🌍 CAT Newsletter 240 - 2024-10-06
Hey CATs,
Welcome to issue 240 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.
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Stay safe & healthy 😌 💚 🐱
CAT Community News
✏️ From the blog
In our latest post we share highlights from Green IO London. Read our summary of what we learned about digital sustainability, AI, and taking climate action at work. If you attended the event, head to #local-london to share learnings & reflections!
🧠 Knowledge base deepdive
Greener Design: Get inspired to green your design practice by browsing this collection of resources, suggested actions, sustainable design principles, and more. Log into the CAT knowledge base with your CAT Slack account to challenge the way you design websites or other digital products, and learn to reflect on the broader impact and context of your work.
📅 CAT events
Tue, Oct 15 - London [in-person]: Code Green London x CAT Meetup (more info in #local-london)
Note: We are closing our MeetUp account (more on this decision in our notes from our Open Meeting in July). Where can you go to find upcoming CAT events? We'll continue to announce CAT events right here as well as in #4-cat-events. Also keep an eye on your #local channel to find any informal or formal events where you can meet fellow CATs.
🍩 Community networking
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, Oct 18th. More info
Media, events, and news
😺 CAT recommendations
🪧 Campaign spotlight: Enabled emissions from AI
This is an experimental section, where we draw attention to campaigns relevant to CATs.
Mozilla: Tell Microsoft - AI Shouldn't Fuel the Climate Crisis
The Mozilla community is supporting the call of current and former Microsoft employees to stop using custom AI tools to help oil and gas giants extract more dangerous fossil fuels. If you agree, add your name to this petition now.
For more, see the recent articles Grist: Microsoft employees spent years fighting the tech giant’s oil ties. Now, they’re speaking out, and the Atlantic: Microsoft’s Hypocrisy on AI.
▶️ CAT videos
10-15 minute videos providing accessible explainers to climate related issues.
Planet A: The race to solve solar energy's recycling problem
Right now, millions of old solar panels are headed for landfills. This is not just really bad news for the environment as there are heavy metals like cadmium or lead in some of them, it's also a huge waste of raw materials. Within the EU, solar panels already have to be recycled. But companies are still chasing the tech that makes it viable to reuse the recovered materials in new solar panels.
🎤 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: A closer look at Pennsylvania, the swingiest of swing states
In this episode, I explore the political landscape of Pennsylvania with state Rep. Leanne Krueger. We discuss the state's nail-biting elections, the outsized political presence of fracking, and the uphill battle for clean energy legislation in a divided legislature. Krueger provides a boots-on-the-ground perspective on climate and energy politics in this key swing state.
Zero: Colombia is quitting fossil fuels. Can it convince other countries to follow its lead?
What if major economies all just agreed to quit fossil fuels — together? To date, 13 countries have signed a fossil fuel nonproliferation treaty. The biggest is Colombia, which has a $40 billion economic transition plan to build up green sectors and replace oil and gas revenue. Now Colombia is hoping to recruit other large economies to follow suit.
Catalyst with Shayle Khan: DAC's bumpy road to commercial scale
The world's first large-scale, commercial direct-air capture (DAC) plants are coming online – or are about to. How soon will we see a boom in high-quality, durable DAC supply?
In this episode, Shayle talks to Andreas Aepli, chief financial officer of Climeworks, the world's largest provider of DAC. They talk about Climeworks' challenges with its two commercial plants – challenges Andreas argues the industry needs to be transparent about in order to earn the trust of skeptical buyers.
The Week in Green Software: The Sustainable Data Paradox
This Week in Green Software, the affable Anne Currie is joined by Sara Bergman, Senior Software Engineer at Microsoft and co-author of Building Green Software. Together, they dive into the complexities of sustainable data in relation to AI and cloud computing. They explore the environmental impact of managing and storing vast quantities of data, and question the feasibility of making these processes more eco-friendly. The discussion touches on cloud providers' carbon reporting, the importance of using AI responsibly, and how businesses can optimize their cloud use to minimize their environmental footprint. Tune in for an insightful conversation on balancing technological advancements with sustainability in the age of AI.
Green IO #46 - Green SEO with Natalie Arney and Stuart Davies
Green SEO? Not the most widespread concept in the sustainability field. Still, seasoned web designers and developers know it well: folks in charge of SEO often have the final say when it comes to content, design and even sometimes technical choices. And on top of this influence, SEO practices also carry their own environmental footprint being very data hungry.
In this episode, Gaël DUEZ invites two seasoned SEO practitioners and pillars of BrightonSEO - one of the world's top conferences on the topic - Stuart Davies, founder of the Ethical Agency Creative Bloom, and Nathalie Arney, an SEO Consultant with a knack for sustainability to explore Green SEO.
📅 Submitted events
Want an event listed here? Use this event listing form to submit the details so we can add it in the newsletter.
Tue Oct 08 2024 - How to make your money fossil free
Join Green Squirrel & Lisa Stanley from Good with Money to help us navigate the connections between our finances and the fossil fuel industry. You'll leave with impactful actions that you can put into practice right away.
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.
Thu Oct 10 2024 - Charities doing cool things in green tech (hybrid event)
A hybrid event as part of Bristol Tech Festival with talks from two charities doing cool things in green tech - Centre for Sustainable Energy and Friends of the Earth. Join us in person in Bristol, UK or online
Thu Oct 10 2024 - Digital Collage workshop
A 3-hour workshop to understand, as a team and in a fun way, the impact of digital technologies on the environment and how to reduce it. Space generously provided by Creekside Discovery Centre in Deptford
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
Thu Oct 24 2024 - Design Systems Community Austin - monthly meetup
Monthly IRL design systems meetup in Austin, always open to those working on climate, green tech, and sustainable product design - https://designsystemsaustin.com
Tue Oct 29 2024 - Adapt NSW Forum - Pathways, Intersections & Evolution
AdaptNSW Forum - world class adaptation presenters, immersive workshops and interactive sessions. This year dedicated to catalysing action. We're bringing climate change adaptation specialists together for 2 days thought-provoking conversation & collective change making.
Wed Nov 27 2024 - Australian Climate Tech Connect & Awards 2024
One-of-a-kind opportunity to connect with investors, founders and industry leaders while celebrating the achievements of the Australian climate tech industry in 2024.
Tue Dec 10 2024 - The RIPE Green Tech Hackathon
Join the next RIPE NCC hackathon focused on Green Tech this December! This time, our goals are to develop tools, policies and protocols to reduce the environmental impact of Internet infrastructure. Apply now to join and help us organise this Sustain-a-thon!
📰 News Highlights
Forbes: Adam Neumann's Climate Company Is Issuing Refunds After Failing To Launch Crypto Token
Flowcarbon secured millions of dollars in funding from investors like Andreessen Horowitz to merge carbon credits with the blockchain, but its "Goddess Nature Token" never launched.
Grist: London saw a surprising benefit to fining high-polluting cars: More active kids
Restricting the volume of high-emitting vehicles roaming city streets carries many benefits, from clearing the air to quieting the urban din and beyond. Recognition of this simple fact has led to the proliferation of clean air zones, designated regions within a city where vehicles must meet strict pollution standards or pay a fee to operate within it. At last count, over 300 such areas had been established across Europe. In London, which boasts the largest ultra-low emissions zone in the world, a study has found a secondary benefit: Kids started walking and biking to school more.
The Cool Down: Experts uncover incredible side effects of traditional solar panels: 'We have to address both challenges at the same exact time
"We have to address both challenges at the same exact time," Rebecca Hernandez, an ecology professor at the University of California, Davis, told the New York Times. She's talking about tackling atmospheric pollution and biodiversity loss simultaneously, and solar meadows are proving to be a brilliant solution.
DatacenterDynamics: Google's CEO says company is considering nuclear power deals for data centers
Google's CEO said that the company is considering whether to power its data centers with nuclear power plants. Back in March, AWS acquired Talen Energy's data center campus next to the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania for $650 million.
Then, in September, Microsoft announced that it would take up 100 percent of a revived Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in a 837MW, 20-year deal.
Carbon Brief: Guest post: How solar geoengineering could disrupt wind and solar power
Solar geoengineering has been suggested as a temporary measure to buy time for the emissions cuts needed to stabilise global temperatures. These arguments have generally considered geoengineering as an independent component of the "toolbox" of options for climate change mitigation. However, this perspective overlooks the knock-on effects that pursuing solar geoengineering could have on reaching net-zero.
The Register: US may exempt latest chip fabs from eco red-tape, but power is still a trip
Intel and rivals including TSMC are fast-tracking plans for advanced fabs on US soil, all thanks to the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act providing public subsidies to foster domestic semiconductor production and R&D. A law bill [PDF], providing some exemptions for chip makers so they can sidestep environmental reviews and lawsuits that delay factory construction, is reportedly headed to President Joe Biden's desk for approval.
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 - Senior Project Manager - Up to £550/day - Contract - Totally remote
Icebreaker One is a non-profit that helps organisations across the economy share data more effectively to achieve their net-zero targets. Our programmes are collaborative efforts with a wide range of stakeholders to develop legal, technical and procedural solutions for trusted data sharing. We have been successful in winning new projects for the second half of 2024 and consequently need an experienced project manager to join our existing PM team to ensure our work is delivered on time and within scope.
4WARD's Global Climate Community - Climate "Local" Community Coordination Superstar - Unpaid Fellowship - Intern Fellowship - Totally remote
4WARD's has a part-time, unpaid fellowship to become a Climate Community Coordination Superstar to help plan, promote & support our 100s of local city meetup leaders.
Growth For Impact (hiring for client) - Senior Consultant - Climate Change & Sustainability - A$60T - A$95T/yr - Permanent - Onsite only
The client is one of the largest network of assurance, tax and consulting firms. Primary requirement-
- Carrying out sustainability baseline and materiality assessments and developing sustainability Roadmaps and Strategies.
- Working with the client to collect their data and develop a carbon account/inventory or Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 GHG emissions, as well climate risk assessments.
- Support clients in preparing for mandatory sustainability-related disclosure compliance in Australia and abroad.
- Developing Modern Slavery Statements. Qualifications- 3+ year's sustainability experience preferably within Professional Services or a relevant industry position
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