We kicked off New York Climate Week with a live podcast recording with Kim Zou and Sophie Purdom, co-founders of CTVC . CTVC’s data-driven insights have been featured in channels including NYTimes, Bloomberg, Reuters, Financial Times, and TechCrunch. Kim serves as the CEO of CTVC. She was previously a climate tech investor at Energy Impact Partners. Prior to joining EIP, Kim was part of JPMorgan's Tech M&A investment banking team and graduated from Johns Hopkins University. In addition to he...
Sep 25, 2023•57 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. Mary MacPherson , a program manager in the Office of State and Community Energy Programs at the DOE , oversees energy efficiency and electrification workforce development programs funded by the Bipa...
Sep 22, 2023•36 min
This episode is part of our Capital Series hosted by Jason Jacobs. This series explores a diverse range of capital sources and the individuals who drive them. From family offices and institutional LPs to private equity, government funding, and more, we take a deep dive into the world of capital and its critical role in driving innovation and progress. Fabian Heilemann is the founder and CEO of AENU . Fabian is a long-time entrepreneur, and after several successful exits, he became very concerned...
Sep 20, 2023•59 min
This episode of My Climate Journey features three guests: Lissie Garvin, Ayakha Melithafa, and Dysmus Kisilu, and we are diving into youth empowerment around climate. The IPCCs AR6 synthesis report from earlier this year includes a heartbreaking graphic that shows the extent to which current and future generations will experience a hotter and different world. It should come as no surprise that younger generations today will face a world that changes more dramatically than any generation has prev...
Sep 18, 2023•1 hr 8 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. Robert (Bob) Blake is a tribal citizen of the Red Lake Nation, which covers 1200 square miles in northwestern Minnesota. He's the founder, owner and CEO of a solar company called Solar Bear , which ...
Sep 14, 2023•43 min
This episode is part of our new Capital Series hosted by Jason Jacobs. This series explores a diverse range of capital sources and the individuals who drive them. From family offices and institutional LPs to private equity, government funding, and more, we take a deep dive into the world of capital and its critical role in driving innovation and progress. John Tough is Managing Partner at Energize Capital , a leading climate software investor. Energize partners with best-in-class innovators to a...
Sep 13, 2023•55 min
Janelle Kellman is the former mayor of Sausalito, an active member of the Sausalito City Council, and the founder and CEO of the Center for Sea Rise Solutions . Janelle's career spans environmental and policy roles, including leadership positions at the Environmental Protection Agency, PG&E, and advisory roles for organizations like Project Drawdown, Marin Clean Energy, and San Francisco Baykeeper. She chaired the Sausalito Planning Commission from 2016 to 2020, before joining the City Counc...
Sep 11, 2023•47 min
Gonzalo Fuenzalida-Meriz is the CEO and co-founder of Andes , a startup that employs microorganisms to tackle CO2 removal. Specifically, they introduce microorganisms into soil alongside agricultural seeds. As these microorganisms grow with plant roots, they expedite the transformation of CO2 into minerals, which contributes to soil inorganic carbon. The MCJ pod has featured startups exploring methods to amend soil for carbon removal, including biochar and enhanced rock weathering. It’s intrigui...
Sep 07, 2023•46 min
This episode is part of our Capital Series hosted by Jason Jacobs. This series explores a diverse range of capital sources and the individuals who drive them. From family offices and institutional LPs to private equity, government funding, and more, we take a deep dive into the world of capital and its critical role in driving innovation and progress. Ian Smith is the Director of Investments at The Nature Conservancy (TNC), where his primary responsibilities include managing due diligence, resea...
Sep 06, 2023•1 hr 9 min
Mario Molina is the Executive Director of Protect Our Winters (aka POW). POW was founded in the late 2000s by professional snowboarder Jeremy Jones. They've grown to 130,000 supporters that consist of passionate outdoor athletes motivated to protect the places they live and love from climate change. POW's goal is to give a voice to the outdoor sports community (or the Outdoor State, as they call it) and channel it into political will to help get energy transition and related climate change polic...
