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Climatescape.org – Mapping the global landscape of climate-saving organizations

128 points by leventov 7y ago

diafygi 7y ago
I feel like political/advocacy/regulatory should be a category. Organizations like Vote Solar, SEIA, Mission:Data, Sierra Club, etc. have most impact fighting climate change because the policies they push through have huge industry-wide consequences. Also, for energy, how wide do you want to cast the net? Solar and wind generation is now more cost effective than fossil generation, so traditional utilities and utility vendors are now doing huge climate-change fighting efforts, just because it's cheaper. For example, GE has a solar division that is developing huge commercial projects that offset a fuck ton of carbon. Should GE be on the list? I worry that this list is giving the impression that fighting climate chance is a selfless endeavor, when nowadays much of the carbon offset work (especially in energy) is done by established entities because it's simply cheaper and in their self interest. Also, what about governments? Countries, states, cities, and regulators are passing more and more 100% carbon free mandates. Those are vastly more impactful that anything else on this list. Shouldn't they be included on the list? Finally, a search or full list to Ctrl+F would be nice so I don't have to click through multiple categories to see if a company is included. Thanks very much for the effort to put this list together, and I wish you the best of luck!
- chrisweekly 7y ago
  Good points -- and a strong vote for tags / attributes, over hierarchical categories
- bloudermilk 7y ago
  Thank you for all the thoughtful feedback. You bring up some great points regarding categorization–choosing a sensible taxonomy has been by far the hardest part of this project so far. I'd love some help in this area if you or anyone else is interested. > Should GE be on the list? I've been asking myself this same question for weeks and haven't come to a conclusion yet. What do you think? How about O&G companies with big green tech budgets? > Also, what about governments? ... Shouldn't they be included on the list? I think this would be a very interesting data point to track indeed, though I suspect someone else is already tracking this. > Finally, a search or full list to Ctrl+F Agreed, added this to our backlog.
  - sails 7y ago
    > How about O&G companies with big green tech budgets This troubles me endlessly. My gut says no, as I can't imagine some of the largest companies in the world reorienting sufficiently, and I feel that they should quickly become sidelined as relics of a different time. But it seems unreasonable to think they don't have some value to add with the large budgets and pressure they are under. Gladly be informed on this topic!
    - ebiester 7y ago
      I argue that it does, as someone doing a search for competitors or alternatives might be caught unaware if this is a blind spot for them. For example, you have Drivy (bought by GetAround... a while back?) and yet you're missing a large portion of the CarShare landscape. Do you count Zipcar? (Avis-Budget group, but the largest player and running EVs in London). Maven? (GM) DriveNow/car2go? (BMW, and EV-centric in Europe) And that doesn't even get into smaller players like Innova (EV-focused) or BlueLA (LA-only but EV)/BlueIndy/etc - or Autolib/Cite Lib/Carma... * Full disclosure: I'm employed by Zipcar. But I'm also an alternative transit geek in general.
      - greaterscope 7y ago
        I second the point that it's helpful to know the actual landscape, so the division within GE should definitely be listed. After all, if they end up contributing something positive it deserves visibility. And your mention of Zipcar, Maven, etc makes me think it'd be great to include the entities that own or fund each organization. Definitely means there's more information to hunt down, but crowd-sourcing can lessen that pain.
codingdave 7y ago
It is interesting to see a list of organizations compiled in one place, to get a sense of what is going on in the world. But I read the headline wrong. I saw the words "Mapping" and "landscape", and was expecting actual maps. I thought I'd be looking at visualizations of where in the world each organization is having an impact.
- jsingleton 7y ago
  Not a geographical map but https://oneplanet.com/ https://oneplanet.com/ has a tool to visualise the connections in a sustainability plan.
- bloudermilk 7y ago
  Thank you for the feedback! Maybe "indexing" or "cataloging" would be a better term here.
- Pietertje 7y ago
  Same here, I expected a list or map which gives an user the ability to see which organizations or projects operate nearby. It would be really cool if you could see which projects are nearby and you might be able to participate in. I really like the idea though. Hopefully your site will inspire others.
  - bloudermilk 7y ago
    Definitely interested in indexing orgs, events, and jobs by location once we have that data!
  - slowtec 7y ago
    The "map" You are looking for already exists :) https://kartevonmorgen.org/ https://kartevonmorgen.org/ https://github.com/kartevonmorgen https://github.com/kartevonmorgen
- evanhynes 7y ago
  We used to maintain an actual map of climate-impactful orgs on https://Climate.Careers https://Climate.Careers. Very few people used it, so we took it down — but we still have all the data of course!
