Zach Stein

U.S. Government supports high-quality voluntary carbon market :) This morning, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm - released an endorsement of the voluntary carbon market. It came alongside a set of principles adopted from the VCMI (Voluntary Carbon Market Integrity Initiative). Principles for Responsible Participation”, namely: ➡ Focus on High-Quality Credits ➡ Permanence ➡ Robust Monitoring, Reporting, Verification, and Validation (MMRV) ➡ Co-Benefits ➡ Emissions Reduction Priority This positive endorsement of the VCM is a strong signal that the VCM is here to stay. It acknowledges past issues and provides a clear, government-backed, path for how we should adopt and build out the VCM to protect and regenerate global biodiversity. Press Release link: https://lnkd.in/eBtjtF9c

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"There's plenty of capital available in multiple flavors for Climate Tech Companies..." 🌍💸 Did you know that in 2023, 50 VC deals for climate tech companies exceeded $150 million, with nine of those surpassing $500 million? Venture capitalists are increasingly turning their focus toward startups to tackle the climate crisis, marking a significant shift in investment priorities. Despite the challenging environment for venture capital in 2023, with overall investment in climate tech falling by 14.5% to $41.1 billion, the commitment to climate solutions remains robust. Key trends and insights are shaping the evolving landscape of climate tech investment. Are you an early-stage Climate Tech founder looking to fundraise? Curious about the main drivers for the industry? ⬇ Dive into my latest Forbes article to learn more. Special thanks to Hannah Sieber & Arun Gupta for sharing your invaluable insights! https://lnkd.in/gNhe8jew #ClimateTech #VentureCapital #Forbes Artyc Skyven Technologies

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Throw back Thursday! 😊Excited to look back at 2023 through the publication of our Catalyst Fund Impact Report! The report spotlights the hard work of our portfolio companies after a year of work with them, as they continue to build game-changing solutions from precision agriculture technologies to water access solutions or waste management tools. 👉 Dive into our portfolio companies' impact to date, our theory of change, and how we empower bold founders to build a climate-resilient future for millions of Africans. 👉 Learn about our gender lens investing approach, sustainability focus, and how our startups are driving green growth and positioning Africa as a leader in climate action. 👉 Explore spotlights on select portfolio companies and discover how Catalyst Fund's hands-on venture building accelerates the path to scale for early-stage climate tech in Africa 👉 See the recognition our fund has earned to date and join us in investing for a climate-resilient future on the continent. Sand to Green, Bekia inc, Visual and AI Solutions (VAIS), Assuraf | Insurance, Simply, Eight Medical | Techstars ‘23, Farmz2U, Farm to Feed, Octavia Carbon, PaddyCover, Agro Supply, NoorNation, Scrapays, THOLA, Earthbond, Zebra CropBank, Medikea, Keep IT Cool, Tolbi Link to download the report: https://lnkd.in/ejJjH6aD

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At last week’s ClimateTech Coffee 🚲 Bryan White and I were joined by Kimberly Gilbert, PhD to hear about her work on Carbon Neutralization and Ocean Storage (CNOS) through her company pHathom. Here’s a recap: The ocean naturally absorbs CO2 over time, but we’ve added so much that the ocean has become increasingly acidic. Ocean pH has dropped from 8.2 to 8.1 globally over the last hundred years, and as pH drops it becomes harder for coral-based organisms to form shells. To combat this, Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE) is an intervention that both reverses ocean acidification and removes CO2 from the atmosphere. Challenges with traditional OAE: - When you add the alkalinity into the ocean, it spreads out. It’s hard to measure the change in pH. - You don’t know exactly when the extra CO2 will be absorbed. Modeling and measurement companies are trying to help with this problem. Advantages of CNOS: - Co2 is captured directly at a coastal power plant or refinery, and then the concentrated Co2 is pumped into water that has limestone (and/or other alkaline materials) in it.  - This means the Co2 is dissolved onsite and the pH can be equilibrated onsite, which makes accurate measurement more feasible. Factors that affect progress:  - We’ll start seeing more companies enter in this space as the chemistry and its impacts are better understood and seen as safe  - Local and national permitting are a huge bottleneck - On the international permitting level, the London Protocol has a blanket ban on ocean geoengineering for anything except for research. There were good reasons for doing that, but it’s unclear who decides when that can change and the circumstances under which the ban is lifted. (Note: pHathom is not doing geoengineering; it’s doing water treatment on-site and releasing it back as ocean water) Open questions for the category/technology: - Can they come up with enough low-cost alkalinity sources, and get them in a way that doesn’t cause additional environmental damage or Co2 emissions?  - This approach will require pumping a lot of water. How much will that cost and how can the cost be driven down?  - Putting 100 plants’ worth of bicarbonate into the ocean is likely fine for ocean health relative to the climate benefit, but what is the point where the tradeoffs cross over? Some groups doing good work in this space:  [C]Worthy Carbon to Sea Initiative  University Research: UC Santa Barbara, University of Tasmania, GEOMAR, Dalhousie University, Scripps Join us for the next one in May! Details coming soon, and you can get updates by subscribing to the series page here: https://lnkd.in/g7DTGm2V

