Since we launched GreenCloud in 2023, we’ve been trying to secure investment.

I touched on this in a recent post. The plan was simple: build something real, something tangible, and then use that momentum to raise funds to scale.

It hasn’t quite worked out that way. We’ve tried — believe me.

Why hasn’t it worked?

1. Most people don’t really care about the planet. Some say they do. Few act like it.
2. If it costs more, they care even less. Sustainability is great — until there’s a price tag.

I say that because the response to GreenCloud has been far lower than we expected.

We’ve made smart decisions. For nearly two years, our entire website ran off my laptop — literally plugged into my home router. It might sound scrappy, but it worked flawlessly.

Eventually, we transitioned from my house to a much more stable setup hosted at the National Data Center Academy (NDCA) in Leamington Spa — huge thanks to John and Rachael for the support.

This isn’t a sob story. There are too many of those already, and frankly, they’re boring. What came out of the launch, though, were real insights:

1. Price is king. If it’s not cheaper, people aren’t interested.
2. Carbon savings don’t excite. Sad, but true.
3. Developers follow trends. Serverless is still misunderstood.

Over the past few years, I’ve heard countless excuses from people hesitant to try GreenCloud. One recurring theme is that serverless compute is too restrictive. That it’s not suited to “real” development. That’s a flawed view — and a lazy one.

Serverless, particularly in the GreenCloud framework, promotes a fundamentally different way of building. Instead of monoliths or tightly coupled systems, you break problems down into small, independent services. These run in parallel, scale independently, and communicate via clear, modular interfaces.

The result? A system that’s more scalable, resilient, and elegant. Serverless isn’t restrictive — it’s liberating.

That ThoughtWorks Call

A moment that sticks out: I once had a call with the Lead for Sustainability at ThoughtWorks. I’d worked with some of their developers before — smart folks. But during the call, the lead asked, bluntly:

“Why are you doing this? Google already has this solved.”

It was eye-opening — not because I haven’t heard similar takes before, but because it came from a place known for innovation. It showed how deep the belief runs that the hyperscalers have everything figured out.

Spoiler: they don’t.

This kind of passive resistance — the idea that existing solutions are “good enough” — is more common than you’d expect. Many people have been Greenwashed into thinking using the big cloud providers is enough. That choosing AWS or GCP is somehow an act of sustainability.

But here’s the truth: the cloud is just a rebranded mainframe. It’s the same centralized model, built to overprovision and overconsume. And it hides its emissions behind renewable certificates and dashboards, not real change.

If we’re serious about innovation — and serious about climate — we have to rethink the paradigm, not just rename it.

The Legacy of Compute

Earlier this year, I gave a presentation at the NDCA launch event. I think the message landed, especially when I referenced my early days at IBM, working on AS/400s and ES/9000s.

It helped illustrate my point: “cloud” is just mainframe thinking with a new badge. Centralized compute, wrapped in slick interfaces and marketed as modern. It’s been 70 years and yet here we are — walking around with literal connected mainframes in our pockets.

Meeting Ewen Anderson

After that talk, I was introduced to Ewen Anderson of P2Zero — a leading voice on sustainability and someone with serious business experience. By pure coincidence, we live just 400 meters apart. We grabbed a coffee.

I’m never quite sure how people receive the vision for GreenCloud. Sometimes I think I must sound slightly unhinged. Ewen listened patiently as I explained my idea of shared compute power and paying people to contribute their devices.

And the best part? He got it.

Ewen suggested conducting independent research into the GreenCloud model. He was clear: the results might not support the idea. Maybe there would be no measurable carbon or cost benefit.

But it turned out better than expected.

Key Findings from the Research

1. 98% reduction in carbon emissions and 80% cost savings compared with public cloud.
2. 99% reduction in carbon emissions and 40% cost savings compared with on-premises data centre expansion.

Ewen’s conclusion:

“Overall, the findings of the study are that the GreenCloud approach to sourcing compute resource is both more sustainable and also much lower cost than conventional on-premises approaches or the latest public cloud services.”

Finally — independent validation that GreenCloud isn’t just a bold idea. It works. It’s cleaner. It’s cheaper.

If you want to read more, you can check out the full report here.

My Challenge to the Industry

What I really hope comes from this is a wake-up call.

• Where are the B Corp CTOs who should be paying attention?
• Where are the CSOs tasked with driving sustainability in tech?
• Where are the influential developers who recognise a shift when they see it?

Let’s be honest — most people care about the planet right up until it challenges their lifestyle, their beliefs, or their goals.

And that’s fine — everyone’s entitled to their opinions… even if they’re the sort who voted for Brexit, backed Boris, and keep our Nige on speed dial.

Some mindsets just take longer to update than their software.

And some are still running on legacy thinking with no patch in sight.