Inevitable

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Jupiter and its mission
• Rich’s journey from data analytics to climate change
• Parallels between the opportunity around cybersecurity and climate change
• The importance of physical climate risk
• How Jupiter initially narrowed its focus on flood risk
• How Jupiter develops a “peril model” to assess the risk of flooding and fires
• Profile of Jupiter’s customers
• How critical infrastructure companies represent a major customer
• Why insurers are not the ones who bear the financial risk of worsening climate disasters
• Corporate indictments as a symptom of unaddressed climate risk
• The U.S.’ “armed lifeboat diplomacy”
• Jupiter’s nonprofit work
• Resilience planning in the face of climate-related catastrophes
• The need to restrict land use in at-risk areas

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• Jupiter Intelligence: https://jupiterintel.com/
• PG&E bankruptcy: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/22/business/energy-environment/pge-bankruptcy-newsom.html

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

In today’s episode, we cover:

• What is CGC and its mission as a nonprofit?
• Why “green bank” is somewhat of a misnomer
• The history of green banks in the U.S. both on the federal and state level
• Where the CGC adds value in the clean tech financing ecosystem
• Customers served by green banks
• The role green banks have played in jump starting new markets for clean tech
• Comparing green banks with for-profit investment firms (e.g. Ultra Capital, Generate Capital)
• Sources of funding for CGC
• Opportunities in the U.S. for green banks
• How the U.S. Department of Energy loan program aids companies in getting through the commercialization gap
• Jeffrey’s perspective on putting a price on carbon
• Views on the impact of the 2020 presidential elections and the various positions of candidates

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• Coalition for green Capital: http://coalitionforgreencapital.com/
• NY green bank: https://greenbank.ny.gov/
• Generate Capital: https://generatecapital.com/
• Ultra Capital: https://www.ultracapital.com/
• Prime Coalition: https://primecoalition.org/
• National Climate Bank Act: https://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senators-markey-and-van-hollen-introduce-legislation-to-create-a-national-climate-bank

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

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Role, function and mission of IIASA
• The context around SR15
• UN Sustainable Development Goals
• Dr. Huppmann’s work on the message integrated assessment model for environmental scenario planning
• Significance of selecting a decade as the timeframe for action
• Unpacking the meaning of publicly stated thresholds
• Implications of Dr. Huppmann’s modeling on humanity
• How new research affects older predictive models
• Dr. Huppmann’s view on carbon storage
• Delivering sustainability via initiatives that improve quality of life
• The important role of carbon taxes
• Open-source climate change data movement

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• IIASA:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Institute_for_Applied_Systems_Analysis
• SR15:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Report_on_Global_Warming_of_1.5_%C2%B0C
• Message IX: https://message.iiasa.ac.at/en/stable/
• UN Sustainable Development Goals: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300
• European Green Deal: https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_en
• Fridays For Future: https://fridaysforfuture.org/
• Young Summer Scientists Program: https://www.iiasa.ac.at/web/home/education/yssp/Young_Scientists_Summer_Program.html

You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Enjoy the show!

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

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Her journey to elected office and the challenges she faced in her campaign
• Her inspiration to run for state office
• What she discovered about the state of Albany politics
• How the campaign for state senator felt like a street fight
• Her upbringing in a politically-minded family
• How the existential problem of climate change underpins all other issues
• What other actions concerned citizens can take beyond voting to combat climate change
• The viability of bipartisan collaboration
• How she would allocate $100 billion in the fight against climate change
• Resources for elected officials to remain informed and develop onions about climate change
• The opportunity to introduce CLCPA-inspired bills in states that don’t have climate-focused legislation

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• Senator Biaggi: https://www.nysenate.gov/senators/alessandra-biaggi
• Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA): https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2019/s6599

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

In today’s episode, we cover:

