Inevitable

Today’s guest is Phil Duffy, President & Executive Director at Woodwell Climate Research Center.

Expertise Climate modeling, extreme weather risk, societal impacts of climate change, domestic climate policy, international climate change negotiations, climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies.

Dr. Philip Duffy is a physicist who has devoted nearly 30 years to using science to address the societal challenge of climate change. Dr. Duffy frequently engages domestic and international policy- and decision-makers, including delegates at the United Nations climate conferences, and the United States Congress. Dr. Duffy is frequently quoted in major national media outlets such as The New York Times, the Washington Post, Science, the Boston Globe, NPR, CNN, and MSNBC. He serves on committees of the National Academy of Sciences and advises state and local policymakers. Dr. Duffy is particularly interested in working with diverse groups to address climate change, including faith leaders, business leaders, and thought leaders across the political spectrum.

Prior to joining WCRC, Dr. Duffy served as a Senior Policy Analyst in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and as a Senior Advisor in the White House National Science and Technology Council. In these roles he was involved in international climate negotiations, domestic and international climate policy, and coordination of US global change research. Before joining the White House, Dr. Duffy was Chief Scientist at Climate Central, an organization dedicated to increasing public understanding and awareness of climate change. Dr. Duffy has held senior research positions with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and visiting positions at the Carnegie Institution for Science and the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University. He has a bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from Harvard in astrophysics and a Ph.D. in applied physics from Stanford.

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Overview of Woods Hole Research Center
• Origin story & nature of the work
• Role of natural solutions
• Physical climate risk
• How Phil’s views on the nature of the problem have evolved over the years
• What are the highest impact solutions
• The role of political will
• The future of capitalism and GPD growth
• Carbon removal and direct air capture
• Solar geoengineering
• Nuclear
• How Phil would allocate a big pot of money to maximize its impact in the climate fight
• Phil’s advice for others looking to find their lane

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• Woods Hole Research Center: https://whrc.org/
• George Woodwell: http://whrc.org/staff/george-woodwell/
• John Holdren: https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/john-holdren
• Susan Natali: http://whrc.org/staff/susan-natali/
• Wellington and Woods Hole: https://whrc.org/wellington-management-and-woods-hole-research-center-announce-initiative/
• McKinsey and Woods Hole: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-investment-climate/climate-scientists-partner-with-mckinsey-to-push-companies-to-self-regulate-idUSKCN1T52CU
• NOAA arctic report card: https://arctic.noaa.gov/Report-Card

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

Today’s guest is David Keith, Professor at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Kennedy School, and Founder of Carbon Engineering.

David has worked near the interface between climate science, energy technology, and public policy for twenty-five years. He took first prize in Canada's national physics prize exam, won MIT's prize for excellence in experimental physics, and was one of TIME magazine's Heroes of the Environment. David is Professor of Applied Physics at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and founder of Carbon Engineering, a company developing technology to capture CO2 from ambient air to make carbon-neutral hydrocarbon fuels. Best known for his work on the science, technology, and public policy of solar geoengineering, David led the development of Harvard’s Solar Geoengineering Research Program, a Harvard-wide interfaculty research initiative. His work has ranged from the climatic impacts of large-scale wind power to an early critique of the prospects for hydrogen fuel. David’s hardware engineering projects include the first interferometer for atoms, a high-accuracy infrared spectrometer for NASA's ER-2, and currently, the development of pilot plants for Carbon Engineering and the development of a stratospheric propelled balloon experiment for solar geoengineering. David teaches courses on Science and Technology Policy and on Energy and Environmental Systems where he has reached students worldwide with an online edX course. He has writing for the public with A Case for Climate Engineeringfrom MIT Press. Based in Cambridge, David spends about a third of his time in Canmore, Alberta.

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Overview of solar geoengineering
• How concentrated an area can it be deployed in
• Steps that go into testing it
• 'History of solar geoengineering
• Potential risks of deployment and potential risks of not doing the testing
• Potential for unintended consequences
• How hard it is to deploy
• How much research is needed (and for what) and how much it will cost
• Bridge versus longterm solution
• Where it fits into overall climate solutions portfolio
• What fossil fuel companies think of solar geoengineering
• David’s advice for others looking to help facilitate research in this area and/or learn more about it

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• David Keith: https://keith.seas.harvard.edu/people/david-keith
• Geoengineering: https://geoengineering.environment.harvard.edu/geoengineering
• The Planet Remade: https://www.amazon.com/Planet-Remade-Geoengineering-Could-Change-ebook/dp/B011PWUT8Y
• Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative: https://www.c2g2.net/
• Vaclav Smil: http://vaclavsmil.com/
• Holly Buck: https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/person/holly-buck/

Additional Reading:

David Keith, “Let’s Talk About Geoengineering,” Project Syndicate, March 21, 2019.

David Keith, “Toward a Responsible Solar Geoengineering Research Program,” Issues in Science and Technology, Spring 2017.

James Temple, “What is Geoengineering—And Why Should You Care?” MIT Technology Review, August 9, 2019.

Lizzie Burns, David Keith, Peter Irvine, and Joshua Horton, “Belfer Technology Factsheet Series: Solar Geoengineering,” Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Technology and Public Purpose Project, June 2019.

Jon Gertner, “Is It O.K. to Tinker With the Environment to Fight Climate Change?,” The New York Times Magazine, April 18, 2017.

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

Today's guest is BJ Fogg, Founder & Director, Behavior Design Lab at Stanford, with an appearance by William Shan, one of his students who is project managing the launch of his new Behavior Design for Climate Action online training program.

BJ teaches good people how behavior works so they can create products & services that benefit everyday people around the world. He is a behavior scientist, with deep experience in innovation and teaching. At Stanford University he runs the Behavior Design Lab. He also teaches his models and methods in graduate seminars with students from various majors.

On the industry side, BJ trains innovators to use his work so they can create solutions that influence behavior. The focus areas include health, financial wellbeing, learning, productivity, and more.

BJ wrote a seminal book, Persuasive Technology, about how computers can be designed to influence attitudes and behaviors. That book, together with his early innovations, inspired an annual global conference on the topic. His Stanford students have gone on to co-found Instagram, as well as launch a global movement focusing on “time well spent” and the Center for Humane Technology. Starting in 2010, BJ’s Stanford lab started shifting focus away from Persuasive Technology toward a new domain they named “Behavior Design,” a set of models and methods about human behavior (with nothing to do with technology.)

BJ’s new book Tiny Habits will be published in over 15 languages.

Fortune Magazine named BJ a “New Guru You Should Know” for his insights about mobile and social networks.

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Overview of BJ’s work
• How his work has evolved since he started doing it
• Who BJ’s work is meant to help, and some details on the framework/process it follows
• How (and why) BJ first became interested in helping address climate change
• What he and Will are going to do about it, and how they plan to help
• How others in similar positions might apply their skills and station to help with the climate fight
• BJ’s advice for others looking to find their lane.

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• BJ Fogg: https://www.bjfogg.com/
• Behavior Design for Climate Action: https://www.behaviordesign.info/climateaction
• Tiny Habits book: https://www.tinyhabits.com/

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

This was an experiment using a new app Talkshow, which is a live discussion broadcast via twitter where listeners can text questions as we talk!

Today's guest was Clay Dumas from Lowercarbon Capital, to talk about what they are up to with the fund and their newly opened roles! It is also always great to talk shop with Clay on everything climate change.

Clay is a partner at Lowercarbon Capital where he invests in startups and research organizations developing technology to reduce emissions, suck carbon out of the air, and cool the planet. He is also a partner at Lowercase Capital. Previously, Clay served as an Executive in Residence at the Pramana Collective, a strategic advisory firm in San Francisco. Before that, he was the Chief of Staff for the White House Office of Digital Strategy, a team tasked by President Obama with connecting people with purpose. In 2017, he was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. At the start of President Obama’s second term, he served as an aide in the Chief of Staff’s office. Before joining the White House, Clay worked on President Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns. He graduated from Harvard in 2011.

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Genesis of Lowercarbon from the team behind Lowercase Capital
• How Lowercarbon fit within the vision of Chris and Crystal Sacca
• Clay’s journey from presidential campaigns to venture capital to Climate Change investing
• Major insights and takeaways after three-years of working in the space
• Attitudes, motives and incentives across institutional investors backing Climate Change companies
• How the social impact and financial opportunity are immense in the Climate Change space
• Lowercarbon’s investment focus
• How Lowercarbon differs from other institutional investors
• Jobs and opportunities at Lowercarbon
• Technologies in which Clay is interested

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• Lowercarbon Capital: https://lowercarboncapital.com/
• Lowercase Capital: https://lowercasecapital.com/
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2019 report: https://www.ipcc.ch/2019/09/25/srocc-press-release/
• Impact Investing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_investing
• Carbon Engineering:https://carbonengineering.com/

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 Jigar Shah, President & Co-Founder at Generate Capital.

