š CAT Newsletter 262 - 2025-04-06
Hey CATs,
Welcome to issue 262 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
š CAT Assembly launch š
The CAT Assembly is a new decision-making group that represents our community members. Assembly members are new and long-time CATs who have committed to upholding CAT's mission and will help make decisions on things like policies, priorities, and collaborations. Our hope is that the Assembly will help CAT stay current, relevant, and useful to the community!
We had our first kickoff meeting and vote last week. To learn more & follow the Assembly's work, visit How we organize > CAT Assembly. To provide feedback, please use #6-cat-community-feedback.
Members of the founding Assembly include: Alexander Dawson, Ariel Chamberlain, Bradford Roarr, Brett Duboff, Chris Pointon, Christian Alafaa, fershad, Fiona Leibundgut, hannah, Janne Kalliola, Mark Butcher, Matt Munz, nico, Mobolaji Ladega
š Help a CAT
GĀ has been chasing and collecting various carbon-quote data sources for a while but is undecided the best way to take it further. Any advice on funding / releasing this kind of work without getting ... exploited?Ā Share your thoughts
TĀ is wondering about Climate Fresk - is it a game or is a workshop? Is it interesting, useful, or fun?Ā Help answer the questions
EĀ startedĀ a spreadsheetĀ to supportĀ New YorkĀ Tech Week andĀ a spreadsheetĀ for San FranciscoĀ Tech Week organizers with finding collaborators, speakers, and venues for events!Ā Get together on Slack and organize some climate events
š Book club
We have a date! We'll meet on May 1st (RSVP here) for ourĀ #cat-bookclub.Ā OĀ andĀ B invite you to discuss 'Digital Degrowth'.
#ļøā£ Slack channel highlights
#3-questions-and-ideas:Ā SĀ is planning to run a co-creation event series on Systems Change for Sustainable Tech in CAT in May -Ā show interest or find out more in the thread
#branch-magazine: Until Sunday 20th of April, there's a newĀ open call for contributionsĀ for issue 9 ofĀ Branch MagazineĀ with the theme of "Attunement: Designing in an Era of Constraints". Find out more viaĀ H'sĀ message in the channel.
#carbon-footprint:Ā OĀ shared a report reviewing the carbon footprint of domain name registries and is wondering: Have you been involved in reviewing or defining carbon intensity metrics for your industry? And is anyone aware of generic or country-specific metrics for carbon intensity per employee?Ā Share your experience
š CAT events
Thu, Apr 24th ā CAT Earth Day Show & Tell [online]
āFor Earth Day, we're inviting CATs to share their climate action projects & learnings, and help each other explore and celebrate different ways of taking climate action in the tech industry. If you're a member of CAT, visit the event's Outline page to see how you participate in the community Show & Tell with your project, action, win, or learning.
š§ Knowledge base deep dive
Greener Infra: Want to make more sustainable choices when it comes to your IT infrastructure? Log into the CAT knowledge base with your CAT Slack account to learn about ways of reducing impact, and explore resources on greener cloud providers, provisioning, programming languages & more. And help a fellow CAT green their stack by adding your recommendations.
š© Community networking
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, Apr 18th. More info.
Media, events, and news
šŗ CAT recommendations
ā¶ļø CAT videos
10-15 minute videos providing accessible explainers to climate related issues.
Planet A: How magnets could change our fridges and ACs forever
For centuries, refrigeration tech has stayed the same ā energy-hungry and reliant on harmful gases. Enter magnetocaloric cooling: a new solution claiming to be 30% more energy-efficient than current cooling systems. And it's scalable. From fridges to cooling buildings and server farms.
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
Consider this from NPR: AI and the Environment
The AI boom has caused a huge surge in energy consumption, so how is the tech industry thinking about its environmental footprint as it invests in new AI models? Emily Kwong, host and reporter for NPR's Short Wave podcast, finds out what solutions are being considered that might meet both consumer demand and address climate concerns.
