I'm a full-stack developer that started my work on Bend using Rocket and then migrated to Axum. Would be very happy to contribute/be a part of a community initiative like the one you describe
Just wanted to update the Hacker News community here that we just launched on Product Hunt as well! Y'all asked a ton of amazing questions here and if you wouldn't mind checking this out as well and engaging if you're so moved, every little bit helps! Thanks <3
We have a large database of carbon intensity factors generated using government data from two different sources (the EPA and Exiobase). Comparing our merchant specific factors to those industry standards, you might be surprised by how accurate it is.
I don't understand what you're saying. Replacing a 10k cloud service with 100k of private server equipment would probably reduce a company's co2 balance.
+1, it also really depends on the offset (as to whether it's a scam or not)—like I talked about elsewhere, even our low-cost offset is a much more credible project than some of the credits frequently purchased by big companies.
If we don't start changing the standard for what's acceptable, who will, ya know?
We're huge supporters of a carbon tax, but there are significant challenges, both technical and political. If we had perfect information and the political will, I think the approach you describe would be great—in the meantime, unfortunately, the market needs tools like Bend.
Yes, $100/month is our Startup pricing. Enterprise customers have very different needs and multiple bank connections to manage, so we approach those case-by-case.
To be fair, I think a solution like Bend would help companies make the kinds of decisions your advocating for. "You can't improve what you don't measure," so Bend offers a measurement tool that enables procurement managers to make smart buying decisions. Companies pay lots of money for other internal reporting tools; why should sustainability be any different?
Good question! We don't currently consider payroll a carbon emitting activity. Generally we think of salary as paying exclusively for human-hours.
In contrast, if your company paid for your metro card or reimbursed for mileage or gas on your commute, we would estimate the carbon intensity for those expenses.
Absolutely. Even though we have a fintech background and we're tackling carbon accounting from the angle of spend, we know how sensitive revenue and budget data are. Our business is firmly in mapping the carbon graph; we'll never sell financial insights.
From a regulatory perspective, yes, there's a lot of pressure being generated in European markets. In the US, another thing we're starting to see is pressure from procurement managers at large companies like Salesforce. Since Salesforce is committed to a net-zero footprint, anyone selling software to Salesforce needs to at least report their emissions (we can help with that!)—and as more companies adopt similar policies, hopefully we'll see more market incentive to report, reduce, and offset
Thank you! There's not a ton of activity yet but if you wanna hang out with us and chat all things climate-tech, here's the link to our Discord: https://discord.gg/muGxr24U