I am a computer programmer. A few months ago, I decided to find a job in a company that somehow helps fight global warming.
Google immediately brought me to Bret Victor's article "". The article helped me in general to navigate my search, but still turned out to be partly outdated, partly impractical in detail. Therefore, I had to do the bulk of the rough work on finding and systematizing opportunities myself.
The purpose of this post is to save you time if you are also thinking about working against climate change, and to list as many areas as possible.
I added this post to the IT emigration hub because in Russia (just like Ukraine and Belarus) there are practically no IT businesses built on the idea of ββshrinking and/or decarbonizing the economy. The only notable exception I could find is . You can check them π
Specialized job search sites and job boards
The main problem with finding a job that would help fight climate change is that there are simply no normal sites that aggregate all (or at least some significant part) of relevant vacancies. Eat , but only a microscopic fraction of all relevant vacancies is represented there. But the attempt is not torture, you can start with this site.
There are several other similar sites: , , but the coverage there is even less than .
A few more sites with "green" vacancies specifically in the German market are listed in compiled by Pedro Oliva.
If you're looking at seed-level startups, AngelList has a selection to match. .
In the community Slack has a channel with jobs. To be added to the group, you must complete . The advantage of the group is that many of the vacancies that slip through there are with the ability to work remotely, which, in general, is a rarity in the companies listed below in this post. I must say right away that the only such relatively mature and large company, which are explicitly marked as deleted are (previously known as Loco2).
Unfortunately, as I already mentioned, all of the above resources with vacancies are a drop in the ocean. To find something worthwhile, with a good match in your skills, and also for the company to be ready to relocate you (or remotely) - get ready to walk a lot on company websites, look at sections with vacancies and write them "cold" letters about relocation and Remote control, if it is not written anywhere (as most often it will be).
Thus, the next question is where to look for these same companies?
A good place to start looking for vacancies in mature companies in the clean energy market.
Awards and associations
The second source is various industry awards and cleantech associations:
- (Iβll note on my own that, apparently, the compilers had some kind of alternative vision of the βtop startupβ - in some places it looks more like a list of the craziest ideas than working companies, but nonetheless)
In addition, there are a huge number of green and environmental awards: google "environmental awards" only to find a few. meta lists such awards, including . True, I doubt that through them you can find any interesting job opportunities for programmers and engineers: there is more about planting trees in Africa and campaigning for the use of a small flush button in the toilet than about technology.
Perhaps it makes a little more sense to look at awards in certain relevant industries, for example, or . All similar business industries known to me are listed below in the post.
Companies operating in the British market are listed. Catalog compiled by the company .
energystartups.org
is an independent site listing startups in the field of renewable energy and optimization. The lists are very fragmentary and sometimes irrelevant (which, however, is a common problem for all resources: otherwise there would be no need for this article). But on the site, you can quickly see the largest companies by specialization: solar energy, wind, electric cars, etc., since startups are sorted by size of investments.
Large companies/startups have several advantages over small ones:
- There is a great chance that they will actually make some contribution to the decarbonization of the economy, and not just burn investors' money and close (which means that your efforts for N years literally just warmed the planet)
- The ceiling of personal contribution (influence) within a large company is higher, since there is already a large client base, operating volume, etc.
- Large companies are more likely to offer relocation
There are also disadvantages in front of small startups: strict rules are more common (regarding the working day, remote work, internal procedures), outdated technologies, low efficiency. Small start-ups have a chance to participate in shaping a good engineering culture for years to come.
However, there is nothing specific for companies in the energy sector, everything is the same as everywhere else.
Studying speakers at cleantech conferences
We open the lists of speakers at past CleanTech events and see where they work:
More events can be found on the website and .
Companies by industry
If all of the above methods of finding an employer did not lead you to interesting vacancies, you can start looking "deep" in specific industries.
For each of the sectors, you can:
Search industry awards, "top" lists, associations, conferences - in other words, use all the same techniques as above, but in relation to specific industries, for example, solar energy or Smart Grid.
Don't forget to just google "%fieldname% companies" or "%fieldname% startups". For example, try "". Optionally, you can add a country: "solar startups netherlands".
Use to search for companies by category. In free mode, Crunchbase only shows you the top 5 companies in each search, but if you patiently narrow your search with mutually exclusive filters, you can actually bypass this limitation. For example, if you take the field of AgTech (βagricultural technologyβ), you can start with companies , then see companies , etc.
Every company has a CB Rank on Crunchbase, the lower the better. In my experience, companies below 20 are almost certainly garbage. If a simple filter by category and location does not allow you to βget to the bottomβ of all noteworthy companies, you can βpartitionβ further, for example, by the year the companies were founded:
- Etc.
The blind spot of Crunchbase is that it is a directory of individual startups. For example, during my search, I missed a cute startup (they're looking for Haskell programmers!) because after the Engie takeover, his CB Rank fell to a very .
Search professional market reviews. Google "%fieldname% industry report", "%fieldname% landscape", or "%fieldname% market analysis". For example, if you are interested in smart home technologies, try "or smart home industry report. Professional market reviews are the source of the highest quality and relevant information. Unfortunately, they are rarely available for free, and almost never - without confirmation for the so-called. business e-mail, i.e. box not on a public service like Gmail.