Sep 05, 2023•39 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. Alyssa Thomas oversees the workforce development program at SunPower , a residential solar company, that services all 50 states in the US and has been around since the mid-1980s. The transition to c...
Aug 31, 2023•53 min
This episode is part of our new Capital Series hosted by Jason Jacobs. This series explores a diverse range of capital sources and the individuals who drive them. From family offices and institutional LPs to private equity, government funding, and more, we take a deep dive into the world of capital and its critical role in driving innovation and progress. Jonah Goldman was a longtime managing director at Bill Gates' firm, Breakthrough Energy . Breakthrough Energy is dedicated to helping humanity...
Aug 30, 2023•1 hr 4 min
Dr. Vanessa Kerry is the co-founder and CEO of Seed Global Health , a nonprofit organization focused on health system strengthening and transformation through long-term investments and training of the health workforce. Under her leadership, Seed has helped educate more than 34,000 doctors, nurses, and midwives in seven countries, helping to improve healthcare for more than 73 million people. Dr. Kerry was also recently appointed as WHO Director-General Special Envoy for Climate Change and Health...
Aug 28, 2023•51 min
Toby Kraus and Ben Parker are co-founders of Lightship , an all-electric RV. Their first model, the L1, is a tow trailer with a sizable solar array on top, electric heat pump HVAC, an induction stove in the kitchen, an 80 kilowatt hour battery and an EV range extending or gas mileage boosting feature wherein the tow trailer provides some on-road power to the vehicle that's pulling it. Ben is a former mechanical design engineer at Tesla who contributed to the Model 3. Toby also worked at Tesla, f...
Aug 24, 2023•56 min
This episode is part of our new Capital Series hosted by Jason Jacobs. This series explores a range of capital sources and the individuals who drive them. From family offices and institutional LPs to private equity, government funding, and more, we take a deep dive into the world of capital and its critical role in driving innovation and progress. David Aronoff is Chairman and General Partner at MCJ Collective . David has been in the venture space for nearly 28 years and joined MCJ a few years a...
Aug 23, 2023•1 hr 29 min
Bill Caesar is President at Generate Upcycle , a subsidiary of Generate Capital . Generate Upcycle reduces the environmental footprint of businesses, farms, cities and consumers by diverting organic waste from landfills and producing renewable fuels, electricity, and organic fertilizers. Bill's journey from the CIA to McKinsey to waste management, culminating in his role at Generate, is fascinating. Cody and Bill talk about his journey and break down Generate Upcycle's key businesses, including ...
Aug 21, 2023•55 min
Josh Silverman is the CEO and founder of Windfall Bio , which transforms methane into nitrogen-rich organic soil nutrients using naturally occurring methane-eating microbes. With a strong background in biotechnology, Josh has founded multiple successful ventures in the field, raising over $300 million in equity financing and generating a cumulative exit value exceeding $1.7 billion. After co-founding Calysta, a cellular agriculture company that converts methane into sources of protein for livest...
Aug 17, 2023•44 min
This episode is part of our Capital Series hosted by Jason Jacobs. This series explores a diverse range of capital sources and the individuals who drive them. From family offices and institutional LPs to private equity, government funding, and more, we take a deep dive into the world of capital and its critical role in driving innovation and progress. Ben Kortlang is a partner at G2 Venture Partners , or G2VP. Ben, alongside his partners, Brook Porter, David Mount, and Daniel Oros founded G2 Ven...
Aug 16, 2023•1 hr 11 min
Danielle Deiseroth is the Executive Director of Data for Progress . Data for Progress produces polling, database messaging, and policy generation for progressive causes, campaigns and candidates. Danielle joined in 2020 and built the climate and environmental polling practice. She became interim executive director in December 2022 and was named executive director in June 2023. We have a robust conversation on what polling is and how it works, and then we dive into what polls are revealing about ...
Aug 14, 2023•45 min
This episode is part of our new Capital Series hosted by Jason Jacobs. This series explores a range of capital sources and the individuals who drive them. From family offices and institutional LPs to private equity, government funding, and more, we take a deep dive into the world of capital and its critical role in driving innovation and progress. Steve Simon is the founder of Simon Equity Partners and owner of the Indiana Pacers. Steve is not the ordinary guest you'd expect on a climate podcast...
