Inevitable

Today’s guest is Lauren Salz, co-founder and CEO of Sealed, which modernizes houses with the latest HVAC, weatherproofing and smart home technology, while covering the upfront cost to homeowners.

Home efficiency and electrification is a critical front for combating climate change. Incentives for residential heat pump installation are one of the big winners of the Inflation Reduction Act.The often overlooked but critical steps of weatherizing homes via better insulation and sealing is also key to reducing energy consumption. Sealed has been understanding consumer motivations for home efficiency upgrades for nearly a decade. They've learned what consumers care about, what they are concerned about, and what triggers them to invest significant capital into updating their home's heating and cooling infrastructure. And no surprise, climate change and emissions reduction still does not rate as a top motivator. So what does? And are we at the point where these lower emission technologies are just generally better for home heating and cooling? Spoiler alert: the answer is yes. 

Cody and Lauren have a great chat about how she came to work on the problem of home efficiency updates, how they assess a home's needs at Sealed and how this compares to the normal way of doing things. We also talk about the innovative model Sealed is using to help consumers finance projects via energy cost savings, how they work with contractors, and how the IRA promises to accelerate this space even more. And most importantly, we hear from Lauren on how to reach consumers and what their motivations are.

In this episode, we cover: 

• [3:24] Lauren's journey
• [6:05] Her early days of figuring out home energy efficiency and her company’s origin story
• [11:57] An overview of Sealed
• [19:12] Value propositions that are most popular for consumers
• [21:33] Process for how Sealed designs custom solutions for each home
• [25:54] The company’s performance-based financing model 
• [31:16] How customers and contractors learn about Sealed's solution 
• [35:46] The company's role in assessing contractor work 
• [37:50] Benefits from the Inflation Reduction Act 
• [45:41] Common changes people need to make with insulation

Get connected: 
Cody's Twitter
Lauren’s Twitter / Sealed Twitter
MCJ Podcast / Collective

*You can also reach us via email at [email protected], where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Episode recorded on September 14, 2022.

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at [email protected].

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• Cody Simms on LinkedIn
• Visit mcj.vc
• Subscribe to the MCJ Newsletter

*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Today's guests are Geert van de Wouw and Vikas Gupta from Shell Ventures. 

Shell Ventures was established in 1996 as one of the first corporate venture funds in the oil and gas industry. Although we’ve published over 300 episodes to date, Geert and Vikas are actually the first guests we’ve had from the oil majors come on the show. Although tons of anger has been directed at the oil and gas industry, we also acknowledge that they are critical to the clean energy transition. Collaboration is ultimately key to unlocking our future potential. 

In this discussion, we check Geert and Vikas’ Shell business cards aside and talk about their personal views on climate. We also discuss how they think about negative sentiments towards oil majors, as well as their role in the future. Then we cover Shell as a company, what percentage of its energy portfolio comes from fossil fuels versus renewables and other clean energy, and how those percentages will shift over time. Finally, we talk about Shell Ventures, how they invest, and how those investments fit into the bigger picture of what the company's trying to do. 

This conversation only scratches the surface of the role oil and gas will play in the clean energy transition, but it also begins building necessary bridges between the traditional climate world and our realistic future. We know climate touches every facet of our lives and appreciate Geert and Vikas’ time in helping to tease out the nuances of this complex crisis we’re facing.

In this episode, we cover: 

• [4:11] An overview of Shell Ventures
• [5:58] How Geert found his way into Shell and his motivations
• [8:20] Vikas' background and climate journey
• [10:11] Geert and Vikas' level of concern regarding climate change
• [13:18] Anger geared towards big oil and realistic expectations for the energy transition
• [16:11] Shell's net zero commitments and investments on clean technologies
• [18:43] Strategic priorities for Shell vs. Shell Ventures
• [23:16] How Shell Ventures thinks about general impact, strategic value, and financial returns
• [26:45] Shell's level of collaboration with entrepreneurs and founders
• [29:01] The role of behavior change and consumer mentality to the transition
• [32:44] Thoughts on if we've reached a tipping point and how they see the transition playing out
• [35:17] Carbon removal and capture as one solution in the mix
• [38:49] The role of policy in Shell's investments
• [40:26] Reskilling oil and gas workers for the clean energy transition
• [43:47] How collaboration with oil and gas can accelerate the transition

Get connected: 
Jason's Twitter
Geert van de Wouw LinkedIn
Vikas Gupta LinkedIn
Shell LinkedIn / Twitter
MCJ Podcast / Collective

*You can also reach us via email at [email protected], where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Episode recorded on September 27, 2022

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at [email protected].