The business areas listed below are sorted roughly by how directly business activities affect the CO2 balance in the atmosphere.
Direct extraction of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
This βbusinessβ is still, in the literal sense, a payment for air, but regulators simply have to make it profitable if we do not want to warm up the planet by more than 2 degrees relative to pre-industrial levels.
Good signal - .
Company examples: , , .
Tree planting: a natural way to extract CO2 π In this area, the company deserves a mention .
Solar power
Categories on Crunchbase: ,
Some big companies: , .
Wind power
Categories on Crunchbase: ,
The largest manufacturer of wind turbines - . There is a company in Russia .
Other renewable energy
Crunchbase Categories: , , , , ,
Examples of Western companies: , .
In Russia, of course, there are ΠΈ .
Energy storage and batteries
Crunchbase Categories: , , ,
Some major companies in this area are: , , , .
Specifically, Northvolt (a company with $1 billion in funding) is hiring in Stockholm ΠΈ with cloud experience, build a data infrastructure with a focus on IoT/analytics. A vacancy with the possibility of relocation - personally verified, because I talked with them.
energy efficiency and
Crunchbase Categories: , , . You can combine one of these categories, or just "Energy" with "Artificial Intelligence", "Predictive Analytics", "Machine Learning", "Internet of Things", or "SaaS" to narrow your search. For example, see .
Companies: , , , ,
Smart grids and energy exchange trading
The contribution of companies in this field to the fight to reduce CO2 emissions may not be as direct as the contribution of companies in some of the sectors listed below. I just placed this category next to the other "energetic" categories.
In the document "β prepared by Charles River Associates provides a good overview of the market (with examples of specific companies).
In Europe in recent years, a lot of IT startups have appeared in this area. Company examples: , , , , , , , , the above .
Π there is a good picture that outlines the landscape of the market.
It is worth mentioning separately blockchain for power systems. According to GreenTech Media, as of March 2018 only in this narrow direction! There is a specialized conference on this topic . You can also check the tag combination at Crunchbase.
Notable Russian startup makes the blockchain more general purpose, but also promotes it .
Green energy providers
Large holding companies in this area: , , , . prepared by Prospex Research Ltd. surveys the top 20 companies in Europe in terms of energy supplies.
Between large companies and consumers there is also a layer of distributors who compete with each other, including the convenience and efficiency of digital services, so they actively hire programmers: , , , , ,
Heating, ventilation and air conditioning
Company examples: , ,
Smart home, smart buildings
Crunchbase Categories: , ,
Some notable companies: , , , ,
Production and supply chain optimization
Crunchbase Categories: , , . You can also combine one of these categories, or just "Energy" with "Artificial Intelligence", "Predictive Analytics", "Machine Learning", "Internet of Things", or "SaaS" to narrow down your search. For example, see .
Company examples: , , , ,
Electric vehicles
Crunchbase Categories: ,
Some big companies: , , ,
electric planes: it is still difficult to call this direction a practical, real business, but it must become one if we want to continue traveling around the earth in hours. See comparison of transport modes by CO2 emission intensity in .
Pioneer companies: ,
Used item exchange
Companies in this field help reduce excess consumption.
examples: , , , . In some countries it is more used as a direct sales channel (that is, it works more to accelerate than to reduce consumption), in some it is used as a platform for selling used items.
Foodsaving
A lot of information about food saving (food sharing) in Russian can be found in .
View vacancies at ΠΈ .
Optimization of cargo transportation and delivery
Crunchbase Categories: , , , ,
Companies: , , ,
Efficient regional transport
ΠΈ are the two largest companies in the industry. Both employ a huge number of IT people.
Trains
The train is the most βlow-carbonβ mode of transport for long distances. In addition to national carriers (RZD, Ukrainian UZ, BZD, Deutsche Bahn, etc.), it is worth noting the same (operates FlixTrain trains) and .
There are two internet businesses specializing in sale of railway tickets: ΠΈ (as mentioned above, the only company in this post that is clearly remote).
Fleet management
Crunchbase category:
Example companies: ,
Electric bicycles and scooters
It must be borne in mind that this direction can be and not require more workers right now.
Crunchbase category:
Major companies: , , ,
Personal movement optimization
Crunchbase Categories: , . Perhaps the largest company in this sector is the Israeli .
Agriculture optimization
Crunchbase Categories: , ,
Company examples: ,
Construction optimization
Crunchbase category:
Company examples: ,
Local offline delivery
(on the roads) and (on sidewalks) - two leading companies in the area.
Drones
Drone delivery should be more efficient (in terms of energy consumption) than any kind of ground delivery. Drones also have interesting applications in agriculture and tree planting (see below). ).
Crunchbase Categories: ,
Some companies: ,
Smart city
Crunchbase Categories: ,
Company examples: , ,
Energy and climate analytics, data collection and provision
Company examples: , , ,
Search for similar companies
If any of the companies mentioned above, or any other, seemed to you a very interesting option, it makes sense to also look at its direct competitors and similar companies in other countries. The following services may be useful for this:
- Block "similar companies" on the page of the company on LinkedIn.
Source: habr.com