š CAT Newsletter 253 - 2025-01-26
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CAT 253 - 2025-01-26
Hey CATs,
Welcome to issue 253 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
#culture-societyĀ has a new channel host! Check outĀ C's introĀ here.
#carbon-footprint:Ā SĀ is wondering whether there's any guidance from either GHG Protocol or SBTi on how to incorporate Software related emissions inĀ this post.
š¦ Feedback & collab spotlight
- R is looking for good contacts at major sustainable web hosts (ideally those who are actively concerned about scraping in particular and AI in general) to help counter the UK government's plan to effectively abolish copyright. Once they've got the data, they'd also appreciate some graphic design help to explain the environmental impact argument she plans to make.Ā Get in touch in the thread.
- nAĀ isĀ looking for feedbackĀ on their browser extension that measures CO2 emissions.
š§ Knowledge base deep dive
Climate Action Starter: New to climate action or CAT? Log into the CAT knowledge base with your CAT Slack account and explore the resources in our action starter collection. If you're short on time, the How to Climate Action in Tech page offers simple tips to get you started. And if you feel any key resources are missing, you can always help a fellow CAT by adding your own suggestions.
š CAT events
Jan 29 Ā· 6:30pm Ā· London [in-person]:Ā Code Green London
Other chances to meet other CATs in person:
Jan 28 Ā·Ā #local-new-yorkĀ atĀ Climate Changemakers Manhattan
Feb 1-2 Ā·Ā #local-belgiumĀ atĀ FOSDEMĀ (more here)
Feb 13 Ā·Ā #local-netherlandsĀ at theĀ Green Software meet-upĀ
Mar 10-16 Ā·Ā #local-australiaĀ at theĀ Climate Action Week in SydneyĀ
š© Community networking
#cat-roulette is back to help you make new connections within the community! Every 2 weeks, we match 2-3 CATs so you can connect over a quick 30-minute call. Join #cat-roulette, pick your region and wait for a message from Donut. The next round of matches will go out on Fri, Feb 7th. More info.
Media, events, and news
šŗ CAT recommendations
ā¶ļø CAT videos
10-15 minute videos providing accessible explainers to climate related issues.
DW PLanet A: What's driving the global housing crisis (and how to fix it)
Climate change is contributing to rising housing prices, changing what areas are desirable and how we protect our homes. Disasters such as fires and flooding are becoming more frequent because human activity is warming the atmosphere and the oceans. In the midst of a housing affordability crisis, hereās how climate helps fuel gentrification, and what we can do about it.
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
Zero: To understand Trump's climate moves in his second term, look to the Reagan years
As Donald Trump returns to the White House, Akshat Rathi speaks to Yale historian Paul Sabin about whether recent presidential history might hold some lessons on what to expect from the Trump administrationās approach to energy and environmental policy this term. Looking back at the Carter and Reagan years, Sabin explores how present-day Trump prioritesā from dismantling government agencies to ramping up oil and gas productionāhave historical precedent. And Jonathan Lash, who was an environmental lawyer in the Reagan years, explains why heās feeling dĆ©jĆ vu in these early days of Trumpās second term.
Outrage And Optimism 2. What does Trump 2.0 mean for climate?
What will a Trump presidency mean for the climate movement? Hours after Trump takes office for the second time, Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson regroup to take stock and share their reactions to the US withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement. Guest Greg Bertelsen, chief executive of the Climate Leadership Council, offers his perspective on positive ways in which to engage with the Trump presidency on climate and Paul Dickinson shares what business leaders will be discussing at this weekās World Economic Forum in Davos.
Green IO #50 - Is Eroom's law the future of Moore's law? with Tristan Nitot
Moore's law is dead! Long live Eroom's law!
This provocative statement from Tristan Nitot highlights the pivotal role of software engineers in our journey as an industry toward a sustainable and more frugal digital world. The majority of our old devices, from smartphones to desktop, still work. How come that we waste such a massive gathering of precious resources such as minerals, energy, water and even our human time which we use to manufacture and maintain them? What should we do to break the trend of electronic waste and the ever-increasing footprint of the IT sector on our physical world?Ā
Gael Duez sat down with Tristan Nitot to start answering these questions.
