Inevitable

an MCJ podcast

Join Cody Simms each week as he engages with experts across disciplines to explore innovations driving the transition of energy and industry. Inevitable is an MCJ podcast. This show was formerly known as 'My Climate Journey.'

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Top 10 Inevitable Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Inevitable episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Inevitable for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Inevitable episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

David Roberts, Volts

Inevitable

10/10/22 • 75 min

Today’s guest is David Roberts, aka Dr. Volts, who runs the Volts newsletter and podcast.

David has been reporting on and explaining clean energy topics for almost 20 years. He talks to politicians, analysts, innovators, activists, and more about the latest progress in the world's most important fight. David’s work is deeply researched and an invaluable resource for people who want a better understanding of what a clean energy transition and viable future could look like. And he isn’t afraid to share his strongly held opinions.

In this conversation, Jason learns more about David’s background, his views on the issue and how they’ve evolved throughout his career. They discuss some of the fundamental politics ingrained in climate, and some of the solutions that are accelerating our transition away from fossil fuels. There’s a lot of insight packed into this episode and we hope you enjoy it.

In this episode, we cover:

[4:49] How David got involved in journalism and climate
[9:10] His thoughts on the climate issue early in his career and how they've evolved
[13:54] How concerned he thinks people should be
[23:32] Approaching solutions to climate that also solve other issues
[27:25] Importance of celebrating small victories to motivate future progress
[34:37] David's optimism for a clean energy future
[44:16] The human need to feel some sense of control and how that impacts their views on climate
[54:07] U.S. journalism today
[57:54] Intersection between environmentalism and climate
[1:01:03] David's thoughts on tech and how it’s approaching clean energy
[1:05:02] Speed round including solar geoengineering, nuclear, carbon capture, offsets, and more

Get connected:
Jason's Twitter
Dr. Volts Twitter
MCJ Podcast Twitter
MCJ Collective Twitter

*You can also reach us via email at [email protected], where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Episode recorded on September 23, 2022.

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Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at [email protected].

2 Listeners

Startup Series: Open Forest Protocol

Inevitable

01/13/22 • 45 min

Today's guests are Fred Fournier, Co-Founder & CEO, and Michael Kelly, Co-Founder & CPO of Open Forest Protocol.

Open Forest Protocol (OFP) is on a mission to accelerate the global response to climate change via nature-based solutions. The startup is building a product that will allow reforestation and afforestation projects, conservation organizations, and forest managers to easily measure, report, and verify environmental data from their land. The current MRV landscape is expensive and inaccessible, inhibiting the establishment of a global carbon economy. Open Forest Protocol has built a system for accessible and transparent forest MRV, laying the foundation for an accelerated response to humanity's greatest existential threat.

Before OFP, Fred co-founded ON A MISSION, a non-profit organization enabling businesses and individuals to invest in local, sustainable reforestation projects to compensate for carbon emissions. Fred and his team at ON A MISSION discovered that measuring, recording, and verifying (MRV) reforestation was difficult. At the same time, Michael was focusing on designing a protocol to track and verify things like tress using blockchain technology. So in October 2020, Fred and Michael co-founded Open Forest Protocol and continued their work to decarbonize and reforest the planet.

In this episode, I'm joined by Michael and Fred of OFP. We dive into Open Forest Protocol's approach, why marrying blockchain and reforestation will bring us into the clean future, and how Fred and Michael co-founded OFP. We also talk about the existing carbon verification and certification landscape, OFP's community fund, and an overview of NEAR. This is a great episode if you're interested in learning more about web3 and climate change.

Enjoy the show!
You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.
Episode recorded January 4th, 2022
To learn more about Open Forest Protocol, visit: https://www.openforestprotocol.org/

To learn more about this episode, visit: https://myclimatejourney.co/ctss-episodes/open-forest-protocol

Stay Connected with MCJ:

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at [email protected].

