Inevitable

Today's guest is Jim Kapsis, Founder & CEO of The Ad Hoc Group.The Ad Hoc Group is a focused consultancy working to help startups succeed in complex regulated markets, such as energy, mobility, and smart cities. Jim founded The Ad Hoc Group to help startups and investors scale innovative businesses to solve our most pressing climate and sustainability challenges. Jim has been a Senior Advisor to Sidewalk Labs, Alphabet's urban venture, and spent six years building and leading the global regulatory team at Opower. Before entering the private sector, Jim was a climate negotiator in the Obama Administration, where he helped broker the Copenhagen Climate Accord in 2009. He has experience working across governmental agencies at the State Department, Defense Department, and Congress. Jim is also the co-host of CityLab's podcast, Technopolis, about how technology disrupts, remakes, and sometimes overruns our cities.In this episode, Jim walks me through his work in the public and private climate sectors and what motivated him to found The Ad Hoc Group. We dive into the company's mission and the bridge it's creating in the climate space. Jim also explains why policy is critical for early-stage climatetech and sustainability startups. Jim is a fantastic guest and has a wealth of knowledge for those interested in regulation, policy, and climatetech startups. Enjoy the show!You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.Episode recorded May 18th, 2021For more information about The Ad Hoc Group, visit: https://www.theadhocgroup.com/To check out Jim's podcast, Technopolis, visit: https://www.technopolispodcast.com/For more information about this episode, visit: https://myclimatejourney.co/episodes/jim-kapsis Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Today's guest is Garry Cooper, Co-Founder & CEO of Rheaply.Rheaply is empowering companies of all stripes to reduce their CO2e footprints by curbing internal waste. It does this by creating a circular economy of reuse, both within a company and through a marketplace of asset exchange with other companies. While pursuing his Ph.D. in Neural Science at Northwestern, Garry was trying to find a cure for Parkinson's Disease. Working in a lab, he noticed valuable and expensive materials that not every lab had access to. Garry started a materials sharing program at Northwestern. He realized the linear economy didn't just affect labs but affected government agencies, tech companies, and universities as well. In 2015, Garry co-founded Rheaply. Garry has served as a Google Scholar for Google for Entrepreneurs and sits on the board of 1871 and P33 Chicago. He has also been an R&D consultant at EY and Promidian. Garry is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Northwestern. I was excited to bring Garry onto the show and learn more about the work Rheaply is doing. Garry walks me through how he founded the company, what Rheaply does, and who they serve. We dive into the value proposition for customers and what incentivizes them to choose Rheaply. We also discuss why reuse and the circular economy are critical to addressing climate change, what's holding back wider adoption of reuse, and how Rheaply affects change. Garry is a fantastic guest, and this is a great episode for those interested in the circular economy.The MCJ Collective has recently invested in Rheaply. To learn more, check out Our Investment in Rheaply.Enjoy the show!You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.Episode recorded May 17th, 2021For more information about Rheaply, visit: https://rheaply.com/For more information about this episode, visit: https://myclimatejourney.co/episodes/garry-cooper Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Today's guest is Arch Rao, Founder & CEO of Span.Span is reinventing the home electrical panel. The existing home electrical panel has seen very little innovation over the last 75 years. Span is a smart digital electrical panel that makes it easier to integrate renewable energy and distributed energy resources into your home.After a few years of pursuing a Ph.D., Arch decided to drop out and work on technologies that would have a non-linear impact on our efforts towards abating climate change. Arch has spent over a decade working in clean energy. He was an energy consultant at LCG Consulting and technical advisor for The Westly Group. Arch also co-founding Verdigris Technologies and was a Founding Engineer and Direct at Joby Energy. Arch served as the Head of Products, Application & Sales Engineering at Tesla, where he focused on building the Battery Business Unit. In 2018, he left Telsa to found Span. Arch holds a B.E. in Automotive Engineering from the University of Madras and an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford.In this episode, Arch tells me about his career leading up to Span, the company's mission to electrify the home, and what makes Span unique. We have a lively discussion about why traditional electrical panels need to be innovated, what the market looks like today, and how to incentivize homeowners to make the switch to renewable energy. Arch is a fantastic guest, especially for those looking to learn more about home electrification.Enjoy the show!You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.Episode recorded May 5th, 2021For more information about Span, visit: https://www.span.io/Span is hiring! Various positions across Hardware Engineering, Legal, Operations, Product, Sales & Business Development, and Software Engineering. Check out open positions here: https://www.span.io/careersFor more information about this episode, visit: https://myclimatejourney.co/episodes/arch-rao Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Today's