Connect with MCJ:

• Cody Simms on LinkedIn
• Visit mcj.vc
• Subscribe to the MCJ Newsletter

*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Today's guest is Tom Green, CEO and Co-founder of Vesta.

The ocean is one of nature's largest carbon sinks, as it absorbs upwards of 30% of cumulative human emissions. Vesta is tackling the dual problem of shoreline erosion due to sea level rise and carbon emissions reduction with olivine sand that speeds up the ocean's natural carbon cycle. They call it coastal carbon capture, and it's one form of the broader category of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) solutions known as enhanced rock weathering. The olivine sand that Vesta deploys into the ocean accelerates the natural carbon cycle dramatically, creating a form of permanent and durable carbon sequestration.

Vesta also has a very unique corporate setup. They started their journey as a non-profit research group that has continued on as a 501(c)(3) called Coastal Carbon Capture Impact Fund. Vesta – the for-profit public benefit corporation that Tom is CEO of – emerged later as a way to pursue scaled commercial projects leveraging the non-profit research. And the two orgs continue to work together, though they have separate governance structures and economics.

Tom and Cody have a great chat about the many stakeholders at play in the projects they consider, from local communities and scientists to the impact on various types of sea life itself, and the ecotoxicology studies that Vesta produces. They also talk about the nature of olivine and how Vesta sources it, plus how the company determines what shorelines are a good target for coastal carbon capture. If you’re interested in carbon removal generally or nature-based solutions, this one's for you. 

In this episode, we cover: 

• [3:22] Tom's background and how Vesta has evolved
• [6:36] The ocean's role as a carbon sink
• [11:26] Distinction between geoengineering and nature-based carbon dioxide removal
• [13:08] Vesta's origins
• [15:54] An overview of olivine and it's role in Vesta's CDR approach
• [25:10] How Vesta partners with the dredging industry to work more efficiently
• [29:41] Coastal engineering and optimizing for carbon removal
• [32:43] Vesta's history as a non-profit and transition to a public benefit corporation (PBC)
• [36:00] Philanthropy and project finance
• [44:26] Engaging various stakeholders throughout Vesta's research and solution, including local communities
• [49:20] How Tom decided on coastal carbon removal
• [53:41] Pricing on Vesta's carbon credits and how they plan to decrease with scale
• [55:02] Vesta's seed financing and future plans for building their business

Get connected: 
Cody's Twitter
Vesta Twitter
MCJ Podcast / Collective

*You can also reach us via email at [email protected], where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Episode recorded on September 27, 2022.

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at [email protected].

Connect with MCJ:

• Cody Simms on LinkedIn
• Visit mcj.vc
• Subscribe to the MCJ Newsletter

*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Today's guest is Dr. Leah Stokes, a renowned climate and energy policy expert, strategist and researcher, helping leaders build clean energy practices into their long-term plans to secure our future. 

But her resume doesn’t end there. Leah is an award-winning author of Short Circuiting Policy, an associate professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara and co-host of a top climate podcast called A Matter of Degrees, where she and Dr. Katharine Wilkinson tell stories about the powerful forces behind climate change and the tools we have to fix it. Leah is also senior policy advisor at Rewiring America and Evergreen Action, plus she was named a Grist 50 Fixer in 2020. While she has a pretty impressive bio, Leah is also a unique combination of pragmatic, progressive, commercial-minded, activism-minded, academic-minded, and scientific-minded, all blended into one powerhouse of a woman.

In this episode, Jason and Leah have a great discussion about her  journey, theory of change, and how it's evolved from when she first started doing this work to today. We also cover some of the barriers holding back the transition and the most impactful levers to facilitate it. Finally, we put controversial topics that people squabble over all the time, front and center, and talk through them pragmatically and respectfully with the nuance that they deserve. This is an insightful conversation you don’t want to miss. 

*Leah will be participating in an MCJ Ask-Me-Anything event on Wednesday 11/02 in our Slack community. Get your burning climate questions ready. RSVP here.