Jigar was the founder and CEO of SunEdison (NASDAQ: SUNE, TERP), where he pioneered “no money down solar” and unlocked a multi-billion-dollar solar market, creating the largest solar services company worldwide. He is the author of Creating Climate Wealth: Unlocking the Impact Economy. After SunEdison, Jigar served as the founding CEO of the Carbon War Room, a global non-profit founded by Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Unite to help entrepreneurs address climate change. Generate Capital, the Carbon War Room and SunEdison all follow from Jigar’s vision that business model innovation will unlock the largest wealth creation opportunity – resource efficiency. Jigar is committed to helping entrepreneurs and large companies alike implement resource efficiency solutions using “pay as you save” project finance models. Jigar holds an MBA from The University of Maryland and BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. He sits on the boards of sPower and the Rocky Mountain Institute. Jigar lives in New York City and is trying to find the perfect cocktail.

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Overview of Generate Capital
• 'Generate’s business model and approach
• Industries and solution types they are interested in
• Example project
• Jigar’s backround and experiences leading up to Generate
• How Generate measures success beyond returns
• How Jigar thinks about the nature of the climate problem
• The role of the new blood coming into the space
• Capital types and capital gaps
• Capitalism, GDP growth, and climate change
• Where economists get it wrong
• How optimistic is Jigar for the future?
• The most effective ways to address this issue
• How Jigar would allocate $100B to maximize its impact on the problem
• How you and I can help

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• Generate Capital: https://generatecapital.com/
• McKinsey’s resource revolution paper: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/sustainability/our-insights/resource-revolution
• Scott Jacobs: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobsscott/
• Matan Friedman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matanfriedman/
• WeDriveU: https://www.wedriveu.com/
• SunEdison: http://www.sunedison.com/
• NEXTracker: https://www.nextracker.com/
• Greenpeace: https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/
• Breakthrough Energy Ventures: https://www.b-t.energy/ventures/
• Carbon War Room: https://rmi.org/carbon-war-room/
• Sunil Paul: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunilpaul/
• International Energy Agency: https://www.iea.org/
• Craig Venter: https://www.jcvi.org/about/jventer

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 Gary Cohen, President & Co-Founder of Health Care Without Harm.

Gary has been a pioneer in the environmental health movement for thirty years. Cohen is President and Co-Founder of Health Care Without Harm and Practice Greenhealth. He was also instrumental in bringing together the NGOs and hospital systems that formed the Healthier Hospitals Initiative. All three were created to transform the health care sector to be environmentally sustainable and serve as anchor institutions to support environmental health in their communities.

Gary was Executive Director of the Environmental Health Fund for many years. He has helped build coalitions and networks globally to address the environmental health impacts related to toxic chemical exposure and climate change. 

Gary is a member of the International Advisory Board of the Sambhavna Clinic in Bhopal, India, which has been working for over 25 years to heal people affected by the Bhopal gas tragedy and to fight for environmental cleanup in Bhopal. He is also on the Boards of the American Sustainable Business Council, Health Leads and Coming Clean.

He has received numerous recognitions for his achievements, including: The MacArthur Foundation’s Fellows Award (2015), the White House’s Champion of Change Award for Public Health and Climate Change (2013), the Huffington Post’s Game Changer Award for Health (2012), the Frank Hatch Award for Enlightened Public Service (2007), and the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship (2006).

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Overview of Health Care Without Harm and origin story
• Gary's background and path leading up to it
• Their initial starting point and strategy
• Progress to-date
• Team composition
• How they measure success
• How decarbonization fits in
• Biggest levers to bring about decarbonization of health care
• Barriers impeding progress
• Changes that would be most  impactful
• How Gary would allocate $100B to maximize its impact on the problem
• How you and I can help

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• Health Care Without Harm: https://noharm.org/
• Practice Greenhealth: https://practicegreenhealth.org/
• United Nations Development Programme: https://www.undp.org/
• International Monetary Fund: https://www.imf.org/external/index.htm
• Health care energy impact calculator: http://www.eichealth.org/
• World Health Organization: https://www.who.int/

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 Tim Freundlich, CEO of ImpactAssets.

Tim is a long-time innovator in new financial instruments in the social enterprise sector, which he now applies as the head of ImpactAssets, the $1 billion boutique donor advised fund and investment note offerer for impact investments. While previously at Calvert Foundation for 12 years, he conceived of and launched the donor advised fund. He was also instrumental in building the $250mm Community Investment Note with more than $1 billion invested into 300-plus nonprofits and for profits globally.

