Breaking down knowledge silos, one AMA guest at a time
by MCJ Collective
The MCJ community was kickstarted by Jason’s early conversations on the My Climate Journey podcast back in 2019. A collective of industry professionals who were keen to come together, discuss each episode, and break down knowledge silos in the process.
Given these origins, over the past year a natural next step for the community has been to invite our podcast guests to join in these discussions - in the format of 24-hour ‘Ask Me Anything’ sessions in the MCJ slack. Since August, policymakers, CEOs, founders, skilled labor workers, investors, and more have jumped in and continued conversations that often start on the podcast, but should never end there.
How do our AMA sessions work?
Every two weeks, we invite a guest to take the mic in our MCJ AMA slack channel for 24 hours. We introduce them and share more about what they’re working on, giving community members a chance to prepare questions. When the 24-hour period starts, members have the opportunity to ask their burning questions, to which our guest will reply directly.
We’ve welcomed 18 guests, for 14 AMA sessions, since August 2022. Here’s what we’ve learned…
Our AMAs kicked off with a bang when we welcomed Benji Backer (Founder and president of the American Conservation Coalition) right as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) landed. Benji dug deep into why conservatives often push back on climate change, the pros of cutting red tape, the risk of displaying economic benefits in mostly urban environments, his biggest lessons learned from founding ACC and more. The IRA was an unmistakable theme for conversations therein, with Dr Leah Stokes leaning in whilst also covering offsets, industry decarbonization, transportation, renewable energy procurement, her involvement with Rewiring America and so much more. With policy as a common thread, political action wasn’t far behind. Ahead of the US midterms, Eliza Nemser (Co-founder & Executive Director of Climate Changemakers) and Caroline Spears (Founder & Executive Director of Climate Cabinet) gave us a necessary orientation of the most critical Senate and US House races for climate and how to take action if you have 1-5 hours to dedicate. Similarly, Camila Thorndike (who managed Senator Sanders’ portfolio on climate, and more) shared her vision of what a just transition looks like, her next big hopes after the IRA, and why folks should consider joining trade associations or coalitions. Camila’s AMA was packed with resources, and our favorite quote has to be ‘Breaking down silos is the work of good organizing’... but we might be biased.
With that cue, we launched our Skilled Labour Series on the podcast, with Andy Martinez (experienced field performance technician and licensed electrician for Sunrun) and Sam Steyer (Co-founder and CEO of Greenwork) jumping in first. Andy even took us through his typical day attending to homeowners and walking his furry friend Nala (you can read the full debrief here)! Following this thread, Brittany Heller (Director of Program Management at HeatSpring) joined us in January to answer questions about bringing women into the trades and challenges faced in curriculum development, swiftly followed by Tonya Hicks (President and CEO of Power Solutions, Inc. and the Managing Principal of Women Do Everything, LLC). Tonya shared her wisdom about the power tradespeople have in homeowner education, marketplace models for electricians (and why they have their challenges) and the approach union companies take, too.
Collective education with a focus on frontline workers and tradespeople (whom many founders in our community are building for) has been a priority throughout our AMA calendar. Josh Svaty (former Kansas Secretary of Agriculture and owner and operator of Free State Farms) revealed how farmers are thinking through projecting payback against project finance challenges, the valorization of agricultural wastes and byproducts, and his work in a consolidated fertilizer industry. Larry Coons (an experienced trucker) generously shared his experiences (and pictures!) of life at truck stops across the US, whilst both dissecting shortcomings with the range of electric trucks and analyzing the owner-operator dynamic (and the two-sided marketplace) that exists today.
Fulfilling community wishes to hear from folks building the tools, platforms and companies leading the charge, we spoke to David Antonioli (CEO of Verra). David spent time discussing everything from why Verra excludes new grid-connected renewable energy projects except in LDCs, to his take on the negative press about the quality of credits and Verra’s role in ensuring credits are additional, especially as policies change. Most recently, we were also joined by Carlos Araque (Co-founder and CEO of Quaise Energy) who detailed how Quaise has structured fundraising on the long ramp from R&D to commercialization, scaling testing of their tech from lab to field, and his thoughts on lowering development costs of geothermal energy.