2 Listeners

Startup Series: Wattbuy

Inevitable

09/09/21 • 44 min

Today's guest is Naman Trivedi, Co-Founder & CEO of WattBuy.
Naman Trivedi is the Co-Founder & CEO of WattBuy. He founded the company to help millions of Americas choose cheaper, greener electricity plans and advance the global transition to a clean energy economy. WattBuy provides transparent, intelligent insights for homeowners & renters, helping them save upwards of 40% on electricity bills, select renewable energy plans, and gain a deeper understanding of their home's energy use. Prior to co-founding WattBuy, Naman worked at the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, pushing a policy initiative for Community Choice Aggregation. This system aggregates the buying power of individuals in a neighborhood to purchase renewable energy supply contracts. He also spent two years at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Obama Administration, working on federal renewable energy policy and grand prizes.
In this episode, Naman gives me an overview of WattBuy, why their work addresses climate change, and what motivates consumers to use WattBuy. We also talk about how WattBuy builds trust amongst its customers, the barriers WattBuy faces as the startup looks to scale, and a discussion on how to increase home sustainability consulting. It was great to learn more about WattBuy and have Naman join me this week.
Enjoy the show!
You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.
Episode recorded August 11th, 2021
To learn more about Wattbuy, visit: https://wattbuy.com/
To learn more about this episode, visit: https://myclimatejourney.co/ctss-episodes/orbillion

Stay Connected with MCJ:

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at [email protected].

2 Listeners

Startup Series: Toucan

Inevitable

12/09/21 • 75 min

Today's guests are Raphaël Haupt, Co-Founder & CEO, and James Farrell, Co-Founder & CTO, of Toucan Protocol.
Toucan aims to build a regenerative financial system — one that nurtures the beauty of the Earth rather than exploiting it. They are leading the way in discovering how the open internet can help tackle climate change. Earlier this year, Raphaël and James rebranded and launched Toucan Protocol, public infrastructure for carbon markets running on open blockchains. While the co-creators plan to start with carbon markets, their vision is much bigger: they intend to kickstart a regenerative finance ecosystem based on Web3 technologies and values to make DeFi work for the planet (DeFi stands for “decentralized finance”, it’s a new global financial ecosystem running on public blockchains like Ethereum). In February 2020, Raphaël and James hacked together CO2ken, a prototype carbon offsetting system for Ethereum. Since then they joined the Blockchain For Social Impact incubator and were awarded a grant by Polygon to deploy the Toucan Protocol on the network.
In the episode, Raphaël and James explain what ReFi is, the origination of Toucan, and a brief overview of Web3. We also dive into why they are applying ReFi's key principles to carbon markets, the existing carbon market and the problems associated with it, and the role Toucan plays in addressing the climate crisis. Raphaël and James are excellent guests with a wealth of knowledge about Web3 and ReFi.
Enjoy the show!
You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.
Episode recorded December 1st, 2021
To learn more about Toucan, visit: https://toucan.earth/
To learn more about this episode, visit: https://myclimatejourney.co/ctss-episodes/toucan

Stay Connected with MCJ:

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at [email protected].

1 Listener

China’s Role in the Global Energy Transition

Inevitable

07/10/23 • 49 min

Dr. Scott Moore is the director of China Programs at the University of Pennsylvania, and the author of the book, China's Next Act: How Sustainability and Technology are Reshaping China's Rise and the World's Future.

China is a complicated climate topic: on the one hand, China is the largest solar energy producer in the world and has the largest EV industry in the world, each of which rose from being nearly non-existent 15 years ago. On the other hand, China generates more than 60% of its electricity from coal and is the world's largest annual emitter of greenhouse gases.

Scott and Cody cover a lot of ground, including how the Chinese economic and political system operates, how the solar and EV industries came to be, China's climate policies, global commitments, and the country's current climate, tech and innovation priorities. Given China's role and impact in just about everything, we probably should do another 100 or more MCJ episodes on topics related to China. Hopefully this initial primer can help us all get oriented.

In this episode, we cover:

[02:36]: Scott's background and climate journey
[06:08]: An overview of China's economy and its "two big bets"
[08:11]: The nationalist, protectionist, and authoritarian approach to policy in China
[10:24]: An overview of target-setting and policymaking
[14:55]: The role of "corporate innovation parks" and local government in innovation
[17:47]: China's role in technological development versus deployment
[19:53]: Four big factors that led China to go all in on solar PV manufacturing
[26:00]: The emergence of the EV industry
[29:15]: Two distinct advantages China has in the clean tech ecosystem
[30:38]: China's current energy mix
[32:38]: The country’s emissions sources and intensity
[35:35]: China’s two headline policy goals regarding emissions
[38:19]: The country's compliance carbon market, the China Emissions Trading Scheme
[39:39]: Entrepreneurial activity and emerging tech innovation in China
[43:48]: China's current climate tech priorities, including hydrogen and thorium fission
[45:16]: Scott's thoughts on competition and cooperation during the global energy transition

Get connected:
Dr. Scott Moore Twitter / LinkedIn
Cody Simms Twitter / LinkedIn
MCJ Podcast / Collective

*You can also reach us via email at [email protected], where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Episode recorded on June 2, 2023 (released on July 10, 2023)

Stay Connected with MCJ:

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at [email protected].

1 Listener

Capital Series: John Tough, Energize Capital

Inevitable

09/13/23 • 55 min

This episode is part of our new Capital Series hosted by Jason Jacobs. This series explores a diverse range of capital sources and the individuals who drive them. From family offices and institutional LPs to private equity, government funding, and more, we take a deep dive into the world of capital and its critical role in driving innovation and progress.

John Tough is Managing Partner at Energize Capital, a leading climate software investor. Energize partners with best-in-class innovators to accelerate the sustainability transition, and they have both an early-stage traditional venture vehicle as well as a growth vehicle.

In this episode, Jason and John delve into the firm's origins and John's motivations for co-founding it. They explore his early career at Kleiner Green Growth and his pivotal role as employee number three at Choose Energy. The discussion also covers Energize's approach, LP composition, evolution, and the alignment between LPs and the venture and growth vehicles.

They then examine the shifting macro environment's impact on LP investments in climate tech, company criteria, check sizes, leadership roles, diligence procedures, thesis-driven aspects, and the comprehensive post-company support offered by Energize.

In this episode, we cover:

[02:34]: The origin story of Energize Capital (formally Energize Ventures)
[07:26]: John's insights from being both a VC and an entrepreneur
[09:01]: His decision to anchor in the Midwest
[12:35]: Launching an early-stage venture firm
[15:30]: The pitch to GMs
[17:34]: Impact and thesis-driven vs. opportunistic approaches
[19:53]: Traditional venture vs. growth strategies
[22:31]: Energize Capital's current thesis
[25:15]: Value for founders working with Energize
[27:28]: LP base evolution
[30:43]: Tailored corporate engagement strategy
[31:59]: John's answer to "why software only?"
[35:55]: Current climate tech observations the role of international deal flow
[40:28]: Current (late 2023) LP sentiment amidst market uncertainty
[44:39]: Rise of dedicated institution-based climate capital pools
[46:38]: Energize Capital’s evaluation criteria
[50:42]: Controllable and uncontrollable factors in this space
[52:59]: Who John and Energize want to hear from

Get connected:

Jason Jacobs X / LinkedIn
John Tough X / LinkedIn
MCJ Podcast / Collective

*You can also reach us via email at [email protected], where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Episode recorded on Aug 16, 2023 (aired on Sep 13, 2023)

Stay Connected with MCJ:

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at [email protected].

1 Listener

Capital Series: Temple Fennell, Clean Energy Ventures

Inevitable

06/28/23 • 57 min

Temple Fennell is the Co-founder and Managing Partner at Clean Energy Ventures, an early-stage venture firm that funds disruptive capital-light technologies and business model innovations that can reshape how we produce and consume energy.

Temple has been investing in climate tech (or "Cleantech" as it used to be called) for a long time, and has the learnings to show for it. This episode covers the origin story of Clean Energy Ventures, their approach, the mix of limited partners that back their fund, and their criteria for investment from an impact standpoint and a financial standpoint. A broader discussion follows about the climate tech capital stack, some of the learnings from Cleantech 1.0, why Temple believes this time is different, the state of institutional capital as it relates to climate tech fund investing, as well as what it will take to get more capital flowing in this direction.