guests are Shashank Samala, Co-Founder & CEO, and Noah McQueen, Co-Founder & Head of Research, at Heirloom.Growing up in Southeast India, Shashank saw firsthand how climate change was impacting people. Prior to Heirloom, Shashank was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Carbon 180 and the Co-Founder & VP of Product at Tempo Automation. Before Heirloom, Noah pursued a Ph.D. in chemical engineering and currently serves as a consultant for CarbonDirect.Heirloom is working towards a more resilient, equitable, and prosperous world for everyone. The company focuses on leveraging carbon mineralization as a climate solution with the hope of removing a billion tons of carbon from the air by 2035. Heirloom's technology enhances a natural process, called carbon mineralization, to help minerals absorb CO2 from the ambient air in days rather than years. By combining the best engineering and nature, Heirloom offers the most cost-effective and scalable Direct Air Capture solution in the world. In this episode, Noah and Shashank walk me through their respective climate journeys and how they founded Heirloom together. They explain what makes Heirloom technology unique, its mission, and the larger Direct Air Capture landscape. We dive into the barriers holding DAC back, the voluntary market, and why this sector of climate tech is hard to deploy at scale. We also touch on the effect of policy and regulation on climate tech. Noah and Shashank are great guests, and I enjoyed discussing Heirloom with them. This is a must-listen for those interested in learning more about DAC solutions and their importance in addressing climate change.Enjoy the show!You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.To learn more about Heirloom, visit: https://www.heirloomcarbon.com/To learn more about this episode, visit: https://myclimatejourney.co/ctss-episodes/heirloom Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Today's guest is Jimmy Samartzis, CEO of LanzaJet.Lanzajet accelerates the global energy transition by using its leading technology to make safe, sustainable aviation fuels and diesel fuels from waste. Jimmy has spent most of his career focused on climate change and advancing the decarbonization of industries reliant on fossil fuels. As a senior executive with several consulting firms, including Booz Allen Hamilton, Oliver Wyman, and Slalom, Jimmy advised CEOs and senior executive teams on mergers and acquisitions, strategy and operations, sustainability, and customer experience. He also spent a decade working for United Airlines. Jimmy served in several executive roles at United, including as chief executive of a $2B business unit. In June 2020, Jimmy assumed the role of CEO at Lanzajet, where he's leading the company through a scale-up in technology and production, with renewable fuel refineries planned in multiple countries. Jimmy has Master's degrees from The University of Oxford and Johns Hopkins University.I was looking forward to bringing Jimmy on the show because we haven't talked about Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAFs) as a decarbonization solution. In this episode, Jimmy explains his career path to LanzaJet, the company's mission, and how LanzaJet fits into decarbonizing aviation. We also discuss SAFs generally, what the airline industry is doing to make zero-emission flight a reality, and why aviation has been hard to decarbonize. Enjoy the show!You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.Episode recorded May 4th, 2021For more information about LanzaJet, visit: https://www.lanzajet.com/For more information about this episode, visit: https://myclimatejourney.co/episodes/jimmy-samartzis Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Today's guests are Merrill Feather & Kristen Winzent, Co-Founders and Collaborators at The Regenerates.The Regenerates is a brand and marketing consultancy focused 100% on building momentum for climate solutions. Kristen and Merrill met in the MCJ Slack community when they were looking for marketing-focused jobs in the climate space. Realizing they were both up for 3 of the same positions, they decided to start their own marketing consultancy. Kristen and Merrill have decades of experience as in-house marketers for creative strategy partners. Before founding The Regenerates, Kristen was an in-house marketer on the global creative campaigns team at Airbnb and was a strategic consultant at Pramana Collective. Prior to The Regenerates, Merrill was a brand manager at Hasbro Toys and a product marketer at Facebook. I was looking forward to speaking with Kristen and Merrill because marketing plays a significant role in addressing the climate crisis. Kristen and Merrill take me through how The Regenerates came to be, their "aha" moments, and what the consultancy does. We also discuss how to assess climate impact in a job offer, where brand strategy and community organizing come together, and whether a financial hit is necessary to transition into climate. For those looking to work in climate but aren't sure where they fit in, this is a great episode.Enjoy the show!You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.Episode recorded April 12th, 2021To learn more about The Regenerates, visit: https://www.weregenerates.com/To learn more about this episode, visit: https://myclimatejourney.co/cc-episodes/winzent-feather Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Today's guest is Bruce Friedrich, Founder & Executive Director of The Good Food Institute.The Good Food Institute is an international non-profit that promotes plant-based meat, dairy, and eggs as well as cultivated meat as alternatives