Earth Hackers • Make a Light Bulb Change Color with Grid Emissions

What if you could see emissions from the electric grid as clearly as a traffic light? That's what we'll be building in this week's Earth Hackers Meetup. Join us and get a Phillips Wiz Smart Light (we will have them available) and program it to change color in real-time from red, orange, yellow, green, and blue to signal the kilotons of carbon emissions the California grid is making in real-time.

Learn how to use California's electrical data system by CAISO, and install the Python script that will turn your smart bulb into a real life traffic light for the planet.

For those you are game, we'll take on a 7 day light bulb challenge to shift your energy usage to cleaner times of day. Googley eyes provided.

🌍 Earth Hackers: Build Tools for Real Climate Impact A hands-on meetup where we turn environmental data into real-world climate action. This is a working session for builders, designers, and problem-solvers who want to create tools that make a measurable difference. We’ll explore datasets like electricity use, carbon emissions, satellite imagery, waste, and transport data—and turn them into apps, visualizations, and experiments that drive behavior change and support Mountain View’s climate goals.

You’ll learn:
• How cities measure climate impact and nature.
• What data is available (and how to use it)
• How to turn data into behavior-changing tools, then we build.

Whether you’re a programmer, designer, marketer, or just curious, you’ll collaborate to prototype tools that help people reduce energy use, shift to cleaner times, and lower emissions. Hosted by Katie Patrick, environmental engineer and action designer, founder of the Hello World Labs School of Climate Action Design, TEDx speaker, and author of How to Save the World which is taught at Harvard. She has partnered with NASA, Google, UNEP, and Stanford to build data-driven climate engagement tools.