Environment Variables - Deep Green Technologies
In this episode of Environment Variables, host Chris Adams sits down with Mark Bjornsgaard of Deep Green to explore a transformative approach to data center design and sustainability. Mark shares insights into how Deep Green reimagines traditional data centers by co-locating them in urban areas to provide heat reuse for facilities like swimming pools, district heating systems, and industrial processes. They discuss the challenges of planning and policy, the rise of high-density computing driven by AI, and the potential for data centers to become integral components of community infrastructure. Tune in to learn about the intersection of digital innovation and environmental responsibility, and how new business models can turn waste into opportunity.
š Submitted events
Wed Feb 05 2025 - Creative Career Coaching for Impact Work - 4 Week Online Group
This is an inspirational, learning-rich group experience, where you will use pen and paper to colour up your career transition and job search into climate, sustainability and impact. PLUS weekly nature challenges to inspire your career transition with Earth's wisdom!
Wed Feb 05 2025 - 4-Week Creative Climate Career Challenge
This is an inspirational, learning-rich group experience, where you will use pen and paper to colour up your career transition and job search into climate, sustainability and impact. In each session you will try a new creative tool to create perspective-shifting aha moments.
Want an event listed here? Use this event listing form to submit the details so we can add it in the newsletter.
š° News Highlights
GOV.UK: One Login: Advancing digital sustainability in government
Interesting update of the work by the team responsible for managing log-ins to government services to track and reduce the environmental footprint of their work. Useful to get an idea of what this looks like in the real world for a major production service.
Grist: Trump unravels US climate agenda as he promises to 'drill, baby, drill'
From declaring a "national energy emergency" to exiting the Paris Agreement, here is everything climate-related Trump did on Day 1.
Responsible Investor: AI resolutions: Investors target companies on net-zero goals and water
Investors have filed shareholder proposals surrounding the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) and data centres at Alphabet and Digital Realty Trust, a real estate investment trust focused on data centres. Concerns about the environmental impacts of data centres and AI have been growing over the past year, particularly related to their significant energy consumption and water usage. This scrutiny has also increasingly extended to tech giants' net-zero goals, with critics questioning whether companies are adequately accounting for these environmental costs in their sustainability targets.
One resolution at Alphabet calls on the firm to disclose additional information illustrating if and how it will meet its 2030 climate goals, "given the company's growing GHG emissions and the challenge of meeting its goals".
Cheriton School of Computer Science: Researchers' update to Linux kernel could cut energy use in data centres by up to 30 per cent
Researchers at the Cheriton School of Computer Science have developed a small modification to the Linux kernel that could reduce energy consumption in data centres by as much as 30 per cent. The update has the potential to cut the environmental impact of data centres significantly, as computing accounts for as much as 5 per cent of the world's daily energy use. Nearly all web traffic is routed through data centres, the majority of which use the open-source operating system Linux.
Neato: The code has now been published as part of Linux's newest kernel, release version 6.13.
TCO Certfiied: Five ways to join the movement: Circular Electronics Day sparks action for a more sustainable tech future
Did you know that Jan 24th is Circular Electronics Day? Global e-waste levels continue to rise, posing serious challenges to human health and the environment. Observed annually on January 24, Circular Electronics Day raises awareness about this escalating crisis and promotes sustainable practices such as more sustainable production, extending product lifespans, repairing, buying second-hand, and recycling responsibly
Frugal AI Challenge: Apply before Jan 31st
The goal of the Frugal AI Challenge is to encourage both academic and industry actors to keep efficiency in mind when deploying AI models.
We have chosen three tasks across three modalities, all of which are useful in the global fight against the climate crisis: detecting climate disinformation, classifying regions at risk of wildfires, and detecting illegal deforestation. We will evaluate both performance and efficiency on each of the datasets, based on the real-world constraints of each task and the energy used.
š Papers We Love š
As an experiment for the next 4 issues, we'll be linking to a paper for people interested in doing a deep dive into the world of digital sustainability. Suggest a paper by sending a recommendation to hello@climateAction.tech, along with why you shared it.
A Beginner's Guide to Power and Energy Measurement and Estimation for Computing and Machine Learning
Concerns about the environmental footprint of machine learning are increasing. While studies of energy use and emissions of ML models are a growing subfield, most ML researchers and developers still do not incorporate energy measurement as part of their work practices. While measuring energy is a crucial step towards reducing carbon footprint, it is also not straightforward.
