This Week in MCJ (6/6/20)
This Week in MCJ (6/6/20)
Reflecting on this pivotal moment, and the challenges/opportunities ahead
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Hey all,
It is sure hard to know what to say this week. It feels weird to be saying much at all, since as a white male, I have a voice that has been heard too much for too long. But, I want to be an ally and don’t want anyone to mistake silence for apathy.
“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” - Elie Wiesel
Black Lives Matter. The system has been rigged against black people in the U.S. for too long, and it needs to stop. Exactly what my part is in helping fix this, I am still working through. But where I am now is 1) I am committed to doing the work. 2) I am committed to speaking out and helping educate other privileged white people (and others) who haven’t yet done the work. 3) I am committed to finding ways to use my platform and privilege to help bring about real, durable change.
MCJer Marilyn Waite posted this great list of resources in the slack room, for those that want to learn more:
As for MCJ, in addition to personally working through the resources above, we are planning to explore the intersection of climate and social/environmental justice more deeply, as a starting point. We remain deeply committed to addressing climate change as our primary, over-arching cause. But the more I get into this, the more I am realizing that, in order to do so effectively and durably, we MUST address these other important issues like racism, inequality, fixing our democracy, etc, as they are much more inter-related than I realized going in, and that the best way to address them as a society may be in parallel, versus banging our heads against the wall one issue at a time.
I also feel like, given the high caliber, diverse perspectives, commitment to purpose, and collaborative spirit of the MCJ community, we are in a unique position to mobilize and bring about an incredible amount of change together over time, if we do it right. I am not sure yet exactly what that looks like, but I am so excited, grateful, and deeply committed to continuing on this journey with all of you.
Jason
📼Episodes
Here’s this week’s episode, in case you missed it.
Episode 106: Davida Herzl, Co-Founder and CEO of Aclima
Aclima's mission is to build a more environmentally intelligent society. It does that by delivering environmental intelligence at unprecedented block-by-block resolution locally and globally. Their products and services provide government, industry, and communities transformative visibility into air pollution and climate emissions that accelerate action to protect public and planetary health. This is the first episode In which we put pollution front and center. It's an important topic, and Aclima is one of the leaders in helping to address it. They also had some exciting news, announced this week, and have several jobs listed in the jobs section below.
🔦Member Spotlight: Mike Olson, Founder and former CEO/CSO of Cloudera
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 attempt to include as many as we can over time.
I’m a nerd by inclination and training. From the 70s to the 90s, I wrote a whole lot of software. In the decades since, I’ve held marketing, sales and strategy jobs. Consistently throughout, though, I’ve known enough about how products worked to speak in depth to the developers I’ve worked with, and to customers and partners.
Almost exactly a year ago, I retired from my operating role — I was Chief Strategy Officer — at Cloudera. I’d been at the company for more than a decade. I spent five years as founding CEO and board chair, and stepped into the CSO role when we recruited my replacement for the corner office in 2013. By last year, though, I was ready to step back and to look for something new, and newly meaningful, to occupy my time.
Way, way back, when I was in graduate school in the early 90s, I worked on a multi-disciplinary project with academic and government participants from across the United States. That project was called Sequoia 2000, and aimed to apply state-of-the-art computer science research to global climate change. It was an exciting (and humbling!) introduction to the problem. In the nearly thirty years since, it’s become increasingly urgent.
I was so pleased to discover Jason and MCJ. My time in enterprise software tech had taken me out of the mainstream of work on the climate crisis. This group has been a fantastic re-introduction to the techniques and the organizations that matter in the field. The flow from the firehose hasn’t abated, but I’ve consumed enough to have some ideas about things I might to do be useful.
I’m particularly interested in these three things:
Atmospheric and oceanic carbon capture. I know how important decarbonization is generally, but even if we do an excellent job of that, we’ve still got to pull about 120ppm of CO2 out of the air to get to a sustainable level. Any solution requires this. It’s hard, but it has to happen.
For-profit, as opposed to non-profit, organizations. I like and respect folks who rely on philanthropy (I sit on several non-profit boards), but the only way we’ll scale to global impact is if there are attractive margins to be made in solving the climate crisis. We need profits to attract the necessary investment.
Supporting entrepreneurs in operating roles as they build their companies. I’ve worked for or founded scrappy little start-ups. I grew my last business from four people to three thousand at my departure. I’ve worked for companies at different stages, in different roles. I’ve probably made every management mistake possible. I’d love to talk about those scars with folks in the heat of battle today.
I’ve spoken to a bunch of folks on this forum already, but I hope that this personal note lets even more of you know what I aim to do. I have the luxury, at this point, of working on stuff that matters to me. I’d love to get to know people here whose philosophies I complement. I’d be glad to learn more about what you’re working on in particular, and to offer what advice and assistance I’m able.
