This Week in MCJ (5/9/20)
News, help wanted, and other topics of note from the MCJ community.
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,
Another week of pandemic down, not that there is any concept of time at the moment. I just shaved my beard, but somehow have a beard again! And I’m going to emerge from this pandemic an old man.
Anyway, we have continued to grind on what a membership model could look like for MCJ, and are pleased with how things are starting to come together. We don’t have anything definitive to run by you yet, but we are making good headway and it shouldn’t be long. The thing that is most exciting about that to me is we see so many substantive things we could build for all of you to make your journeys more effective, and a membership model (if successful) will give us the resources we need to fund the development of those efforts and keep doing the things we’ve already been doing in a sustained way. More info coming soon!
In the meantime, we continue to receive inbound stories every week of how MCJ is playing its small part in accelerating the clean energy transition. These stories are like oxygen for us, so please keep them coming!
Also, I finally got around to watching Planet of the Humans. I am just mentioning so I have some accountability to write up my thoughts for next week. If you’ve watched it, I would love to hear about your thoughts, as well.
Have a safe, healthy, and productive week.
Jason
📼Episodes
Here’s this week’s episode, in case you missed it!
Episode 102: Alex Dewar, Sr. Manager at BCG's Center for Energy Impact
Alex works at Boston Consulting Group, where he is responsible for business development and growth of additional topic expertise within the BCG Center for Energy Impact (CEI). He has advised clients around the world on oil and gas, power generation and transmission, and renewable energy topics. We have a great discussion in this episode about the oil and gas industry, how they are thinking about and acting on the clean energy transition, how much they should be accountable for their sins of the past, and whether/why we should trust that they are serious this time. Alex speaks candidly and thoughtfully, and I learned a lot.
We also tried a new, fun experiment this time and solicited input on the discussion from a couple of experts (and MCJ pod alums!) with very different perspectives, Jigar Shah and Julio Friedmann. Julio weighed in here, and then when Jigar responded, Julio ended up writing up a full blog post on the topic. It was a fun way to expand the discussion around an episode, so where it makes sense, we will try to do that again! Thanks for playing, guys.
Note: Thanks to our episode sponsor, Arcadia Power, an easy way to access clean energy while lowering your electricity bill. If you click through the attached link, you get $25 for signing up, as a member of the MCJ community.
🏗 What You’re Building
Projects and initiatives from the community.
Anshuman Bapna and Kamal Kapadia are the founders of Terra.do, a platform where you can enroll in classes taught by climate experts. MCJer Omar Hilmy mentioned that Terra is offering a free class on energy.
💼Jobs
Here are some jobs shared by members of the MCJ community that we think might be of interest to you.
Sr. Software Engineer at Pachama (remote) (job listing; tweet)
VP of Strategy at Powerhouse in Oakland, CA (job listing)
Sales / Sr. Electrical / Mobile Software / Systems Engineer at Span in San Francisco, CA (jobs page)
Chief Executive Officer, Chief Product Officer at Dash Energy in Denver, CO (CEO listing; CPO 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.
👉Startup Support
Resources for entrepreneurs and early-stage companies.
Early-stage VC, Pillar, is launching Breakout, a free 6-week virtual program. Apply by May 22nd. (H/T Josh Moser)
Australian accelerator, Starmate, is providing office hours in which entrepreneurs can connect virtually with mentors. Apply by May 10th. (H/T Patrick Sieb)
📰Recommended Reading
Below are recently published articles and content that we find interesting and/or that were shared by fellow MCJers.
Julio Friedmann: “Carbon, Climate and the Oil & Gas Industry: What to DO”
As mentioned above, in response to an engaging thread on Twitter, Julio expanded his thoughts on the role of oil and gas companies in addressing climate change.
The New York Times: “Billions in Clean Energy Loans Go Unused as Coronavirus Ravages Economy”
Amid a rush to inject stimuli into the beleaguered American economy, there are accusations that the Energy Department is blocking the disbursement of $43 billion, in the form of low-interest loans, that had been earmarked for clean energy projects.
Financial Times (subscription required): “The business world can never go back to the way things were”
Michael Moritz, famed partner at Sequoia Capital, wrote an op-ed piece arguing that, while COVID-19 has accelerated the fortunes of select tech companies (e.g. Zoom, food delivery, etc.), it has sounded the death knell for a spate of other businesses adversely impacted by the virus. Furthermore, he contends that leaders “now [have] received a taste of what it will be like if they continue to ignore scientists’ warnings about a far greater scourge to humanity: climate change.”
The Wall Street Journal: “Coronavirus Offers a Clear View of What Causes Air Pollution”
This article reports on how the momentary cessation in industrial and transportation pollution is providing researchers with a rare opportunity to analyze the change in airborne particulates. Much of the findings in this article come from Aclima, whose CEO and Co-Founder Davida Herzl will be a guest in an upcoming MCJ episode.
Financial Times: “Pandemic crisis offers glimpse into oil industry’s future”
With the pandemic obliterating a third of global demand for oil, the fossil fuel industry is facing a pricing crash and executives are predicting it to peak earlier than anticipated. As noted in the article, some expect that this might catalyze the industry’s shift into renewable energy. Global Head of Sustainability Research at BNP Paribas Asset Management and upcoming MCJ podcast guest, Mark Lewis is quoted as saying, “The oil industry was already changing…The question is now whether this accelerates [after the pandemic].”
Bloomberg: “Fighting Climate Change Prepared Jay Inslee for a Pandemic”
In this interview, Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee discusses his views on making data-based decisions, the lack of Federal government leadership in addressing the pandemic, and what COVID-19 portends for climate change.
Bloomberg: “Oil Bust Forces College Grads to Rethink a Well-Paid Career Path”
This article reports on how the recent reversal of fortune for the oil industry is prompting some recent graduates to reconsider entering what has been a historically lucrative profession.
The New York Times: “The Business of Burps: Scientists Smell Profit in Cow Emissions”
This article reports on how emissions from livestock, namely methane, are a significant contributor to climate change and Mootral, backed by early-Uber investor Chris Sacca’s Lowercarbon Capital, has developed what’s been dubbed as a “Gas-X for cows.”
McKinsey & Company: “Reducing agriculture emissions through improved farming practices”
With over a quarter of the world’s GHG emissions coming from agriculture, forestry, and land-use change, this report focuses on 25 farming technologies that could reduce the sector’s GHG emissions by 2050. (H/T MCJ’er Baptiste Malaguti)
🎟Events
Past and upcoming events organized or surfaced by your fellow MCJers.
MCJ Study Group (Saturday, May 9th at 9am PST / Noon EST)
Amy Wang and Gareth Gransaull are hosting a study group this weekend, in which the first half will be a discussion with Max Tuttman (of Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy) on the topic of energy storage. Max’s recent piece, “Why Long-Duration Energy Storage Matters” is a good pre-read.