This Week in MCJ (7/25/20)
The drum beat is getting louder!
Hey all,
This was a pretty major week in MCJ-land! A few things happened this week that I am particularly proud of.
First, we rolled out the new MCJ Climate Tech Startup Series, which was received very well! We got a flood of new membership requests, notes of excitement from existing members, and inquiries from startups of all shapes and sizes about coming on the show. We published our first episode as well (you are brave, Living Carbon team!) and recorded three more this week that will be airing soon (we are publishing a new one every Thursday). We hope you enjoy this new series. Our goal is to provide a platform that not only offers visibility to climate tech startups, but also serves as a content library for investors, employees, founders, partners, and others. Our hope is that the content presented will enable MCJ members to navigate more easily the emerging climate tech startup landscape! If you are not a member yet and would like access to this exciting series, you can learn more about membership here.
Second, as you probably saw, we put out a call in last week’s newsletter for volunteers interested in collaborating on a joint-MCJ proposal to respond to a request from Social Capital CEO, Chamath Palihapitiya. In his RFP, he solicits a proposal to allocate a few billion dollars to address climate change. Well, at current count, there are 66 MCJers that heeded the call and are currently collaborating on a proposal in the #projectchamath channel in Slack. To be honest, I have no idea how this will turn out. 60+ people in any group project is A LOT! But the caliber of the people that responded blows my mind, and their energy/enthusiasm for the project is overflowing. They even have a project lead now—thanks to MCJer Candice Ammori for stepping up! More important than whether we *win* the Chamath proposal is treating this as an exercise in how the MCJ community can take advantage of our scale, experience, and diversity to tackle significant challenges. I can imagine many types of projects that we may want to take on in the future, and we *may* have a second project to share next week. :)
Lastly, I attended the Elections as a Levers on Climate Action event this week, organized by MCJers Eliza Nemser, Stuart Powell, and Parker Thomas, and was blown away! The panelists were high caliber, Eliza did a great job moderating, and I learned a ton. Moreover, the event was well-attended and I just spent the whole time in awe that we could bring such quality programming to MCJ members through the help of others. This gave me yet another glimpse of the possibility of one day delivering a wide range of valuable programming, developed by members for members, at scale. Each week we get a little bit closer to fulfilling this vision, and it’s due in no small part to the amazing people that make up this community. Your belief in us means so much, and we do not take this opportunity lightly. Thank you.
Jason
📼Episodes
Here’s this week’s episode, in case you missed it.
Episode 113 (Member Bonus): Katie Rae, CEO & Managing Partner of The Engine
N.B. The link above provides a preview for an episode exclusively available to My Climate Journey Members. If you're interested in listening to the full episode, you can learn about becoming an MCJ Member here. If you’re already an MCJ Member, you can listen to the full episode here.
This week’s guest was Katie Rae, CEO & Managing Partner of The Engine.
The Engine is a venture capital fund, spun out of MIT, that invests in early-stage companies, solving the world's biggest problems through the convergence of breakthrough science, engineering, and leadership. A for-profit organized as a public benefit corporation, The Engine not only maximizes for investor returns but also for purpose. Its investing focuses on several so-called “tough tech” domains: reversal climate change, biological human health (e.g. agriculture), “compute of tomorrow” and infrastructure (e.g. quantum computing). Primarily, it invests early at the seed stage or small Series A as the lead investor.
I was excited for this one, as Katie is an old friend and a longtime fixture in the Boston innovation community. She has advised hundreds of founders and invested in a myriad of companies. Now, at The Engine, she serves as a board member at Commonwealth Fusion Systems, Form Energy, Via Separations and Lilac Solutions. We have a great discussion in this episode about tough tech, why it matters, and what led Katie to switch gears to focus exclusively on what historically has been an underfunded area of innovation.
🚀Climate Tech Startup Series (CTSS)
As mentioned above, MCJ has launched a new series for members, where we feature founders of early-stage companies, sharing their startup’s business and mission. Members can check out our first episode below.
CTSS Episode 1: Living Carbon with Maddie Hall & Patrick Mellor
Living Carbon is a San Francisco, CA based startup using biotechnology to develop trees that better capture and store carbon. By using biochemistry to enhance a tree’s natural ability to drawdown atmospheric carbon, the company is not only devising a solution to help address climate change, but also producing more durable wood for a multitude of building and manufacturing applications. Co-founders Maddie Hall and Patrick Mellor walk me through a company overview presentation, and share the story and mission behind Living Carbon.
👩🏿🔬👨🏽💼👨🏻🎓Climate Interns Update
MCJer Kai Cash has been spearheading the effort to connect those interested in climate-related internship opportunities with organizations actively hiring candidates. We’ve received a deluge of interest from prospective interns of varying backgrounds (students as well as seasoned-professionals) and have started to hear about some organizations connecting with candidates, which is the first step.