🙋🏽♀️Requests from the MCJ Community
MCJer Alex Mitchell mentioned that Los Angeles-based tech incubator LACI is seeking creative solutions for its Zero-Emissions Delivery Zone pilot in Santa Monica - the first of its kind in the nation! This groundbreaking pilot is an unprecedented opportunity for innovators (startups and corporates) to trial new, sustainable delivery technologies. Apply today and tell us how your ingenious idea can help shape the future of zero-emissions last-mile delivery.
MCJer Brianna Miller is seeking volunteers to take part in welcoming new members to the MCJ Slack. The members of the Welcome Committee will greet new members, offering suggestions for channels and upcoming events, and serve as a general resource for questions about the community. If you’re interested in learning more, please DM Brianna in the MCJ Slack.
MCJer Evan Hynes is seeking other members interested in participating in a panel discussion focused on the intersection between racism and climate justice. Feel free to DM him in the MCJ Slack.
MCJer Shayle Kann is interested in connecting with those who are or may know of experts in the field of ESG and sustainability accounting. If you fit the bill, feel free to DM Shayle in the MCJ Slack.
💼Climate Jobs
Here are some jobs shared by members of the MCJ community that we think might be of interest to you.
Software Engineering, Head of Sales, Driver Operations at Aclima in San Francisco, CA (temporarily remote) (job listings)
Product Engineer, Designer & Business Generalist at Watershed in San Francisco, CA (temporarily remote) (job listings) — Co-Founder, Christian Anderson welcomes inquiries at christian at watershedclimate dot com.
Var. Software Engineer Positions, Dir. Client Success, Marketing Ops, Sales Exec., Var. Internships at EnergyHub in Brooklyn, NY (job listings)
Head of Sustainability & Strategy at Imperfect Foods in San Francisco, CA (job listing)
Sr. Mechanical Engineer at Treau in San Francisco, CA (job listing)
Research Fellow at Stanford Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy & Finance in Stanford, CA (job listing); (N.B. Research is being led by Alicia Seiger, Managing Director at the center and former guest on the MCJ podcast.)
Associate Director at Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program 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.
📰Recommended Reading/Listening
Below are recently published articles and content that we find interesting and/or that were shared by fellow MCJers.
The New York Times: “States Warn That Virus May Doom Climate Projects”
As reported in this article, “officials told lawmakers that the coronavirus will prevent them from meeting the conditions of a $1 billion Obama-era program for large-scale construction projects that defend cities and states against climate-related disasters. That money must be spent by the fall of 2022.”
GreenBiz: “Disarming ourselves in the fight against climate change”
Philip Bredesen, former Governor of Tennessee and current Chairman & President of Clearloop (and upcoming MCJ Pod guest!), outlines how decarbonizing the electricity grid represents a major opportunity to reduce GHG emissions.
Bloomberg: “Swiss Carbon Capture Startup Raises $76m in Funding Round”
In a boon to the carbon capture space, Climeworks AG, a Swiss climate startup, raised 73 million Swiss francs ($76 million) in a private funding round. As Bloomberg reports, “The fundraising marks the biggest private investment in a direct air capture firm to date.”
EcoWatch: “New Jersey Becomes First State to Put the Climate Crisis in Its K-12 Curriculum”
New Jersey Governor, Phil Murphy, recently announced that his state would be the first in the nation to incorporate climate change education across K-12 learning standards with the aim of preparing students for the future green economy.
The Washington Post: “I’m a black climate expert. Racism derails our efforts to save the planet.” (Link to download PDF)
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, marine biologist, policy advisor, and founder and CEO of the consultancy Ocean Collectiv, writes in an Op-Ed how it has been difficult to focus on the climate change crisis with the “boiling racism and militarization” brought to light during recent events. As she poignantly writes, “How can we expect black Americans to focus on climate when we are so at risk on our streets, in our communities, and even within our own homes? How can people of color effectively lead their communities on climate solutions when faced with pervasive and life-shortening racism?”
Christian Anderson, Co-Founder of Watershed, recently shared on Y Combinator’s Hacker News his startup’s climate reading list, that he cites as having inspired his team’s thinking.
Political Climate, “A bipartisan podcast on energy and environmental issues in America,” recently published an episode featuring Maggie Thomas, Political Director at Evergreen Action (and upcoming MCJ Pod guest). The topic of discussion is how “The Left Unites Around a Justice-Centered Climate Platform.”
🎟Climate Events
Past and upcoming events organized or surfaced by your fellow MCJers.
Upcoming
MCJ Community Chat: Nature Based Carbon Removal Solutions (Thursday, June 11th, 1pm EST)
Following the group’s last community call on carbon removal, organizers of the MCJ Community Chat wanted to dive into a more specific sub-topic: Nature Based Solutions. Discussions will include a broad overview of nature based carbon removal solutions, scalability and feasibility, and trends in funding and startups in the space. The intention is to hear from a broad range of voices on this topic. They will announce their panelists and discussion topics as they become available. Fill out this Google form & join #communitychat in the MCJ Slack to get a calendar invite for the event.
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.