This Week in MCJ (4/17/21)
The first in-person MCJ event since the pandemic!
Hi all,
As we turn our efforts to giving the community more care and feeding, a few great things happened this week! One, I attended the first ever new member orientation session, that Thai put together. I loved it! 17 people showed up, and it was so great to get to know people, hear what they want out of the platform, and give them more color on our history, reason for being, etc. We are going to make it a regular thing, great idea, Thai!
Two, I heard from Tyler that he attended the SoCal Socially Distanced Hike today, with fellow SoCal MCJ’ers. Still waiting for the pics and the details, but he said it was incredibly moving and worthwhile! We will include details in the next newsletter, as soon as I get them. There were a bunch of in-person MCJ events starting to happen in cities all around the world just before the pandemic happened, so hopefully they will start picking back up again, as we get closer to the other side!
Three, the fireside chat I did with Gene Berdichevsky on MCJ Live this week was amazing! Gene is such an impressive leader and human, the event was well attended (including a bunch of MCJ’ers!), and the one on one format allowed for a more intimate and substantive discussion, and more audience interaction. I am definitely looking to do more of these, so if you have requests for guests you’d really like to hear from, let me know! We are also very likely going to start recording these, as while the Clubhouse format is magical, the appointment-based nature of a live event and timezone issues with a global community mean that many more people who want to hear these aren’t able (even when their Android app comes soon)!
And lastly, I moderated one great discussion and was a guest on another, which were both a lot of fun!
Have a good week everyone, the weeks are sure flying by! I am getting my first dose of the vaccine Monday, so if you don’t hear from me for a bit, that is probably why :)
Jason
🎙Episodes
🌍This week's episodes include a great discussion with Mike Hall, CEO of Borrego, a company that has spent the last 40 years developing, optimizing, delivering, and maintaining large-scale solar & storage projects. Looking at the road ahead, they are pushing toward a new goal of becoming the leading U.S. provider of solar & energy storage by 2024.
⛅ We also had on Joshua March, co-founder & CEO of Artemys Foods, and had a great discussion about the alternative meat industry and what Artemys is doing to revolutionize it.
✨Highlights
📖 two new climate books!
Jake Kheel’s new book, Waking the Sleeping Giant: Unlocking the Hidden Power of Business to Save the Planet, This book offers up tangible ways everyone—from executives to employees—can make a difference and demonstrate the value of sustainability beyond the bottom line.
Penguin Random House is out with MCJ Alum, Ron Gonen’s book, THE WASTE FREE WORLD: How the Circular Economy Will Take Less, Make More, and Save the Planet. The book reveals the history of wasteful consumption, which has cheated us out of taxpayer money, lucrative innovation, and a habitable planet.
📰Climate News this week! Google Earth’s latest feature, Timelapse, lets users see how 40 years of climate change have impacted places all over the world. The U.S. is working to engage world leaders to come to President Joe Biden's climate summit next week with bold new pledges to fight the rising temperatures threatening the globe — but so far, he's coming up empty.
💼Climate Jobs
Jobs, fellowships, and career opportunities shared by members of the MCJ community. More opportunities can be found in #climatejobs in the MCJ Slack.
Product Manager with IoT/Saas experience at Proterra (job listing) (careers page)
Energy-Executives-In-Residence (EEIRs) and Mentors at Maryland Energy Innovation Accelerator (job listing) (careers page)
Various positions across Software Engineering, Product, Energy Analysts and more at LevelTen Energy (job listing) (careers page)
Mechanical Engineer at Symbrosia (job listing) (careers page)
Analysts and Sr. Associates/Director at Galway Sustainable Capital (Denver) (job listing) (careers page)
Head of Product at Finch (job listing) (careers page)
Sustainability Advisory Board Members at Who's Saving The Planet Media Group (remote) (careers page)
Various roles including Data Engineer and Processing Technician at Swift Solar (San Carlos, CA) (job listing) (careers page)
Part-time Course TA to join for our next run starting in May at Terra.do Climate Change for VCs course (job listing) (careers page)
Part-time instructors for a bootcamp course deadline May 3rd at Terra.do Climate Change: Learning for Action (job listing) (careers page)
Associate with a background in investing, product management, and operations engineering at G2VP (job listing) (careers page)
👋 Welcome New MCJers!
