Climate Con: 3 Days of Real Talk, Real Options, and Real Solidarity
By Kristen Winzent and Merrill Feather
Climate Con: 3 Days of Real Talk, Real Options, and Real Solidarity
By Kristen Winzent & Merrill Feather
As many of you likely know, COP26—the 26th annual Conference of the Parties hosted by the UN—is right around the corner. From October 31 to November 12, government leaders will assess the performance of each other’s climate commitments under the Paris Accords. As you also likely know, this meeting is framed as a major decision point with the recent IPCC report clearly indicating that progress isn’t happening quickly enough.
So while COP26 unfolds, what are the rest of us to do?
For an event billed to hold hope for the future of humanity, there’s no way for most of us to get involved. Yet we know there’s a lot we can and should do.
At such a decisive moment, we at The Regenerates and My Climate Journey weren’t comfortable sitting around. Many of you know us: While we don’t have the answers, we’re pretty good at gathering people who know more than us and working toward answers together.
So, this November 9–11, we’re inviting you to join us at Climate Con, a gathering for regular people like us who want to know what the heck we can do about climate change.
During this free, virtual gathering, we’ll share how people made their way to work on climate solutions—how they went from feeling lost and frustrated to finding purpose and getting involved. We’ll also discuss meaningful ways that each of us can shape our own journeys going forward.
These conversations are intended to shift the understanding of climate change from issue to action. To transform fear and anxiety into curiosity. To meet confusion with imagination.
We’re not trying to convert anyone or sell ideas. There’s no proving anything. We’re simply bringing you stories of potential and possibility to consider and inviting you to play with them.
The big goal is to help each and every one of us find a role to play and brainstorm alternate climate futures that we can bring to life. Because, the way we see it, transformation and real change only happen when we embrace new ideas about who we are, who we can become, and how we relate to the world around us.
We know because we’ve been there
The reason we're so confident in this approach is that we've been on the other side.
While it's been a journey to this place, a key decision point came in the early days of the pandemic when Merrill and I met. At the time, we were separately and unknowingly interviewing against one another for the very few marketing roles in climate tech. We both were aching for purpose and felt lost searching for a pathway that leveraged our skills and strengths. So we decided to choose ourselves and combined forces to become The Regenerates.
Our collaboration is founded on the understanding that we need to inspire people to activate them, not scare them. To connect, not isolate. To hold joy alongside struggle. To remind others (and ourselves) again and again why all of this is worth fighting for and make known the pathways forward where we can run toward life, not just away from fear.
It's our guiding belief that caring for the stories we tell ourselves and each other is too readily disregarded. This notion is not ours but rather handed down across generations and cultures. It is a responsibility we take seriously.
Hope and optimism are at the heart of every redemption story, and right now, we humans are in the thick of our own.
In the face of overwhelming doom and gloom, we can choose to stubbornly hold on to hope and optimism. Remember that we can struggle, feel pain, face challenges, and still move forward. Because taking a step forward down another path—that is our choice.
🎙Startup Series
This week, Jason caught up with Kate Steel, Co-Founder and COO of Nithio. Nithio is an energy financing platform powered by a proprietary AI-enabled risk analytics engine. Nithio is working to standardize credit risk assessments to unlock and scale energy access in Sub-Saharan Africa. If you want to learn more about energy poverty, why it matters, and the best ways to address it, this one is for you!
✨Highlights
Communities News
Community news and announcements
📋Thank you to the hundreds of MCJ members who took a moment to complete our quarterly member survey! If you’re a member and haven’t filled it out yet, you can find the survey in your inbox or find a link to it here in the MCJ Slack. We’ve captured helpful insights, and look forward to sharing them with you transparently in the next newsletter.
🏙Calling on MCJers in London! The #london channel is planning an event for this month. Check out this poll to vote for a time that works for you!
🏙MCJers are getting together in Chicago later this month! Don’t forget to vote in the poll for a time to meet up and meet others in the windy city.
Climate Jobs
For more open positions, check out the #climatejobs channel in MCJ Slack.
Planet FWD is hiring for a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) Specialist (Bay Area or Remote)
Abatable, who helps companies offset their carbon footprint by offering carbon removal credits, is hiring for a number of exciting roles
Electric Hydrogen is looking to hire a senior or staff Chemical Process Engineer for large-scale green hydrogen production
Sofar on a mission to connect the world's oceans is hiring a Recruiting Lead, Engineering Manager, and more
The Climate Finance Fund is hiring an Associate that will support the managing director, must speak Mandarin and English
Climatebase on hiring Full Stack Software Engineer
Climate Neutral is hiring an Account Manager, a Communications Manager, and more remote & contract roles
Argonne National Lab is looking for a New Director of Chain Reaction Innovations
Planetary Hydrogen is hiring an Ocean Chemist
Altanova is hiring across engineering and business development
Patch is hiring many roles that span every business unit and are all open to remote
Perlumi has openings for an enzyme engineer, a microbial metabolic engineer, and a laboratory technician
Climate Events
For more community events, check out the #events channel in Slack or the MCJ Calendar on Luma.
📚MCJ Book Club (Thursday, October 14th at 6 pm PT/9 pm ET)
This month we’re reading Rewiring America by Saul Griffith. There will only be one meeting for this book as it’s on the shorter end. If you haven’t already, start reading and join us on the 14th for a lively discussion! RSVP here
🗽MCJ NYC Meet up (Wednesday, October 20th at 6:30 pm ET)
Come meet MCJers in NYC! First time? There are normally about 20 of us who show up, newcomers and regulars. Some people already work in climate, others are transitioning to it. Looking forward to seeing you all again soon! RSVP here
💡MCJ Ideas Jam (Thursday, October 21st at 9 am PT/12 pm ET)
For those new to MCJ, this is a monthly 1-hour pitch event where MCJers pitch their climate business or idea to the community and guest experts. If you are interested in also presenting your idea, feel free to reach out to Mehrad Yaghmai directly in the slack. Please use this RSVP form to register for the event.
🌁MCJ Bay Area Meet up (Sunday, October 24th at 3 pm PT)
MCJ SF Bay Area gang! We are hosting another monthly SF meetup to connect, ideate, share ideas and get help from like-minded friends. Our next one will be Sunday, October 24th at 3 pm PT at Radhaus (Landmark Building A, 114, San Francisco, CA 94109) RSVP here
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