One step before commercialization is innovation, and often research. By no means the least important thread through our AMAs, early on we spoke to Alex Trembath (Deputy Director of The Breakthrough Institute) about eco-modernism, the role of tech and tech companies alongside the rising degrowth discourse. Looking to the future again, our community connected with David Keith (Professor at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Kennedy School, and Founder of Carbon Engineering) on topics stretching from challenges facing solar geoengineering, to cleantech startup culture, what VCs can’t help the industry with and even how the industry is ‘sensibly silent’ on Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI), something that can’t be said (according to David) for carbon removal. Peter Minor (Director of Science and Innovation at Carbon180) and Jack Andreasen (Policy Manager for Carbon Management at Breakthrough Energy) did, however, speak about the policy changes they’re optimistic about seeing in the future, the signs of CDR ‘leaving the demonstration phase, and racing towards deployment phase’ and the impact of Frontier on pulling forward adoption of CDR. These were the key takeaways from their conversation about a rapidly evolving area of the climate discourse.
What’s next? Meet our lineup of guests for the next few months…
5th April: Gustaf Alströmer (Y Combinator)
19th April: Sam Gill (Sylvera) and Diego Saez-Gil (Pachama)
3rd May: Maddie Hall (Living Carbon)
17th May: James Sedlak (Kodama Systems)
31st May: Jigar Shah (United States Department of Energy)
14th June: Zach Gallant (Fleetzero)
28th June: Rollie Williams (Climate Town)
Note: Click the guest name for additional info and RSVP! Event pages are used for MCJ members to mark their calendars, all AMAs will happen asynchronously in the MCJ slack. Learn more about membership here.
Any community thrives when powerful and rich discussions are facilitated. Focusing on a different topic within the wider climate conversation, and hearing the up-to-date perspectives of pioneers in this space, is one way we’re doing this in the MCJ slack community. We’ve been honored to welcome a diverse range of voices, backgrounds and perspectives since August, and we’re looking forward to all the conversations that are yet to come.
✍️ The Draw-down
John Schnettgoecke is drawn to simplicity in all aspects of life. He currently lives and works in a small, plantation-style cottage in Hawai'i. In his free time, John creates simple, Hawai'i-inspired illustrations like this one.
🍿 The Lean Back
Learn about Umaro in the latest Pique Action film.
📢 Climate Action of the Week
Want to do more? Sign up for the next Climate Changemakers Hour of Action here.
Contact your city officials about applying for federal dollars from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. ➡️ Why? The IRA allocated $27B for a clean energy finance accelerator called the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund that will help green banks, states, and cities finance decarbonization projects. We can help ensure all the funds are deployed by letting our mayors and city council know they are eligible.
🎙My Climate Journey Podcast
⚡️ Cody spoke to Robert Piconi, CEO and Co-founder at Energy Vault about why energy storage matters, the different types of energy storage today, rapid iterations the company has done on its gravity storage model, and how they've raised capital.
🧱 Heidi Kujawa, founder and CEO of ByFusion, discussed the different types of plastics, how ByFusion works with municipalities and waste management companies to source materials, what the company’s ByBlocks look like, who is building with ByFusion and what they are building.
🚨 MCJ Collective Job Alert
We're looking for a part-time Content Producer to help with the My Climate Journey Podcast and create some amazing promotional content to help us grow the show. Think you're the right person for the job or know someone who would be a perfect fit? Apply here
✨ Highlights
🗓 March-April Events
Click the event title for details & RSVP info. For more climate events, check out the #c-events channel in MCJ Slack.
🇨🇦 MCJ Toronto | Climate Startup Series - The Rise of Social Entrepreneurship: Interested, curious, or passionate about climate? Join us for networking and learn from our local climate entrepreneurs. (3/29)
🤝 MCJ Boston Meetup: Come meet up with the Boston MCJ and climate tech community tonight! (3/29)
👋 Community Welcome Call: Connect, share and learn with the MCJ team and community members. (3/30)
💡 MCJ London: Building A Biotech Startup In Climate - Panel, Q&A & Lab Tour: Join us at Epoch Biodesign's HQ, for a panel, drinks and lab tour. We'll be digging into the challenges and opportunities facing climate startups spinning out of UK universities. We have funders, founders and experts lined up to share their perspective, with time for casual drinks and conversation afterwards. (4/03)
🌱 DC Climate April Meet Up: Whether you're a climate veteran or looking to transition, join us to chat about sustainability and climate tech. We have a special guest, Angad Daryani, joining us who can talk about how he is cleaning up India's polluted air. (4/03)
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