This paper introduces the main considerations necessary for making sound use of energy measurement tools and interpreting energy estimates, including the use of at-the-wall versus on-device measurements, sampling strategies and best practices, common sources of error, and proxy measures. It also contains practical tips and real-world scenarios that illustrate how these considerations come into play. It concludes with a call to action for improving the state of the art of measurement methods and standards for facilitating robust comparisons between diverse hardware and software environments.
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.
Commons - Lead Front-end Engineer - Levels 3-6, $129K ā $205K ā¢ 0.1% ā 0.25% - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
We're looking for a lead front-end engineer who has experience building ReactJS consumer-facing software. We're looking for someone who loves building delightful user experiences and will be responsible for design and delivery of some of Commons' most important features.
Othersphere - Sales and Business Development Manager - $80-100k per year base, plus commissions - Contract - Totally remote
Othersphere identifies the most profitable and sustainable locations for deployment of zero / low GHG industrial technologies. We are seeking an experienced SaS sales professional with 5+ years of business development and sales experience. Ideally you will have worked with industrial sectors, and are excited to learn about those where you havenāt. You will work closely with the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Product Officer to enhance our capacity to engage with potential customers.
Digital Economic Security Lab - Open position: Postdoctoral researcher, ERC GEOCLOUD project (3+1 years) - 4-4.2k EUR per month - Contract - Onsite only
Professor Vili Lehdonvirta is hiring a postdoctoral researcher with quantitative analysis skills to work on GEOCLOUD: The Geopolitics of Cloud Computing, a new European Research Council Advanced Grant project. Outsourcing computation to cloud providers can be economically efficient while at the same time generating new systemic risks and dependencies that governments try to manage. GEOCLOUD is concerned with mapping the changing geography of computational infrastructures and understanding how it is shaped by the interaction of technology companiesā business interests and statesā economic and security interests
The Water Institute - Site Reliability Engineer - $100,500 - $150,000 - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
We're looking for a Site Reliability Engineer to enhance the resilience of the FloodID application and lead on-call incident response to minimize downtime and resolve issues swiftly. FloodID is an application providing actionable real-time flood forecasts and custom decision support tools to emergency operations center managers. As the climate crisis drives stronger and more frequent storms, we need better tools to help prepare and protect people, places, and property.
Torchbox - Senior Full Stack Engineer - Ā£47,884 - Ā£75,281 per annum - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
Digital sustainability skills in high demand ā You'll lead the development of cutting-edge software, using Wagtail and other technologies, while supporting public sector and charity clients. You'll provide technical leadership, solve complex challenges, and help shape some of the worldās most prestigious websites.
Heatio Ltd - Senior Full Stack Engineer - Ā£75K-85K - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
Heatio is a renewable energy-tech company transforming the way energy is delivered around the world. We are looking a Senior Full Stack Engineer to help us build our SaaS platform that optimises a homeās energy performance and reduces household bills.
Our stack is React/Node.js/TypeScript on AWS, using Lambda, RDS (Postgres) and DynamoDB.
Fram Energy - Founding Software Engineer (full-stack) - $140-190k - Permanent - Onsite only
šŗ WE'RE HIRING! Come help us turn solar for rentals into a billion dollar company.
š¼ If you've been waiting for your chance to join Fram Energy, this is it; we are hiring a Full-Stack Founding Software Engineer to join our team in NYC. We work in the office at least three days a week.
š This new hire will help us take our product from 1-10; from currently serving first customers to being able to serve more and larger projects as well as improving the product and user experience. You'll be working closely with other engineers and the broader Fram Energy team.
š We offer a fantastic team and culture, a high growth ride to join us on, attractive compensation and benefits and great growth opportunities.
š¬ Here is our founder Charlotte Meerstadt trying to pitch the role in 90s and ending up at 99s: https://lnkd.in/eG84Q4nW
Vizzuality - Digital Project Manager - Salary ā¬24,000 - ā¬33,000 Euros a year + bonus plan - Permanent - Totally remote
Are you motivated by the desire to help build a sustainable planet for all life on Earth?
Come work with me at Vizzuality ! Our work makes supply chains more transparent, stops deforestation, and empowers people to make positive changes now.
We are looking for a Digital Project Manager with proven experience managing and leading cross-functional teams in developing data-driven and online platforms or services, a high level of ownership, organization, and collaboration skills, as well as a passion for the creation of a more sustainable and equitable world for all life on Earth to deliver projects that make a difference in peopleās lives and help make the world a better place.
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