In this episode, we cover: 

• [3:12] An overview of Leah's work
• [5:56] Her motivations and how she started working in climate
• [9:40] How her theory of change has evolved
• [11:27] Importance of structural change
• [15:27] Tensions between conservation, decarbonization and environmental justice
• [21:46] Leah's feelings toward fossil fuel company executives and the impacts of their denial campaign
• [28:47] The role of fossil fuel companies moving forward in the clean energy transition
• [32:31] The political polarization of climate change
• [35:48] A future of abundance with clean energy
• [38:23] Leah's views on the state of the climate emergency
• [41:55] The role of the West vs. the rest of the world
• [46:19] GDP growth and falling emissions
• [49:46] Speed round including nuclear, offsets, carbon pricing, and more

Resources mentioned in this episode: 

• The Dirty Truth About Electric Utilities
• The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit
• Follow the Leader by Gabe Lenz
• How Solar Energy Became Cheap: A Model for Low-Carbon Innovation by Greg Nemet

Get connected: 
Jason's Twitter
Leah’s Website / Twitter
MCJ Podcast / Collective

*You can also reach us via email at [email protected], where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Episode recorded on September 22, 2022.

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at [email protected].

Connect with MCJ:

• Cody Simms on LinkedIn
• Visit mcj.vc
• Subscribe to the MCJ Newsletter

*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Today's guest is David Wallace, co-founder and CEO of CODA Farm Technologies, which provides remote monitoring and control for agricultural irrigation pumps and irrigation reels. 

The looming water crisis is often described as one of the major symptoms of climate change. You hear about it in the news, coupled with drought-stricken images of dried up riverbeds and diminishing reservoirs. The Western U.S. is currently facing the largest mega drought in a millennium. The Colorado River, which provides water to approximately 40 million Americans, plus much of the irrigation for some of the most productive agricultural land in the U.S., is in an existential crisis. Lake Mead is at 25% capacity and groundwater across the West is being depleted rapidly. So what’s to be done to ensure the future of our water supply and food systems? 

To understand how farmers across the country are thinking about all of this, CODA Farm Technologies is on the forefront of selling irrigation efficiency tech to farmers. You’ll be surprised to hear that cost savings due to water efficiency isn't even a key selling point for David’s company, and that's because of how agricultural water is (or is not) priced in much of the U.S. today. Cody and David have a really interesting conversation about the state of agricultural irrigation and how he’s helping farmers with time savings and automation that are ultimately driving CODA Farm’s current sales.

In this episode, we cover: 

• [3:13] David's background and the origin of CODA Farm Technologies
• [9:28] An overview of farm irrigation 
• [13:21] What's top of mind for farmers today around the U.S. 
• [26:16] Value propositions for different farmers
• [27:11] Economics of water usage and impacts on a farmer’s bottom line
• [29:18] CODA Farm's technology and pricing
• [31:27] CODA Farm's go-to-market consumers 
• [34:44] Generational changes on farms and a look at the modern farmer
• [36:44] How David made the decision to go the venture route for scale and the company's seed round with Lowercarbon
• [37:32] Data on water savings 
• [40:28] An overview of the irrigation control industry 

Get connected:
Cody's Twitter
CODA Farm LinkedIn / Twitter
MCJ Podcast / Collective

*You can also reach us via email at [email protected], where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Episode recorded on September 12, 2022.

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at [email protected].

Connect with MCJ:

• Cody Simms on LinkedIn
• Visit mcj.vc
• Subscribe to the MCJ Newsletter

*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Today's guest is Scott Arnold, a HVAC technician and small business owner based out of New York. 

With heating and cooling accounting for nearly 50% of energy costs, upgrading outdated appliances can not only save homeowners money but also provide a cleaner environment to live in and a healthier planet overall. Scott’s company is working to help customers purchase and install heat pumps as an alternative to gas furnaces. In his 22+ years of experience working in the space, Scott has built a business facilitating the transition not only with his customers, but also through his employee training and apprenticeship programs. 

In this episode, Scott and Yin talk about the history of heating, what it takes to make his business run, the importance of getting more young people working in the trades, and how in his vocabulary the word cold doesn't exist. You'll have to keep listening to find out why.

