After two years of waiting, the SEC finally came out with its new climate disclosure rules. As expected, it was met with a mix of celebration, disappointment, criticism, and lawsuits. The suits came from those who felt the rules went too far and from those who felt they don’t go far enough.

Disclosure rules are critical to ensuring companies are taking climate change seriously. They ensure investors can consider a company’s climate risks as well as their progress in cutting emissions.

Beyond the SEC, Europe and California’s rules are also influencing corporate action in profound ways.

To understand what’s been happening and what’s likely to happen next, I caught up with Steven Rothstein. Steven is the Managing Director of the Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets. He’s been working for years to align financial markets to climate goals and is a well respected expert on this topic. We talked about the history of disclosures, why they matter, the recent SEC rule change, the reaction it sparked, what’s coming next, and much more. I always learn a lot from talking to Steven and I’m sure you will too. Enjoy.

• [03:07] Stephen's role at Ceres accelerator
• [03:25] The Accelerator’s work & capital market change
• [05:02] History of early climate reporting
• [06:58] Disclosure requirements in Europe and CSRD
• [10:29] California law coverage of private companies
• [11:06] Ceres' role in California climate laws
• [13:23] Why SEC rule took two years
• [15:07] The importance of Scope 3 SEC inclusion
• [16:29] SEC rule may evolve over time
• [18:00] Legal challenges to rules and regulations
• [20:47] Continuing climate preparations
• [23:15] Balancing reporting and climate action
• [27:19] The importance of interim targets
• [29:56] Election impact on climate progress
• [31:45] Developing transition plans and data analysis
• [35:13] Actions listeners can take

• Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets

• Connect with Steven on LinkedIn

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If you think of Mastercard as simply a piece of plastic that enables you to buy stuff, you’re not seeing their vast network of businesses, their billions of customers, or the potential influence they have on consumer behavior.

There have been countless efforts over the years to encourage consumers to shop more sustainably, but when it comes to the reach and data savvy that Mastercard brings, it’s a whole different ballgame.

I’ve known Mastercard’s Chief Sustainability Officer Ellen Jackowski for many years, and I was delighted to sit down with her to understand Mastercard’s sustainability strategy.

We talk about Ellen’s background and approach to leadership, the current moment in sustainability, Mastercard’s effort to encourage sustainable consumption at scale, how they’ve spread sustainability goals across their entire company, and much more.

Ellen is a widely respected thought leader in corporate sustainability and this conversation offers a peek inside an ambitious and very challenging effort to create real impact. Mastercard is a NationSwell member and we’ll soon share a summary of this conversation as part of NationSwell’s Sustainability Next series. Enjoy!

• [02:13] Ellen’s background & passion for sustainability
• [04:14] Ellen’s role at Mastercard
• [06:13] Present moment in sustainability - trends & concerns
• [08:13] The reach of Mastercard’s network
• [10:58] Sustainable consumption as a systems problem
• [12:29] Areas of opportunity & challenge
• [14:00] The Priceless Planet Coalition video drop
• [15:32] Mastercard’s carbon calculator
• [16:50] Influencing large emitting purchases
• [17:32] Promoting sustainable consumption around the world & US
• [18:52] The biggest challenge in reaching net-zero goals
• [21:00] Best ways to organize sustainability leaders
• [23:24] Tackling Scope 3 emissions
• [26:08] Mastercard’s Priceless Planet Coalition
• [27:53] Mastercard’s Community Pass Platform
• [29:21] Mastercard’s Start Path in Solidarity
• [30:52] How Ellen’s thinking in leadership has evolved
• [33:18] Resources to stay informed on sustainability
• [34:22] What else needs to change

• Mastercard: Priceless Planet Coalition
• NationSwell: Next Series
• Mastercard: Carbon Calculator
• Mastercard: Community Pass
• Mastercard: In Solidarity
• Outrage and Optimism
• Project Drawdown

• Connect with Ellen on LinkedIn

• On

Earthshot Ventures isn't just any climate tech venture firm. Having grown out of the Elemental Excelerator, one of the biggest and best-reputed accelerators in the industry, Earthshot is deeply rooted in the early-stage ecosystem. And it turns out there's something else that sets them apart.

