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Climate Rising

Drawdown Fund: Scaling the Impact of Climate Technology

Aug 14, 2024
Erik Snyder is the founder and CEO of the Drawdown Fund, dedicated to financing climate tech startups. Paul Hawken, an influential author and editor, co-established the fund to combat climate change. They discuss innovative investment strategies for sustainable solutions, including impactful initiatives in urban infrastructure and mass transit. The conversation highlights the challenge of food waste in climate change, emphasizing the importance of strategic funding and the need for scalable technologies to create meaningful environmental change.
51:01

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

  • The Drawdown Fund focuses on mid-stage investments in sustainable technologies to achieve both financial returns and significant climate impact.
  • Unique incentive structures tie team compensation to measurable climate outcomes, promoting alignment with environmental goals and innovative financial practices.

Deep dives

The Origin of the Drawdown Fund

The Drawdown Fund was established to tackle the urgent need for solutions to reverse climate change, sparked by a thought-provoking question about leveraging wealth for global benefit. Paul Hawken, frustrated by the lack of answers and actions addressing climate change, founded a nonprofit in 2014 that led to the creation of a comprehensive guide known as Drawdown. This initiative involved extensive research from 75 fellows globally who evaluated peer-reviewed data to identify scalable solutions capable of reversing global warming. The culmination of this two-and-a-half-year effort was the publication of a groundbreaking book that highlights actionable strategies for mitigating climate impacts.

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