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Landing back from #nyc and a great week at the Global AgInvesting conference, it’s clear that the weather has changed since last week and the presence of the winters #flooding has started to subside. When we ran a farming academy in Northumberland with the Understanding Ag, LLC - Experts in Regenerative Ag in October 2022, one of the profound comments was around the suitability for #agriculture and #regenerativeagriculture in the UK’s climate. Yesterday WIRED published an article on ‘the rise of the carbon farmer’ which provides a positive lens on the potential impact of agriculture to sequester carbon. If soil health beneficial practices are used to generate regenerative outcomes. Quoting UK #organic farmer Patrick Holden. “My farm’s been farmed organically for 51 years,” says Patrick Holden “I’ve built up soil carbon, my operation is now carbon-negative—if I was to switch to intensive methods then theoretically I could burn up that carbon stock. But if I was paid to be a carbon steward, I’m not going to do that.” Having experienced one of the wettest winters on record, let’s not forget the value of slowing down and filtering water with #healthysoils. Ryan Cameron Nicholas Burlington Addy Windsor-Clive Paul Benjamin Alvaro Aguirre Taimur Malik Jeremy Stroud Ananya Manna Jackson Baris Matt Jordon Regenerate Asset Management Regenerate Outcomes Rodale Institute https://lnkd.in/e8cP6AAu

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Community solar is likely 'dead on arrival' in California. After a 2022 law opening California to community solar, regulators adopted a plan that only makes minor changes. It’s possible regulators are favoring utility-scale solar over rooftop and community to better navigate the impending challenges (such as excess solar supply) and build a more financially sustainable grid. #CommunitySolar #ClimateTech #CleanTech #CAISO #Solar

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🌱🚀 Exciting News! Xefco, one of our portfolio companies, just secured A$10.5 million in funding to revolutionize the textile industry and reduce emissions! 🌎💡 With their innovative water-free textile finishing and dyeing solution, Ausora, Xefco is poised to make a significant impact. Their technology not only preserves precious resources but also cuts energy consumption and costs. Plus, it's already gaining traction with leading apparel brands like Zara and The North Face. At Investible, we're committed to backing visionary companies like Xefco that are driving positive change. This investment reaffirms our belief in their potential to transform industries and tackle pressing environmental challenges. #ClimateTech #SustainableInvesting #ImpactInvesting #MandiriInvestibleGlobalClimateTechFund 🌿📈

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Transforming Trash into Treasure: Fungi Revolutionizing Waste Management 🍄♻️ Imagine waste converted by mushrooms into valuable resources. Climate Insiders proudly invests in Novobiom's €2M Seed round to support this innovation. 🚨 What's the problem? Global solid waste is projected to increase by 62% from 2.1 billion to 3.4 billion tonnes by 2050, outpacing population growth. The polluted soil, cosmetics, and textile sectors contribute significantly to environmental degradation through non-biodegradable waste and chemical pollution. ⭐️ What's the solution? Novobiom is turning waste into wealth (W2W) through an integrated process, starting from identifying the right fungal strains to their specific application and large-scale production. They use fungi to clean up and transform waste into useful products, initially tackling soil remediation, textile recycling and cosmetic circularity. 🌍 What is their Grand Vision? This innovation could significantly lower emissions, create new revenue sources, and reduce costs for waste-intensive industries. Their tech platform allows for rapid scaling by quickly modeling treatment solutions for a wide range of waste, unlocking a circular economy for products we use every day. Huge congratulations to the brilliant team: Jean-Michel Scheuren, Caroline Zaoui, and the rest of the innovators at Novobiom. Climate Insiders is proud to invest alongside other forward-thinking firms like Noshaq, Planetary Impact Ventures, Circular Innovation Fund, and Ciri Ventures and a number of fantastic angel investors. To learn more about why we backed Novobiom, read our full post in the comment 👇

