newsletter 231 - 2024-08-04
Hey CATs,
Welcome to issue 231 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 😌 💚 🐱
CAT Community News
🙋 Get involved
1️⃣ Missed the CAT July Open Meeting, during which we discussed CAT projects and mini grants, updates on CAT as a CIC (Community Interest Company), and more? Fear not, you can catch up with Melissa's thread in #4-cat-events or see the full meeting notes in Outline (log in with your CAT Slack account to view). A few particular areas that need help:
- #climate-careers: How can we make the channel more useful? Reply in the thread 🧵
- New short-term committee: Help us create standards & a process for vetting potential collaborators (3-5 meetings) - interest form
2️⃣ Get involved in local things! Local events were shared in #local-vancouver, #local-san-francisco-bay-area and #local-australia. G said hi in #local-scotland and O said hi in #local-aotearoa. A shared a volunteer opportunity in #local-uk. L talked about the tech workers coalition in #local-netherlands. @Aydin Mshared a speaker opportunity in #local-germany. And there were also events in #local-leeds, #local-munich, and #local-new-york recently. Did you attend? What did you learn?
🏝️ Taking a break
- #cat-roulette will be back in September (see channel host @Brett Duboff's message in the channel)
- CAT organisers are taking a break from Aug 5th - Aug 18th
🧠 Knowledge base deepdive
Films, Books, Media: Looking for climate-related content recommendations for your summer (or winter) vacation? Log into the CAT knowledge base with your CAT Slack account to explore what other CATs are reading, watching, or listening to, and help a fellow CAT learn something new by adding your own recommendations.
Media, events, and news
😺 CAT recommendations
🌱 A cutting from Branch issue 8
Rabbit Holes of Perfection
"Tech has to broaden its view to accommodate uncertainty – it needs to acknowledge that carbon calculation will always be a work in progress, and start acting on "good enough" data.
Medicine has to broaden its view to acknowledge the interconnectedness of the planet, people and all other life on earth. We know our anthropocentric viewpoint must shift. We just need to do it.
Neither of these shifts are easy. Both are overdue."
▶️ CAT videos
10-15 minute videos providing accessible explainers to climate related issues.
Planet A: Nuclear waste is reusable. Why aren't we doing it?
A nuclear fuel rod is used for 3-6 years. After that, it's taken out of the reactor and then continues to stay radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years. Talk about inefficiency. But French nuclear fuel company ORANO is one of the very few companies recycling nuclear fuel on a commercial scale – and has led this field for decades. We went there to find out why.
🎤 Podcasts
The latest climate-related podcast episodes. Don't forget, if you're looking around, there's a list of podcasts maintained by CATs
Volts: How to cram EV fast chargers into tight urban spaces
NYC's Revel is trying to build urban EV fast chargers and demand for those chargers (in the form of its own EV rideshare network) simultaneously. In this episode, Revel's Tobias Lescht discusses the challenges of urban fast charging and the company's plans to expand beyond NYC.
Zero: The unstoppable march toward electrification: The Grid Series
As the world moves away from fossil fuels, the electricity grid will need to be able to handle a greater and greater load. In the second installment of Zero's grid series, Akshat Rathi sits down with Scottish Power CEO Keith Anderson to talk about what that looks like in the UK. They discussed the promise of GB Energy, the challenges of hiring qualified engineers, and what the new Labour government can do to speed up the UK's energy transition.
Catalyst with Shayle Khan: Pathways to decarbonizing steel
A conventional blast furnace produces almost two tons of carbon dioxide for every ton of steel. And with almost two billion tons of steel produced annually — roughly 500 pounds for every human, every year — that's a lot of carbon: about 8% of global energy system emissions. So why does steel production emit so much CO2? And what are the pathways to fixing it?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Rebecca Dell, senior director of the industry program at the Climateworks Foundation
Environment Variables: A Greener Internet that Sleeps More
Host Chris Adams and guest Romain Jacob delve into the often-overlooked energy demands of networking infrastructure to discover A Greener Internet that Sleeps More. While AI and data centers usually dominate the conversation, networking still consumes significant power, comparable to the energy usage of entire countries. Romain talks about his recent Hypnos paper, which won Best Paper at HotCarbon 2024. He shares his team's award-winning research on how energy demand for networking kit powering the internet can be reduced by simply by powering down links when not in use.
