Climate Change for Software Engineers
Software is critical to climate solutions — climate modeling, energy efficiency & grid balancing, supply chain optimization, and much more. Get a crash course on climate science and impacts and find the highest leverage solutions for your skills.
- 100% online
- 6 weeks / 5 hours per week
- Economy-wide software and climate map
- Course project tailored to your software skills
- Sector-specific deep dives from climate software gurus
do { software } while ( climate crisis )
Find software’s place in climate action
Review the latest climate science. Discover the highest leverage points for software in climate action. The space is vast: energy efficiency & grid optimization, climate and policy impact modeling, climate tech in buildings, food and agriculture, industry, and so much more. Climate is eating the world, and software is an essential part of the solution.
Make your first contribution
We’ll rapidly show you the landscape, map climate solutions to software skills, and help you identify the first step you can take… whether that’s contributing to an open-source project, finding a role at a company, starting your own prototype, or anything in between.
Explore the ecosystem with like-minded peers
Join a climate-focused community of software engineers, engineering team leaders, entrepreneurs, and more. Collaborate as you learn and work on assignments in the program. This community is open to you forever and will keep growing with future cohorts. Kickstart your climate career together!
UNMATCHED FACULTY
Learn from world-class experts in climate software
Antonis Stampoulis
Course Creator
Technical Advisor, SustainChain
Ph.D., Yale University (USA)
Antonis is a software engineering consultant for innovative startups building software platforms in sustainability and fintech. In his consulting practice, he supports software teams in technical design and technical strategy, as well as through engineering mentorship.
As part of his climate change journey, Antonis has been a technical advisor to SustainChain, a platform and community aiming to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Previously, he was the Director of Engineering at Originate NYC, where he helped build a number of software products from concept to launch in partnership with startups and innovation branches of large enterprises. He is a programming languages researcher with expertise in language design and implementation with a Ph.D. from Yale University and a post-doc from MIT.
Antonis is also a Terra.do graduate from the inaugural Learning for Action cohort. He is looking forward to bringing his experience to support other engineers in their own journey!
Lisa Rennels
Course Creator
Lead developer, Mimi.jl package
Ph.D Candidate, UC Berkeley (USA)
Lisa uses computer science methods to research the economic impacts of climate change, and works on software engineering to support research and policy-making in this area. Currently she is a lead developer of the Mimi.jl package to support the construction and use of integrated assessment models to explore the policy-relevant social cost of carbon.
Lisa is a Ph.D. student at the Energy and Resources Group and a M.Sc. student in Computer Science with a focus on programming languages and software development. Through her M.Sc. work she actively pursued a better understanding of how computer scientists can support climate research and policy makers.
Prior to her Ph.D., she spent the three years working at an environmental consulting firm called Industrial Economics Inc. where she leveraged data analysis, programming, and GIS to work on projects related to the effects of climate change, specifically those related to water resources, and assisted policy-makers in planning paths forward. She has a B.A. from Dartmouth College in Environmental Studies and a Post-Baccalaureate Computer Science Minor from Tufts University.
Guest speakers
Ilias Bartolini
Engineering Manager, Ecosia (Germany)
Bosky Dalal
Director of Data Engineering, Afresh (USA)
Levi Malott
VP of Engineering, Pachama (USA)
Michael Cohen
Lead Developer at New Sun Road (USA)
Asim Hussain
Green Cloud Advocacy Lead at Microsoft (USA)
Dr Charles Fletcher
Professor, University of Hawaiʻi (USA)
Exceptional alumni
Our alumni have accomplished careers in industry, policy, and more, and have all made a commitment to focusing their career on sustainability and decarbonization. Expect a similarly accomplished peer set from the world of software, technology, product development, modeling, and others.
I really enjoyed the Terra.do software course. It gave me a great overview of the landscape of how software engineers might help on climate, and we had a fun and really engaged group of people in the course. Thinking about climate change can be overwhelming so it was motivating to know that so many other software engineers are in this too and we’re all trying to find the best ways to help.
Patrick Temple
Product Engineer, Watershed (USA)
Course breakdown
Sign up to get a detailed syllabus in your inbox, or check out a week-by-week outline below.
Personalized and relevant instruction
Our world-class faculty bring not only climate software expertise and experience but also trained techniques in online teaching and facilitation. Think of them as your personal coaches as you navigate your climate action journey in software.
Discussion groups
Once a week, you will meet with your instructor in live, small-group sessions for:
- Project presentations by your fellow learners
- Discussions on software’s role in climate action
- Networking to find your future job, collaborator, co-founder, employee, or just a friend.
Software solution deep dives
Through classes & guest lectures, you will dive deep into climate software solution areas like:
- Local microgrids, smart devices in energy systems
- Measurement, verification, and reporting of carbon offsets and carbon removal solutions
- Software in food material production
- ...and more
Your climate action plan
Use the program to develop a customized plan for yourself, including:
- Identifying where your coding skills are most needed in climate
- Making your first contribution tailored to your skills and the path you'd like to follow
- Understanding how to make a career out of it - what roles, which companies, what communities
- Actually building your first climate network to get you started
Up-to-date material
We update our learning material to stay cutting-edge:
- Latest developments on the science, climate impacts
- New market solutions
- Lifetime access for fellows
Pricing and expected commitment
US$ 799 / 6 weeks
or 3 installments of $266/mo.
Intensive program
6 week duration, with 5 hours of time commitment per week.
Exclusive events
3+ sector deep dives from experts, also available for later viewing.
Focused groups
Each class has just 20-25 fellows with a diversity of skills, background & passion.
100% Online
100% online, with instructors available via Zoom, Slack and email.
Hear from our software community
Ha Vu
The course contents are amazingly comprehensive and organized, covering an impressive range of issues and solutions within this enormous space of climate work. I also enjoyed interacting with classmates from around the world who are passionate in their love for planet, amazingly well-informed, and accomplished.
- Software Engineer, Sidewalk Labs (USA)
Oscar Romero
Terra had a beautifully designed guided course that helped me understand what has been happening in the Climate space, what is currently ongoing, and where I best saw a fit for myself to engage moving forward. Now, I can confidently move forward knowing that I'm going in the right direction.
- Senior Software Engineer, Levvel (USA)
Peter Cliff
I absolutely loved the guest speakers. They were kind, interesting, honest, enthusiastic and inspirational.
- Technical Architect, Oxfam (UK)
Fotis Papadopoulos
Overall great experience, well-informed instructors and a diverse group in the cohort, as well as some quite informative guest talks.
- Engineering Manager, Beat (Netherlands)
Who is this program for?
The program is perfect for anyone looking to contribute to climate action via software engineering. Software engineers and engineering managers of all stripes—full stack, front-end, back-end, mobile, data, DevOps, or embedded engineer—are welcome in the program.
Committed
You’re looking for climate challenges to apply your software skills towards.
Skilled
You’re an active coder (at least semi-professionally), and think software can contribute to solve almost any problem.
Sufficient time
You have sufficient time (5 hours/week) to dedicate to the program.
No Software Background
You're not professionally involved in software.
Too Busy
You don’t have the time to commit to a deep dive right now (you can always apply for later cohorts).
Frequently asked questions
Kickstart your climate action journey
Join our community of professionals, experts, and educators working on climate change.