• How Zahra landed at Buzzfeed covering climate
• The Trump Administration and how its policies have affected climate
• Her audience and readership
• The positioning of her news room and editors
• Journalism’s role
• Her journey from studying geology at Brown to the world of climate journalism
• What she learned at Inside Climate News
• How climate change has become increasingly topical and relevant
• Editorial decisions around what stories to cover
• Delivering impact vs. ad revenue
• Journalism’s shifting focus
• Challenges faced by journalism and the rise of disinformation

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• Zahra Hirji at Buzzfeed: https://www.buzzfeed.com/zahrahirji
• Inside Climate News: https://insideclimatenews.org/
• George Luber, “How A Bad Boss Remade Himself As a Climate Hero”: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zahrahirji/cdc-whistleblower-george-luber-investigation
• “New York Loses Climate Change Fraud Case Against Exxon Mobil”:https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/10/climate/exxon-climate-lawsuit-new-york.html
• Yale Program on Climate Change Communication: https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/

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

In today’s episode, we cover:

• David’s influential career in tech
• His advocacy of various causes
• DHH’s view that, regardless of one’s background, one should become versed in climate change
• How his attention first peaked with the California drought
• How the fires near Malibu made the crisis feel personal and urgent
• “The Uninhabitable Earth” by David Wallace Wells helped inform him of the catastrophe brought about by a temperature rise above 2 degrees centigrade
• How it’s remarkable to think that, since Seinfeld has aired, we’ve doubled GHG
• His family’s carbon budget and how it showed him how much more complicated the problem is 
• His belief that changes in consumer and voting behavior will only happen when people see the existential threat themselves (e.g. fires, floods, etc.)
• His pessimism that things won’t change until the situation becomes more dire
• Do carbon offsets inhibit decisive action?
• The longer democracies fail to address climate change, the more society becomes ripe for the rise of dictators
• DHH’s recommended reading: “The Divide” by Jason Hickel
• His acceptance of the likelihood that he will live on an uninhabitable earth; that we’re not going to stay below 2 degrees Centigrade

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• “The Uninhabitable Earth”: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/586541/the-uninhabitable-earth-by-david-wallace-wells/
• “The Divide”: https://www.jasonhickel.org/the-divide
• Green New Deal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_New_Deal
• Yellow vests movement: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_vests_movement

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

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Shayle’s journey from energy transition in the market intelligence space to climate change venture capital at Energy Impact Partners (EIP)

• EIP, a VC with ~$1B in AUM whose LPs are a coalition of utilities

• The sectors EIP invests in

• Abe’s journey from Rockport Capital Partners, a cleantech private equity firm based, to cofounding Congruent Ventures in 2016

• A history of the first cleantech wave

• Lessons learned

• How the current interest in climate tech compares/contrasts with the first cleantech wave 

• What types of innovation is needed in climate tech

• What types of capital are the best for for which types of innovation

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• Energy Impact Partners: https://www.energyimpactpartners.com/

• Congruent Ventures: https://www.congruentvc.com/

• Rockport Capital Partners: http://www.rockportcap.com/

• Solyndra: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solyndra

• Thin-film solar cell: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin-film_solar_cell

• MiaSolé: http://miasole.com/

• Alpha: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/alpha.asp

• National Renewable Energy Lab: https://www.nrel.gov/

• Lawrence Berkeley Lab: https://www.lbl.gov/

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

In today’s episode, we cover:

● The Rebound Effect and the ironic implications of improving energy efficiency

● Harry’s journey into Climate Change

● How Harry earned the moniker, “The Godfather of Rebound”

● Contention around rebound and its Climate implications

● Factoring in the welfare of those in developing countries and the plight of “energy poverty”

● The integral role of nuclear in any clean energy strategy

● Ecomodernism and the focus on GDP-driven solutions to Climate Change

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

● Decision Processes Incorporated: http://www.decisionprocessesinc.com/

● Khazzoom–Brookes postulate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khazzoom%E2%80%93Brookes_postulate

● The Rebound Effect: https://blog.ucsusa.org/peter-oconnor/energy-efficiency-what-is-the-rebound-effect-946

● Amory Lovins: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amory_Lovins

● Rocky Mountain Institute: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountain_Institute

