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Launch HN: Wren (YC S19) – Offset Your Carbon Footprint

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Re: Launch HN: Wren (YC S19) – Offset Your Carbon Footprint

#51

Post by beachy »

ryanmercer wrote: post #32
landon32 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right, we have to be critical of what we're doing because this is such an important challenge for humanity. This is why we're doing it: People who sign up for Wren usually were not previously considering offsetting their carbon footprint. In 1 month ~200 people have offset their footprint through Wren. We anticipate this number to grow exponentially, and think several million people offsetting their carbon foo…

> Project Drawdown has 99 more: https://www.drawdown.org/ You keep mentioning Project Drawdown in this thread. Why should people pay you 20% instead of just donating to Project Drawdown. Will you continue to take 20% when you reach those 'several million people' subscribing? I mean, at 5$ a month each that's 'several million' dollars a month for what, web hosting and 3 salaries? I see on LinkedIn you're listed as a s…

There's a lot to be negative about wrt our climate crisis for sure.

However overwhelmingly negative messages I believe can contribute to inaction through people moving straight from the denial phase to the "what's the point, we're all doomed" phase.

Just to pick the first of your points to rebut:

> Electric bikes (going to largely be powered by, fossil fuels)

1) in my country the grid uses 70+ renewable energy (mainly hydro), so EVs are extremely promising.

2) progress made on EVs will pay off in the future, when/if the grid becomes greener. How crap would it be to make big success at one end of the equation, e.g widespread deployment of nuclear to green the grid, and then find that all the vehicles had no way to use that clean power?

Of course it makes sense to develop technologies like electric bike, EVs generally.

Yet your comment is written as if it makes no sense. It conveys a strong sense of doom and pointlessness.

If your intention is just to spread doom, then perhaps keep it to yourself.

If it's to shock people into action then there are better ways to communicate.

Re: Launch HN: Wren (YC S19) – Offset Your Carbon Footprint

#52

Post by plondon514 »

landon32 wrote: post #39
plondon514 wrote: post #38

Did you consider the ability for one to offset their carbon footprint on their own? I know there is probably less money involved, but it would be cool if I could determine my footprint and then be given tasks to try to offset it on my own. EDIT: cool project btw :)

Oh that's a great point. You can absolutely use our carbon calculator and then find another project to support. We want to make a really good carbon calculator that's useful to everyone, not just Wren subscribers. Let us know if you have ideas or feedback there.

Could you provide an API for the carbon calculator? Or is that relatively easy to build?

Re: Launch HN: Wren (YC S19) – Offset Your Carbon Footprint

#53

Post by OmarIsmail »

landon32 wrote: post #43
OmarIsmail wrote: post #42

I'm bias because I prefer YC companies, but I just signed up and started donating to offset me and my family's carbon impact. When I ran through the calculator and saw how much damage we were doing (the "if everyone lived like you the planet would have X months" was VERY effective) that really pushed me over the edge. Now that I've donated I feel great. I just have to pay a little bit more (relative to my income/stan…

Happy to hear it. One thing to mention though: We don't think offsetting is a license to live guilt free. We still have to do more! Hopefully the carbon footprint calculator will give you some ideas for how you can cut down your footprint pretty easily—often something as simple as cutting out red meat or using public transit more often can make a big difference. Also, progress from political action will likely be nec…

Maybe you should expand your offering so that I can live guilt free. That's what I really want. To maintain my standard of living without harming the planet.

Re: Launch HN: Wren (YC S19) – Offset Your Carbon Footprint

#54

Post by mtranzambetti »

beoh wrote: post #49
mtranzambetti wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mimi, Wren co-founder here. What payment methods are most convenient / common for you?

Debit/IBAN or PayPal would work :)

Oh perfect. We're using Stripe and accept Debit Cards currently. The credit card wording we're using is pretty confusing, we'll change that!

Re: Launch HN: Wren (YC S19) – Offset Your Carbon Footprint

#55

Post by tomjen3 »

OmarIsmail wrote: post #42

I'm bias because I prefer YC companies, but I just signed up and started donating to offset me and my family's carbon impact. When I ran through the calculator and saw how much damage we were doing (the "if everyone lived like you the planet would have X months" was VERY effective) that really pushed me over the edge. Now that I've donated I feel great. I just have to pay a little bit more (relative to my income/stan…

Selling the guilt and then the absolutism after? Isn't that a tad too much Catholic stick?

Re: Launch HN: Wren (YC S19) – Offset Your Carbon Footprint

#56

Post by namibj »

mtranzambetti wrote: post #54
beoh wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Debit/IBAN or PayPal would work :)

Oh perfect. We're using Stripe and accept Debit Cards currently. The credit card wording we're using is pretty confusing, we'll change that!

It's likely still not a Mastercard/Visa Debit Card, assuming parent is referring to (central) Europe. Offering subscriptions via SEPA direct debit in EUR would catch most Europeans with likely much lower transaction fees.

Re: Launch HN: Wren (YC S19) – Offset Your Carbon Footprint

#57

Post by beoh »

mtranzambetti wrote: post #54
beoh wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Debit/IBAN or PayPal would work :)

Oh perfect. We're using Stripe and accept Debit Cards currently. The credit card wording we're using is pretty confusing, we'll change that!

I think that's a misunderstanding, sorry. I was talking about SEPA debit, via an IBAN. The checkout form doesn't appear to accept those atm.

Re: Launch HN: Wren (YC S19) – Offset Your Carbon Footprint

#60

Post by tom_mellior »

Some notes on the calculator:

- Asking only for the size of my home but nothing else seems bogus. Surely apartments in a densely populated city have different footprints than single-family homes in suburbia or the countryside? Part of my housing's footprint will be modeled by transport considerations and heating costs, but apparently not all, otherwise you wouldn't ask.

- District heating (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_heating) is a big thing where I live, and it's impossible to quantify for individuals what their footprint is when they have that instead of gas.

- My final result came back as 10% less than my country's average (yay) but I see no way to figure out why. Probably because I don't drive, but it would be cool to see a more detailed breakdown of all the data I entered, how they factor into the calculation, and how they relate to my country's (and the worldwide) average.

Nice job and certainly not trivial to set up!

Edit: Oh, and I'd like a less clumsy way to see in the footprint overview (the link mailed to me) how much it would cost to offset my footprint, and what projects are available. I had to re-enter all the data! It would be awesome if I had a link that I could mail to friends and family saying "look, here is my impact, and this is how unexpectedly cheap it is to fix it".

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