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Can poop save the planet? 🤔 Well, in Silicon Valley, it's not just a punchline—it's a multimillion-dollar climate solution. Big players are teaming up with startup Vaulted Deep, paying $58.3 million, to pump organic waste underground. The deal was brokered by Frontier Climate, a coalition launched in 2022 by Stripe, Alphabet, Meta, Shopify, and McKinsey Sustainability. But why are tech giants getting their hands dirty with sewage and manure? Vaulted Deep's technology, rooted in decades-old methods used for oil and gas fracking cleanup, gives them an edge. But instead of sludge, they're tackling carbon-rich waste, aiming to sequester CO2 underground. They plan to sequester 152,480 tons of carbon dioxide by 2027 as part of the deal (That equates to 36,000 gas cars off the road for a year). Is this greenwashing, or a silver bullet? Critics warn of cost, the need for rigorous carbon accounting, and potential environmental trade-offs - i.e. emission prevention versus carbon removal. #decarbonization

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These days staying ahead means continuously evolving. SWARM Engineering, one of Serra's portfolio companies, has released AVA an Agrifood Virtual Advisor designed to help you do just that. By using advanced AI on a SaaS platform, combined with ChatGPT, AVA can hold meaningful conversations to uncover and prioritize challenges, offering actionable insights and even fully working applications. Whether it’s optimizing logistics or improving supply/demand planning, AVA accelerates problem-solving while simultaneously capturing essential corporate knowledge. AVA is designed to enhance operational decision-making, for million dollar savings. I’d encourage you to take a look at what SWARM Engineering is doing with AVA. #Agrifood #Sustainability #AI #Innovation #Operations   https://lnkd.in/g5tQKvZ5

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Is SF Climate Week banter a good barometer of the macro climate tech investment mood? Key nuggets to ponder: 💰💰💰 Climate solutions (like most science/engineering and hardware based deep tech) are capital intensive. They require an "all of the above", creative financing approach to obtain the capital needed to scale (from CVCs, government, public-private partnerships, green banks, debt financing...). 🤖 AI - Everything, Everywhere (all at once). As in most sectors, AI is white hot. It can be a key component of climate solutions, but also a demand accelerant ⏩ More AI = ↗ compute and power demand ⚡= ↗ need for energy storage and grid enhancing solutions 🔋. 🏛 🤵 Political Angst. Real worry that a new administration will cut or impede climate tech catalyzing funding (e.g., DOE funding from IRA). #climatetech #climateweek

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REDD up by 27% YOY, for 1Q2024. If you read about Carbon crisis, prices crashing, double check the source. Likely the author has an agenda that opposes Voluntary Carbon Markets(VCM) and/or anything that smells of capitalism.

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Bill McKibben's latest post on the impact of climate change on economies resonates with me. We have seen major climate disasters in recent years, and it's clear that they are not just impacting local economies but also global ones. It's concerning that big businesses continue to resist change, despite the long-term economic benefits of sustainable practices. Why do some businesses choose to churn through resources when it's ultimately bad for their bottom line and branding? Sustainable solutions are the way forward, and the data shows that they ultimately provide better returns. By using resources sustainably, we can ensure the longevity of our brands and economies. It's time for businesses to shift their thinking and embrace climate change solutions. Short-sightedness and small-minded thinking will only lead to further danger for all of us. Let's work together towards a sustainable future. #climatechange #solar #batterystorage #DER #climatechangesolutions #decarbonization

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Summary: The article discusses the challenges faced by climate tech startups as they transition from the lab to commercial outfit. These companies, which work on hardware and infrastructure projects for climate solutions, struggle to raise necessary funds and often face difficulties in scaling up production. Key takeaways: The transition from early-stage startup to commercial operation is difficult, especially for hardware and infrastructure projects in the climate tech industry. The lack of financing options and specialized expertise for these types of projects creates a "commercial valley of death" that many companies struggle to overcome. Startups often fall into the trap of trying to expand their business too quickly, losing sight of their core value proposition and failing to ensure proper execution. Counter arguments: Some may argue that this "first of a kind" problem is not unique to the climate tech industry and can be seen in other industries as well. Others may argue that with the increasing focus on climate change and need for sustainable solutions, more funding and support will become available for these startups. #venturecapital #vc #startups

