Invested In Climate

New climate opportunities for 2023 with Google, CSAA and IDEO, Ep #34

Jan 9, 2023

34:58

Happy New Year - and welcome to the first episode of 2023!

We have two special guests with us today to discuss exciting opportunities for climate progress.

We’re joined by Matt Ridenour, the Head of Startup Ecosystems for Google. Matt is a dear friend who I had the pleasure of working with for several years at IDEO. He’s now leading accelerator programs at Google, and he’s here to talk about an open call for climate founders.

The second opportunity is focused on helping frontline communities become better equipped to deal with climate impacts. We’re joined by Jami Goldman, the Sustainability Manager at CSAA, which is a AAA Insurer. She’s someone I’ve been working closely with in recent months on an upcoming open innovation challenge. Jami’s here to talk about a way for funders, investors and other partners to get involved in making the challenge impactful, and eventually, the challenge will be open to startups and non-profits serving communities impacted by climate change.

We’ve got lots in store for this year, and many more new opportunities to share. Here’s to making it the best year yet for climate progress. Let’s get started!

In today’s episode, we cover:

[2:39] New Year’s resolutions
[5:00] Matt’s role at Google & what he’s working on
[6:15] Jami’s role at CSAA & what she’s working on
[7:46] Insights on Google’s accelerator program for climate startups
[10:54] The impact of Google’s previous climate accelerators & lessons learned
[15:13] How founders can get involved in Google’s accelerator program for climate
[15:53] Insights on CSAA’s open innovation challenge for addressing the climate crisis
[18:22] Why climate change matters to insurance providers
[19:59] The importance of CSAA’s open innovation challenge - why is innovation needed
[21:49] Advice for those who want to get involved in CSAA’s innovation challenge
[23:27] Matt’s vision for Google's climate accelerator & the impact it can have
[25:07] Jami’s thoughts on the mindsets & capabilities that leaders need to develop to handle climate disruptions
[27:27] Advice for Googlers seeking to make an impact on climate change
[29:44] Predictions for the climate space in 2023