Managing Partner Mike Jackson has a knack for coaching founders on what he thinks of as the art and science of fundraising. We're joined today by Mike and Earthshot Partner Ramsay Siegal to hear about their firm, approach, portfolio, and outlook on the market. We dive deep into Mike's insights to helping founders raise money. We talked about non-dilutive project financing and hard-to-abate sectors, the opportunities AI is bringing to climate tech, several of their portfolio companies, and much more. If you're interested in early-stage climate investing, or startups, there's lots to learn in this one. Hope you enjoy. Here we go.

• [02:47] Mike’s background & experience
• [04:52] Ramsey’s background & expertise
• [07:51] The relationship between Earthshot VC & Elemental Excelerator
• [09:39] Earthshot’s investment thesis, what they’re interested in & what sets them apart
• [12:22] Earthshot’s network
• [14:13] Mike’s approach to fundraising & coaching the portfolio
• [17:54] Fundraising tips and tricks for founders
• [22:17] Earthshot’s success stories
• [24:38] How is AI showing up
• [30:41] Investing in hard-to-abate sectors and Kanin Energy
• [33:06] Kanin Energy's business model and non-dilutive funding
• [38:15] Earthshot’s commitment, DEI & tips for achieving a diverse portfolio
• [42:38] Outlook & opportunities for climate tech investing

• Earthshot Ventures
• Elemental Excelerator
• Mitra Chem
• Kanin Energy
• Generate Capital
• Westly Group

• Connect with Mike on LinkedIn
• Connect with Ramsay on LinkedIn

• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter

• Sign up for our Newsletter
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We know that motivating homeowners to invest in energy efficiency retrofits and home upgrades is hard. Energy efficiency might not sound glamorous, but across the US, retrofits can actually cut our residential energy usage in half.

That’s why when I met Scope Zero CEO Lizzy Kolar, I was excited to learn about her company’s novel way of motivating home upgrades. What Lizzy and her co-founder realized is that our homes are now workplaces.

And, with employers having to account for emissions for remote workers, they now have an incentive to help homeowners invest in upgrades. Enter the Carbon Savings Account (CSA). Modeled after FSAs and HSAs, the CSA can scale quickly and help millions of homeowners across the US to begin investing in upgrades they’ve been putiing off.

In this episode, we hear about Lizzy’s background, the founding story of Scope Zero, the problems they’re trying to solve, the best home upgrade investments, how the home upgrade ecosystem has been evolving, and much more. This is a fast and to-the-point episode. Hope you enjoy it.

• [03:02] Lizzy’s background, what sparked her interest in climate & founding Scope Zero
• [05:50] Key needs that Scope Zero is addressing
• [07:17] The HSA model & how it works
• [08:24] How the HSA model translates to climate action
• [09:20] How someone might use the money they put in a Scope Zero account
• [10:15] What holds homeowners back from making investments
• [11:40] Evidence that consumers will invest in CSAs
• [12:23] The benefits of government incentives - Inflation Reduction Act
• [12:53] What home upgrades should be prioritized
• [14:43] The benefits of a Scope Zero CSA for employers
• [16:34] ROI for employers
• [17:53] CSAs in practice & the response
• [18:27] How far along is Scope Zero & the growth plan
• [19:44] Scope Zero’s total addressable market & opportunity
• [20:27] Quantifying impact in terms of emissions reduced & environmental benefits
• [21:06] Tracking the impact of CSAs using dashboards & data
• [21:44] Customers’ access to a partner vendor network
• [22:14] How the ecosystem surrounding home upgrades is evolving
• [23:08] How Scope Zero is financed & raising funding
• [23:47] Opportunities for aligning interests & motivating change

• Scope Zero
• TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy - Stanford
• Caltech Rocket Fund
• Collaborative Fund

• Connect with Lizzy on LinkedIn

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We know that addressing climate change will take trillions of dollars of investment. According to the Climate Policy Institute, we’ll need to spend over $10 trillion annually for decades. and we only just exceeded $1 trillion for the first time in 2022.

