Inevitable

Today's guest is Shreya Dave, co-founder and CEO of Via Separations.

Via Separations has pioneered a new membrane based on graphene oxide for fine liquid filtration in harsh environments, with applications in food and beverage, pharmaceuticals and bulk and specialty chemicals.  They are scaling up and commercializing the material platform for use in industrial separation processes such as food ingredient production and chemical manufacturing. 

Shreya graduated from MIT with a PhD in Mechanical Engineering. Her PhD research focused on the design and manufacture of graphene oxide membranes for water desalination, including fundamental characterization methods of graphene oxide, membrane synthesis, and economic analysis of the role of membranes in cost constraints of desalination plants. She also holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from MIT in mechanical engineering and technology & policy.

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Overview and origin story of Via Separations
• Discussion about industrial processes and their emissions footprint
• Why and when sustainability became important to Shreya
• How she came to be doing the PhD research that led to the company formation
• The importance of doing customer discovery, and how the I-Corps program helped them
• Comparison between I-Corps and Cyclotron Road / Activate
• Similarities between customer discovery and fundraising
• The key phases of company building so far
• Business model
• Discussion about project finance, and how accessible it is to early stage hard tech companies
• Discussion about project insurance
• Discussion about when and how to engage strategics
• Discussion about where, as a new founder, Shreya turns for help navigating the different phases of growth
• What some of the more impactful things are that could change to accelerate progress
• Role model companies
• Advice for other PhDs in the lab thinking of following a similar path

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• Shreya Dave: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shdave/
• Via Separations: https://www.viaseparations.com/
• Professor Jeffrey Grossman: https://dmse.mit.edu/people/jeffrey-c-grossman
• I-Corps: https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/i-corps/
• Brent Keller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brent-keller-88430811a/
• Cyclotron Road: https://www.cyclotronroad.org/
• The Engine: https://www.engine.xyz/
• Reid Hoffman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reid_Hoffman
• Blitzscaling book: https://www.blitzscaling.com/
• Chobani: https://www.chobani.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 David Perry, President, CEO, and Director of Indigo Ag,

 Indigo Ag is harnessing nature to help farmers sustainably feed the planet. They improve grower profitability, environmental sustainability, and consumer health through the use of natural microbiology and digital technologies. Founded in 2016 Indigo Ag has raised more than $650 million in funding. The recently announced Terraton Initiative is a global effort to remove a trillion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use it to enrich agricultural soils.

David is a serial entrepreneur who has founded and built three innovative companies in the last 20 years, leading the last two through successful IPOs and to multi-billion dollar market capitalizations and raising over $1.2 billion while generating significant returns for investors. He was most recently CEO and Co-Founder of Anacor Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ANAC), a biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing novel small-molecule therapeutics to treat infectious and inflammatory diseases. The company was acquired by Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) in 2016 for approximately $5.2 billion. David previously co-founded and served as CEO of Chemdex (NASDAQ: CMDX), later creating its parent company Ventro Corporation (NASDAQ: VNTR), a business-to-business marketplace focused on the life sciences industry. At its peak, Ventro was valued at $11 billion and was later sold to Nexprise. David is Founder and Chairman of the San Francisco-based digital health startup Better Therapeutics (f/k/a FareWell) and a Board Director of the human microbiome company Evelo Biosciences.

In 2000, David was named Entrepreneur of the Year in Northern California by Ernst and Young. He holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Tulsa. He also attended the United States Air Force Academy, where he was a National Merit Scholar. 

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Overview and origin story of Indigo Ag
• David’s career as an entrepreneur, and how he has prioritized what projects to take on along the way
• The most striking problems to David about the food and agriculture system
• David’s consistent approach to starting from zero as he kicks off a new venture
• Indigo’s vision, strategy, and progress to-date
• Overview of regenerative farming
• Value prop to farmers
• Overview of Terraton Initiative and other key Indigo projects
• How they fit into the climate fight, and what their impact can be if successful
• How David thinks about climate change in general, and what else can be impactful in the climate fight beyond Indigo’s work
• How David would allocate $100B to maximize its impact in the climate fight
• David’s advice for others looking to find their lane

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• Indigo Ag website: https://www.indigoag.com
• Flagship Pioneering: https://www.flagshippioneering.com/
• Cargill: https://www.cargill.com/
• ADM: https://www.adm.com/
• Bunge: https://www.bunge.com/
• Indigo Carbon: https://www.indigoag.com/for-growers/indigo-carbon
• Terraton Initiative: https://terraton.indigoag.com/
• Regenerative farming: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regenerative_agriculture
• 45Q primer: https://www.betterenergy.org/blog/primer-section-45q-tax-credit-for-carbon-capture-projects/

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 Dr. Jonathan Foley, Executive Director of Project Drawdown. Project Drawdown is a world-class research organization that reviews, analyzes, and identifies the most viable global climate solutions, and shares these findings with the world. Their book, Drawdown, has sold hundreds of thousands of copies and describes the hundred most substantive solutions to global warming. For each one, describes its history, its carbon impact, the relative cost and savings, path to adoption, and how it works.

Dr. Foley is a world-renowned environmental scientist, sustainability expert, author, and public speaker. His work is focused on understanding our changing planet, and finding new solutions to sustain the climate, ecosystems, and natural resources we all depend on.

Foley’s groundbreaking research and insights have led him to become a trusted advisor to governments, foundations, non-governmental organizations, and business leaders around the world. He and his colleagues have made major contributions to our understanding of global ecosystems, food security and the environment, climate change, and the sustainability of the world’s resources. He has published over 130 peer-reviewed scientific articles, including many highly cited works in Science, Nature, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2014, Thomson Reuters named him a Highly Cited Researcher in ecology and environmental science, placing him among the top 1 percent most cited global scientists.

A noted science communicator, his presentations have been featured at hundreds of international venues, including the Aspen Institute, the World Bank, the National Geographic Society, the Chautauqua Institution, the Commonwealth Club, the National Science March in Washington, D.C., and TED.com. He has taught at several major universities on topics ranging from climate change, global sustainability solutions, the future of the food system, and addressing the world’s “grand challenges”. He has also written many popular pieces in publications like National Geographic, the New York Times, the Guardian, and Scientific American. He is also frequently interviewed by international media outlets, and has appeared on National Public Radio, the PBS NewsHour, the BBC, CNN, and in the New York Times, the Guardian, the Washington Post, Salon, WIRED, the HBO documentary on climate change “Too Hot Not to Handle”, and the upcoming film series “Let Science Speak”.

Foley has won numerous awards and honors for his work, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, awarded by President Clinton; the J.S. McDonnell Foundation’s 21st Century Science Award; an Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellowship; the Sustainability Science Award from the Ecological Society of America; and the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Award. In 2014, he was also named as the winner of the prestigious Heinz Award for the Environment.

Before joining Project Drawdown, Foley led a number of world-leading environmental science and sustainability organizations. From 1993 to 2008, he was based at the University of Wisconsin, where he launched the Climate, People, and Environment Program (CPEP), founded the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE), and served as the first Gaylord Nelson Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies. From 2008 and 2014, he was the founding director of the Institute on the Environment(IonE) at the University of Minnesota, where he was also McKnight Presidential Chair of Global Environment and Sustainability. Then, between 2014 and 2018, he served as the Executive Director of the California Academy of Sciences, the greenest and more forward-thinking science museum on the planet.

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Overview and origin story of Project Drawdown
• Dr. Foley’s background and experience leading up to his time at Drawdown
• Some of the challenges that come with being a scientist focused on this area
• The nature of the climate problem, and what the scientists have gotten very right
• What kind of leadership will be needed to solve it
• What are the biggest levers to solve it
• Where Drawdown 2.0 fits in, and how it can help
• How Dr. Foley would allocate a big pot of money, to maximize its impact on decarbonization
• His advice for others looking to find their lane to help

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• Project Drawdown: https://www.drawdown.org/
• California Academy of Sciences: https://www.calacademy.org/
• Merchants of Doubt: https://www.merchantsofdoubt.org/
• Naomi Oreskes: https://histsci.fas.harvard.edu/people/naomi-oreskes
• Katharine Hayhoe: http://katharinehayhoe.com/wp2016/
• Michael Mann: https://www.michaelmann.net/
• Montreal Protocol: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Protocol
• CAFE Standards: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_average_fuel_economy
• TED talk by Katharine Wilkinson: https://www.ted.com/talks/katharine_wilkinson_how_empowering_women_and_girls_can_help_stop_global_warming?language=en
• TED talk by Chad Frischmann: https://www.ted.com/talks/chad_frischmann_100_solutions_to_climate_change?language=en
• Climate Take Back Program: https://www.interface.com/US/en-US/sustainability/climate-take-back-en_US
• Citizens United: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_(organization)
• Mary Robinson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Robinson

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 Barney Schauble, Chairman, Nephila Climate, the world's largest asset manager dedicated to weather and catastrophe insurance risks.

Barney joined Nephila Capital in 2004 as a Managing Partner and moved to San Francisco in 2010 to set up Nephila Advisors. Barney is the Chair of the Board of Nephila Climate (NCx), and also a Director of Nephila Capital Ltd. and Nephila Holdings Ltd.

Barney is the Head of Nephila Labs, where his primary responsibilities include oversight of research and insurtech; he is also involved in investor relations and business development. Barney began working in re/insurance in New York in 1993 as a broker for Marsh and Guy Carpenter. He joined Goldman, Sachs & Co. in their Risk Markets group in 1996, where he helped to execute the first catastrophe bond and spent six years working on development and distribution of catastrophe and
weather-linked products. Barney joined XL Capital in 2003 and was head of marketing for the weather risk management business.

Barney attended Harvard College and received his BA in Economics in 1995. He wrote his senior thesis to explore investing in bonds linked to property catastrophe reinsurance risk. He served as a Director of The Climate Corporation (2007-2012), MetroMile (2009-2011), and Advisen (2014-2016).  He is Chair of the Board of Ceres (a non-profit devoted to sustainable capitalism) where he has been a Director since 2011. He is also an advisor and/or board member of several insurance-related technology companies.

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Overview of Nephila, and of reinsurance, in general
• History of the reinsurance market
• Founding story of Nephila, and Barney’s experience leading up to that
• The nature of Nephila’s work and how it has evolved over time
• How Barney thinks about climate change, and his thinking has evolved over time
• Barney’s views on climate risk, and short-term/long-term considerations looking into the future
• Barney’s views on the best ways to solve
• Barney’s work at Ceres, and why it is important
• Is the reinsurance market a leading or lagging indicator of climate risk?
• The role of policy
• How Barney would allocate a big pot of money to maximize its impact in the climate fight
• Barney’s advice for how you and I can help

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• Nephila Climate: https://www.nephilaclimate.com/
• Swiss Re: https://www.swissre.com/
• Munich Re: https://www.munichre.com/en.html
• SCOR: https://www.scor.com/en
• Marsh & McLennan: https://www.mmc.com/
• World Bank: https://www.worldbank.org/
• Ceres: https://www.ceres.org/
• Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures: https://www.fsb-tcfd.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 Marilyn Waite, Program Officer, Climate & Clean Energy Finance at William & Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Marilyn manages the foundation’s grantmaking on climate and clean energy finance with the ambitious goal of addressing climate change by accelerating the transition to a climate-friendly economy. Her grantmaking mobilizes private capital investments in low-carbon and climate-friendly energy infrastructure and systems, seeking to redirect finance from high- to low-carbon activities and encourage wiser energy investments. A key component to this work includes assessing climate finance flows, identifying ways to lower the cost and risk of investment, and supporting innovations in capital markets to address investor requirements for clean energy and climate-aligned projects.

Marilyn has worked across four continents in venture investment, startups, and low-carbon energy. She previously led the clean energy practice at Village Capital, where she sourced and performed due diligence for early-stage startups solving energy challenges and built a network of 1,000-plus clean tech entrepreneurs, investors, corporations, and government stakeholders. As a senior research fellow at Project Drawdown, she modeled and forecasted energy solutions to climate change. Marilyn led several operational and research and development projects at AREVA in France, including performing technical and economic studies in the energy-water nexus and the nuclear energy cycle.

Author of Sustainability at Work, Marilyn serves on the board of directors for the Biomimicry Institute and lectures on sustainable business at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. She is an E2 1 Hotels Fellow, and as such, her work and writing highlights opportunities in women-led, green economy startups throughout the country.

She holds a bachelor’s of science degree in civil and environmental engineering, magna cum laude, from Princeton University and a master’s degree with distinction in engineering for sustainable development from the University of Cambridge.

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Overview of the Hewlett Foundation
• Marilyn’s professional history, leading her up to her current role
• When she started caring about climate change, and why
• Her current role, focus areas, how they determine how grants are allocated, and some example projects
• How they measure success, and how this work ties into broader climate fight
• What else can be high impact in climate fight
• How Marilyn would allocate a big pot of money to maximize its impact in the climate fight
• Marilyn’s advice for you and I for how we can help

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• William and Flora Hewlett Foundation: https://hewlett.org/
• New Energy Nexus: https://www.newenergynexus.com/
• Project Drawdown: https://www.drawdown.org/
• Village Capital: https://vilcap.com/
• PCAF: https://carbonaccountingfinancials.com/
• Multilateral development banks: https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R41170.pdf
• Clean Energy Federal Credit Union: https://www.cleanenergycu.org/home/home
• Winners Take All book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/539747/winners-take-all-by-anand-giridharadas/
• Just Giving book: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/just-giving-rob-reich/1128553898
• Decolonizing Wealth book: https://www.amazon.com/Decolonizing-Wealth-Indigenous-Divides-Restore/dp/1523097892
• Global Alliance for Banking on Values: http://www.gabv.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 Gene Berdichevsky, Co-Founder & CEO of Sila Nanotechnologies. 

Prior to co-founding Sila, Gene was the seventh employee at Tesla Motors where he served as Principal Engineer on the Roadster battery, leading the development of the world’s first, safe, mass-produced, automotive lithium-ion battery system.

Gene holds two degrees from Stanford University; an MS in Engineering with a focus on energy and materials, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering. He has co-authored 42 patents and 4 academic publications. Gene has been named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list, the MIT Technology Review 35 Under 35, and was a recipient of the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans.

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Overview of Sila Nanotechnologies
• Battery industry overview, and the role of batteries in the climate fight
• Where EVs are in their adoption curve, and how they will connect to the grid in the future
• Gene’s path to becoming a battery entrepreneur, including joining Tesla as employee #7
• Gene’s great story about how he got hired at Tesla!
• Origin story of Sila Nanotechnologies, including how it formed while he was an EIR at Sutter Hill Ventures
• The importance of starting in high value markets in tough tech
• Gene’s views on the best ways for tough tech companies to get funded
• The importance of focusing on the process, not the result
• Sila’s progress to-date, and how the company has been capitalized along the way
• The potential impact it can have, if successful
• What’s coming next, and what barriers and hurdles they face to adoption
• The most impactful things that could change in order to accelerate their path
• What Gene would do with a big pot of money to maximize its impact in the climate fight
• His advice for others looking to find their lane

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• Sila Nanotechnologies: https://silanano.com/
• Tesla: https://www.tesla.com/
• J.B. Straubel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._B._Straubel
• Pat Brown: https://impossiblefoods.com/company/ourteam/patbrown/
• Mike Speiser: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikespeiser/
• Sutter Hill Ventures: https://www.shv.com/
• Gleb Yushin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gleb-yushin-54780618/
• Cyclotron Road: https://www.cyclotronroad.org/
• Bessemer Venture Partners: https://www.bvp.com/
• California Air Resources Board: https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/homepag

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 Shayle Kann, Managing Director for Energy Impact Partners.