He co-founded and serves as Managing Partner for Good Capital that, in addition to its flagship Social Enterprise Expansion Fund LP, founded the 2,500-person annual Social Capital Markets (SOCAP) conferences in San Francisco and four Impact Hubs in the US; co-working, meeting and community space serving approximately 2,000 social innovators.

Tim is a sought-out industry speaker and regularly featured and quoted in media such as ThinkAdvisor and WealthManagement and has appeared on TheStreet and Forbes. He received a BA from Wesleyan University and an MBA from the University of San Francisco. Tim and his wife, Julie, live in San Francisco with their sons, Milo and Gus.

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Overview of ImpactAssets
• Origin story and how the model works
• How it is different than a typical institutional asset allocation
• Who the target customers are
• Traction and progress to date
• Some example success stories
• Long vision
• Impact, if successful
• What comes next
• Barriers holding them back
• What could change to help them move faster
• Advice for people looking to allocate their philanthropic capital to maximize its impact

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• ImpactAssets: http://impactassets.org/
• Tim Freundlich: https://www.impactassets.org/about_us/team/timothy-freundlich
• UN Sustainable Development Goals: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/
• Seth Goldman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seth_Goldman_(businessman)
• Beyond Meat: https://www.beyondmeat.com/
• MSCI KLD 400 Social Index: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/domini_400.asp
• Calvert Impact Capital: https://www.calvertimpactcapital.org/
• What is a donor-advised fund? https://www.nptrust.org/what-is-a-donor-advised-fund/
• Toniic: https://toniic.com/
• CREO Syndicate: http://creosyndicate.org/

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 Akshat Rathi, a London-based reporter, covering science, energy, and environment for Bloomberg News. He has a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Oxford, and a BTech in chemical engineering from the Institute of Chemical Technology in Mumbai.

He tells stories of the people and their ideas tackling the biggest problem facing humanity: climate change. And he is currently working on a book about scaling up climate solutions.

Previously, Akshat was a senior reporter at Quartz and a science editor at The Conversation. He has also worked for The Economist and the Royal Society of Chemistry. His writings have also been published in Nature, The Hindu, The Guardian, Ars Technica, and Chemistry World, among others.

In 2018, Akshat won Journalist of the Year at the Drum’s Online Media Awards ceremony, he was a finalist for the John B. Oakes award for distinguished environmental journalism, and he was shortlisted for British Science Writer of the Year by the Association of British Science Writers. In 2019, he was shortlisted by the British Journalism Awards for the best science journalism category.

Akshat has won fellowships from Columbia University and City University of New York to enhance his reporting work. He has also served on the advisory panel of the 2019 Cairncross Review on the sustainability of high-quality journalism in the UK.

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Akshat’s most recent role at Quartz
• How and why Akshat came to be a climate journalist, and where his concern about this issue came from
• His transition from PhD to journlism
• The importance of rigor in science journalism, and how Akshat defines it
• The state of media business models, and the implications for climate coverage
• Some different paths to introduce more scientific expertise in the newsroom
• Akshat’s assessment of the problem of climate change
• Akshat’s thoughts about market forces vs regulation, a carbon price, US role vs developing countries, carbon removal, fission & fusion, solar geoengineering, and more
• Role of the fossil fuel companies in the transition
• Consumer and corporate offsets
• Adaptation and resiliency
• How Akshat would allocate $100B to maximize its impact towards decarbonization
• Akshat’s advice for others looking to figure out how to help
• A teaser for Akshat’s upcoming role with Bloomberg News (which he’s since started!)

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• Quartz: https://qz.com/
• UN Climate Change Conference - December 2019: https://unfccc.int/cop25
• The "would you nationalize sausages?" question: https://www.thepoke.co.uk/2019/12/10/would-you-nationalise-sausages-wins-the-weirdest-question-of-the-election-award/
• Bloomberg News: https://www.bloomberg.com/
• ProPublica: https://www.propublica.org/
• Climate Home: https://www.climatechangenews.com/
• Carbon Brief: https://www.carbonbrief.org/
• Heated: https://heated.world/
• Emily Atkin: https://twitter.com/emorwee
• Climate Feedback: https://climatefeedback.org/
• NewScientist: https://www.newscientist.com/
• The Economist: https://www.economist.com/
• AAAS Fellowship: https://www.aaas.org/programs/science-technology-policy-fellowships
• Breakthrough Energy Ventures: https://www.b-t.energy/ventures/

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 Joey Bergstein, CEO of Seventh Generation, recently acquired by Unilever. Seventh Generation’s mission is to inspire a consumer revolution that nurtures the health of the next seven generations. The company is a leader in positive business practices through the use of renewable plant-based products, industry-leading transparency with respect to ingredient disclosures, and recyclable packaging.