I’ll confess, I find these big numbers hard to conceptualize and I’m always glad for more nuanced ways to break them down. That’s why when I saw Oxford’s Climate Tech Initiative’s recent report, I reached out to one of its authors Jamil Wyne. The Oxford report builds on recent climate finance data by asking almost 150 climate investors, entrepreneurs, and policymakers what they're seeing. It's a snapshot from inside climate tech that identifies gaps, promising opportunities, and five recommended changes for climate finance. In this interview, Jamil and I cover all that and more. We go far beyond just talking about the numbers and I think you’ll appreciate the global perspective and ability to zoom in and out that Jamil and the Oxford report brings. Enjoy.

• [01:15] Introduction to the Oxford Climate Tech Initiative’s report & Jamil
• [02:31] Jamil’s portfolio & what's been energizing
• [04:19] How Climate Tech Initiative’s report got started
• [06:20] Growth & breakdown of climate finance investments
• [10:02] The mismatch in climate investing
• [12:43] Investor interest in transportation
• [15:20] Under investment in heavy industry, built environment & adaptation
• [17:41] The best investment opportunities within the energy sector
• [20:39] Overview of recommendations from the report
• [22:31] Growing climate funding recommendation
• [23:06] The role of governments & corporations
• [25:27] Building talent & workforce pools for climate
• [28:27] Focusing on solutions for vulnerable communities
• [30:30] Funding for adaptation
• [33:20] What is Riffle Ventures
• [36:08] Climate Tech Boot Camp, who it’s for & how it’s changed
• [41:27] Future projects & initiatives

• Oxford’s Climate Tech Initiative
• The Climate Tech Opportunity Report
• Riffle Ventures
• Climate Tech Bootcamp

• Connect with Jamil on LinkedIn

• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter

• Sign up for our Newsletter
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At the center of climate progress are scientists. They’re developing new technologies with which we can build a new, more sustainable global economy. Moving inventions from a lab to startup companies to scaled products, however, takes more than science.

Research scientists had long lacked a support structure to help them build successful businesses. That’s where Activate came in. Founded in 2015 at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Activate is a fellowship program that has helped almost 200 science fellows create companies that have now collectively created about 2,000 jobs and have raised about $1.5 billion.

To learn more about Activate’s important work, we’re joined today by Activate CEO Cyrus Wadia. Cyrus brings a unique background spanning time in the Obama Administration, academia, Nike, and Amazon. We talk about how Activate works, lessons they’re gathering across climate tech verticals, examples of companies emerging from their fellowship, opportunities, gaps, and much more. I’m a big fan of the work Activate is doing and I’d guess you’ll soon be too. Enjoy.

• [3:13] Cyrus’ background & career journey
• [6:01] Activate & the problem that its aiming to solve
• [9:47] The ideal Activate Fellow
• [12:38] The support that Fellows get & how the Fellowship works
• [14:25] Activate’s achievements
• [16:41] Success stories & companies that have emerged from the Fellowship
• [20:02] What's coming & gaps
• [22:20] Examples of where friction is lower for climate tech to scale
• [26:35] Applications of AI
• [31:54] The involvement of corporate partners & how they can show up
• [34:36] How else do we need to change our approach to addressing climate change

• Activate
• Sublime Systems
• CalWave
• Fervo
• Project Red
• Noon Energy
• Sonera
• Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
• Cyclotron Road

• Connect with Cyrus on LinkedIn

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If you’re listening to this podcast you’ve probably heard of the Sierra Club. It’s one of the largest environmental organizations in the United States, with about 4 million members and a history of advocacy going back to 1892.