You can learn more about new members on #introductions, where you can welcome them to the community.
Dave Burt: Dave is an institutional investor turned entrepreneur by the climate threat. Calling out inefficiencies that breed complacency and building tools to help markets adapt.
Brian Toll: Brian runs Maryland Energy Innovation Accelerator, which matches potential founders with ARPA-E funded faculty from UMD and JHU to form companies in climate tech. I am an angel investor, too.
Kevin Dunlevy: Kevin is excited to join the MCJ community! Interested in learning about the circular economy, agriculture, conservation, energy, and adaptation.
Henry Bridge: Henry’s background is in tech (former FB/Goog PM, startups). Glad to find a community in MCJ to learn from/collaborate with to solve the climate crisis.
Jaakko Rauhala: Jaakko is the CO-founder & CEO of Kapacity.io, a Helsinki based startup on a mission to make smart energy grids run 100% with renewables.
Joe Alfred: Joe is the CEO of Ally Power Inc. He is thrilled to be a part of the MCJ community.
Connor Jordan: Connor is the Chief of Staff of One Generation. He is looking forward to working to resolve the climate emergency.
Sam Suskind: Sam Suskind is a Senior Associate at Valo Ventures. He’s thrilled to be a part of this growing community tackling critical climate change-related initiatives.
Matt Mayes: Matt is the Co-founder and CSO at Sway, a company harnessing the regenerative power of seaweed. He’s looking forward to engaging in this vibrant community.
Jordan Van Roe: Jordan is a Project Manager at Raptor Maps. He is encouraged by the optimism and positivity that My Climate Journey promotes.
Virginia Klausmeier: Virginia is the CEO of Sylvatex. She is excited to be a part of the MCJ community and to get connected to other climate-focused and sustainability-minded professionals.
📌Community Board
News and initiatives from members of our community. MCJers mentioned can be DMed in Slack.
👨🏫MCJ Office Hours needs May mentors! If you’re interested in serving as a May mentor please reach out to Sarah Adams via Slack DM or email.
⚖The MCJ DEI & Climate Justice community group is looking for experts in the space who can share their experiences on a community call. If you have experiences getting DEI work going at your organizations or in the climate justice space, then please DM or email Sarah Adams. She can introduce you to the community leaders of the group.
Keith Klipstein is looking for anyone interested in making low/no carbon BioOil and Green Hydrogen via Biomass Pyrolysis. He needs help with writing and editing a coherent business plan and financial proformas. Check it out here!
🎟Climate Events
Check out the MCJ Calendar! Stay up to date with all things MCJ. We encourage members to host community events such as expert Q&As, book clubs, topic discussions, location-based meet-ups, and more! If you want to add your event to the calendar, email us at events@myclimatejourney.co with the details. For third-party events, please use the #events channel in the MCJ slack!
Upcoming
MCJ Book Club (Tuesday, April 20th @ 6 pm PT)
The first meeting of the book club is next week! Please read through the Root and Advocate sections of All We Can Save. For more info check out the #study-group channel. Let us know you’re joining by RSVP’ing here.
MCJ Member Orientation (Friday, April 23rd @ 3 pm ET)
A weekly event to help onboard recently joined and existing members to the community. Attendees can expect a casual conversation about how to navigate the community, opportunities to engage in various events, programs, groups, and anything else folks would like to discuss RSVP here!
Women in Climate Monthly Meetup (Wednesday, April 28th at 10 am MT)
This is meant to be a safe space for women to discuss, collaborate, celebrate, share knowledge about their climate journey and support each other. We follow a Lean Coffee format and always get through a variety of topics. Email hannah.davis@techstars.com for a calendar invite.
MCJ Town Hall (Friday, April 30th @ 4 pm ET)
Join us for the April Town Hall! Town halls are an open forum to ask questions, share feedback, and get more visibility into what we’re working on at MCJ. RSVP here!
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Such a useful article! Thanks for all the job listings and recommendations. Really enjoyed it.