● Ecomodernist Manifesto: http://www.ecomodernism.org/

● Environmental Kuznets Curve: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuznets_curve#Environmental_Kuznets_curve

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

Today’s guest is Rob Hanson, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Monolith Materials, where he leads the development of next-generation technology for producing low cost, low emission hydrogen and carbon black, an important raw material used in the manufacture of rubber and plastic. Prior to Monolith, Rob served as the global director of product management for AREVA Solar, the solar division of the world’s largest nuclear company. He has a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford, and has been a guest lecturer at Stanford, UNL, Foothill College and the University of Saskatchewan on topics ranging from thermodynamics to entrepreneurship. Rob also co-founded uforia studios, a 65-employee health and fitness company with locations in San Francisco and Palo Alto.

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Rob’s journey from solar to the chemical sector
• The dirty process of traditionally producing carbon black
• How a generalist background (e.g. blending science and finance) can be positioned to make a big impact as an entrepreneur in the climate technology space
• Scaling the method of cleanly creating carbon black from natural gas
• The genesis of Monolith
• Staggered financing model
• Markets for carbon black
• Importance of establishing a market “beachhead” with product-market fit
• Reception of the clean “story” and value proposition among prospective customers
• Opportunities Rob finds interesting outside Monolith’s focus
• The opportunity and importance of education in addressing Climate Change

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• Monolith Materials: https://monolithmaterials.com/
• Carbon Black: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_black
• Areva: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Areva
• Imperative Science Ventures: https://imperative.vc/

You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Enjoy the show!

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 Matt Eggers, Investor & Company Builder at Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a $1.1 billion, patient capital fund dedicated to building companies that will have a massive impact on greenhouse gas mitigation. He also serves on the Board of the Institute for Market Transformation.

Matt is a seasoned cleantech leader, investor and advisor with 20 years of experience delivering results in diverse companies. Matt’s recent past experience includes serving as a Vice President with Yardi Energy. He has also been the Vice President of Sales, North America for Tesla and the Vice President of Operations for Sunrun, a national leader in home solar power service operating in 11 states. His earlier experience includes leading the stack operations team and serving as Director of Product Management at the fuel cell company Bloom Energy. In that role he led development of the plan to massively scale manufacturing of Bloom’s core cell technology and developed the features and specifications for the second generation “Bloom Box.” Before Bloom, Matt worked for Genentech where he led the commercial launch of Herceptin Adjuvant, a breast cancer drug with over $1 billion in sales. Matt’s early career experience includes serving as an Associate at Morgan Stanley Venture Partners where he championed investments in biotech and enterprise software companies. Matt has a BS in molecular biology from Duke University and an MBA from Stanford University.

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Mission of Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) and its high-network individual investment model
• Success metrics anchored around half-a-gigaton carbon atmospheric reduction and financial return for investors
• BEV’s long investment time horizon (20 years)
• BEV’s investment criteria
• Pivot Bio, a portfolio company, addressing carbon emissions found in fertilizer
• 75F, a portfolio company, offering AI-driven software to drive efficiencies with HVAC systems
• Matt’s climate journey from a farm in Iowa to BEV
• Matt’s perspective on the climate problem and its multifaceted solutions
• Putting a price on carbon 
• Inadequate funding in the climate space
• Disrupting the dairy industry’s carbon footprint via low-emission Casein 
• The patience required with Climate Change investing  (cf. traditional software venture investing)
• The role of corporate strategic investors and banks
• Policy developments at the municipality-level that factor in Climate Change and affect homeowners

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• Breakthrough Energy Ventures: https://www.b-t.energy/
• “Additionality” with respect to carbon markets: https://resource-solutions.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/RECs-and-Additionality.pdf
• Conceptualizing a gigaton: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/07/01/meet-the-gigaton-the-huge-unit-that-scientists-use-to-track-planetary-change/
• Pivot Bio: https://www.pivotbio.com/
• 74F: https://www.75f.io/
• Genentech: https://www.gene.com/
• Casein: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casein

You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Enjoy the show!

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