Code Green: Routing Futures for AI in Urban Mobility
As population growth, motorisation, and climate change strain urban mobility in the Asian region, the design and delivery of transport services are becoming increasingly complex. Experts HuĆŖ-TĆ¢m Jamme and Kris Villanueva-Libunao explore why cities need equitable, people-centred planning that accounts for existing mobility patterns and what barriers exist to implementing AI for mobility.
Zero - The Climate Race: Searching for climate solutions amid the AI hype
Depending on who you ask, AI is either going to save the world or end it. The technology's capacity for data-crunching and problem-saving can help predict weather events, making it easier to optimize power grids, prepare for natural disasters, and maximize crop output. But artificial intelligence is also energy intensive ā and easy to apply to ethically questionable ends. For all of these reasons, Priya Donti, professor of electrical engineering and AI at MIT, decided to found Climate Change AI, a group dedicated to applying AI to tackle climate problems.Ā Ā
Environment Variables: The Week in Green Software- Data Centers, AI and the Nuclear Question
Host Anne Currie is joined by the seasoned Chris Liljenstolpe to talk about the latest trends shaping sustainable technology. They dive into the energy demands of AI-driven data centers and ask the big question around nuclear power in green computing. Discussing the trajectory of AI and data center technology, they take a look into the past of another great networking technology, the internet, to gain insights into the future of energy-efficient innovation in the tech industry.
š Submitted events
Wed Apr 09 2025 - Urban Futures: Reimagining Finance for Regenerative Cities
As cities face mounting challenges - climate change, biodiversity loss, and growing inequality - BioFi offers practical tools to redirect financial flows toward what truly matters: the health of our communities and the ecosystems we depend on.
Wed Apr 09 2025 - Redesigning Products for a Greener Future: A Pop-up Innovation Lab
Join the Sustainability Creatives for an interactive Design Thinking workshop at LA Climate Week! Put your creative cap on, have fun, connect with others, find friends or future collaborators, and feel less alone in fighting climate change.
Thu Apr 10 2025 - Hands on Workshop: Estimating Digital Carbon Emissions
This two hour session, delivered by our experts Chris Adams, Fershad Irani, and Katrin Fritsch will get you started with estimating the carbon emissions of digital services. Can't make April? See our other dates in May and June.
Thu Apr 10 2025 - Sustainability Creatives Happy Hour at Firestone Walker
Join the Sustainability Creatives for an LA Climate Week mixer! We've got a couple of tables, a drink tab, and weād really like to meet you!
Wed Apr 23 2025 - Measuring & Mitigating Your Organization's AI Carbon Footprint
Dive into the art and science of measuring AI emissions. Following a brief presentation, weāll host an open discussion to identify specific, actionable opportunities to diminish your AI carbon footprint.
Fri Apr 25 2025 - Design Your Life: How to Build Your Career as a Sustainability Creative
Looking to craft a career that blends sustainability with creativity? Join us for an interactive workshop designed to help you navigate the evolving landscape of sustainability-focused creative careers with the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.
Sat Jun 21 2025 - London Climate Action Week
London Climate Action Week mobilises Londonās unparalleled ecosystem of climate and non-climate organisations to accelerate global climate action and supports action in London to ensure it acts as a global climate leader.āÆāÆ9 days, 300+ Events, 45,000 attendees.
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
Talking Climate: History's playbook for climate action
This week I am delighted to welcome guest editor Emily Pawley. Emily is an environmental historian who teaches at Dickinson College, a sustainability-focused liberal arts college in Pennsylvania. She shows how history holds many lessons for us on how past social movements can teach us about how to tackle the climate crisis
Green Web Foundation: Branch magazine call for contributions now open
This open call is an invitation to our community to submit suggestions for articles they'd like to contribute to the next issue. The next issue of Branch, issue 9, will explore the themeĀ 'Attunement: Designing in an Era of Constraint' and will be released in July 2025.Ā Ā
Climate tech VC: CoreWeave IPO's jolt to power demand
Last week, CoreWeave, in one of the most anticipated AI-adjacent IPOs in recent memory, hit the market, to high hopes and even higher valuations. But a crash landing suggests the AI compute boom hype might be starting to cool, with broader implications across the energy world.