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I always enjoy reading Andre's Climate Substack from André Meurer. Today I learned a ton about Heat Pump Water Heaters (HPWH) and the HWH replacement process. TL;DR (But seriously you should read it, it's funny and packed with great advice) ➡️Efficiency: Heat pump water heaters (HPWHs) are significantly more energy efficient than traditional gas or electric models, offering long-term cost savings and environmental benefits. ➡️Installation: Upgrading to a HPWH can be complex, requiring electrical work and careful consideration of sizing (first-hour rating). Choosing an experienced contractor is crucial. ➡️Cost: While initial costs are higher, HPWHs pay for themselves through reduced energy bills and potential rebates. ➡️Additional Benefits: HPWHs dehumidify and slightly cool the surrounding area, which can be beneficial in humid basements. ➡️Considerations: HPWHs might be slightly noisier than traditional models and may require larger tanks to match the hot water output of gas heaters. Sign up for Andre's Climate! https://lnkd.in/e2HzZizE

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Disappointing Decision by CPUC: A Setback for California's Solar Growth On May 30, 2024, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) made a disheartening decision, approving a revised proposal for the state's community solar program, supported by major investor-owned utilities. This decision ignored a promising alternative proposed by a coalition of solar advocates, ratepayer groups, and labor unions. The rejected proposal, based on a Net Value Billing Tariff, aimed to compensate community solar subscribers fairly and boost renewable energy capacity. The approved decision makes only minor changes to existing programs, which have already failed to foster substantial renewable energy growth. Derek Chernow from the Coalition for Community Solar Access criticized the decision, stating it disregards the demands for a functional community solar program and solidifies California's lagging position in community solar markets. Similarly, Aaron Halimi of Renewable Properties expressed concern that this decision will deter investment in community solar projects, undermining the state's climate goals and efforts to reduce electric bills for low-income residents. Stephanie Doyle of the Solar Energy Industries Association emphasized that the CPUC's decision favors utilities' financial interests over the needs of low-income Californians and renters, further blocking their participation in the clean energy economy. She called for intervention from Governor Newsom and state leaders to prevent further setbacks in California's clean energy progress. This decision marks a significant missed opportunity for California to lead in community solar, leaving solar advocates deeply disappointed. #CPUC #CommunitySolar #RenewableEnergy #SolarGrowth #CleanEnergy #CaliforniaSolar #EnergyEquity #Sustainability #ClimateGoals https://lnkd.in/gbe8rmrm

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We're on our way! Today, JSR will present at the California CCA annual conference on effective marketing strategies specific and beneficial to Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs). See you at CalCCA! 💚 Here is why CCAs are essential to break up investor-owned utility monopolies: 🌱 Promotion of Renewable Energy: By transitioning to cleaner, greener sources like solar and wind power, CCAs combat climate change and reduce emissions. 💡 Competition and Innovation: Introducing competition, CCAs inspire innovation and drive down costs in the energy market. 💼 Economic Benefits: CCAs contribute to thriving local economies by stimulating local job growth and supporting clean energy projects. 🤝 Customer Choice and Empowerment: CCAs foster ownership and responsibility by giving customers the power to choose their energy sources. #CCAs #RenewableEnergy #Sustainability #JSRSupportsEnergyFuture #CalCCAConference #PoweredByCommunity

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https://lnkd.in/d8Fh2HXR FOAK (and my quote) has made it to the WSJ. Thanks Ed Ballard and Amrith Ramkumar. Yet the WSJ missed the “why” behind first of-a-kind. It is about catalyzing audacious climate solutions - the next generation of Teslas. We all know that FOAK is very very hard. And not every FOAK company will succeed. But the ones that do have a potential to transform their sector. A shout out to all the future climate giants who embrace the daily grind of FOAK and are succeeding. Solugen, Antora Energy, Fervo Energy, Boston Metal, Electric Hydrogen, LanzaTech, CO280, Carbon Upcycling Technologies, NET Power Climeworks, Heirloom, Arbor, Panthalassa, H2 Green Steel, Northvolt, Koloma, Syzygy Plasmonics to just name a few… #FOAK As JFK said, "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

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