Job searches can be overwhelming, unless you have your priorities in check.

For me, the job search was about finding a design position in the Bay Area, in the greentech industry, at a startup, with a really smart team that had a design-friendly yet technical environment. Piece of cake, right? It was also about making use of my background and passion for energy efficiency, sustainability, economics, marketing, and design.

When a friend in the energy industry recommended I check out MeterHero, it became a no-brainer. Here in the heart of Oakland was a team building the world’s first marketplace for energy, water, and natural gas conservation for consumers. With a minimum viable website and user portal launched for an active user base of a couple thousand, the design possibilities are endless to help people save more water, energy, and gas.

“When can we get you started?” founder McGee Young asked. “You’d get to find solutions to tackle the California drought, all while still living in San Francisco.”

How could I resist? McGee made it clear from the start that MeterHero was the perfect fit for me at a mission-driven startup, tackling climate change with software and very, very little time to spare.

Today, I am writing to you as MeterHero’s brand spanking new UX designer and marketing guru, helping the planet one website at a time.

It is an understatement to say we have hit the ground running. With the team back from the Sustainable Brands conference in San Diego and amazing press hitting The California Report and Marketplace, it could not be a more exciting time to onboard users into the MeterHero platform. My first week consisted of all hands on deck getting folks into the system, getting their utilities meters registered, and connecting them to corporate and utility sponsors who want to pay them to save water, energy, and gas.

Even more exciting is what we are building next. With the current website and customer dashboard in place, we are designing the next iteration of the website, to better help people conserve. Currently, people on average think they only use about 20 to 30 gallons of water a day. In reality, folks use 150 gallons a day, on average if they are not careful. Aggregate this with improper water pricing in the marketplace and you see how this is just the tip of the (melting) iceberg, helping explain why people do not think they are capable of saving more.

With data from MeterHero’s utility meter tracking capabilities, we work with our customers to help them track their conservation efforts. When they do a good job, we pay them for their efforts. It’s really that simple. As an economics major, I couldn’t be happier that we can tackle climate change with market-based solutions.

Stay tuned for future design iterations. If you have feedback as a MeterHero customer yourself, we are all ears. There is always more to be done and we are always happy to hear how people like using the MeterHero dashboard.

Are you interested in this kind of work? We’re currently hiring a full stack developer to help build out the next iteration of MeterHero.com, and need someone as geeked out about water conservation as we are. Let’s connect.