This Week in MCJ (5/30/20)
This Week in MCJ (5/30/20)
Reflecting on the state of the world, and how MCJ fits in.
This Week in MCJ is a free weekly email curating news, jobs, new MCJ episodes, and other noteworthy happenings in the MCJ community.
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Hey all,
What a sh*tty week. We are still neck deep in a global pandemic, and now the longstanding racial tension in this country is bubbling over at the same time, while the clock continues to tick on the longer term (but incredibly high stakes) climate crisis. All while our democracy (in the US) crumbles before our eyes.
I get why some people say we need to decouple these issues and solve each one independently. But it is more clear to me than ever that they are all inter-related.
How we come out of this global pandemic matters. We can’t JUST focus on the economy and jobs. We should use this opportunity to push for an economy and jobs that are built on a solid foundation of alignment with our planet and natural resources, otherwise long term, we will make an even bigger mess.
And the longstanding inequity and oppression in this country are bullsh*t and unacceptable. We can’t put ourselves on a path to be the great nation we have potential to be until we fix this awful system that is unjustly holding so many down. Not to mention making them feel unsafe to even go about their days, without their lives being in danger.
Yes, we need to decarbonize. And this is far from an easy feat. But we need to do so in a way that lifts people up collectively, not just lines the pockets of the privileged few.
How we do this, I wish I knew. But I am more committed than ever to continuing to unpack it, and it is a lot less lonely doing so with all of you. This also means that, in addition to climate-specific policy, innovation, etc, I am going to continue exploring tangential issues such as social justice, protecting our democracy, etc as part of the journey, as well. These are not only critical issues in their own right, but they are essential to pave the way for a brisk and just clean energy transition.
These sure feel like dark days. But you know what they say, things are always darkest before the dawn. It is a privilege to be marching forwards on this journey with all of you, and I hope that together we can continue to have an increasing impact towards putting us on a better course.
Jason
📼First MCJ Virtual Town Hall
The first MCJ Town Hall happened, and it was a success! Outside of some kinks in my own Zoom knowledge and logistics, it was a great chance to share more about our vision and direction and get to know the community better. I especially enjoyed the Q&A at the end! You can see a recording of the town hall here. We will plan to hold these virtual member town halls on the last Friday of every month.
📼Episodes
Here’s this week’s episode, in case you missed it!
This week, we had a wonderful and engaging guest on the pod. Varun was Chief Technology Officer for ReNew Power, India's largest renewable energy company, and was previously the director of the energy and climate program at the Council on Foreign Relations. Varun has gotten lots of accolades, including TIME Magazine’s “TIME 100 Next most influential people in the world,” and he's also the author of the well-known book, "Taming the Sun: Innovations to Harness Solar Energy and Power the Planet."
The breadth of Varun’s experience is rare, in that he has lots of experience domestically and abroad, and also with both energy innovation and policy. We cover a lot of ground in this episode, and you won’t want to miss it!
🔦Member Spotlight: Fiona Spruill, Former COO of Meetup
We’re taking the opportunity to share the climate journey of your fellow MCJers. This week’s member spotlight features Fiona Spruill. If you are an MCJ member and want to submit your story for consideration, feel free to do so here. We can’t promise it will make the newsletter, but we will choose one to run each week, and get as many in as we can over time.
Last year, I left my job as COO of Meetup a year after it was acquired by WeWork. I took six months off to hang out with my kids, and then I started to figure out what would come next. Over the course of last year, I became convinced that I had to work on our climate crisis. I can’t point to one particular moment when a lightbulb went off, but I just felt that I had to act for the sake of my children. Nothing else seemed as important.
At Meetup, I was responsible for product, design, business strategy, sales and customer support for the 40M-member global platform. For most of my time there I was VP of Product, with a focus on upping our game on mobile, and then I played a key role in the acquisition process. Before Meetup, I worked for 14 years as an editor at The New York Times, where I ran the digital newsroom and launched a bunch of mobile apps.
It wasn’t immediately clear to me where in the climate realm I should focus, so I set out to talk to as many people as possible (150 at last count!) and figure out how I could best have an impact. Jason’s commitment to learning in public inspired me, so I also began writing a newsletter for friends and family.
