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Panel discussion: How can tech workers take action on climate change in 2022?

Event overview

Green Tech South West brings together some wonderful people from organisations in the digital tech community, all working to surface and implement meaningful change to the tech industry’s impact on climate change.

Join us for an insightful and carefully curated panel discussion that will provide inspiriation and practical advice on how YOU can get involved in making positive change within the tech industry in 2022.

Sandra Pallier – Lead organiser at ClimateAction.tech (CAT)

CAT is a community of practice of tech workers that provides support and guidance for systemic change in our organisations and industries, to face the climate crisis.

Its purpose is to empower technology professionals to play their part — to meet, discuss, learn and take climate action.

You can read our short interview with Sandra ahead of her talk.


Chris Adams – Director at The Green Web Foundation (TGWF)

TGWF believes humanity deserves a healthy and sustainable internet; one that is green, open and diverse, and works towards making this a reality.

In 2006, TGWF started working with a small team on a project that aimed to make the kind of energy that powers the internet visible: green for renewables, grey for fossil-fuel powered. Today they run a number of tools to make that data easier to look up, and have expanded their offering to focus on representing the needs of smaller and medium size organizations online, and actively building a professional community around the idea of an internet that is green, open and diverse.

You can read our short interview with Chris ahead of his talk.

Mohan Gandhi – Head of policy and research at the Sustainable Digital Infrastructure Alliance (SDIA)

The SDIA advocates for a more sustainable, economic, and scalable digital infrastructure that reconciles with the ambitions of a decarbonized society.

The SDIA roadmap enables every industrial actor to connect, benchmark and deliver sustainability within their segment of the digital infrastructure value chain. Through the universal reporting regimen, and the industry led action plan, the roadmap is simultaneously the reporting and collaboration vehicle that will ensure we hit sustainable digital infrastructure by 2030.

Unfortunately, Mo was unable to join us last minute but we were still able to get an SDIA perspective on the questions thanks to the wonderful Michael Oghia, Director of External Relations at SDIA, who kindly pre-recorded his answers for us to share during the event.

Janet Gunter – Outreach lead and co-founder at the Restart Project

The Restart Project is a people-powered social enterprise that aims to fix the human relationship with electronics.

It was born in 2013 from frustration with the throwaway, consumerist model of electronics that we’ve been sold, and the growing mountain of e-waste that it’s leaving behind. They run regular Restart Parties where people teach each other how to repair their broken and slow devices – from tablets to toasters, from iPhones to headphones. And use data and stories to help demand better, more sustainable electronics for all at a European policy level.

Watch the event video

To make it easier for you to find what you’re looking for, here’s the key timings in the video:

👋 04:57 – A welcome from your meet-up organisers, Ellen, Hannah and Mike with a brief overview of GTSW and what we’re about

📢 11:37 – Our famous 60 second intros – a chance for attendees to introduce themselves, ask for help and tell us about something the group might find interesting

💚 15:54 – The panel discussion

🗓️ 01:07:43 – Round-up, other community notices and next event announcement

Resources and links

One of the perks of holding events online, and having such a wonderful and engaging community, is we share a huge amount of useful resources and information throughout the event. Here’s a summary of what we unearthed.

Our slides with upcoming events

https://bit.ly/3oEnwFl

60 Second Intro’s

Andy Hawkins – Chief Purpose Officer at Business On Purpose, an organisation supporting companies with B Corp Certification as well as Charities and Public Sector Organisations to measure and increase the impact of their social value.