Highlighting Software Engineer Jimmy Byrum

I’ve always been surprised by how many people want to make environmentally friendly changes. I think we all have this thought in our mind like we’ll be annoying everyone by suggesting changes, but often lots of people want the change and are nervous about suggesting it.

Jimmy Byrum is an engineering manager that is part of a climate hive at Vipps, a mobile payments company in Oslo, Norway. He has just started his journey on taking climate action at work, beginning first with encouraging computer re-use.

What has motivated you to proactively take climate action at the place you work?

I’m generally thinking about how to have less impact on the environment and that naturally happens at work as well.

How did you start? What things did you do in your effort?

The short answer is I haven’t started much. The only thing I’ve done very proactively is ask new hires if they’d be ok with a used computer that has sufficient specs. The policy is to get all new hires a new computer, which sounds nice, but is also fairly wasteful.

Vipps as a product has had some nice alignment with positive climate actions. Between having eFaktura [electronic invoices] in the app, the ability to scan paper invoices, and marketing campaigns around that, there have been about 40 million less paper invoices sent after just the first year, which obviously means much less waste.

Pre-Corona, Vipps was doing very well with things like not having disposable cups in the office and using compostable plates for events. The Corona Times have unfortunately brought all the disposable stuff back.

Vipps has also been very good about reducing swag and not making t-shirts for events due to the wastefulness of all of it.

As a side-note, I became a vegetarian–along with 5 other people in the company I worked at–about 10 years ago. We did it for both personal and environmental reasons, but it was really a great experience to feel supported and encouraged all day long by my coworkers.

How did your company and office react?

For the used computers for new hires, everyone has been happy so far. I think what they really care about is having a good computer, regardless of whether it is brand new or not.

What worked best?

All I really had to do was ask, and that worked.

What is your advice to someone starting out?

I’ve always been surprised by how many people want to make environmentally friendly changes. I think we all have this thought in our mind like we’ll be annoying everyone by suggesting changes, but often lots of people want the change and are nervous about suggesting it.

What do you feel your industry could do more of?

I think the struggle for a sustainable future is a long one, and all industries can always be improving. Tech has thrived on digital abundance for a while now and there needs to be some realignment there.

In general I think there’s a well-intentioned idea behind treating employees right and getting them lots of shiny new things, and that perspective needs to be updated. In my experience nobody minds using used equipment as long as it is high quality and lets them get their job done.

What would you like to see happen in the coming years- what is your wish list for climate action?

Five things. First, I’d like to see climate actions become a default part of work culture instead of it being something only certain people think about doing and encouraging.

Second, I’d like to see re-use as a top priority throughout the industry.

Third, some in Big Tech have made ambitious climate goals that sound great, and if they really follow-through on that it could make a difference.

Fourth, I’d like to see more effort put into making business models that incentivize climate-friendly actions. That way even people that don’t care about the climate will still make climate friendly decisions.

And finally, I’d like to see more governmental actions and regulations that are much more aggressive than what is currently being done.

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Jimmy Byrum is the author of Being a (Tech) Product Company. He can be found at Medium and at LinkedIn.

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This article was first published on the Hive Initiative Medium account.