We are looking for more organizations seeking to hire interns, so if that is you, please submit your information. Once you’ve submitted we’ll share the list of interns with you, and we can hopefully make some matches!
💼Climate Jobs
Here are some jobs shared by members of the MCJ community that we think might be of interest to you. Many of these opportunities and the MCJers who shared them can be found in #climatejobs in the MCJ Slack.
(Paid) Business Development Intern at Clearloop (Remote) (LinkedIn posting)
This opportunity was shared by Clearloop co-founder, Laura Zapata. On Monday, we’ll be publishing an interview with former Tennessee Governor and Clearloop co-founder, Phil Bredesen, who will discuss Clearloop’s mission in detail.
Sr. Machine Learning Engineer at Amperon in New York City, NY or Remote (job listing). And tune in to find Amperon on our Climate Tech Startup Series soon!
Sustainability Program Manager at Unity (Remote) (job description)
Technical Director at Defense Innovation Unit in Mountain View, CA or Cambridge, MA (PDF job description)
MCJer Darren Hau notes on Slack that “top secret clearance” will be required and he is happy to make an intro.
Employee #1 (Marketing, Sales, Project Finance) at AirCapture (as MCJer Bob Wilson mentions on Slack, interested candidates can reach out to him at bob DOT wilson AT aircapture DOT co.
Sr. Communications Manager at North East Clean Energy Council in Boston, MA (PDF job description)
📢Climate News
Highlights of news this week related to climate change.
Apple, already carbon neutral based on its corporate emissions, is expanding its climate commitment by pledging that it will make its products and supply chain net zero by 2030 (see its announcement).
The corporate behemoths of the Pacific Northwest, Nike, Microsoft, and Starbucks, have forged an alliance to go net zero. As reported in Business Green, the partnership calls for collaboration around strategies and resources.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Thursday called for a repeal of House Bill 6, a bill to bail out nuclear plants in the state. Previously, DeWine has indicated he would oppose any efforts to repeal the legislation (source).
Schlumberger, the world’s largest oil-field services company, is laying off 21,000 workers as oil producers cut expenses due to the historic drop in prices brought about by the coronavirus pandemic (source).
📰🎧Recommended Reading/Listening
Below are recently published articles and content that we find interesting and/or that were shared by fellow MCJers.
Vinod Khosla: “A few Critical Climate Technology Breakthroughs Multiplied by “Instigators” is desperately needed”
Venture Capitalist Vinod Kholsa put out a call for entrepreneurs to take on the climate crisis, and he outlines a long list of successful examples. (h/t Matt Eggers)
Bloomberg: “Capitalists’ Biggest Fear Is an ‘Inevitable Policy Response’”
Amidst a groundswell of political support throughout Europe for carbon neutrality, fossil fuel companies are responding by publicly making pledges to transition their businesses.
The Washington Post: “Liberal, progressive — and racist? The Sierra Club faces its white-supremacist history.”
As part of a growing movement to reflect on and address historical legacies as it pertains to race, the Sierra Club is taking steps to reconcile controversies associated with its founder and “father of the [U.S.] National Parks,” John Muir.
🎟Climate Events
Past and upcoming events organized or surfaced by your fellow MCJers.
Past
"Elections as a Lever on Climate Action: an MCJ Exploration"
For those that were unable to attend, you can view a recording here.
Upcoming
Keeling Curve Prize 2020 Awards Ceremony (Monday, July 27, 8:30 PM EST)
Hosted by CBS’ Jeff Berardelli and Amber Valletta, the Keeling Curve Prize will award $25K cash prizes to companies among a list of twenty finalists that have developed solutions to address climate change. You can register here.
MCJ Town Hall (Friday, July 31st, 4 PM EST)
We’re hosting our monthly town hall to discuss updates and feedback from the community. This event is intended for MCJ Members; if you would like a calendar invite, please drop us a note.
MCJ Ideas Jam (Wednesday, August 5th, 12 PM EST)
MCJers Candice Ammori & Nicolo Giorgi are hosting the second MCJ Ideas Jam. The event is meant to surface great startup ideas, connect MCJ members interested in solving similar problems, and inspire industry veterans to advise and guide eager climate newcomers. Come to pitch your climate startup idea, provide your feedback on the ideas pitched, and/or spark your own ideas in the process. Our guest experts for this event, Hannah Davis of Techstars and Yair Reem of Hasso Plattner Ventures, will be first to give you feedback and helpful direction, and space will be opened for the general MCJ community to provide their feedback and collaborative ideas, both during the event and after. Please RSVP here as a pitcher or general audience member.
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