In this episode, we cover:

[02:56]: Origins and overview of Clean Energy Ventures
[04:50]: Distinction between Clean Energy Venture Group (CEVG) and Clean Energy Venture Fund
[07:20]: Temple's background, family investments, and the clean energy space in Charlottesville, VA
[11:11]: Overview of CREO (Clean Energy Renewable Environment Opportunities) syndicate
[13:25]: Key learnings from Cleantech 1.0
[18:15]: CEVG check sizes, portfolio, and support for entrepreneurs
[20:01]: History of CEVG's fund one and their use of SPVs (special purpose vehicles)
[22:12]: Current investment focus and fund status
[25:59]: Approach to impact measurement
[30:20]: Approach to financial returns and causal link to impact
[31:19]: Approach to selecting LPs
[34:15]: Pension fund hesitance due to previous losses in Cleantech 1.0
[38:18]: Why Cleantech 1.0 failed and how this time is different
[41:02]: How limited DPI (distributed paid-in capital) poses challenges in attracting institutional investors
[43:23]: Pricing, exit analysis, and the need for top decile returns
[46:17]: State of the broader market vs. climate tech market, risk assessments, and team dynamics
[48:56]: Gaps and opportunities in the capital stack, preference for capital-light companies, and importance of milestones
[52:21]: Who Temple wants to hear from
[54:58]: Closing thoughts on the differences between "Tech-tech" and Cleantech

Resources mentioned:

Get connected:
Temple Fennell Twitter / LinkedIn
Jason Jacobs
MCJ Podcast / Collective

*You can also reach us via email at [email protected], where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Episode recorded on May 26, 2023 (released on June 28, 2023)

Stay Connected with MCJ:

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at [email protected].

1 Listener

Startup Series: Prime Roots

Inevitable

02/03/22 • 51 min

Today's guest is Kimberlie Le, CEO & Co-Founder of Prime Roots.
Kimberlie a scientist-entrepreneur-foodie and life-long learner determined to make positive changes in our global food system. Kim has been working in management within the food industry (retail, food service, investing) for over ten years and is determined to bring delicious, sustainable, and nutritious foods to the masses and increase accessibility and equity in our food system. She's a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley.
Prime Roots is a plant-based meat and seafood company creating better products for you and better for the world. Headquartered in Berkeley, California, Prime Roots is committed to positively influencing our food culture and reducing the hefty environmental impact of meat. Their delicious plant-based meat and seafood products are made using proprietary methods that combine cutting-edge technology with ancient techniques - resulting in better tasting and naturally textured market alternatives that avoid using hyper-processing techniques used by other meat alternative companies.
In this episode, Kim and I explore her path from her PhD to founding a startup, key priorities for Prime Roots over the next 12 months, and the barriers to creating and marketing a product heavily influenced by taste. We also discuss the various alternative meat bases, advice Kim has for founders and entrepreneurs looking to follow a similar path in sustainable food, and the startup's sources of capital to date. Kim is a great guest.
Enjoy the show!
You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.
Episode recorded January 24th, 2022
To learn more about Prime Roots, visit: https://www.primeroots.com/
To learn more about this episode, visit: https://myclimatejourney.co/ctss-episodes/prime-roots

Stay Connected with MCJ:

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at [email protected].

1 Listener

Capital Series: Rob Day, Spring Lane Capital

Inevitable

07/05/23 • 57 min

Rob Day is Partner and Co-founder at Spring Lane Capital.

Spring Lane Capital provides hybrid project capital with equity for small-scale systems and projects across food, water, energy, transportation, and waste markets. They also bring experienced tools and capabilities to help developers and entrepreneurs succeed with their project deployments.

Rob has been around the block in climate tech even before it got its name, and he’s learned a lot of useful lessons. Not to mention, Spring Lane has an innovative approach that plays in the capital gap, that so many people talk about between early-stage venture capital and project finance.

