In the most IH recent interview with @karastone says:
I was feeling really creatively stuck before I started this game. Not that I didn't have like a million ideas of what I wanted to make, but thinking about the environmental impact of gaming and of technology, I was thinking how can I contribute to this ethically when it's a huge, huge producer of energy waste and e-waste? And how can I be part of this making culture of making without thinking of its effects on the environment, when we're already a climate catastrophe. I'm living in California, where there have been tons of wildfires in my area and making people evacuate and my friend actually evacuated to my house. This is a very real reality.
So I was feeling very stuck about it. How am I supposed to make something new? Probably the best thing most of us could do, especially those of us who work in technology, is to simply stop making stuff. You just can't make anymore.
So I was feeling really stuck and I decided that I wasn't going to make anything new. Instead, I was going to reuse things I've already found.
Personally, I admire this stance. And it is the power of indie hacking that enables this, should we choose to. These kinds of choices are not available to bigger or invested companies, it would be (generally) ludicrous from their perspective. The ROI wouldn't be there, shock horror!
I'm not sure I could go to the same level as Kara with environmentalism, though I have been very conscious about it, and tried to make the best decisions for events that I've done in the past: hiring local people for events, providing locally sourced food, doing more vegan food than not, each year opting to do less and less swag, etc.
However, I also think it's important for people to share how and why they are making these ethical choices. We need more people to see that others are thinking and acting on these things — even when it feels like they don't make a difference.
The more we talk about it, the more normalized it becomes and maybe, just maybe, it becomes almost like a protest against big and wasteful practices of (generally) larger businesses.
I couldn't agree more. I would love for us to reach the point where business making smart, environmental choices is a given, not just a marketing angle.
I love what Stripe did recently, allowing you to donate a percent of your revenue directly to carbon-offsetting initiatives. Hopefully this can be a way indiehackers can start contributing to the wider initiative of halting climate change.
I committed to helping in my own small way when I launched my startup, Thankbox, promising that for every 10 sales we'll plant a tree. Even at small scale, it makes me feel awesome.
This was such an interesting one for me, too, for the same reason. I'd never thought about the volume of waste produced by making games and game computers, but when she said it it felt so obvious.
Reduce/Reuse/Recycle is something we in the tech space aren't exempt from, nor should we be. I'm not sure yet how to reuse assets in the best way while making things, but now it's top of mind as I create.