Green IO #43 - Digital sustainability in a Tech behemoth: Japan with Trista Bridges and Paul Beddie
How can a country defining itself as an high-tech spearheader can embrace IT sustainability? Japan is a fascinating example of both the contradictions and the synergies that such a journey creates. In this episode, Gael Duez welcomes two long-time Japan-based experts: Paul Beddie, VP and Sustainability Lead at Capgemini, and Trista Bridges, the co-author of Leading Sustainably, and a member of EcoVadis' Purpose Committee. Their exchange on IT sustainability initiatives in Japan led to many takeaways including: the stakeholder-oriented nature of Japanese society, the emergence of Japanese startups focusing on sustainability, the role of regulations in driving sustainability efforts in Japan, And much more.
The Verge Decoder: AI has a climate problem — but so does all of tech
How do you decide if AI is 'worth' the energy?
But putting a bunch of computers in a data center and running them at full tilt is how basically everything works now. If you have a moral objection to AI based on climate concerns, you might have a moral objection to TikTok and YouTube as well, which are constantly ingesting and encoding millions of hours of video. What framework should we use to evaluate the climate impact of those and how we feel about how they're used?
To help sort it out, I've invited Verge senior science reporter Justine Calma on the show to see if we can untangle this knot. Let us know how we did.
📅 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 Aug 08 2024 - CEN Workshop: Guidelines and Requirements for Ending Fossil Fuel Use in Supply Chains
The absence of standardized criteria for fossil-free products leads to confusion and hinders progress in reducing fossil fuel reliance. This workshop aims to create a clear framework to guide companies in transitioning to renewable energy, increase consumer confidence through transparent claims, and help regulatory bodies implement effective policies.
Sun Aug 29 2027 - Biodiversity Basics for Product Professionals
The products we build rely on and affect nature. This workshop will address:
- What is biodiversity and why is it relevant for product professionals
- What can you do & practical examples
- Your takeaway: first biodiversity analysis along your product's value chain
Thu Sep 19 2024 - How to: Embrace Imperfect Climate Action - with Sami Grover
Join Sami Grover, writer and author of 'We Are All Climate Hypocrites Now' to explore how embracing our limitations can unlock the power of a movement. Sami will help us move past blame, shame and carbon footprints to practical pathways to action that actually make a difference.
Wed Oct 02 2024 - BBC Climate Creatives Conference 2024
Climate Creatives returns for its fourth annual conference in association with BBC Academy Fusion.
Tue Oct 08 2024 - The Global Nature Positive Summit 2024
Global Nature Positive Summit aims to boost private sector investment to protect and repair our environment. With a focus on solutions to climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss.
Fri Oct 11 2024 - Better Software
Italian Conference about Sustainable IT
Mon Oct 14 2024 - SxSW Sydney
From a grassroots start in Austin TX, 1987 to a new, second home in Sydney Australia. Tech Innovation with track focus on Energy, Climate & Sustainability
📰 News Highlights
Mother Jones: The Fraught Election to Determine Who Will Call the Shots on Deep-Sea Mining
The outcome of today's balloting for International Seabed Authority chief could have major consequences for ocean health. The battle for leadership might sound to the average person like a remote, technical concern. But the election of the authority's secretary general comes at a pivotal moment for deep-sea mining and therefore for the future of the world's oceans.
Bloomberg: Uber Partners With BYD on Putting Its Drivers Into 100,000 EVs
Under the multiyear partnership, the two companies will offer drivers lower vehicle pricing and financing. The tie-up will start in Europe and Latin America, then expand to the Middle East, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, Uber and BYD said Wednesday in a statement.
The alliance bolsters Uber's efforts to transition the fleet of vehicles on its ride service to EVs — an initiative Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi warned early this year was running off track.
Politico: Heat wave blanketing Olympics 'impossible' without climate change
The blistering temperatures engulfing athletes and fans at the Paris Olympics in recent days are connected to a month-long heat bender that would have been "virtually impossible" without man-made climate change, leading climate scientists have concluded.
A day after athletes resorted to draping ice bags over their shoulders in temperatures topping 35 degrees Celsius, a World Weather Attribution analysis showed that fossil fuel emissions had made the heat baking the Mediterranean region between 2.5 degrees Celsius and 3.3 degrees Celsius hotter.
Green Web Foundation: carbon.txt – Applying lessons from crowdsourcing net zero data
In a recent post, we shared a few lessons learned from working with our friends at Wikirate to understand how much of the internet was covered by credible net zero targets. We described how hard it could be to crowdsource meaningful data about the climate ambitions of the largest firms online and why this was the case.