While I still feel like I have a ton to learn, I am clear now on what I want to do and where I want to focus. My goal is to join a climate tech startup in a COO/CPO-like role. I’m most interested in startups focused on food waste, the circular economy and carbon removal (my family roots in farming draw me more to natural solutions than technical, but I’m all for both). I was on the front lines of The New York Times’s transition to digital, so I’m also open to helping a larger organization make the big changes required to decarbonize.
In the meantime, I have been consulting for a UK-based startup focused on food waste and am interested in other consulting gigs on the journey to finding the right full-time role. As someone who deeply appreciates the importance of a strong community, it has been so great to find my people in MCJ.
🏗 What You’re Building
Projects and initiatives from the community.
MCJer Sarah Kearney, Executive Director at Prime Coalition and Ep. 5 guest, shared on Slack the new online tool her team launched called CRANE, a tool for estimating emissions reduction potential for early-stage companies. She invites fellow members of the community to sign up and share feedback.
💼Jobs
Here are some jobs shared by members of the MCJ community that we think might be of interest to you.
Senior Policy Fellows at Carbon180 in Washington D.C. (job listing)
Product Manager at Upstream Tech (Remote) (job listing)
Supply Chain Analyst (contract) at Fervo Energy (job listing)
Interested in sharing a job with the community? Use the button below to let us know, or just post it in #climatejobs in the MCJ slack room.
📢Technical Co-Founder Wanted
MCJer, Tanya Barham, Principal & Founder of Community Energy Labs, is seeking a technical co-founder per her post on Slack:
💪Startup Support
Solstice CEO & Co-Founder, Steph Speirs, posted on Slack about True Wealth Ventures as a resource and invited those interested in an intro to email her:
👉Climate Tech News
TechCrunch: “With $84 million in new cash, Commonwealth Fusion is on track for a demonstration fusion reactor by 2025”
📰Recommended Reading
Below are recently published articles and content that we find interesting and/or that were shared by fellow MCJers.
The Economist: “The pressure to make the post-covid rebound green”
This piece reflects on what the Great Recession of ‘08 meant for emissions and the U.S. government’s role in stimulating the renewable energy industry. Using that as context, the article compares that with the current economic crisis and how similar policies and initiatives should be considered.
The Boston Globe: “Renewable energy industry hammered by job losses” (link to downloadable PDF)
Included in the long list of industries adversely affected by the pandemic, the renewable energy sector is seeing a spate of job losses. Those impacted include solar technicians, HVAC contractors, and others hired to build renewable energy projects. According to the Globe, “About 600,000 clean energy workers in the United States have lost their jobs since the pandemic took hold in March…That amounts to a 17 percent loss of the 3.4 million Americans who worked in what had been a rapidly growing field.”
Vox: “At last, a climate policy platform that can unite the left”
This article reports on the coalescing of support within the Democratic party on a unifying climate change perspective and policy platform. As the piece reports, this is in stark difference to the discordant views that challenged a consensus on the left during the Obama and early-Trump period. (h/t Parker Thomas)
The Wall Street Journal: “Coronavirus Is Buying Time on Climate Change. Will We Make Use of It?” (link to downloadable PDF)
This piece puts into perspective the impact of the pandemic on global emissions reduction, which while offering a much needed reprieve to the worsening climate crisis, is considered by most to be a sustaining trend.
🎟Events
Past and upcoming events organized or surfaced by your fellow MCJers.
Upcoming
Women in Climate Meetup (Wednesday, June 24th, noon EST)
Members of the MCJ Women in Climate group, which can be found in the #women-in-climate channel), are hosting a virtual get-together. The group aims “to support women working in climate…[by sharing] female focused resources, offer support to one another, and get to know role models of badass women from technology, science, finance, and more.” The meetup will be held via Zoom using this link.
June 2020 - Resi DERs with Kiran Bhatraju (Wednesday, June 3rd)
DER Task Force is hosting a virtual meetup in which Kiran Bhatraju, founder and CEO of Aradia Power, will be the featured guest on a discussion on distributed energy resources for residential electricity customers. You can RSVP here.