“Daddy, I can’t breathe”
These are words that no parent wants to hear from their child.
When my son Levi woke me up at 3AM and said “daddy I can’t breathe” my first thought was “don’t panic, because I didn’t want him to panic”. – Michael London, Co Founder of London Automation
The next thing I did was to attach an in home pulse oximeter to his finger and measure the oxygen saturation in his bloodstream.
After this, I hooked Levi up to a noisy device called a nebulizer, attached a mask to his face, and stayed by his side until he fell asleep.
I would be lying if I told you that this was the first or the last time myself or my wife Tammy had to do this.
If you are a parent like me who has a child with severe asthma, asthma can become a constant fear. Everywhere we go, we bring a bulky device called a spacer that allows young children to use a rescue inhaler.
Sports, outside play, and changes in weather cause us to be on high alert. Calls from the school’s nurse about Levi having breathing trouble is a usual occurrence.
Now that you know why the air we breathe is important to me, here is what London Automation is going to do:
Last week, in order to help children like Levi and adults dealing with asthma. I made the recommendation to my board that we take immediate steps to reduce our emissions impact to less than zero by August 2024 (Levi’s’ birth month).
This plan included emissions offsets for our AI compute usage, server compute usage, and emissions offsets for any company travel.
There was 100% support from our board on this initiative and I am grateful to work everyday with people who put the health and safety of others first.
According to PubMed, an estimated 5.13 million (3.63 to 6.32) excess deaths per year globally are attributable to ambient air pollution from fossil fuel use. Research from Harvard University, in collaboration with the University of Birmingham, the University of Leicester and University College London, found that more than 8 million people died in 2018 from fossil fuel pollution.
Exposure to air pollution significantly increases the risk of strokes, heart and lung disease, cancer and other ailments.
London Automation is a fundraising software company devoted to the health and wellness of everyone. We understand that the environment has both positive and negative health impacts for people.
All of us at London Automation hope that this decision inspires other companies to take similar steps for the health and safety of their employees, communities, and for the future of all children like Levi.
Sincerely,
Michael London
Co Founder
London Automation