In this episode, we cover: 

• [2:30] Scott's background and HVAC expertise
• [5:47] Path to becoming a HVAC technician 
• [9:54] Economic mobility working in the trades
• [12:40] History of HVAC space and key milestones that have changed the trajectory 
• [19:30] An overview of heat pumps
• [20:36] Technology innovations in the past 20 years 
• [23:27] An overview of Scott's company, Rycor 
• [27:33] Scott's vision for expanding 
• [31:36] Mitsubishi's heat pump product 
• [35:23] The customer's mentality and where climate change fits in 
• [37:37] Different refrigerants and how they're managed
• [39:41] What keeps Scott optimistic 

Get connected:
Yin’s Twitter / LinkedIn
MCJ Podcast / Collective

*You can also reach us via email at [email protected], where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Episode recorded on September 15, 2022.

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at [email protected].

Connect with MCJ:

• Cody Simms on LinkedIn
• Visit mcj.vc
• Subscribe to the MCJ Newsletter

*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Today's guest is Sue Brown, Executive Group Director of Sustainability at Worley. 

As a leading global provider of professional project and asset services in the energy, chemicals and resources sectors, Worley is on the frontlines of doing the actual work to engineer and build everything we’re going to need for the clean energy transition, and they’re doing so across industries and the globe. Worley covers a full project lifecycle from guiding their customers with pioneering projects to finding innovative ways of sustaining and enhancing their existing assets. The company employs over 52,000 people, operates on all continents and is administered by its head office in North Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Sue has been with the company for quite a while and she runs a sustainability team, so we dug in on her journey and experience working at Worley. We also talk about the mix of project work coming from traditional industries versus cleaner sources, how that mix is shifting over time, what barriers are holding back the transition and what we can do to unlock faster progress.

In this episode, we cover: 

• [4:47] An overview of Worley 
• [5:51] Sue's climate journey and how she started working in sustainability 
• [8:43] Role of an EPC like Worley 
• [13:42] How big oil and gas companies are transitioning into global integrated energy companies
• [18:40] Breakdown of Worley's traditional customers vs new customers from emerging industries 
• [20:17] Worley's aggressive sustainability revenue targets 
• [25:33] Five key shifts service providers need to take for the delivery of projects 
• [28:15] Biggest barriers to the transition 
• [33:14] Balancing the tension between energy security and the energy transition 
• [35:40] Environmental justice reforms needed and how those might come about 
• [42:02] Talent bottleneck and ways to address them 
• [43:19] Sue's sustainability team and its charter 

Get connected: 
Jason's Twitter
MCJ Podcast / Collective

*You can also reach us via email at [email protected], where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Episode recorded on September 14, 2022.

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at [email protected].

Connect with MCJ:

• Cody Simms on LinkedIn
• Visit mcj.vc
• Subscribe to the MCJ Newsletter

*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Today’s guests are Dave Finocchio and Anna Robertson, co-founders of The Cool Down.

Since the beginning, media businesses have been in the game of building audience segments and mobilizing those audiences to do something. Most American media has learned how to mobilize audiences on various platforms to click or view ads. To buy stuff. But in the wake of the climate crisis, there are certainly better uses of our time online and purchasing power. 

As you’ll see in this episode, some media companies are trying to get people to become local leaders in their communities or make climate conscious purchases. The Cool Down aims to do this and become America's mainstream climate brand. Dave and Anna have extensive digital media credentials that are as strong as they come, and (bonus!) they met via the MCJ member community. 

In this conversation, Cody learns more about Dave and Anna’s backgrounds as media leaders, how and why they decided to apply their skills to climate, the gaps in climate communication today, what audiences they are targeting, and how they plan to build a business or otherwise monetize The Cool Down. Since launching earlier this year, Anna and Dave are just at the beginning of figuring out who these climate-motivated audiences are and how they can be mobilized, but they made one thing abundantly clear: their goal is to reach mainstream audiences to have an even bigger impact in the climate fight.

In this episode, we cover: 

• [3:03] Anna's background at ABC News and Yahoo 
• [6:26] Dave's media experience and transition to climate 
• [12:19] Gap in media and climate communications 
• [16:15] The Cool Down's storytelling strategy 
• [19:18] Popular climate topics they’re experimenting with
• [22:15] Value-based actions that are good for people and the planet 
• [29:45] Packaging tech innovation into engaging, digestible content 
• [35:19] Taking local actions that benefit communities 
• [38:27] Anna and Dave's business model and how they're starting to test it 
• [48:16] What's next for The Cool Down 

Get connected: 
Cody's Twitter
The Cool Down TikTok / Instagram / Website
MCJ Podcast / Collective

*You can also reach us via email at [email protected], where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Episode recorded on September 7, 2022. 

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at [email protected].