jawache 7y ago
I've been looking for a curated list like this for a long time, thanks for creating!
lucb1e 7y ago
Might be the mobile view, but the descriptions are both cut off and meaningless. > We deliver when others can’t. We conduct research and development, manage Is all that is visible. It goes on to say (in the full description) that they do this R&D for clients. So like what do they actually do, beyond claiming they're better than you and me?
- bloudermilk 7y ago
  Thanks for taking a look. It's a laborious process to collect good descriptions for each submission–some are better than others. The text is cut off intentionally, rather lazily now, but we're planning on making it clearer visually that this is intentional and allowing visitors to expand each record.
jkaljundi 7y ago
Since forestry is so big, I would suggest to keep it separate. Also broad biodiversity and nature organisations probably should have a separate category, not me under land use.
bloudermilk 7y ago
Hi all, creator here–so cool to see this on HN. I made Climatescape after seeing dozens of people go through a similar process of cataloging interesting climate-focused companies in spreadsheets, notes, and elsewhere. The goal is to unify these efforts and provide the content free to anyone who might find it useful. The website is open source[1] and content is Creative Commons licensed. This is really just the beginning of what I'd like to see the project become. We want to go deeper by including key org attributes like headcount, location, investments, and more. There are also plans to increase the breadth of the database by including books, podcasts, events, data sets, and other important resources related to climate. If anyone is interested in contributing please get in touch! brendan [at] sinceresoftware.co [1]: github.com/bloudermilk/climatescape
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- hyzyla 7y ago
  Hi, thanks for your work. It would be great if there will be way to contribute for people without tech skills.
  - jsilence 7y ago
    You can submit pointers to organizations not listed: https://climatescape.org/contribute/ https://climatescape.org/contribute/
- nolroz 7y ago
  Cool resource! I just started down this path as a strict requirement for my next career move. It would be awesome to include job listings and requirements for people that want to find a job at a climate focused company.
  - bloudermilk 7y ago
    Thanks so much and congrats on your new career trajectory! We'd love to integrate with some job boards in the future. In the meantime I can point you to a blog post with some great advice on this topic: https://medium.com/@leventov/how-to-find-a-job-in-a-tech-company-helping-to-combat-climate-change-practical-guide-e212e262a32 https://medium.com/@leventov/how-to-find-a-job-in-a-tech-com...
blueski 7y ago
Thanks for putting this together! I've wondered before if Kittyhawk and other flying car companies count as climate-saving organizations. Flying small personal aircraft will always use vastly more energy per mile than vehicles that can roll along the ground - and even if there are no emissions in flight, the energy cost and likely emissions of making the batteries and equipment will be non-negligible.
- bloudermilk 7y ago
  My personal opinion is that we're not going to convince people to stop flying, so we should decarbonize air travel regardless of its relative efficiency.
  - blueski 7y ago
    But my understanding is that Kittyhawk etc are (at least in part) creating a new market of single-person "quick hops" within cities or metropolitan areas, displacing ground transport. Not only would this increase energy use per mile for existing trips, it could lead to a lot of new ones (e.g. making it viable to commute from far flung locations). This ramp in energy use for personal convenience seems problematic.
  - Angostura 7y ago
    We don't have to convice everyone to stop flying. We can start with to convincing everyone to fly less. Decarbonise in the meantime, if you can, of course.
    - tensor 7y ago
      I don't think this is a very practical approach. People both need and want to fly places. We need to accept that and find ways to make flight greener.
      - pimmen 7y ago
        But the richest 10% of people are the ones who make far more than half of all flights [1]. They could certainly fly less. [1] https://www.inequalityintransport.org.uk/book-author/news-blog/todays-transport-policy-benefits-rich-more-poor https://www.inequalityintransport.org.uk/book-author/news-bl...
imagetic 7y ago
There should be a category for sustainability/food.
nullreference00 7y ago
Is this project intentionally leaving out political organizations? Fighting the politics of austerity and capitalist oligarchy is more important than evaluating photovoltaic efficiency/viability.
- bloudermilk 7y ago
  We have a “Government & Policy” category that was a little light to launch with. Would be happy for you to help us fill it out!
beastcoast 7y ago
Initially read to me as “climate escape”. Not sure if intended.
evanhynes 7y ago
Hi Brendan! Evan here from ClimateCareers! Https://climate.careers My team and I are already working on the next iteration of our product, which will be going far beyond jobs. I'd love to find time to chat and explore opportunities to collaborate! Sending you an email now :)