This IPO seems like a bellwether for AI infrastructure, raising questions about whether hyperscaler demand has been overblown and whether we're heading into overbuild territory.
Carbon Brief: Saudi Arabia's surprisingly large imports of solar panels from China
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan were among the top importers of Chinese solar panels in 2024, with more than half heading to countries in the global south. Apart from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, which both witnessed different solar booms last year, there was also a sharp uptick in sales to many small African and Latin American countries in late 2024, suggesting that China may be finding new markets for its solar exports. China itself ā the biggest of all the global-south solar markets ā installed more solar panels than it exported for the second year in a row.
Clean Energy Wire: Deep lithium deposits in Germany could cover country's demand for decades - report
Deep bodies of water in northern Germany have been found to contain large amounts of lithium that could be used to help produce batteries for the energy transition, according toĀ a reportĀ by the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Energy Infrastructures and Geothermal Systems, with likeliest estimates around 4.3 Million tonnes. For perspective: the German Mineral Resources Agency (DERA) predicted that the country will need up to 0.17 Mt of lithium in 2030, and global consumption is around 1.4-1.5 million tonnes each year.
š Papers We Love š
Cornell: Unveiling Environmental Impacts of Large Language Model Serving: A Functional Unit View
Large language models (LLMs) offer powerful capabilities but come with significant environmental costs, particularly in carbon emissions. Existing studies benchmark these emissions but lack a standardized basis for comparison across models. To address this, the team introduce the concept of a functional unit (FU) and develop FUEL, the first FU-based framework for evaluating LLM serving's environmental impact. Through case studies on model size, quantization, and hardware, we uncover key trade-offs in sustainability. Our findings highlight the potential for reducing carbon emissions by optimizing model selection, deployment strategies, and hardware choices, paving the way for more sustainable AI infrastructure.
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.
Elemental Impact - Director of Development - $106,400- $191,000 - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
The Director of Development will primarily focus on materials creation, as well as researching new funding opportunities to build an expanding portfolio of private and public funders. They will work in close collaboration with the Managing Director of Growth and across a team of practitioners and partnership builders in order to create an aligned fundraising strategy.
Behold - CTO (co-founder option) - ā¬50k-ā¬80k plus equity - Permanent - Totally remote
A fox slipping through the streets. A hedgehog on its nightly route. Life is unfolding all around you.
Behold reveals the hidden wild in everyday life, helping people see and connect with the animals around them. And when people connect, they protect. Small moments of wonder can lead to real change.
Weāre looking for a CTO who doesnāt just build tech, but shapes the futureāleading at the intersection of machine learning, IoT, and nature. If you want to work on a product that sparks real behavioural change, in a company that prioritises long-term impact over short-term growth, this is your chance.
rePurpose Global - Senior Product Manager - 160000 - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
We're seeking a Senior Product Manager at rePurpose Global, a mission-driven series A startup fighting the plastic waste crisis. We've launched a first-of-its-kind SaaS platform for consumer brands to improve their packaging sustainability, comply with landmark regulations reducing packaging waste, and fund plastic pollution clean up in the Global South. We're looking for a seasoned startup PM with sustainability or CPG experience to continue the momentum!
Vizzuality - Front End Engineer - ā¬24,000 to ā¬37,000 Euros per year - Permanent - Totally remote
Do you want to help build a fairer and sustainable future for all life on Earth? Are you currently looking for a new career opportunity? Lucky you, Vizzuality is hiring!
We are looking for a Front-end Engineer with experience and proficiency in ReactJS/TypeScript - Remote based in Spain, Portugal, or UK.
At Vizzuality, our purpose is to reach a fair and sustainable planet by creating tools that radically empower people to make positive changes now.
Verna - Software Engineers - Circa Ā£70k + share options - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
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. We are looking for a number of software engineers to expand our product development team. Because weāre working primarily in Elixir and Phoenix this is a full-stack role, but with an emphasis on delivering new user-facing features.
Support our work
You can support us financially onĀ Open Collective.