Launch HN: Wren (YC S19) – Offset Your Carbon Footprint • Hacker News Board

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

#121

Post by cotap » Mon, Jul 22, 2019, 11:28 AM UTC

landon32 wrote: post #5

gringoDan wrote: post #4

Do you have any plans to expand to B2B? I'd imagine it might be a larger impact, along with the positive psychological effect of it not being an individual's money on the line.

Great idea! We're actually piloting that right now. I think it would be promising especially since companies ask employees to travel and have otherwise larger footprints from work.

Beware b2b with large corporates, especially those that have already professed leadership and concern on climate change. Google, Disney, Microsoft, Apple, UPS, and... Interface. They will wear you out. Maybe they'll have a soft spot for your YCombinator gloss, but don't count on it. Most companies you would pursue are already partnered up w/Natural Capital Partners, NativeEnergy, Carbonfund, etc. It's very rare for them to switch. That gold rush happened long ago. There are of course exceptions and other pockets of opportunity. Don't think you're different, special, better... that "it's different this time" or that hey offsetting is a neat space where buyers can granularly allocate their buys across many different providers. Theoretically true, doesn't happen. Save your energy for companies with newly-announced neutrality commitments. Even then, in our experience, those dialogues move slowly (2+ years), usually involve RFI's and RFP's, and then you're up against 20+ incumbents who have been doing this for over a decade.

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

#122

Post by avip » Tue, Jul 23, 2019, 8:23 AM UTC

OmarIsmail wrote: post #53

landon32 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I've read this subthread 3 times and can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not.

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

#123

Post by cotap » Tue, Jul 23, 2019, 8:06 PM UTC

mlguy456 wrote: post #109

I don't believe in "offsetting personal footprint". This idea appeals to personal guilt, while aims at filling the pockets of the founders. The solution should be going after companies who make products that break by design after certain time of use, thus forcing the customers to buy new items. If done right, this will be painful for both companies (many will have to close the shop) and for the people who are used to…

Not guilt. Not sin. Your logic is specious parroted re-hash from George Monbiot's failed thought leadership from the mid-2000's. Carbon dioxide is pollution and waste just like household garbage, recycling, and compost. When you offset you're cleaning up after yourself.

As with more tangible-seeming waste, it's always better to avoid and reduce before paying another party to deal with it. Yet CO2 is demonized because global warming is a collective externality. Because it's invisible doesn't make it intangible. Because the reductions can be counteracted by an entity that's in another location doesn't make a difference, either!

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

#124

Post by mtranzambetti » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 5:42 PM UTC

codingdave wrote: post #118

landon32 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I hope you are still reading replies, even though I'm a couple days late. But if the calculator has such a high impact, why hide it behind a requirement to give out our email? I'd love to give it a try, but have no desire to sign up until I've seen more. It sounds like you are hiding one of your most effective conversion tools from me.

Hi! We are still reading replies, though a couple days late as well. That's a great point and something we're planning on doing — We're going to spin out the calculator to be its own tool separate from the sign up flow soon. We can keep you posted when that's up!

If you want to try the calculator now but don't want to use your email, you're free to use a fake email. You can change it to your real email if you do decide to create an account after calculating your footprint :)

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

#125

Post by mtranzambetti » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 6:13 PM UTC

cotap wrote: post #121

landon32 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great idea! We're actually piloting that right now. I think it would be promising especially since companies ask employees to travel and have otherwise larger footprints from work.

Beware b2b with large corporates, especially those that have already professed leadership and concern on climate change. Google, Disney, Microsoft, Apple, UPS, and... Interface. They will wear you out. Maybe they'll have a soft spot for your YCombinator gloss, but don't count on it. Most companies you would pursue are already partnered up w/Natural Capital Partners, NativeEnergy, Carbonfund, etc. It's very rare for t…

Hi! Thanks for putting in the time to respond to so many of the comments on this thread! You've all been in this space for so long and it's really valuable to hear your perspective.

>Beware b2b with large corporates

Just a note on b2b, we aren't going after large companies. Right now we are just responding to inbound interest from users who want to offer Wren as a benefit to their employees. We don't do offsets in scopes 1 through 3 because we're focused on individuals, and as you said there are 20+ incumbents who have been doing this for over a decade, and much better than we can right now.

>Don't think you're different, special, better... that "it's different this time"

I don't think we're under the illusion that we are special. We are only trying to build a good product to get individuals engaged who haven't been reached before. We are also not trying to put down any organizations that are already offering offsets to individuals by building Wren. I don't think we're going to get anywhere by competing internally when the vast majority of the world doesn't know what can be done on an individual basis to take action, whether that's lifestyle changes, political action, activism, offsets, etc. We are here to contribute, not take away from or hurt the space. Whether it's changing our organization structure, margin, projects we're working with, whatever it is, I'd love to hear from you about what you think we should be doing better. Please email me at mimi@projectwren.com if you'd like to continue the conversation!