For Earth Month, we’re exploring the unseen climate impact of something you use every day: your browser.
In this episode, Marco sits down with Neil Henderson, CEO of Shift, and Mahum Azeem, a lead engineer spearheading Shift’s sustainability initiatives. Together, they’re reimagining what it means to build climate-conscious software, starting with the browser itself. While most conversations around tech and emissions focus on data centers and AI, Shift is tackling the emissions generated by everyday digital habits. From Slack and email to streaming and spreadsheets, every interaction online carries a carbon footprint—and Shift is working to measure, reduce, and ultimately reshape that impact from the inside out.
“Everything you do on the internet, each and every day, actually has emissions.” — Neil Henderson
Mahum, a lead engineer on the project, walks us through how their internal sustainability tool evolved from a university research project into a browser-level feature that can track and estimate digital emissions across the full browsing experience, not just individual websites.
“In theory, it could constantly look at the emissions and give us a very holistic view of a user’s web browsing experience.” — Mahum Azeem
They discuss the importance of transparency, measurement, and consumer education, and how Shift is embedding all three directly into the product, without slowing it down.
“In an ideal world, there’s no trade off, and we are also reducing our impact by as much as we can.” — Mahum Azeem
Neil also shares how the decision to build for climate wasn’t driven by user demand, but by leadership foresight—and why that’s become a rallying point for both the team and Shift’s evolving go-to-market strategy.
“Everyone is pumped for it… This is just perfectly in line with that—use this browser and make an impact against climate change.” — Neil Henderson
Whether you’re building a software product, designing digital infrastructure, or rethinking your company’s sustainability roadmap, this episode dives deep into what it looks like to build climate action into the tools we use every day.“In the next couple of years, sustainability and being accountable for the carbon emissions of your digital products would no longer be an optional thing.” — Mahum Azeem
Play Episode 76: Neil Henderson & Mahum Azeem, Shift