128 points by leventov 7y ago

I feel like political/advocacy/regulatory should be a category. Organizations like Vote Solar, SEIA, Mission:Data, Sierra Club, etc. have most impact fighting climate change because the policies they push through have huge industry-wide consequences. Also, for energy, how wide do you want to cast the net? Solar and wind generation is now more cost effective than fossil generation, so traditional utilities and utility vendors are now doing huge climate-change fighting efforts, just because it's cheaper. For example, GE has a solar division that is developing huge commercial projects that offset a fuck ton of carbon. Should GE be on the list? I worry that this list is giving the impression that fighting climate chance is a selfless endeavor, when nowadays much of the carbon offset work (especially in energy) is done by established entities because it's simply cheaper and in their self interest. Also, what about governments? Countries, states, cities, and regulators are passing more and more 100% carbon free mandates. Those are vastly more impactful that anything else on this list. Shouldn't they be included on the list? Finally, a search or full list to Ctrl+F would be nice so I don't have to click through multiple categories to see if a company is included. Thanks very much for the effort to put this list together, and I wish you the best of luck!

chrisweekly 7y ago
Good points -- and a strong vote for tags / attributes, over hierarchical categories
bloudermilk 7y ago
Thank you for all the thoughtful feedback. You bring up some great points regarding categorization–choosing a sensible taxonomy has been by far the hardest part of this project so far. I'd love some help in this area if you or anyone else is interested. > Should GE be on the list? I've been asking myself this same question for weeks and haven't come to a conclusion yet. What do you think? How about O&G companies with big green tech budgets? > Also, what about governments? ... Shouldn't they be included on the list? I think this would be a very interesting data point to track indeed, though I suspect someone else is already tracking this. > Finally, a search or full list to Ctrl+F Agreed, added this to our backlog.
- sails 7y ago
  > How about O&G companies with big green tech budgets This troubles me endlessly. My gut says no, as I can't imagine some of the largest companies in the world reorienting sufficiently, and I feel that they should quickly become sidelined as relics of a different time. But it seems unreasonable to think they don't have some value to add with the large budgets and pressure they are under. Gladly be informed on this topic!
  - ebiester 7y ago
    I argue that it does, as someone doing a search for competitors or alternatives might be caught unaware if this is a blind spot for them. For example, you have Drivy (bought by GetAround... a while back?) and yet you're missing a large portion of the CarShare landscape. Do you count Zipcar? (Avis-Budget group, but the largest player and running EVs in London). Maven? (GM) DriveNow/car2go? (BMW, and EV-centric in Europe) And that doesn't even get into smaller players like Innova (EV-focused) or BlueLA (LA-only but EV)/BlueIndy/etc - or Autolib/Cite Lib/Carma... * Full disclosure: I'm employed by Zipcar. But I'm also an alternative transit geek in general.
    - greaterscope 7y ago
      I second the point that it's helpful to know the actual landscape, so the division within GE should definitely be listed. After all, if they end up contributing something positive it deserves visibility. And your mention of Zipcar, Maven, etc makes me think it'd be great to include the entities that own or fund each organization. Definitely means there's more information to hunt down, but crowd-sourcing can lessen that pain.

codingdave 7y ago

It is interesting to see a list of organizations compiled in one place, to get a sense of what is going on in the world. But I read the headline wrong. I saw the words "Mapping" and "landscape", and was expecting actual maps. I thought I'd be looking at visualizations of where in the world each organization is having an impact.

jsingleton 7y ago
Not a geographical map but https://oneplanet.com/ https://oneplanet.com/ has a tool to visualise the connections in a sustainability plan.
bloudermilk 7y ago
Thank you for the feedback! Maybe "indexing" or "cataloging" would be a better term here.
Pietertje 7y ago
Same here, I expected a list or map which gives an user the ability to see which organizations or projects operate nearby. It would be really cool if you could see which projects are nearby and you might be able to participate in. I really like the idea though. Hopefully your site will inspire others.
- bloudermilk 7y ago
  Definitely interested in indexing orgs, events, and jobs by location once we have that data!
- slowtec 7y ago
  The "map" You are looking for already exists :) https://kartevonmorgen.org/ https://kartevonmorgen.org/ https://github.com/kartevonmorgen https://github.com/kartevonmorgen
evanhynes 7y ago
We used to maintain an actual map of climate-impactful orgs on https://Climate.Careers https://Climate.Careers. Very few people used it, so we took it down — but we still have all the data of course!

