With over 2,400 members we think we might be on to something…
When we started out, we were pretty sure there were lots of other people in the region who wanted to learn more about how technology can be harnessed to heal, or sadly damage our world. But there didn’t seem to be a single place where you could meet other like-minded individuals with a focus on taking climate action using technology.
Our vision was, and remains, to create a consistently, friendly community with curated events to deliver expertise on the most relevant topics to help drive climate action using different types of tech. We have a focus on digital technologies, but we’ve also covered things like mobility, energy sources such as hydrogen and Bristol’s decarbonisation plan, City Leap.
Since Feb 2020, we’ve showcased the excellent work and expertise of a wide variety of speakers through our past events.
Join us
Join our meetup group to get notified about our free events and to RSVP.
GTSW is an incredible resource for expanding knowledge on the wider subject of sustainable technology. It’s helped to expand my network of environmentally focused tech folk. Enabling conversations, collaborations and new friendships. It’s a great community to be a part of.
Nick Lewis, Senior Sustainable Web Developer at Leap and creator of lowwwcarbon.com
GTSW community organisers
Ellen Davies
Hannah Smith
Mike Harley
The story of how GTSW began is one we love to tell.
It was serendipity and a shared passion for sustainable technology solutions and a rapid response to climate change that brought us, your three co-founders, Ellen, Hannah and Mike together at the beginning of 2020.
Mike and Ellen, who were working together at ADLIB Recruitment, were driven to find a way to highlight how those in the South West were using tech to tackle the ever-deepening climate crisis.
Hannah, a freelance WordPress developer, had been running the Bristol WordPress people meetup and wanted to channel her energy into increasing climate change awareness in the tech industry.
At the end of 2019, both groups independently began work to make their ideas a reality, and weirdly both settled on running a first event in the week commencing 24th Feb! Mike and Ellen pipped Hannah to the post, and scheduled their first meetup just days before Hannah was about to publish hers. Hannah saw the event and reached out to have a chat with Mike and Ellen.
The trio agreed that creating competing communities didn’t make sense, especially given the urgency of climate change, and instead agreed to become a team and work together. The rest, as they say, is history.
And wow, are we glad we did find each other! With no idea of what 2020 was about to throw our way, we found ourselves able to lean on one another in difficult times and still grow and serve the GTSW community.
Our GTSW forest
Here at GTSW, we’re mindful of the impact on the environment from our own events, and we know all too well that use of digital tech does create harm as well as good. We use our lovely friends at Ecologi to plant trees in our own forest every month and wholly support their fantastic worldwide projects.
We also love it when our members show their appreciation for our free events by planting a clump of trees in our forest – it’s about the same price as a cup of coffee, just a few quid.