Aug 09, 2023•49 min
Alan Leung is SVP of Threat Intelligence on the Global Security team at Macquarie Group , a global financial services firm. They're one of the world's largest infrastructure asset managers. Alan is an active MCJ community member who a year or so ago started writing his own personal newsletter on climate and geopolitical risk at securingclimate.substack.com . The conversation in this episode is inspired by much of what Alan has written and shared there. Cody and Alan cover a range of topics, star...
Aug 08, 2023•52 min
Leopold Spenner is CEO and Co-founder of alcemy , which is accelerating the decarbonization of cement and concrete via software. Concrete is one of the most abundant manmade materials on earth, and it's exceedingly hard to decarbonize. Most of its emissions footprint comes from the production of cement, the materials that provide concrete with its strength. By most estimates, cement is responsible for upwards of 8% of global emissions. Cement production generates emissions in two major ways. One...
Aug 03, 2023•47 min
This episode is part of our new Capital Series hosted by Jason Jacobs. This series explores a diverse range of capital sources and the individuals who drive them. From family offices and institutional LPs to private equity, government funding, and more, we take a deep dive into the world of capital and its critical role in driving innovation and progress. James Lindsay is a principal on the Builders Initiative Investment Team , which is part of Builders Vision . In late 2021, Walmart heir Lukas ...
Aug 02, 2023•57 min
Antti Vihavainen is the Co-founder and CEO of Helsinki-based Puro.earth , a leading crediting platform and registry for engineered carbon removal. In 2021, NASDAQ acquired a controlling stake in Puro, helping further establish its credibility in the marketplace. Puro is actively offering engineered carbon removal credits today for a few dozen projects that primarily consist of biochar and bio-construction initiatives. In addition, Puro has an initiative called Puro Accelerate that enables buyers...
Jul 31, 2023•41 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. Christof Franzsen is head of the Apprenticeship Program at Forge , a residential construction company based out of Boston, Massachusetts. In this episode, we learn how this novel program is being de...
Jul 27, 2023•35 min
This episode is part of our new Capital Series hosted by Jason Jacobs. This series explores various capital sources and the individuals who drive them. From family offices and institutional LPs to private equity, government funding, and more, we take a deep dive into the world of capital and its critical role in driving innovation and progress. Irena Spazzapan is Managing Partner at Systemiq Capital , the climate-tech VC spin-off from the world's largest pure-play climate advisory firm, Systemiq...
Jul 26, 2023•1 hr 7 min
Giana Amador is Executive Director at Carbon Removal Alliance . Carbon Removal Alliance was announced earlier this year in February 2023 as a trade organization focused on advancing policies that support a diverse set of carbon removal technologies. Its membership consists of 20 plus companies in the carbon removal space, including technology startups like Charm Industrial , Heirloom , and Noya , as well as carbon removal purchasers and investors. Giana has been working on carbon removal since 2...
Jul 24, 2023•57 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. Aubrey Streit Krug is the Director of the Perennial Cultures Lab at the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas. The Land Institute is a nonprofit and one of the global leaders in sustainable agriculture r...
Jul 20, 2023•40 min
This episode is part of our new Capital Series hosted by Jason Jacobs. This series explores a diverse range of capital sources and the individuals who drive them. From family offices and institutional LPs to private equity, government funding, and more, we take a deep dive into the world of capital and its critical role in driving innovation and progress. Vikram Raju is Managing Director, Head of the 1GT Platform and Head of Climate Investing for the private credit and equity division of Morgan ...
Jul 19, 2023•54 min
Adam Minter is an opinion columnist at Bloomberg covering Asia, technology and the environment. He's written two books, Junkyard Planet: Travels in the Billion-Dollar Trash Trade , and Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale . Adam is a global expert on the circular economy, and we spend the first chunk of the conversation covering the recycling market and the role of China therein. We then go into the reuse market and talk about textiles and clothing. Lastly, we cover some of his rece...
Jul 17, 2023•56 min