In this episode, we cover:

[2:36] An overview of Spring Lane Capital and the firm's origin story
[4:49] The large gap between venture capital and project finance
[8:05] Spring Lane Capital's broad approach to different areas of climate
[10:52] Capitalizing early-stage companies, scaling, and the role of equity and debt
[13:42] Advice for entrepreneurs thinking about different types of capital at various stages of a company's lifecycle
[16:06] Triggers for founders to understand when equity is optimal vs debt (Rob's Atlas Organics example)
[22:22] How terms vary with Spring Lane Capital's deals vs more traditional lenders
[24:43] Where first-of-a-kind (FOAK) projects fit in
[30:41] Spring Lane Capital's fund two and its institutional investors
[33:19] Skillsets required to be successful in Spring Lane's capital allocation
[38:23] Success milestones and Spring Lane's role
[40:46] Changing macroeconomics and their impact on Spring Lane's corner of the industry
[43:48] Spring Lane's process, key steps, diligence, etc.
[50:17] Issues with financing FOAK projects and Spring Lane's plans to address them

Get connected:
Jason Jacobs Twitter / LinkedIn
Rob Day Twitter / LinkedIn
MCJ Podcast / Collective

*You can also reach us via email at [email protected], where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Episode recorded on Jun 14, 2023 (aired on July 5, 2023)

Stay Connected with MCJ:

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at [email protected].

1 Listener

Startup Series: Regrow

Inevitable

06/29/23 • 51 min

Anastasia Volkova is the CEO and Co-founder of Regrow, which was named Fast Company's number one most innovative company in agriculture in 2023. They empower the world's largest brands such as Kellogg's, Cargill and General Mills to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across their supply chains. Their product began as a data and analytics offering to agronomists and farmers to help build a localized growing roadmap, identifying what crops to plant, what fertilizer and other inputs to use, how much of it to use, and an irrigation plan. By building this roadmap for growers, Regrow realized that it could then help food brands and processors have a much deeper knowledge of how the food they source is grown. Beyond expertise, Regrow's product helps companies proactively lower their supply chain emissions by incentivizing best practices across their grower network.

In this conversation, Anastasia traces her journey from starting Regrow to the company it has become and discusses the agricultural practices that can make the biggest difference in emissions mitigation. The company raised a Series B of financing last year from Galvanized Climate Solutions among others, and is a leader in driving regenerative agriculture practice changes at scale.

In this episode, we cover:

[02:30]: Anastasia's personal climate journey
[04:43]: Discovering the potential of satellite imagery for agriculture during her PhD
[07:24]: Agronomists' crucial role as "crop doctors"
[10:05]: Regrow's initial focus on providing agronomists with data
[10:40]: How satellite imagery fits into Regrow's software
[13:10]: Regrow’s product evolution
[15:38]: Lack of visibility as the main challenge in understanding the agri-food supply chain
[17:08]: Deep dive into the nuances of Regrow's product
[19:30] Regrow's business model: Brands paying farmers for emission reductions
[23:48]: The agri-food industry's significant contribution (31%) to global emissions
[26:52]: Key emissions factors on farms, including machinery and synthetic nitrogen fertilizers
[32:08]: Topsoil degradation and the regenerative agriculture movement
[39:04]: Challenges with creating a carbon credit methodology around soil organic carbon
[43:41]: Systemic challenges to scaling regenerative agriculture
[45:09]: The need for financing the transition to regenerative practices
[47:09]: Predictions for upcoming farm bills
[48:04]: What's next for Regrow
[49:34]: Who Anastasia wants to hear from and career opportunities at Regrow

Resources mentioned:

Kiss the Ground Documentary

Get connected:
Anastasia Volkova LinkedIn
Cody Simms Twitter / LinkedIn
MCJ Podcast / Collective

*You can also reach us via email at [email protected], where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Episode recorded on Jun 15, 2023 (aired Jun 28, 2023)

Stay Connected with MCJ:

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at [email protected].

1 Listener

Show more best episodes

FAQ

How many episodes does Inevitable have?

Inevitable currently has 538 episodes available.

What topics does Inevitable cover?

The podcast is about Tech, Venture Capital, Climate, Climate Change, Podcasts, Technology and Business.

What is the most popular episode on Inevitable?

The episode title 'Startup Series: Open Forest Protocol' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Inevitable?

The average episode length on Inevitable is 51 minutes.

How often are episodes of Inevitable released?

Episodes of Inevitable are typically released every 3 days, 23 hours.

When was the first episode of Inevitable?

The first episode of Inevitable was released on May 7, 2019.

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Comments

Mike_ProdEx_cohost

@mikealcazaren

Apr 12