Joey joined Seventh Generation in 2011 and, together with the Seventh Generation team, has been transforming its business, more than doubling revenue during this time, while fulfilling the company’s mission to incite a consumer revolution that nurtures the health of the next seven generations. Following the sale to Unilever, Joey was appointed CEO. Growth is accelerating, as is the company’s ability to impact millions of people around the world.

A graduate of University of Western Ontario’s Richard Ivey School of Business, Bergstein began his career at Procter & Gamble where he held marketing leadership roles over the course of ten years across North America and in Europe. Since then, his career turned to beverages where Joey served as VP Global Business Development and then VP Marketing at Molson and finally at Diageo where as Senior Vice President of Global Rum, Joey led a global team that doubled the rum business to over $1 billion, transforming Captain Morgan into the fastest growing premium spirit brand in the world.

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Seventh Generation overview and origin story
• 'Discussion about it’s unique principles, and when/how those came to be
• Joey’s career arc, and what led him to Seventh Generation
• When/how/why he became passionate about helping address climate change
• How he thinks about the problem, and the best ways to solve it
• Some examples of initiatives within the company to help with this issue
• How they prioritize which projects to take on, and how they measure results from an impact standpoint
• Discussion about B corps, and their role going forward versus changes that need to come with capitalism overall
• What else matters in the climate fight, beyond the work of Seventh Generation
• How Joey would allocate a big pot of money to maximize its impact on climate change
• Joey’s advice for others looking to determine how to best help

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• Seventh Generation: https://www.seventhgeneration.com/home
• B corps: https://bcorporation.net/about-b-corps
• Great Law of Peace: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Law_of_Peace
• Sierra Club: https://www.sierraclub.org/
• Generation IM: https://www.generationim.com/
• Seventh Generation: https://www.seventhgeneration.com/home
• American Sustainable Business Council: https://www.asbcouncil.org/

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 Senator Stephen Fenberg, a Democrat who serves as state Senator in the 18th District in Colorado where he's served since 2017. He also serves as the Senate Majority Leader.

A few years after graduating from CU, Senator Fenberg founded New Era Colorado, a nonprofit organization dedicated engaging, educating, and training young people in the political process. The organization has registered hundreds of thousands of young people to vote in Colorado and successfully passed several pieces of legislation related to election reform, student debt, and climate.

He has also served on the Board of Directors for ProgressNow, One Colorado Political Committee, and INVST Community Studies as well as the Boulder Housing Working Group and the city of Boulder Capital Improvement Taskforce. Senator Fenberg now serves as an Advisory Board member for the dZi Foundation, an international nonprofit providing development work in remote areas of Nepal.

Senator Fenberg is part-owner of the Bread Bar, a cocktail bar in the historic town of Silver Plume. Bread Bar resides at the site of a historic bakery from the 1800's.

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Senator Fenberg’s history prior to holding office
• New Era Colorado, a nonprofit organization founded by Senator Fenberg, dedicated to engaging, educating, and training young people in the political process
• His decision to run for office and why
• His early work in office to gain Democratic majority
• His assessment of the state of the Federal government, and the role of the states
• How he thinks about the climate problem
• His assessment of Republicans and the climate change problem
• Importance of going after coal plants
• One benefit of regulated monopoly utility
• How to not just get policy done, but durable policy
• What the oil and gas industry wants
• Senator Fenberg’s advice to those that want to help
• His advice for the future incoming President in 2021
• How Senator Fenberg is thinking about his future

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• Senator Fenberg: https://leg.colorado.gov/legislators/stephen-fenberg
• New Era Colorado: https://neweracolorado.org/
• Joe Neguse: https://neguse.house.gov/
• Leslie Herod: https://leg.colorado.gov/legislators/leslie-herod
• Lisa Kaufmann: https://www.denverpost.com/2018/11/09/jared-polis-chief-staff-lisa-kaufmann/
• Xcel Energy: https://www.xcelenergy.com/
• Senate bill 181: https://www.americanbar.org/groups/environment_energy_resources/publications/trends/2019-2020/november-december-2019/senate-bill/

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