jawache 7y ago

I've been looking for a curated list like this for a long time, thanks for creating!

lucb1e 7y ago

Might be the mobile view, but the descriptions are both cut off and meaningless. > We deliver when others can’t. We conduct research and development, manage Is all that is visible. It goes on to say (in the full description) that they do this R&D for clients. So like what do they actually do, beyond claiming they're better than you and me?

bloudermilk 7y ago
Thanks for taking a look. It's a laborious process to collect good descriptions for each submission–some are better than others. The text is cut off intentionally, rather lazily now, but we're planning on making it clearer visually that this is intentional and allowing visitors to expand each record.

jkaljundi 7y ago

Since forestry is so big, I would suggest to keep it separate. Also broad biodiversity and nature organisations probably should have a separate category, not me under land use.

bloudermilk 7y ago

Hi all, creator here–so cool to see this on HN. I made Climatescape after seeing dozens of people go through a similar process of cataloging interesting climate-focused companies in spreadsheets, notes, and elsewhere. The goal is to unify these efforts and provide the content free to anyone who might find it useful. The website is open source[1] and content is Creative Commons licensed. This is really just the beginning of what I'd like to see the project become. We want to go deeper by including key org attributes like headcount, location, investments, and more. There are also plans to increase the breadth of the database by including books, podcasts, events, data sets, and other important resources related to climate. If anyone is interested in contributing please get in touch! brendan [at] sinceresoftware.co [1]: github.com/bloudermilk/climatescape

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
hyzyla 7y ago
Hi, thanks for your work. It would be great if there will be way to contribute for people without tech skills.
- jsilence 7y ago
  You can submit pointers to organizations not listed: https://climatescape.org/contribute/ https://climatescape.org/contribute/
nolroz 7y ago
Cool resource! I just started down this path as a strict requirement for my next career move. It would be awesome to include job listings and requirements for people that want to find a job at a climate focused company.
- bloudermilk 7y ago
  Thanks so much and congrats on your new career trajectory! We'd love to integrate with some job boards in the future. In the meantime I can point you to a blog post with some great advice on this topic: https://medium.com/@leventov/how-to-find-a-job-in-a-tech-company-helping-to-combat-climate-change-practical-guide-e212e262a32 https://medium.com/@leventov/how-to-find-a-job-in-a-tech-com...

blueski 7y ago

Thanks for putting this together! I've wondered before if Kittyhawk and other flying car companies count as climate-saving organizations. Flying small personal aircraft will always use vastly more energy per mile than vehicles that can roll along the ground - and even if there are no emissions in flight, the energy cost and likely emissions of making the batteries and equipment will be non-negligible.

bloudermilk 7y ago
My personal opinion is that we're not going to convince people to stop flying, so we should decarbonize air travel regardless of its relative efficiency.
- blueski 7y ago
  But my understanding is that Kittyhawk etc are (at least in part) creating a new market of single-person "quick hops" within cities or metropolitan areas, displacing ground transport. Not only would this increase energy use per mile for existing trips, it could lead to a lot of new ones (e.g. making it viable to commute from far flung locations). This ramp in energy use for personal convenience seems problematic.
- Angostura 7y ago
  We don't have to convice everyone to stop flying. We can start with to convincing everyone to fly less. Decarbonise in the meantime, if you can, of course.
  - tensor 7y ago
    I don't think this is a very practical approach. People both need and want to fly places. We need to accept that and find ways to make flight greener.
    - pimmen 7y ago
      But the richest 10% of people are the ones who make far more than half of all flights [1]. They could certainly fly less. [1] https://www.inequalityintransport.org.uk/book-author/news-blog/todays-transport-policy-benefits-rich-more-poor https://www.inequalityintransport.org.uk/book-author/news-bl...

imagetic 7y ago

There should be a category for sustainability/food.

nullreference00 7y ago

Is this project intentionally leaving out political organizations? Fighting the politics of austerity and capitalist oligarchy is more important than evaluating photovoltaic efficiency/viability.

bloudermilk 7y ago
We have a “Government & Policy” category that was a little light to launch with. Would be happy for you to help us fill it out!

beastcoast 7y ago

Initially read to me as “climate escape”. Not sure if intended.

evanhynes 7y ago

Hi Brendan! Evan here from ClimateCareers! Https://climate.careers My team and I are already working on the next iteration of our product, which will be going far beyond jobs. I'd love to find time to chat and explore opportunities to collaborate! Sending you an email now :)