Hello! I'm Christophe Combelles, a software engineer and open-source maintainer with a career spanning over two decades. I work on open-source projects ranging from environmental tech to cloud infrastructure and business applications. My journey includes 13+ years at Anybox S.A.S., where I helped deliver open-source solutions for enterprise software (like the Odoo ERP) and advanced cloud services. I have a strong interest in deep tech fields such as AI, machine learning, functional programming, and sustainability, and I love exploring how technology can drive positive change.

My main focus today is Volca : a fast new-generation Life Cycle Assessment engine. Environmental footprinting is usually slow, opaque, and locked inside heavyweight desktop tools. Volca takes a different path: it's API-first, cloud-native, AI-ready (via MCP), CLI-capable, desktop-friendly, and scriptable in Python. It loads heavyweight LCA databases (Ecoinvent, BAFU, Agribalyse, WFLDB, etc.) in a few seconds and computes environmental impacts in milliseconds, with every result fully inspectable. The engine is open source under Apache-2.0 and you can try it without installing at volca.run or use it to build your own self-branded user-interface.

Volca grows out of my work at Ecobalyse, a french open-source project accelerating the environmental labeling of products through a life-cycle-analysis data pipeline. Both reflect the same conviction: open source and open data are how we make environmental impact transparent and trustworthy.

I also maintain Buttervolume, a Docker volume plugin that stores each container volume as a BTRFS subvolume, enabling instant snapshots, rollbacks, and seamless replication across hosts for small clusters. And as a side project I've been experimenting with REA modeling, building an ERP engine with a Haskell backend, an Elm frontend, and multi-level event sourcing, plus a business-model optimizer that computes the shortest mathematical trajectory to profitability.

Why sponsorship matters

Building and maintaining these projects takes real time. Even with the help of AI ! Your sponsorship lets me dedicate more of it to VoLCA, making environmental assessment faster, more open, and more accessible, as well as to keeping tools like Buttervolume secure and up to date. By sponsoring me, you're not just supporting a piece of software; you're investing in a developer committed to open-source principles and to using technology for both community and environmental benefit. Thank you for considering supporting my work!