Inevitable

In this episode, I interview Gustaf Alstromer, Partner at Y Combinator and former Product Lead of Growth at AirBnB. Prior to AirBnB, he led Growth at Voxer and was the Co-Founder and CEO of Heysan (YC W07), which was acquired by Good Technology in 2009.

In October of 2018, YC published a Request for Startups that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere which YC President Sam Altman described as “the most elaborate RFS we have put out.”

Gustaf is one of the partners at YC that spends a portion of their time working with these companies that are focused on addressing climate change.

In this episode, we discuss:

I learned a lot about the YC model from talking with Gustaf and I hope you enjoy the show!

You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and provide suggestions for future guests or topics you'd like to see covered on the show.

Links for topics discussed in this episode:

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

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

In this episode, I interview Matthew Nordan, the Managing Director at Prime Impact Fund and the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of MNL Partners. Matthew also sits on numerous boards including Greentown Labs, Sense, and Quidnet Energy.

As you may know from listening to Sarah Kearney’s episode, Prime Impact Fund is an early-stage venture capital fund focused on breakthrough climate innovation.

Before Prime, Matthew was a venture capital investor at Venrock, one of the world’s oldest and most successful VC firms, where he and colleagues drove the firm’s investment in Nest Labs (acquired by Google for $3.2 billion). Prior to Venrock, Matthew was President of Lux Research (acquired by private equity firm Bregal Sagemount), an advisory services firm for science-driven innovation that he co-founded in 2004. Under Matthew’s leadership, the Lux Research analyst team became a globally recognized authority on the business impact of emerging technologies. Earlier, Matthew held a variety of senior management roles at emerging technology advisor Forrester Research (NASDAQ:FORR) in the U.S. and Europe.

In addition to Prime, Matthew is co-founder and Managing Partner at MNL Partners, which develops energy and environmental projects in China. Matthew also co-founded and serves on the board of Prime Coalition, Prime Impact Fund’s non-profit parent organization.

Matthew has testified before the U.S. Congress four times on emerging technology issues, was a founding member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies, and is a widely sought-after speaker and commentator. He serves on the boards of MicroByre, Lilac Solutions, Sense Labs, Quidnet Energy, and Greentown Labs (the world’s largest incubator for energy and environmental companies). Matthew graduated from Yale, where he conducted cognitive neuroscience research on emotion and memory.

In this episode we discuss:

I hope you enjoy the show!

You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and provide suggestions for future guests or topics you'd like to see covered on the show.

Links for topics discussed in this episode:

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 this episode, I interview Gary Yohe, the Huffington Foundation Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies at Wesleyan University. Most of his work has focused on the mitigation and adaptation sides of climate change.

A quick reading of Professor Yohe’s bio will give you a sense of what a heavy hitter he is:

He is the author of more than 175 scholarly articles, several books, and many contributions to media coverage of climate issues.

He has been involved since the early 1990’s with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), he received a share of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize as a senior member.

He was a Lead Author for four different chapters in the Third Assessment Report that was published in 2001 and as Convening Lead Author for the last chapter of the contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report that was published in 2007.

He was a Convening Lead Author for Chapter 18 of the Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report on “Detection and Attribution” and a Lead Author for Chapter 1 on “Points of Departure”.

Most recently, he has been a contributing author to the IPCC Special Report on a 1.5 degree temperature target for mitigation.

Professor Yohe continues to serve as a member of the New York (City) Panel on Climate Change (NPCC); the NPCC was created in 2008 by then Mayor Michael Bloomberg to help the City respond to the risks of climate change. The third iteration of NPCC reports was released on March 15, 2019, at the offices of the New York Academy of Sciences.

He has testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the “Hidden (climate change) Cost of Oil” on March 30, 2006, the Senate Energy Committee on the Stern Review on February 14, 2007, and the Senate Banking Committee on “Material Risk from Climate Change and Climate Policy” on October 31, 2007.

In April of 2011, Professor Yohe was appointed Vice Chair of the National Climate Assessment Development and Advisory Committee for the Obama Administration by then Under-Secretary of Commerce Jane Lubchenko for the Third National Climate Assessment. The Third National Climate Assessment Report was released by President Obama in a Rose Garden ceremony on May 6, 2014.

He served as a member of the National Research Council Committee on America’s Climate Choices: Panel on Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change between 2008-2011 and the National Research Council Committee on Stabilization Targets for Atmospheric Greenhouse Gas Concentrations that was chaired by Susan Solomon from 2009 through its release in 2010. His more recent activities include the National Academies serving as the Review Editor for their report on the “social cost of carbon” and as a member of their Panel to review the 4th National Climate Assessment. He was also a member of their Panel that prepared the 2017-2027 Decadal Survey for Earth Science and Applications from Space for NASA in 2018.

Professor Yohe is currently Co-editor-in-Chief, along with Michael Oppenheimer, of Climatic Change (since August of 2010).

His opinion pieces now frequently appear in various national media venues.

All of that is a long way of saying Professor Gary Yohe is an expert that has dedicated much of his career towards the fight against climate change, and anything I may accomplish on my journey is standing on his (and people like his) shoulders.

In this episode we discuss:

Professor Yohe’s history at Wesleyan and how his views of climate change have and have not changed since he entered the field in the early 80’s.

His views on the three choices our planet has in response to climate change.

How an economist approaches the issue of studying and addressing climate change as well as Professor Yohe’s work with the IPCC.

Professor Yohe’s views on the political climate and the role policy and regulations play in climate change, including his thoughts on the Green New Deal.

Professor Yohe’s thoughts on Tobacco, Big Oil, President Trump, Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg, and Michael Bennet.

His advice to people who are looking for ways to get involved in the fight against climate change.

I hope you enjoy the show!

You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and provide suggestions for future guests or topics you'd like to see covered on the show.

Links for topics discussed in this episode:

Gary Yohe Biography from Wesleyan University: https://gyohe.faculty.wesleyan.edu/

Bill McKibben: http://billmckibben.com/

Michael Mann at Penn Station: https://www.michaelmann.net/

Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth: https://www.kateraworth.com/doughnut/

Michael Bennett: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bennet

The Paris Agreement: https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/d2hhdC1pcy

Center for American Progress: https://www.americanprogress.org/

Resources for the Future: https://www.rff.org/

Environmental Defense Fund: https://www.edf.org/

National Climate Assessment: https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/

Song Gary commissioned with Baba Brinkman, Erosion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEx-F-pSdXA

Song Gary commissioned with Baba Brinkman, Destruction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W68mLkxYWg

Song Gary commissioned with Baba Brinkman, Redemption: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0awFSnTeI4

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 this episode, I interview Dan Yates, the Co-Founder and former CEO of Opower, an energy software company he took public and ultimately sold to Oracle for $532 million. I was eager to speak with Dan, as he started Opower from a place of concern about the planet. It was clearly a financial win, but I had so many questions. Was it a win in terms of fulfilling the initial mission? How does he feel now about climate change vs when he started Opower in 2007? How is he evaluating what kinds of projects he takes on moving forward? What advice does he have for other people trying to figure out the same thing?

Dan is a consummate professional and clearly a great leader. I also found him to be quite humble and introspective. His perspective was quite helpful to me as I am figuring out my next moves as it relates to helping with climate change, and I hope you find it helpful as well.

I hope you enjoy the show!

You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and provide suggestions for future guests or topics you'd like to see covered on the show.

Links for topics discussed in this episode:

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

In this episode, I interview Bob Mumgaard, the Co-Founder & CEO of Commonwealth Fusion Systems.

I was looking forward to this interview for many reasons. I had many questions about fusion, how close it is to primetime, what the benefit to the world would be if it gets there, and what barriers stand in its way. And also about CFS, how it came to be, how it is positioned in the fusion landscape, and where it is in its evolution.

Bob is a great guy, as knowledgeable as they come, and also pretty funny! While the discussion was airy and lighthearted, it was also substantive and he gave an incredibly candid look inside the CFS machine.

I hope you enjoy the show!

You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and provide suggestions for future guests or topics you'd like to see covered on the show.

Links for topics discussed in this episode:

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 this episode, I interview Sarah Kearney, founder and executive director of Prime Coalition. Sarah founded Prime Coalition in 2014 to build a tribe of courageous philanthropists that believe market-driven technology innovation and deployment is critical to our fight against climate change. Prime's approach is based on her prior experience with the Chesonis Family Foundation, graduate research at MIT, and her personal drive to ensure that our children won't have to confront increased geopolitical conflict over dwindling global resources. She believes the world needs a robust marketplace of catalytic capital investment intermediaries like Prime and that she will spend her whole career trying to help build it.

We cover a number of topics, including an overview of PRIME and how the model works, why it matters for philanthropists and for the breakthrough innovation that is needed to help address climate change, and where else this model can apply beyond climate change over time. Sarah was a terrific guest, in that she is quite knowledgable, mission driven, and as high energy as they come. She’s also patient with all of my beginner questions, as “catalytic capital” was not a topic that I was very familiar with.

I hope you enjoy the show!

You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and provide suggestions for future guests or topics you'd like to see covered on the show.

For more information and to sign up for updates on My Climate Journey visit: www.myclimatejourney.co

Links discussed in this episode:

Prime Coalition: https://primecoalition.org/

The Fink Family Foundation: http://www.thefinkfamilyfoundation.org/about-us.html

Program Related Investments: https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/private-foundations/program-related-investments

Quidnet Energy: http://fortune.com/2015/06/16/philanthropists-back-energy-startups/

Breakthrough Energy Ventures: http://www.b-t.energy/ventures/

Evok Innovations: https://www.evokinnovations.com/

Donor Advised Funds: https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/charitable-organizations/donor-advised-funds

Impact Assets & Tim Freundlich: https://www.impactassets.org/about_us/team/timothy-freundlich

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 this episode, I interview Sanchali Pal, the co-founder and CEO of Joro, and app and community to help people automatically track their carbon footprints, discover and stick with low-carbon habits, and see their small steps add up to big impact for for themselves and the planet.

I have known Sanchali for a while and have found her to be both very smart, and incredibly mission driven. I was a little apprehensive to bring her on as a guest, because I have found myself a bit skeptical about the impact that changing consumer behavior can have on the problem, given how deep the hole we are in is and how limited our time horizon is to act. But this is an important topic and debate, and Sanchali is as knowledgable on the issue as anyone.

We cover a number of topics in this episode, including the role of consumer behavior change in the climate fight, what types of behavior change is most impactful, and what levers we have to impact consumer behavior most effectively. We also chat about what other areas can be helpful to the problem beyond the role of consumers.

I really enjoyed this discussion, and Sanchali did a good job of educating me and making the case for why consumers play an important role. I hope you find this episode as valuable and informative as I did!

Enjoy.

You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and provide suggestions for future guests or topics you'd like to see covered on the show.

For more information and to sign up for updates on My Climate Journey visit: www.myclimatejourney.co

Links:

Food, Inc.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food,_Inc.

IPCC: https://www.ipcc.ch/

Joro: https://joro.tech/

Ant Forest by AliPay: https://www.alizila.com/how-alipay-users-planted-100m-trees-in-china/

Carbon Offset: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_offset

Mobile Carbon Footprinting Project at MIT: https://climate.mit.edu/projects/mobile-carbon-footprinting-project-mit

Katharine Hayhoe: https://twitter.com/khayhoe

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

In this episode, I interview Pamela Templer, ecologist and biology professor at Boston University. Pamela is broadly interested in ecosystem ecology and the influence that plant-microbial interactions have on nutrient cycling and carbon exchange, and is particularly interested in the effects that human activities such as climate change, urbanization, and air pollution have on forest ecosystems. Her lab currently examines a variety of nutrient sources, including rain, fog, and atmospheric deposition, and how plant-microbial interactions influence nitrogen and carbon retention and loss within natural and managed ecosystems.

It was fascinating to talk to Pamela, as her and her students are literally on the front lines in the woods, getting a first-hand look at how climate change is impacting our forests. She also helped shed light for me on how research labs at universities get funded, and what steps she is taking to make sure that the work they do isn’t just academic, but ends up having impact in the world.

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did!

You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and provide suggestions for future guests or topics you'd like to see covered on the show.

For more information and to sign up for updates on My Climate Journey visit: www.myclimatejourney.co

Links for topics discussed in this episode:

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 this episode, I interview Joseph Stagner, the Executive Director, Sustainability and Energy Management at Stanford University. Over the past several years, Joe and his team transformed Stanford’s energy infrastructure by electrifying its heating system, replacing its gas-fired power plant with grid power, creating a unique system to recover heat, building massive tanks to store hot and cold water, and building a solar power plant. This project cut the campus’s total greenhouse gas emissions 68 percent and is lowering the system’s operating costs by $425m over 35 years.

Joseph was very gracious to come on and talk about the origins of this project, the hurdles his team met along the way, the results so far, and where it is going in the future. We also covered how these learnings can be applied to get other universities and entities with large campus infrastructures to follow suit.

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did! Joseph is a rare one, in that he not only has a firm grasp on the problem and what is needed, but he’s gone out and deployed it at scale and is posting amazing results. His story struck me as a real bright spot in what, at times, can feel like an uphill battle. Enjoy!

You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and provide suggestions for future guests or topics you'd like to see covered on the show.

For more information and to sign up for updates on My Climate Journey visit: www.myclimatejourney.co

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

Welcome to the inaugural episode!

Our first guest is Daniel Hullah. Daniel is a longtime cleantech investor, who has seen it all, yet is still smiling. We had a great convo about some of the history of cleantech investing/innovation, where some of the biggest opportunities are, the role of strategics vs startups in pursuing that innovation, and how it all fits into our broader climate change problem.

Tune in, and enjoy!

You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and provide suggestions for future guests or topics you'd like to see covered on the show.

For more information and to sign up for updates on My Climate Journey visit: www.myclimatejourney.co

Links for topics discussed in this episode:

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