This Week in MCJ (6/13/20)
Social/environmental justice, the third leg of the climate stool.
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,
As I tweeted last night, I am 1.5 years into a deep dive into how to best address climate change. Given my background as an entrepreneur, I came in with a huge innovation bias. Then I discovered the importance of policy. I now believe you can not effectively address climate change without addressing social/environmental justice as well.
This is an area I need to understand a whole lot better. It has come up in a handful of episodes, but it has not come up enough. I have plenty of reading material to keep me busy (I started places like here and here, but could have started in many other places too, and Marilyn’s reading list from last week’s newsletter is going to keep me busy for a long time), but would love any suggestions for guests you’d like to hear from on MCJ, as we work to unpack this important topic. We are primarily focused on the climate & social/environmental justice intersection, but most importantly I am trying to expand my horizons and learn more about the social/environmental justice problem and how to best address it.
Separately, I am really enthused about some things I am starting to see in the community. For one, now that we have a core group of paying members (and more every day!), we can proceed with the podcast more confidently, knowing that there is the beginnings of an economic engine to enable us to keep doing this work. The caliber of the discussions keeps going up, and we are gaining more credibility to attract some harder-to-reach guests (our first bonus episode for members launches Monday, and it is a doozy!), and there is an increasing amount of engagement around the episodes as well, in slack, in my inbox, and on social media. It feels like, given the objective nature of our platform, we can really start putting some thornier topics front and center, and unpack them together on a quest for collective understanding and a unified path forwards. We have some fun experiments planned in this regard, that we can talk about more soon :)
To that end, the events happening on the MCJ platform are also starting to gel. We did a small pilot recently with our friends at IDEO that we are hopefully going to find a way to roll out to the broader member community. And we will soon be rolling out some other fun events on important topics that we think will be of interest to many of you. And in the meantime, more and more members are coming up with your own ideas for events. I attended a nature-based solutions for carbon removal event Thursday that was organized in MCJ slack, and there were ~50 participants (we will share the recording of that when it is ready)! We’ve also been getting a steady stream of feedback like the below, which feels great.
We’ve been working with a group of volunteer ambassadors (not sure if that will be the final name) to start to map out a better process for welcoming and on-boarding new members to the community, providing support for members that want to organize/promote events or get involved in other ways, provide a calendar and more visibility to the events that are happening, a better directory for the members that are in the community, and generally keep making the MCJ member experience better and better. A couple of easy things you can do is to take a look at our (draft) community guidelines (feel free to use the “add a comment” feature to share your thoughts), and to fill out your slack profile, so other MCJers can find you!
Over time, we aspire to take on some larger initiatives as well, as it relates to member services and programming. Our focus is to provide the “picks and shovels” to enable each of you, and the MCJ community as a whole, to have the biggest impact on addressing climate change and creating a better world. I am truly excited about the momentum and spirit of this group, and the opportunity for what we can create together as a community.
Until next week!
Jason
📼Episodes
Here’s this week’s episode, in case you missed it.
Episode 107: Sonia Aggarwal, VP at Energy Innovation
Energy Innovation is an 8-year old international nonprofit think tank that helps companies and governments with developing and implementing clean energy policies. Sonia leads the firm's power sector transformation and energy policy solutions programs. I was excited for this episode because so many guests on My Climate Journey have said that policy is the biggest lever we've got, but we haven’t really double clicked on that and dug into what that means and how to bring about the kinds of policies we need. We cover a lot in this episode, including a deep dive into the clean energy policy landscape, what the different levers are, and for whom. We also have a great discussion about, once those are identified, how to maximize our progress! It is such an important topic, and Sonia is an absolute pro.
💼Climate Jobs
Here are some jobs shared by members of the MCJ community that we think might be of interest to you.
Director (or VP depending on depth of experience) of Software and Data Systems at Sila Nanotechnologies in Alameda, CA (job listing)
Product Designer and (2) Full-Stack Software Developers at SINAI Technologies (jobs listings) (N.B. The company is well-funded and graduated from Y Combinator’s Winter 2020 batch)
Summer Intern at Reflective Earth in Seattle, WA (job listing)
Founding Head of Business Development at Salient Predictions (link to download PDF job description) in Cambridge, MA
Product Designers, (2) Account Execs., Software Engineers (Sr. and mid-level) at Emitwise in London, UK (jobs page)
ESG Analyst at OpenInvest in San Francisco, CA (job listing)
Interested in sharing a job or internship with the community? Use the button below to let us know, or just post it in #climatejobs in the MCJ slack room.
🏗What You’re Working On
Projects and initiatives developed by fellow MCJers. You can inquire more by DMing the respective contact on Slack.