We also hinted at carbon.txt—a new project we're kicking off to improve the discoverability of sustainability data thanks to funding from NGI Search. In this post we outline how carbon.txt aims to address these issues and where you can get involved.n
Carbon brief: 'Every 0.1C' of overshoot above 1.5C increases risk of crossing tipping points
Every increment of global warming above 1.5C increases the risk of crossing key tipping points in the Earth system – even if the overshoot is only temporary, says new research. The new study, published in Nature Communications, investigates the risk of crossing four interconnected tipping points under different "policy-relevant" future emissions scenarios.
They find that the longer the 1.5C threshold is breached, and the higher the peak temperature, the greater the risk of crossing tipping points.
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. Remember: if you're looking for advice finding a role, check our #climate-careers channel.
Icebreaker One - Django developer - 400 GBP day for around 5 days - Contract - Flexible - remote ok
We are looking for a django developer to take an existing open source community directory application, designed for finding members with complementary skills and interests, and customise it needs within our network for a short project. The open source project is linked in the job description.
Open Energy Transition - Full-stack/Backend/Frontend Software Engineer - EUR 40-80K/year for full-stack/backend, 30-60K for frontend/UX - Permanent - Totally remote
Open Energy Transition is a non-profit energy tech company that uses and develops open-source software solutions and contributes to open data to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable, accessible and reliable energy. Our goal is to increase the pace and reduce the cost of energy system planning decisions through open collaboration and innovation. We are looking to hire 2 software engineers for two projects: a cloud compute solution for solving large energy models, and a solver benchmark website that compares various OSS/proprietary solvers on energy modelling benchmarks. The goal is to build robust, secure, and efficient open-source software to be used for energy and climate modelling and play a part in accelerating the climate transition.
PowerX.co - Senior Full Stack Software Engineer - $136,000 to $204,000 - Permanent -
PowerX is building energy management solutions for businesses, starting with restaurants. We believe that by equipping restaurants with the best tools to use less energy and save money, we can tackle climate change, one store at a time. PowerX is seeking a Senior Full Stack Software Engineer to play a foundational technical role in our product journey. In this role, you will be tasked with developing our product, which includes collaborating with other engineers, product owners, designers, and data team to architect, implement, and maintain new and existing features.
BlueConduit - Data Scientist - $125-145K - Permanent -
BlueConduit was founded in 2019 in response to the Flint water crisis. First in Flint, and then across the country, we pioneered the predictive modeling approach to lead service line identification and replacement, accelerating the removal of this significant health concern and saving communities millions of dollars in avoided digs. We are passionate about using data science and AI for public good, improving social equity, and protecting the environment, and are now working in new ways to help serve communities' needs outside lead service line replacement.
Verna - Software Engineers (multiple) - circa £70k + share options - Permanent - Totally remote
Verna builds software to help people manage land in the best way for the environment – enhancing biodiversity and drawing down carbon, whilst making sustainable returns. Our main B2B SaaS product supports ecologists and planning professionals to ensure that developments enhance nature. Verna has been backed by the UK Government and investors including Octopus Ventures. We have substantial, and growing, revenues and reserves.
We are looking for two software engineers to expand our product development team. We seek talented, flexible, creative engineers who are happy to get stuck into all aspects of developing compelling, effective, and accessible product experiences.
Like ecosystems, teams are more vibrant, innovative, and resilient when they are more diverse. We welcome applications from everyone, and particularly people from under-represented groups of every kind.
Fresh Food Connect - Board Member - Volunteer
Fresh Food Connect is a nationwide nonprofit that mobilizes gardeners to support hunger relief through homegrown produce donations. We're looking to expand our board this year and would love to consider a CAT community member.
Are you passionate about food/ag systems, hunger relief, gardening, local climate solutions, and/or community building? Do you have experience in tech development, strategic partnerships, legal, or finance? If so, please consider applying! Bonus if you're in San Diego or Seattle, our next two expansion cities.
Harris for President - Climate Engagement Director - 90-110k USD - Permanent - Onsite only
The Climate Engagement Director will manage the campaign's national programmatic efforts to reach, engage, and mobilize climate voters nationwide. An organizer at heart, this ultimate utility player will build and manage the Climate Voters for Harris program.
The Director will work with partners across the campaign and with key stakeholders to break through the noise about what's at stake for the climate community this election, build relationships with trusted messengers to reach the community where they are, and mobilize a critical coalition of leaders to enthusiastically elect Vice President Harris.
Paratus - Full-Stack Software Engineer - £70-80k - Permanent
Paratus is building the world's first energy price risk insurance, solving the primary challenge for deploying renewables: financing.
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