But what do you know about the Sierra Club Foundation? It’s a $200m organization that, as you’d guess, supports the Sierra Club. It also takes on ambitious initiatives to leverage its resources to protect the environment, transform the energy system, and more. One of those initiatives focuses on shifting trillions of dollars out of the fossil fuel economy. It’s a good example of the level of ambition of these organizations.

To learn more, I sat down with Dan Chu and Pedro Henriques Da Silva. Dan is the Executive Director of the Foundation. Pedro is the Director of the Shifting Trillions Program. We had a fascinating conversation about the history, role, and accomplishments of both organizations, the goals and strategy of the Shifting Trillions program, being a 21st-century fiduciary, the upcoming election, and much more. This episode will push your thinking about the role of the Sierra Club and environmental organizations more generally. Enjoy.

• [02:54] Background on Sierra Club
• [05:15] Sierra Club’s history & how the Foundation and Club are different
• [06:56] Size & funding of the organizations
• [08:09] Focus issue areas, how they are decided & how they inform capital allocation
• [10:23] Sierra Club Foundation & its broader role
• [12:37] The Shifting Trillions program & what it’s aiming to solve
• [13:54] The Foundation’s three roles & what it’s doing
• [18:21] How the roles of the Club & Foundation are distinct
• [22:36] What progress has been achieved so far with Shifting Trillions
• [23:57] Exciting goals being pursued
• [25:29] Progress & achievements that Dan has seen during his tenure
• [29:58] The state of the U.S. environmental nonprofit field
• [32:32] Support for climate through philanthropy
• [36:02] The importance of this election from an environmental perspective
• [39:02] Harnessing climate for young voter turnout

• Sierra Club
• Sierra Club Foundation
• Shifting Trillions
• ImpactAlpha Article by Pedro: Fiduciaries have a duty of care to their investors and to the world

• Connect with Dan on LinkedIn
• Connect with Pedro on LinkedIn

• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter

• Sign up for our

I know it’s wintertime for many of you, but that doesn’t mean we can ignore how cities around the world are heating up and how air conditioning is a growing contributor to climate change.

Air conditioning is responsible for about 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Today, about 20% of electricity used in buildings and about 10% of global electricity use comes from operating air conditioners. With cities heating up and more people able to afford this technology, air conditioning emissions are expected to double by 2030 and triple by 2050.

To understand this problem and some promising solutions, I sat down with Matthias Roth and Ran Roth. Matthias is a Professor of Geography and Urban Climatology at the University of Singapore. Ran is the Founder of Sensibo, a startup that’s using data and AI to improve the efficiency of air conditioners around the world. No family relation between the two Roths, but a shared interest in how cities are heating up and what we can do about it. We talk about urban heat islands, how cities are responding, the growth of air conditioning, Sensibo’s solution to making them smarter and more efficient, what else needs attention, and much more. Wherever you are, warm up and stay cool with this episode. Enjoy.

• [03:25] Matthias’ background & focus
• [05:10] Ran’s background & insights into his work
• [07:13] The impact of a heating planet on cities
• [10:28] Why cities heat up more than their surroundings
• [12:36] How cities are tackling urban heat challenges
• [14:20] Unpacking air conditioners' impact on climate
• [17:48] Sensibo's solution to growing AC issues
• [20:42] Sensibo's customers & scale
• [21:52] Impact metrics - saving energy on a large scale
• [23:35] The global rise in demand for air conditioning
• [25:24] Sensibo's role in curbing AC's environmental impact
• [27:54] Sensibo’s unique features - geofencing and more
• [29:32] The crucial role of AI in Sensibo's vision
• [31:22] High-tech excitement & limitations
• [36:12] Identifying gaps in current climate discussions

• University of Singapore
• Sensibo

• Connect with Matthias
• Connect with Ran on LinkedIn

• On LinkedIn
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