Recruiting for Climate Solutions
MCJers Kristen Winzent and Merrill Feather are leading an initiative to help recruit tech talent for climate solutions. Kristen recently posted, “Any full-time or recently full time explorers who would be open to a quick chat about your journey? @merrillfeather and I are working on a project to help with recruiting new folks from tech to work on climate solutions.” You can learn more by DMing Kristen and Merrill or seeing the conversation on #climatejobs and #full-time-explorers.
Accepting Applications for Third Derivative, a Global Virtual Climate Tech Accelerator
MCJer Ryan Kushner shared that Third Derivative is currently accepting application from early-stage climate tech startups: “Hi all! In case it’s relevant and helpful to your burgeoning climate tech startup, or something in your pipeline, please consider applying to Third Derivative. We are a new, global, 100% virtual climate tech accelerator - a joint venture between Rocky Mountain Institute and New Energy Nexus. The program offers an optional $100k convertible note, and the opportunity to work with corporate and investment partners Microsoft, AT&T, Wells Fargo, Imperative Ventures, Emerald Technology Ventures, and Tsing Capital.”
🙋🏽♀️Requests from the MCJ Community
Requests from fellow MCJers. If interested in getting in touch with any of them, you can DM directly in Slack.
MCJer Oakley Fast is seeking a list of cleantech angel investors and accelerators: “Hi MCJ Community! Does anyone have a list of Early-Stage, Angel investors and Accelerators for Cleantech startups in the US? I am volunteering with a startup (Zabble) which automates waste analytics for hospitals and corporate buildings for smarter waste management and we are looking to expand. Any suggestions, contacts or lists of angel investors and accelerators would be much appreciated! Thank you.”
MCJer Barry Saunders seeks insight around waste / recycling providers in developing economies:“Hi MCJ folks! I’m currently working on an RFP for an operational platform we’re building for waste / recycling centres in developing economies. I’ve been putting together a shortlist of players in the space, but would love to hear from folks who are interested in the RFP or have recommendations of people to contact.”
MCJer Thai Nguyen (and MCJ CoS) is seeking out volunteers for two independent projects to foster engagement within the community.
For those interested, there are two projects that could use someone to lead them. The first is exploring a possible roll out of Icebreaker (h/t Cody Simms), a sort of Chatroulette-meets-Sparkly; the second is implementing a holistic plan around building a Member Directory. Both projects are meaty and offer the high-impact potential of fostering connections and engagement within the MCJ community. If interested, feel free to DM Thai on Slack or email him at thai at myclimatejourney dot co.
📰🎧Recommended Reading/Listening
Below are recently published articles and content that we find interesting and/or that were shared by fellow MCJers.
Bloomberg: “BlackRock’s Green Dreams Got Complicated Fast”
This article discusses how the economic crisis resulting from the pandemic is putting BlackRock in a challenging situation of balancing commitments to addressing climate with its role in buttressing a beleaguered economy.
Gizmodo: “Pollution Is Racial Violence”
This piece delves into the inseparable connection between pollution and racial inequity.
The New York Times: “Read Up on the Links Between Racism and the Environment”
This article provides a helpful list of resources for those seeking to learn more about the intersection of climate and racism.
Politico: “Borrowed time: Climate change threatens U.S. mortgage market”
This article discusses how the American tax-payer is exposed to billions in loses from mortgages affected by worsening climate-related threats.
BBC: “Britain goes coal free as renewables edge out fossil fuels”
Resulting from its pandemic-induced lockdown, Britain has seen energy demand plummet and as a result has, for the first time, gone a full two months without burning coal.
Bloomberg: “How to Grow Green”
This treatise outlines how the world can build a clean energy future post-pandemic.
MIT Energy Initiative: #23 - Energy Entrepreneurship
Jason guest hosted this MIT Energy Initiative podcast to interview Tod Hynes, senior lecturer in the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship and founder of XL Fleet, discussing success, spinouts, and advice from teaching Energy Ventures, an MIT course that guides student teams through the process of creating new energy ventures.
🎟Climate Events
Past and upcoming events organized or surfaced by your fellow MCJers.
Upcoming
Upcycling: Turning Food Waste into Food Products (Tuesday, June 16th, 8pm EST)
This event will feature Caroline Cotto (COO at Renewal Mill, Upcycled Food Association) who will discuss how Upcycled food products fight climate change. Renewal Mill creates upcycled ingredients from food that would have otherwise been wasted. They've started with byproducts of plant-based milk and have created a flour that fights climate change. This event will involve a short presentation, Q & A from moderators and attendees, followed by two 10 minute breakout rooms to discuss our food supply chain system with like-minded peers. You can RSVP and purchase tickets here (n.b. 100% of revenue generated from this event will be donated to a non-profit fighting for racial justice).
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.