A very small piece of technology with Bay Area roots is now part of a very big plan to help us fight climate change.
It’s a gadget that’s both techy and tiny. The IoT Pixel costs 10 cents per unit and is made by a startup called Wiliot.
"This is a tiny, tiny computer," said Thaddeus Segura, vice president of data products for Wiliot.
It can be attached to containers for just about anything and track its carbon footprint from start to finish.
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"So we've seen refrigerated trucks that sat for three days, just burning diesel because they didn't have a driver,” said Segura. “As soon as you can show that to a retailer and say ‘hey, look at all this you wasted, they act on it.’”
It’s all part of the wave of tech now fighting climate change.
"We definitely think that, if you can't do it in Silicon Valley, you probably can't do it anywhere,” said Pamela Leonard of Silicon Valley Clean Energy.
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But, Leonard said tech does not absolve us of our responsibility to fight, too.
"Even at the individual level, we're looking at solutions to go all electric at home, or on the road, you look at the new EV models that have come out over the last five years, there's so many more choices,” she said.
Meanwhile, Wiliot has a plan that in the future. You'll be able to download an app, and when you're shopping, hold your phone up to different products, and instantly get, and compare, their climate footprints.