Connect with MCJ:

• Cody Simms on LinkedIn
• Visit mcj.vc
• Subscribe to the MCJ Newsletter

*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

This episode is part of our new Skilled Labor Series hosted by MCJ partner, Yin Lu. This series is focused on amplifying the voices of folks from the skilled labor workforce, including electricians, farmers, ranchers, HVAC installers, and others who are on the front lines of rewiring our infrastructure.

Today’s guest is Josh Svaty, a farm owner and operator who also happens to be the former secretary of agriculture of the state of Kansas, among other hats he's worn. 

Farming practices have dramatically shaped human development and the structure of our society. We may not see the every day implications, but farming will continue to impact land management and food systems around the world. Since climate change has altered the predictability of crops, innovative solutions addressing agriculture’s biggest issues are cause for optimism. 

Josh provides a lot of insight in this topic as he oversees a diversified crop and livestock operation at Free State Farms. In this conversation, we learn about the evolution of farming, the role climate change has played in the day to day operations of Josh’s farm, his views on regenerative agriculture and promising trends in agricultural innovations. This episode is great for anybody interested in the food, agriculture and land use areas of the climate fight.

In this episode, we cover: 

• [1:46] Josh's upbringing and extensive background
• [5:26] The role agriculture has played in human development
• [7:24] Large-scale monoculture practices and Josh's feelings about them
• [10:24] Climate change impacts felt on Free State Farms
• [15:11] Solutions addressing the growing lack of predictability for farmers, including increasing crop diversity and livestock
• [19:06] An overview of regenerative agriculture
• [25:03] Role of water in farming operations
• [27:11] Local and global trends as the result of drought
• [29:00] What happens when we run out of water
• [32:45] What keeps Josh optimistic about the future of agriculture
• [35:50] Nitricity's unique solution to addressing the GHG impact of fertilizer

Get connected: 
Yin’s Twitter / LinkedIn
MCJ Podcast / Collective

*You can also reach us via email at [email protected], where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Episode recorded on August 31, 2022

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at [email protected].

Connect with MCJ:

• Cody Simms on LinkedIn
• Visit mcj.vc
• Subscribe to the MCJ Newsletter

*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Today’s guest is Rachel Delacour, co-founder and CEO of Sweep. 

Carbon accounting helps organizations measure their emissions so they can understand their overall footprint, share findings, and plan future reductions. Sweep’s business intelligence tools specialize in using data to map a company’s carbon emissions and helping them realize feasible goals while managing future growth. In doing so, Sweep is shifting the way companies view carbon from a limitation to a creative force for innovation.

Rachel has a background in business intelligence, having sold her previous startup to Zendesk. She felt that she could best contribute to the climate problem by leveraging the skills and expertise she and her team already had around data management, modeling, and forecasting. Sweep recently announced a sizable Series B in funding led by Coatue, and they've raised over a hundred million dollars in aggregate in a little less than two years. 

In this conversation, Cody and Rachel discuss her journey, how Sweep views the market need, how companies source scope 3 emissions data, the potential role of regulation and carbon reporting, and whether or not recommending offsets or contributions creates any incentives. Rachel’s story is great for people looking to make the transition, but not quite sure where to start. 

In this episode, we cover: 

• [2:27] Rachel's financial background and climate journey
• [8:51] How she took existing skills and applied them to carbon
• [18:14] Sweep's approach to building a diverse team of experts from the carbon, tech, and political backgrounds
• [24:19] Rachel's views of carbon accounting vs. carbon management
• [29:15] An overview of scope 3 emissions
• [33:09] How companies are accessing accurate emissions data
• [38:32] The role of carbon management platforms in accelerating regulations
• [41:17] Sweep's success with companies so far
• [44:27] Future targets vs short-term reality in emissions reductions
• [48:59] Rachel's interactions with sustainability teams and financial directors
• [56:29] Where global climate justice fits into Sweep's solution
• [1:01:19] How Sweep balances customer reductions and credits
• [1:05:02] What's next for Rachel and Sweep

Get connected: 
Cody's Twitter
Rachel’s Twitter
Sweep
MCJ Podcast
MCJ Collective

*You can also reach us via email at [email protected], where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Episode recorded on September 7, 2022.

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at [email protected].

Connect with MCJ:

• Cody Simms on LinkedIn
• Visit mcj.vc
• Subscribe to the MCJ Newsletter

*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant