Today's guest is Simon Moores, CEO of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence , the world’s leading Price Reporting Agency (PRA) for the lithium-ion battery to the electric vehicle supply chain and a data and intelligence provider for the space. Simon and Cody have a great conversation about the state of the EV battery supply chain and lithium in particular – where it comes from, how it's processed, what drives its price, the geopolitical considerations of its mining and production, and what to expect in...
Feb 06, 2023•45 min
Today's guest is Dr. Evan Thomas , CEO and Founder of Virridy , and Director of the Mortensen Center in Global Engineering & Resilience and the Climate Innovation Collaboratory at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Evan is also a tenured Associate Professor in the CU Boulder Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering Department. So, he’s a busy guy. Virridy’ s water sensors monitor and measure groundwater pumping for more than 4 million people in the East African countries of Ken...
Feb 02, 2023•52 min
This episode is part of our new Skilled Labor Series hosted by MCJ partner, Yin Lu . This series is focused on amplifying the voices of folks from the skilled labor workforce, including electricians, farmers, ranchers, HVAC installers, and others who are on the front lines of rewiring our infrastructure. Our next guest is Tonya Hicks , President and CEO of Power Solutions and Managing Principle of Women Do Everything, LLC . Tonya is a serial entrepreneur, a single mom of two boys, and a wireman ...
Jan 30, 2023•42 min
Today's guest is Sam D'Amico , Founder and CEO at Impulse . Impulse is helping to electrify homes with sleek-looking all-electric appliances, starting with an induction cooktop. Regardless of whether or not you pay close attention to the climate space, you've probably seen some commentary in the last few weeks about gas stoves. The gas stovetop has become one of the latest culture war topics in American political discourse. Recent remarks from an official with the US Consumer Product Safety Comm...
Jan 26, 2023•56 min
Today, we have two guests, Peter Minor , Director of Science and Innovation at Carbon180 ; and Jack Andreasen , Policy Manager for Carbon Management at Breakthrough Energy . Peter and Jack are two of the world’s foremost experts in the world on carbon dioxide removal, or CDR as it's called in climate circles. They and their respective organizations influence public policy, support critical technology research and development, and offer various other forms of support for the burgeoning field of C...
Jan 23, 2023•1 hr 10 min
Today's guest is Allison Dring , CEO and co-founder of Made of Air , which makes carbon-negative materials using biochar for the built environment and consumer goods. Biochar is a carbon-rich material from burning biomass such as wood or crop residue. We’ve loosely covered this topic with startups like Climate Robotics , but Made of Air is taking a different approach. The company uses biochar powder mixed with bioplastics to create a moldable, functional material embedded with captured carbon. M...
Jan 19, 2023•45 min
Today’s guest is Dr. David Kirtley , Founder and CEO at Helion , which is building the world's first fusion generator and enabling a future of unlimited clean electricity. Nuclear fusion has the potential to revolutionize the way we produce energy. As the driving force behind every star in our galaxy, fusion has long been hailed as the "holy grail" of clean energy, offering a limitless and fossil-free source of power. But the idea of harnessing fusion on Earth has seemed like a dream that’s perp...
Jan 16, 2023•23 min
Today's guest is Manik Suri , CEO and Founder of Therma . The cold chain is a massive part of modern society that doesn't get much attention. It stores a huge amount of goods, allowing us to keep food fresh, medicines effective, and current internet infrastructure. Yes, even data centers are part of the cold chain. Therma is turning commercial and industrial refrigeration systems into virtual power plants and helping to reduce emissions across three vectors: food waste, energy, and refrigerant g...
Jan 12, 2023•42 min
This episode is part of our Skilled Labor Series hosted by MCJ partner, Yin Lu . This series is focused on amplifying the voices of folks from the skilled labor workforce, including electricians, farmers, ranchers, HVAC installers, and others who are on the front lines of rewiring our infrastructure. Today's guest is Brittany Heller , Director of Program Management at HeatSpring . Last year, we kicked off this series by hearing from a field technician working on the installation side of the sola...
Jan 09, 2023•42 min
Today's guest is Dr. Leah Ellis , CEO and co-founder of Sublime Systems , which is using electrochemistry to make cement and in doing so claims to have a pathway to reduce the emissions footprint of cement production by 60-90%. Cement is the most abundant man-made material on earth, with billions of tons produced yearly. So far the primary pathway to reducing its emissions footprint is via point source carbon capture otherwise defined as collecting the greenhouse gasses that are emitted as part ...
Jan 05, 2023•54 min
Today's guest is Jonathan Strauss , co-founder and CEO of Climate Draft , whose mission is to expose more people to the inspiring, impactful, and lucrative opportunities at venture-backed startups focused on decarbonizing the global economy. Talent movement into climate tech is critical, especially talent that has learned to scale businesses and technologies fast. In many cases, the skillsets that these folks possess are so ingrained that they don't even recognize them as skills. Innate familiar...
Jan 02, 2023•1 hr 3 min
Today's guest is Sarah Richardson , CEO and co-founder of MicroByre , which is domesticating novel bacteria and using biology to produce chemicals that can supplant petrochemical production methods. Only a small portion of a barrel of oil is responsible for its petrochemical outputs. Most of a barrel is what you'd expect: fuel that's converted to gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, etc. But that small portion of petrochemical feedstocks is really valuable; by some estimates, it makes up to a quarter or ...
Dec 22, 2022•1 hr 11 min
This episode is part of our new Skilled Labor Series hosted by MCJ partner, Yin Lu . This series is focused on amplifying the voices of folks from the skilled labor workforce, including electricians, farmers, ranchers, HVAC installers, and others who are on the front lines of rewiring our infrastructure. Today, we are talking trucks with Larry Coons . Transportation accounted for the largest portion of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2020, with 26% of those emissions coming from medium an...
Dec 19, 2022•45 min
Today's guest is Jason Prapas , CEO and Founder of FYTO , which is a technology company that is unlocking the potential of nutrient-rich aquatic plants to reduce the emissions and water footprint of food production, starting with cattle cultivation. Raising livestock, particularly cattle, is known for its incredibly high emissions footprint. And while we can make responsible diet choices individually, relying on society to change as a whole is challenging in a world that’s increasingly adopting ...
Dec 15, 2022•57 min
Today's guest is Dr. Katharine Wilkinson , best-selling author, strategist, teacher, and one of 15 “women who will save the world,” according to Time magazine. Dr. Wilkinson leads the All We Can Save Project , which she co-founded with Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. As an emergent nonprofit, the project's mission is to nurture the leaderful climate community we need for a life-giving future using the tools of narrative change, community building, deep learning, and tending the emotional and spirit...
Dec 12, 2022•48 min
Today's guest is Adam Wright , CEO and co-founder of Vespene Energy , which uses landfill methane to fuel Bitcoin mining. At MCJ we’ve spent some time at the intersection of Bitcoin as an incentive mechanism for halting methane emissions with Crusoe Energy and their work with flared waste gas at oil wells. But understanding the actual scale of the landfill emissions problem and how the status quo doesn't provide an economic incentive for improvements is pretty mind-blowing. Perhaps a carbon tax ...
Dec 08, 2022•52 min
Today's guest is Ira Pearl , Vice President of Environmental Sustainability at Cox Enterprises . Ira is also the leader of Cox Conserves. In his role, Ira leads Cox's efforts to tackle sustainability challenges while driving its goals to achieve zero waste to landfill by 2024 and become water and carbon neutral by 2034. Cox Enterprises is interesting because they are a privately held global conglomerate headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with approximately 55,000 employees and $21 billion in tot...
Dec 05, 2022•57 min
Today's guest is Matt LeDucq , CEO and co-founder of Forum Mobility , which is working on the problem of heavy-duty trucking electrification, starting in California with the drayage sector. There are essentially two types of trucking. The first is long-haul or "over the road" which transports goods over long distances. If you've ever done a cross-country road-trip, the semi trucks on the interstates you see are long-haul trucks. And then there are drayage trucks. These trucks take large cargo co...
Dec 01, 2022•46 min
This episode is part of our Skilled Labor Series hosted by MCJ partner, Yin Lu . This series is focused on amplifying the voices of folks from the skilled labor workforce, including electricians, farmers, ranchers, HVAC installers, and others who are on the front lines of rewiring our infrastructure. Today's guest is Alejandro Carrillo , a rancher who lives in El Paso, Texas and stewards his family's ranch in Mexico's Chihuahuan Desert. Maintaining grasslands is important for preserving biodiver...
Nov 29, 2022•48 min
Today's guest is Taj Eldridge . He calls himself the DJ Khaled of climate and you’ll know why when you hear him speak. Taj’s professional portfolio spans a variety of roles that live at the intersection of diversity, inclusivity, and climate. He’s currently involved in three exciting pursuits. As general partner at Include Ventures , Taj works with a team of experts to build a large and dynamic platform of women and historically underrepresented fund managers and founders, with the goal of openi...
Nov 28, 2022•50 min
Today's guest is Eric Reinhardt , CEO and co-founder of Helio , which makes it simple for customers to transition off fossil fuels and fully electrify their homes. The home electrification process in most of the U.S. is not a seamless experience. Homeowners approach electrification with different needs. Some have to upgrade broken equipment, whereas others opt for a total rehab. But having to piece together a variety of seemingly related projects requires working with multiple contractors, contr...
Nov 25, 2022•44 min
Today's guest is Jill Tauber , Vice President of Litigation for Climate and Energy at Earthjustice . Earthjustice is the premier nonprofit public interest environmental law organization. They wield the power of law and the strength of partnership to protect people's health, preserve magnificent places and wildlife, advance clean energy, and to combat climate change. The work they do is not only extremely important, but also in the thick of relevant topics we’re seeing at the moment. One that com...
Nov 21, 2022•57 min
Today’s guest is Emily McAteer , co-founder and CEO of Odyssey Energy Solutions , helping emerging market project developers to finance, build and operate distributed renewable energy at scale. How the Global South modernizes is the original climate justice debate that has been a key topic of global policy discussions for decades, going back to the Kyoto Protocol of the 1990s and even earlier. The crux of the conversation is that climate change has primarily been caused by the 20th century econo...
Nov 17, 2022•39 min
Today's guest is Felicia Marcus , the Williams C. Landreth visiting fellow at Stanford University's Water in the West program. Felicia is also an attorney, consultant, and member of the Water Policy Group. She most recently served as Chair of the California State Water Resources Control Board, where she implemented laws regarding drinking water, water quality and state's water rights, as well as heard regional board water quality appeals, settled disputes, and provided financial assistance to co...
Nov 14, 2022•1 hr 4 min
Today’s guest is Lauren Salz , co-founder and CEO of Sealed , which modernizes houses with the latest HVAC, weatherproofing and smart home technology, while covering the upfront cost to homeowners. Home efficiency and electrification is a critical front for combating climate change. Incentives for residential heat pump installation are one of the big winners of the Inflation Reduction Act.The often overlooked but critical steps of weatherizing homes via better insulation and sealing is also key ...
Nov 10, 2022•49 min
Today's guests are Geert van de Wouw and Vikas Gupta from Shell Ventures . Shell Ventures was established in 1996 as one of the first corporate venture funds in the oil and gas industry. Although we’ve published over 300 episodes to date, Geert and Vikas are actually the first guests we’ve had from the oil majors come on the show. Although tons of anger has been directed at the oil and gas industry, we also acknowledge that they are critical to the clean energy transition. Collaboration is ultim...
Nov 07, 2022•49 min
Today's guest is Tom Green , CEO and Co-founder of Vesta . The ocean is one of nature's largest carbon sinks, as it absorbs upwards of 30% of cumulative human emissions. Vesta is tackling the dual problem of shoreline erosion due to sea level rise and carbon emissions reduction with olivine sand that speeds up the ocean's natural carbon cycle. They call it coastal carbon capture, and it's one form of the broader category of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) solutions known as enhanced rock weathering...
Nov 03, 2022•58 min
Today's guest is Dr. Leah Stokes , a renowned climate and energy policy expert, strategist and researcher, helping leaders build clean energy practices into their long-term plans to secure our future. But her resume doesn’t end there. Leah is an award-winning author of Short Circuiting Policy , an associate professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara and co-host of a top climate podcast called A Matter of Degrees , where she and Dr. Katharine Wilkinson tell stories about the powerfu...
Oct 31, 2022•54 min
Today's guest is David Wallace , co-founder and CEO of CODA Farm Technologies , which provides remote monitoring and control for agricultural irrigation pumps and irrigation reels. The looming water crisis is often described as one of the major symptoms of climate change. You hear about it in the news, coupled with drought-stricken images of dried up riverbeds and diminishing reservoirs. The Western U.S. is currently facing the largest mega drought in a millennium. The Colorado River, which prov...
Oct 27, 2022•44 min
Today's guest is Scott Arnold , a HVAC technician and small business owner based out of New York. With heating and cooling accounting for nearly 50% of energy costs, upgrading outdated appliances can not only save homeowners money but also provide a cleaner environment to live in and a healthier planet overall. Scott’s company is working to help customers purchase and install heat pumps as an alternative to gas furnaces. In his 22+ years of experience working in the space, Scott has built a busi...
Oct 25, 2022•42 min
