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Request for Startups: Climate Tech

ycombinator.com

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Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#211

Post by dopidopHN »

hall0ween wrote: post #136
paulcole wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Does not require a massive shift in consumer preferences This is getting more and more irrelevant by the day. If “climate tech” fails to “fix” climate change (a goal which I believe to be impossible), then it’s not going to matter what people’s preferences are — the choices are going to be made for them and it won’t matter what they like/dislike.

“You kidding me? I love eating bacteria-modified-plastic-waste-paste. Have you tried the blue flavor yet?”

I would eat that. And I like food, real food, and cook from scratch most days.

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#212

Post by ngoilapites »

CalRobert wrote: post #206
ngoilapites wrote: post #189

I am 10+ years in the Climate arena and it surprises me that most innovations ignore human behaviour: I see a gap. I see two folk types here: the Climate scientist and the carbon life cycle Analyst. How come social sciences (I am in particular hinting at behavioral research) have not been found yet a source of value?

My goal is to make it painfully easy to live in communities where you can walk, bike, or take public transport to all of your daily needs, which is a completely low tech problem with a huge social science component. The first step, I think, is making it obvious when purchasing a home whether you will be able to do this yourself. Want to collaborate? I have a pilot project going for Ireland and am unsure where to take…

This could be an idea: to expand this work and map neighbourhoods according to their "affordances" aka opportunities for a sustainable or climate friendly living. I'd love to engage myself on something like this, I will drop an email after hols, keep it strong!

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#213

Post by baremetal »

a_square_peg wrote: post #146
baremetal wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any chance you guys provide a free api for the little guy? I would love to have access to climate data via a json rest api. Specifically historical temperature and precipitation data at minimum. I poked around a while back and wasn't able to find much of anything on the web. Maybe I missed it?

Certainly - take a look ( https://oikolab.com ) and let me know your use case. There is a free tier but we've also given free access to a quite a few number of researchers, non-profits and university students for their projects when they reached out to us.

I own and operate a high intensity organic farm.

My use case is to attempt to predict how much water I can expect for the growing season and other growing conditions like date of last frost.

I'm trying to apply my software engineering skills to my farm. I am also researching automation strategies.

Your offering is most intriguing.

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#214

Post by dopidopHN »

gtdawg wrote: post #187
janalsncm wrote: post #125

Here are some of my unsolicited and harebrained climate startup ideas. I’m poor and I can’t afford to pursue any of these but I believe a carbon-neutral future will require these things: * Cheap EV chargers for people who don’t own houses. Young people are the most likely to be open to EVs, but they’re also the least likely to own a house. Charging is a major barrier to entry. Create something so cheap and ubiquitous…

> * Cheap EV chargers for people who don’t own houses. https://www.itselectric.us

Yep. Also, I moved from France 7 years ago. Last year I went back for vacation and rented a EV on a whim.

I thought about charger after the fact.

Well; in those 7 year the territory got covered in chargers. Private / public mix. Some will likely disappear once things settle a bit but damn, I was surprised

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#215

Post by coffeemug »

jongjong wrote: post #204

Almost all climate tech is greenwashing; superficial solutions. Climate issues require deeper system changes. We need a system which encourages financial prudence and frugality instead of one which encourages financial recklessness, infinite growth, consumerism and bullshit jobs. The problem needs to be solved at the lowest monetary incentive layer. How much energy is wasted by people travelling to and from their bul…

That's one cultural point of view. Another point of view is that we should get ourselves in a position where we can produce (and consume) infinite clean energy, for example, but building a thousand nuclear power plants. Team mushrooms vs team cocaine.

