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Comment by kokanee | Hacker News Reader

I work on software at a hardware startup that is designing and manufacturing a next-generation electrolysis plant for the production of green hydrogen. My personal experience has led me to believe that opportunities to participate meaningfully in climate tech are exclusively available at hardware companies. Anyone attempting to solve climate change with software is at best skimming value off of the work being done by others in the physical world, and at worst creating markets for corporate greenwashing.

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> Anyone attempting to solve climate change with software is at best skimming value off of the work being done by others in the physical world

With respect - I bet a dollar that the folk at Zoom have done more to reduce automotive pollution than your startup. No hardware startup could have enabled WFH in the absence of calendar, messaging & video conference software.

This is a fantastic point, but Zoom would never have been a candidate for me personally for several reasons:

- As important as reducing our use of fossil fuels is, using less energy is not a solution to the problem of a non-renewable energy system. In that sense, it wouldn't meet the criteria for someone who wants to work on a climate solution.

- While WFH drastically reduces auto emissions, it increases gas & electricity use in the home.

- Zoom is not a mission-driven company and (to my knowledge) their KPIs are not directed at or correlated with their GHG footprint; I would think they see themselves as productivity software, not climate software.

- If Zoom never existed we would be working from home at the same rate, using any of hundreds of other video conferencing apps. In carbon offset terms, their impact does not provide additionality.

I was recently laid off from a climate tech software company, and one of my former colleagues and I are now working on hardware appliances, solving the problems that our previous company’s software “enabled” other people to solve.

At best, climate tech software makes the necessary hardware cheaper and more effective, or provides important data, but pure software plays in climate tech should be considered greenwashing scams until proven innocent.

Could you elaborate with examples? What about software companies offering data to correct these trends ( with tools) say utility

> Anyone attempting to solve climate change with software is at best skimming value off of the work being done by others in the physical world, and at worst creating markets for corporate greenwashing.

I fully agree with this assessment and I would love to hear more about your product.

I've see so a lot of jobs popping up related to SaaS for compliance right now, so things like helping companies stay on top of regulation and track their own efforts and initiatives. I do get the impression that a lot of it is done sincerely, but it does have a hint of ye olde 'selling shovels in a gold rush'.

Still, if it keeps people out of adtech and cryptocurrency it seems like a win.

how do you sell shovels in a gold rush insincerely?

It's sincere if you tell people that you sell shovels. It's insincere if you tell people that you will make all their prospecting dreams come true.

All the easy gold has been dug up, and shovels are no longer practical.

Perhaps if the gold rush is a scam? But if it is real, then it is honest work.

Any prominent examples?

Having worked in climate tech for a few years and also following the VCs in that space intently, I believe you've completely nailed it. Seriously, this comment is worth two trillion dollars.

This sounds like great tech. Keep at it for the benefit of all of us.

Please contact me, see link in profile.

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