to conventional animal products. GFI was founded to answer a fundamental question: how to feed almost 10 billion people by 2050 without burning the planet down.Inspired by Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappé, Bruce has focused his career on food systems and global justice. Prior to founding GFI, Bruce ran a homeless shelter and food kitchen in inner-city D.C., served as the Vice President of International Grassroots Campaigns at PETA, was a Teacher in Baltimore, and, most recently, worked as the Director of Policy at Farm Sanctuary. In early 2016, Bruce founded Good Food Institute and currently serves as Executive Director. He oversees GFI's global strategy, working with the U.S. leadership team and international managing directors to ensure that GFI implements programs that deliver mission-focused results. Bruce is a TED Fellow, Y Combinator alum, and popular speaker on food innovation. He has penned op-eds for the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Wired, and many other publications. In this episode, Bruce explains the importance of reimagining the food system and how it affects climate. He walks me through The Good Food Institute's mission, what inspired him to pursue global food justice, and why meat is dangerous to public and environmental health. We also discuss the "holy grail" of scaling meat alternatives, the timeline for broad adoption of these products, and where policy fits in. This is a great episode and expanded my understanding of the meat industry and its role in climate change.Enjoy the show!You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.Episode recorded April 30th, 2021For more information about Good Food Institute, visit: https://gfi.org/For more about this episode, visit: myclimatejourney.co/episodes/bruce-friedrich Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Today's guest is Paul Gross, Co-Founder & CEO of Remora.Today, heavy-duty trucks move 70% of goods shipped in the United States and account for 7% of the US greenhouse gas pollution. Remora is developing a device that captures carbon emissions from semi-trucks. Its device will reduce emissions from these trucks by 80% without affecting payload, range, or trip time. Remora installs a container between the cab and the trailer of semis, which allows them to collect, store, and then monetize the emissions. It sells the carbon to concrete producers and other end-users, which dramatically reduces emissions, meets climate commitments, and adds a new revenue stream for carbon.Remora Co-Founder, Christina Reynolds, developed the technology as a Ph.D. student. Paul came across it during his time at Yale and convinced Christina to leave the EPA to start Remora. Before co-founding Remora, Paul conducted award-winning experimental research that uncovered new solutions to collective action problems like polarization and the climate crisis. He also holds a BA in Data Science and Statistics from Yale University. Paul is an exciting guest, and I enjoyed learning more about what the team is up to at Remora. Paul walks me through what led him to co-found Remora, why he's so passionate about carbon capture, and what the company hopes to achieve in the future. Paul explains the problem Remora is fixing, its technology, and what makes the company unique. We also dive into the trucking industry and the carbon emissions market more broadly. This is a great episode for those interested in innovative carbon solutions and transportation.Enjoy the show!You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.Episode recorded April 14th, 2021To learn more about Remora, visit: https://www.remoracarbon.com/To learn more about this episode, visit our website: https://myclimatejourney.co/ctss-episodes/remora Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

In this engaging conversation, Caroline Cochran, Co-Founder and COO of Oklo Inc., discusses her mission to revolutionize nuclear energy with advanced fission power plants. With a background in mechanical engineering and economics, she shares how Oklo's technology uses nuclear waste as fuel, eliminating the need for water cooling. Caroline explores the public perception of nuclear safety, the company's innovative approach to energy access in remote areas, and the evolving landscape of nuclear regulatory processes that will shape a cleaner energy future.

Today's guest is Eliza Nemser, Co-Founder of Climate Changemakers.Climate Changemakers is a nonpartisan community action network organizing to support climate candidates and ambitious climate policies. The team mobilizes political support by transforming climate-concerned individuals into a community of climate changemakers. Prior to founding Climate Changemakers, Eliza was a consultant for the NRDC Action Fund and spent over two decades working as a geologist, focusing on earthquake engineering and seismology for big oil companies.In this episode, Eliza walks me through her career path and how she first got political when it comes to climate action. We discuss the inception of Climate Changemakers, how individuals can take action, and why political advocacy is vital to the planet's future. Eliza also touches on advice she has for those interested in getting involved but aren't sure where to start. Eliza is a fantastic guest and a perfect example of the many ways one can fight for the climate.You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.Episode recorded April 5th, 2021To get involved with Climate Changemakers, visit: https://www.climatechangemakers.org/To learn more about this episode, visit: https://myclimatejourney.co/cc-episodes/eliza-nemser  Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant