Carbon Switch

Howdy! My name is Michael Thomas, and I’m the founder of Carbon Switch. I thought I’d begin this job posting with a short story about why I started the company and why this role will be so important to its success and social impact.

In the summer of 2020, as a wildfire raged a few miles away from my home in Colorado, I went down a research rabbit hole. I’m not sure what inspired it, but somehow I ended up on a website with a graph of the largest sources of emissions in America.

One piece of data on that website surprised me: 20% of emissions in America come from the energy we use in our homes. In total the electricity, natural gas, and other fossil fuels we use is responsible for a billion tons of emissions each year.

After I learned that, I started looking into ways to reduce those emissions. And I learned that compared to other “hard to abate” sectors like aviation or concrete-production, many of the solutions already exist.

Heat pumps, LED lights, and induction cooktops. All of these things have already been invented. And in many cases they can save people money.

But in my research I noticed something else. Most of the resources on these topics were either inaccurate, confusing, or hard to find.

That’s when the idea hit me: I should build a Wirecutter for climate.

Every month millions of people search for things like “best hot water heater” or “best furnace.” If these people land on a website that recommends a natural gas appliance, they will very likely install something that locks in hundreds of tons of carbon over the next few decades. That’s not good.

The initial idea of Carbon Switch was to:

1. Create trustworthy, rigorously-researched buyer’s guides and reviews on these topics

2. Rank highly on Google

3. Convince millions of people to install energy efficient, electric appliances like heat pumps.

In the last year and a half I’ve made steady progress towards that goal. I’ve produced 20 guides and reviews on heat pumps, water heaters, LEDs, and much more. I’ve also produced reports about home electrification that have been cited in publications like The Wall Street Journal, NPR, CNBC, and dozens of other national media outlets. My favorite YouTube channel, Vox, even made a video about some of my research.