How Big Tech is Setting New Climate Action Standards
At a time when we need fast solutions, tech's starting to move pretty fast
One of the main reasons I founded Brightest is that, thinking back to 2016-2017, almost no one in tech or the startup community was talking about climate action.
There was excitement and noise around machine learning and AI, blockchain, wearables, and cybersecurity, but “sustainable tech” was mostly confined to electric scooters and Tesla’s - ways to power private, low-carbon transportation options (primarily for wealthy people).
It wasn’t enough, and it scared me enough to start a company (and a foundation) to try and do something about it.
Five years later, I’m happy to see the broader tech community’s finally waking up, sounding the alarm, and joining the fight to decarbonize the economy. It’s a very welcome “better late than never” development, because we urgently need tech’s speed, innovation capacity, and scalability when it comes to climate action. I’ve long felt this on a personal level: as important as they are, governments and NGOs aren’t getting the job done, and haven’t for decades. We need more public-private partnerships and innovation.
Sample carbon capture projects in Stripe’s climate portfolio
A few days ago I joined the first meeting of BASCS (the Business Alliance to Scale Climate Solutions). Typically, when I see a phrase like “business alliance” next to “climate” I’m skeptical about the coalition’s speed, sincerity, and effectiveness. There are a lot of business groups oriented around climate, some better, more constructive, and more well-meaning than others, but almost all the one’s I’ve seen (and briefly participated in) lack resources, urgency, and output commeasurate with the scale of the climate crisis we’re currently in.
BASCS still has a lot to prove and show for itself, but there’s one noticeable difference. It’s not being led by old, legacy brands: it’s spearheaded by tech companies like Amazon, Netflix, Salesforce, and Microsoft who do new, big things, fast. Startups who act as they learn.
BASCS is specifically focused on carbon credits, carbon markets, and carbon sinks, with a goal of figuring out how to increase market activity, access, economies of scale, innovation, and other factors across (1) carbon removal, offsets, and credits, (2) carbon standards, (3) forests and environmental conservation and investment, and (4) oceans and blue carbon.
As we’ve said before carbon markets are a piece of the broader economic sustainability puzzle, but it matters and Brightest is glad to play a contributing role.
Tech’s recent climate momentum goes well beyond BASCS though. Stripe is open-sourcing carbon purchasing contracts on Github.
Salesforce is requiring its suppliers and vendors to make carbon measurement disclosures (a trend we’re increasingly seeing across the board with our newest corporate partners).
Shopify’s scaling up its climate programs and investments.
There’s even a newly formed Bitcoin Mining Council working group looking at crypto sustainability and energy usage (ok, I’ll hold out my hopes here, but it’s a start. A lot of my friends who work in renewable energy and energy storage have been taking on more crypto projects recently, which feels anecdotally positive).
It’s new, it’s good, it’s focusing on scalable solutions to real problems, and it just feels… different. Or rather, like tech’s finally getting on the same page about the (livable) future we want to build, contribute to, and be a part of.
In the U.S. alone, the tech industry represents over 10% of GDP, not to mention pretty much 100% of GDP growth the past five years (and surely the “tech-enabled” contribution percentage is even higher). Tech is the engine of economic growth and innovation. It’s no surprise that we need tech to play a major role in decarbonizing our economy — tech is the economy.
Yes, the planet’s heating up, and yes, we’ve got plenty of work to do, but it’s fantastic to see the tech community getting warmed up on real climate action problem-solving. That’s what we really need to get to scale.
—
This Week in Sustainability is a weekly email from Brightest (and friends) about sustainability and climate strategy. If you’ve enjoyed this piece, please consider forwarding it to a friend or teammate. If you’re reading for the first time, we hope you enjoyed it enough to consider subscribing. If we can be helpful to you or your organization’s sustainability, ESG, or social impact journey, please be in touch.