EIP is an investment firm that invests in companies shaping the energy landscape of the future. It's backed by a broad coalition of some of the world's largest and most innovative utilities that collectively span the globe, access millions of households, and spend more than 20 billion annually on new technologies and procurement. Shayle leads research & strategy at Energy Impact Partners.

Previously, Shayle spent over eight years building and running GTM Research, the market intelligence arm of Greentech Media, where he led a 30-person team tracking and forecasting the evolution of the electricity sector. Shayle oversaw this business through and beyond GTM’s successful 2016 acquisition by Verisk Analytics.

Shayle is a renowned expert on the energy transition. He has spoken at conferences around the world, testified in front of U.S. Congress, and is regularly cited in outlets including the New York Times, Wall St. Journal, Washington Post, Economist, and Bloomberg. His writing has been featured in publications such as Foreign Affairs, Nature Energy and Public Utilities Fortnightly.

Shayle is also Senior Advisor to Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy. Prior to GTM, Shayle was a U.S. Fulbright Scholar, researching renewable energy project finance in Australia. He also worked at Conservation Services Group (acquired by ClearResult) and the California Public Utilities Commission. He graduated cum laude, phi beta kappa from Pomona College.

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Overview of Energy Impact Partners
• Areas they invest in
• Shayle’s role with the firm
• How the utilities that are LPs engage, and what they are hoping to get out of their involvement
• Shayle’s history, and what led him to EIP
• When and why he started caring about climate change
• Shayle’s throughs on the nature of the problem and the best ways to solve
• Role of policy vs innovation
• Future of capitalism
• How Shayle would allocate a big pot of money to maximize its impact in the climate fight
• Shayle’s advice for how you and I can help

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• Energy Impact Partners: https://www.energyimpactpartners.com/
• Greentech Media: https://www.greentechmedia.com/
• The Interchange: https://www.greentechmedia.com/podcast/the-interchange
• Xcel Energy: https://www.xcelenergy.com/
• California Public Utilities Commission: https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/
• Lazard’s levelized cost of energy: https://www.lazard.com/perspective/levelized-cost-of-energy-and-levelized-cost-of-storage-2018/

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 Jason Jacobs, host of this podcast!

That's right. Enough people were asking me to do an episode where someone interviews me to summarize where I am on the journey, that I finally but the bullet and did it. And it wasn’t even planned! I was having coffee with an avid MCJ listener, Remy Evard, and he said “you should really do an episode where someone interviews you”, so, with about 5 minutes of prep, we grabbed the microphones and did an episode right on the spot!

It is a brief discussion relative to the normal longform episodes, but it won’t be the last time you hear from me in  this way (like it or not, haha!).

Let me know your feedback, in terms of whether this kind of episode is helpful, and how I can make them more helpful going forward.

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 Professor Sam Fankhauser, Director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and Director of the ESRC-funded Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, both at The London School of Economics and Political Science.

He is also an Associate Director at economics consultancy Vivid Economics and a Non-Executive Director of CDC Group, the UK’s development finance institution.

Previously, Sam worked at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility. From 2008 to 2016 he was a member of the UK Committee on Climate Change.

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Overview of Grantham Research Institute
• Nature of the research they do
• 'When and why Sam came to care about the environment'
• How urgent Sam thinks the problem is
• How settled is the science?
• 'Some causes for optimism
• Public perception in US vs Europe
• Committee on Climate Change (CCC)
• 'Free markets vs regulation
• 'Should we price carbon?
• The inequity of climate change
• Where Sam would allocate a big pot of money to maximize its impact in the climate fight
• Sam’s advice for others looking to find their lane

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• Grantham Institute: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/grantham/
• Committee on Climate Change: https://www.theccc.org.uk/
• Negative emissions technologies: https://qz.com/1416481/the-ultimate-guide-to-negative-emission-technologies/

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 Dr. Julio Friedmann, a Senior Research Scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University.

Dr. Friedmann recently served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Fossil Energy at the Department of Energy where he was responsible for DOE’s R&D program in advanced fossil energy systems, carbon capture, and storage (CCS), CO2 utilization, and clean coal deployment. His expertise includes Large-Scale Carbon Management, CO2 removal, CO2 recycling, Oil and Gas systems, international engagements in clean fossil energy, and inter-agency engagements within the US government. He has also held positions at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, including Senior Advisor for Energy Innovation and Chief Energy Technologist. He is also the CEO of Carbon Wrangler, LLC, is a Distinguished Associate at the Energy Futures Initiative, and serves as a special advisor to the Global CCS Institute. He was recently named as a Senior Fellow to the Breakthrough Institute and the Climate Leadership Council.

Dr. Friedmann is one of the most widely known and authoritative experts in the U.S. on carbon removal (CO2 drawdown from the air and oceans), CO2 conversion and use (carbon-to-value), and carbon capture and sequestration. His expertise includes technology, policy, and operations. In addition to close partnerships with many private companies and NGOs, Julio has worked with the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Treasury.

Dr. Friedmann received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), followed by a Ph.D. in Geology at the University of Southern California. He worked for five years as a senior research scientist at ExxonMobil, then as a research scientist at the University of Maryland. He serves as a formal and informal advisor to several clean energy and CarbonTech companies.

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Julio’s current work at the Center for Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, leading an initiative called the Carbon Mitigation Research Initiative, CAMRI.
• Julio’s prior work, including at places like Lawrence Livermore National Lab, DOE, and ExxonMobil.
• When Julio started caring about climate change, how that came about, and how his thinking on the problem has evolved over the years.
• What culpability the fossil fuel industry has, and their role in the climate fight looking forwards.
• Julio’s current work in emissions-heavy industries.
• The role of government.
• The role of carbon capture, and best ways to accelerate.
• The importance of prioritization, based on big levers but also on what’s doable.
• The role of consumers.
• How Julio would allocate a big pot of money to maximize its impact in the climate fight
• Julio’s advice for the most important things you and I can do to help.

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• Dr. Julio Friedmann bio: https://energypolicy.columbia.edu/dr-julio-friedmann
• Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy: https://energypolicy.columbia.edu/
• Mr. Peabody and Sherman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Peabody_%26_Sherman
• Lee Raymond: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Raymond
• Stratigraphy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratigraphy
• Lawrence Livermore National Lab: https://www.llnl.gov/
• DOE: https://www.energy.gov/
• Ernie Moniz: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Moniz
• Office of Fossil Energy: https://www.energy.gov/fe/office-fossil-energy
• Jonathan Pershing: https://hewlett.org/people/jonathan-pershing/
• Melanie Kenderdine: https://www.energy.gov/policy/contributors/melanie-kenderdine
• Howard Gruenspecht: https://www.csis.org/people/howard-gruenspecht
• Hu Jintao: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hu_Jintao
• Xi Jinping: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi_Jinping
• Vaclav Smil: http://vaclavsmil.com/
• Pete Buttigieg: https://peteforamerica.com/meet-pete/
• Climeworks: https://www.climeworks.com/
• Geoengineering: http://www.geoengineering.ox.ac.uk/www.geoengineering.ox.ac.uk/what-is-geoengineering/what-is-geoengineering/
• Chemtrails conspiracy theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemtrail_conspiracy_theory

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