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#216

Post by elevenoh »

RangerScience wrote: post #99
ravenstine wrote: post #9

> Tesla for home appliances: re-inventing home appliances (water heaters, induction stoves, clothes dryers, etc) to create better consumer experiences using specific advantages of electric technology. > Tesla-like experience for home energy management: smart hub, including smart charging, load shifting, software-based load shedding for improved resiliency, and better circuit-level energy use measurement. With how Tes…

> unanimous lack of confidence in "autopilot" I've witnessed in owners I'm an owner and I have a lot of confidence in autopilot. Generally, if it's possible to use autopilot on the road I'm on, I do. So that's one owner you're witnessing who's not part of that "unanimous".

No post body was provided.

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#217

Post by jongjong »

coffeemug wrote: post #215
jongjong wrote: post #204

Almost all climate tech is greenwashing; superficial solutions. Climate issues require deeper system changes. We need a system which encourages financial prudence and frugality instead of one which encourages financial recklessness, infinite growth, consumerism and bullshit jobs. The problem needs to be solved at the lowest monetary incentive layer. How much energy is wasted by people travelling to and from their bul…

That's one cultural point of view. Another point of view is that we should get ourselves in a position where we can produce (and consume) infinite clean energy, for example, but building a thousand nuclear power plants. Team mushrooms vs team cocaine.

We'd still have to take care of the plastics problem and also any population growth problem which would arise from that. It seems that historically, any improvements in efficiency has lead to population booms which negated the efficiency improvements. That's why I think the solution is systemic and cultural. The best that technology can offer IMO is to support a cultural shift and new incentive structures based on scarcity.

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#218

Post by bmitc »

judge2020 wrote: post #119
bmitc wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Popularity does not necessarily correlate with quality. Tesla is typically rated at the bottom for quality and reliability.

Tesla is pretty high on reliability, just not quality (ie. panel gaps and build quality issues are still a thing, but based on CR they're on-par with all the other non-luxury car brands).

They are rated low on both reliability and quality. Consumer Reports rates them second to last in reliability. And Tesla has for years done warranty work as "goodwill repairs" to hide how bad their reliability is.

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#219

Post by imiric »

jongjong wrote: post #204

Almost all climate tech is greenwashing; superficial solutions. Climate issues require deeper system changes. We need a system which encourages financial prudence and frugality instead of one which encourages financial recklessness, infinite growth, consumerism and bullshit jobs. The problem needs to be solved at the lowest monetary incentive layer. How much energy is wasted by people travelling to and from their bul…

I'd say that the solutions should start from the top first.

100 companies are responsible for 71% of global GHG emissions.[1] That's a mind-boggling statistic.

The counterargument is, of course, that these companies are supplying the demand; that consumers should vote with their wallets, change their habits, recycle, reduce their "carbon footprint", etc. This is the usual deflection propaganda pushed by the companies themselves, and shills who benefit from them.

But the reality is that if only a fraction of these companies changed a fraction of their processes to lower their emissions, or—heaven forbid—reduced their growth and shareholder profits, the positive impact would be far, far greater than anything individuals could ever do.

It's ludicrously counterproductive to invest in _new_ companies to reduce our effects on the climate, while existing companies are the major cause of the problems we're trying to solve. It's like we're in a sinking ship, trying to remove the water with buckets, instead of patching up the hole the water is rushing in, and stopping the assholes who made it in the first place.

I'm not saying climate tech companies shouldn't exist. But let's get our priorities straight first.

[1]: https://www.cdp.net/en/articles/media/new-report-shows-just-...

Re: Request for Startups: Climate Tech

#220

Post by brutusborn »

CalRobert wrote: post #208
brutusborn wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the same thought. I’m in energy infra design so I care mainly about tech that helps me implement renewables easier. For consumers, simple tools to help them make green decisions would be useful (LCA as you mentioned). Im interested, what kind of behavioural research applications do you mean?

For consumer purchases of disposable goods you can use a browser plugin like choosefinch.com/ (disclaimer - I work here).

Thanks for the suggestion! Out of interest, do you know if there are any plans to make the impact predictions user-specific? E.g I live in a very isolated city, so transport considerations dictate for some products.
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