Our Commitments: Environmental, Social & Career Growth
rbee's three core commitments: greener AI through local-first orchestration, democratizing AI for everyone, and real career growth in distributed systems. Open-source, GPL-3.0, free forever.
Why Commitments Matter: Beyond Profit
In a world where AI development often prioritizes profit over people and planet, we believe technology companies have a responsibility to their communities and environment. That's why we've built our values directly into rbee's foundation.
AI infrastructure should serve humanity, not the other way around. Our commitments guide every decision we make, from code architecture to community engagement.
We've organized our commitments around three pillars: Environmental Sustainability, Social Impact, and Career Growth & Learning.
Environmental Sustainability: Greener AI Through Local-First Orchestration
The environmental impact of AI is staggering. Data centers consume massive amounts of energy, and the push for ever-larger models creates constant demand for new hardware. But what if we could make AI greener by using what we already have?
The Problem: AI's Environmental Footprint
Traditional AI infrastructure has significant environmental costs:
- Data centers consume 1% of global electricity use
- Training a single large AI model can emit as much carbon as 300 round-trip flights
- Constant hardware upgrades create e-waste and manufacturing emissions
- Cloud APIs require 24/7 cooling and infrastructure regardless of actual usage
Every idle GPU brought online through rbee is one less GPU that needs to be manufactured. That's not just cost savings—it's carbon reduction.
Our Solution: Efficiency Through Orchestration
rbee makes AI greener through several key approaches:
# In ~/.config/rbee/config.toml[sustainability]# Prefer idle GPUs over spinning up new instancesuse_idle_first = true
# Schedule heavy jobs during off-peak hourspeak_hours_avoidance = true
# Automatic shutdown after inactivityauto_shutdown_minutes = 30
# Energy monitoring (if supported)track_power_usage = trueEnvironmental Impact Comparison
| Feature | rbee (Local-First)Recommended | Cloud APIs | On-Premise Data Center |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardware Utilization | Uses existing idle GPUs | Requires dedicated hardware | Often over-provisioned |
| Energy Efficiency | Right-sized workloads | Always-on infrastructure | Fixed power consumption |
| Carbon Footprint | Minimal (no new manufacturing) | High (data center operations) | Medium (dedicated cooling) |
| E-waste Generation | Low (extends hardware life) | High (regular upgrades) | Medium (planned obsolescence) |
Social Impact: AI for Everyone, Not Just Big Tech Companies
AI shouldn't be reserved for companies with million-dollar budgets. We're committed to democratizing AI infrastructure and making it accessible to individuals, researchers, educators, and small teams.
Who We're Serving
rbee is designed to serve audiences often overlooked by commercial AI providers:
Breaking Down Barriers
We're eliminating the traditional barriers to AI infrastructure:
Access Barriers Comparison
| Feature | Traditional Cloud AI | rbee ApproachRecommended |
|---|---|---|
| Cost Barrier | $100-3,000/month minimum | Hardware cost only (one-time) |
| Technical Barrier | Kubernetes, DevOps expertise | SSH access, basic command line |
| Privacy Barrier | Data sent to third parties | Data stays on your infrastructure |
| Geographic Barrier | Limited regions, credit card required | Global, no payment methods needed |
A small non-profit using rbee can save $12,000 annually on AI costs—money that can be redirected to their mission instead of cloud providers.
Career Growth & Learning: Build Real Skills in Distributed Systems
The best way to learn distributed systems is by building them. We're committed to providing opportunities for developers to gain real-world experience with production-grade AI infrastructure.
Skills You'll Develop
Contributing to rbee provides experience with technologies that top companies are desperate for:
- Rust programming - Memory-safe systems programming
- Distributed systems - Coordination, consensus, fault tolerance
- GPU orchestration - CUDA, Metal, heterogeneous hardware
- Network programming - SSH, gRPC, high-performance networking
- AI/ML infrastructure - Model serving, inference optimization
- DevOps practices - CI/CD, testing, deployment automation
# Clone the repositorygit clone https://github.com/rbee-keeper/rbee.gitcd rbee
# Set up development environmentcargo buildpnpm install
# Find a good first issuegh issue list --label "good first issue"
# Make your contribution and submit a PRgit checkout -b feature/my-feature# ... make changes ...git push origin feature/my-featuregh pr createCareer Impact
Open source contributions can transform your career:
- Build a portfolio of real, production code
- Get noticed by recruiters looking for distributed systems expertise
- Join a community of experienced developers
- Learn patterns used by Google, Amazon, and Microsoft
- Demonstrate ability to work in globally distributed teams
Contributors to rbee have gone on to work at major tech companies, citing their distributed systems experience as the key differentiator in their interviews.
How We Measure Success: Metrics That Matter
Commitments without metrics are just promises. We track concrete metrics to ensure we're delivering on our values:
Join Us: Build Better AI Infrastructure
These commitments aren't just words on a page—they're the foundation of everything we build. Every line of code, every community interaction, and every design decision is guided by these principles.
Whether you're interested in greener computing, democratizing AI, or advancing your career in distributed systems, there's a place for you in the rbee community.
Ready to join our mission? Open-source, GPL-3.0, free forever.
rbee is built on three pillars: environmental sustainability, social impact, and career growth. Contribute to real systems, learn distributed systems, and help build greener AI infrastructure.