🌎 7 ways AI is a climate champion vs. climate killer
💪 Do hard things this year. ✅ Pessimist? Optimist? Who cares. 🎙️ $30M for AI-powered grid management (#181)
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I share lessons from working with 300 climate tech CEOs and investors—plus 25 years of meditation practice—to help people fight climate change profitably and, who knows, maybe even enjoy life a little more. 😅
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Today’s topics:
🤖 7 ways AI is a climate champion vs. climate killer
🎙️ Podcast — $30M of VC capital for AI-powered grid management in 30 countries with millions of customers served
💪 Do hard things this year. Here’s why.
✅ Pessimist? Optimist? Who cares. Just do something.
1.
🤖 7 ways that AI is a climate champion vs. climate killer
We’ve all read the scary predictions:
AI’s massive power demand will erase corporate net zero goals faster than a teenager’s browsing history before mom borrows the laptop.
But here are seven ways AI might be a welcomed collaborator instead.
1. Precision Energy Management
AI can slash commercial building energy use by > 15%. (source)
Examples:
AutoGrid balances supply/demand, turning waste into revenue.
Google DeepMind cut data center cooling costs by 40% via machine learning.
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2. Smart Agriculture & Crop Optimization
AI can boost crop yields by up to 20%, reducing water and fertilizer. (source)
Examples:
Taranis uses AI and high res imagery to protect crop health.
FarmWise uses AI-driven robots to weed without herbicides.
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3. AI-Enhanced Carbon Capture & Storage
Machine learning can improve carbon capture efficiency by 10-30%. (source)
Examples:
Climeworks refines direct air capture with data analytics.
Carbon Clean optimizes solvents using AI, thereby cutting costs.
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4. AI-Driven Supply Chain Optimization
Waste can be reduced when supply chains see 15-65% improved efficiency. (source)
Examples:
Flexport streamlines freight, minimizing empty cargo space.
Project44 tracks shipments in real-time, slashing delays and fuel use.
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5. Automated Waste Sorting & Recycling
AI-powered systems boost recycling recovery rates by 2-3x. (source)
Examples:
AMP Robotics uses computer vision to sort recyclables quickly.
ZenRobotics tackles construction and demolition waste via AI.
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6. Climate Risk Analysis & Insurance
73% of carriers say AI models can help to manage climate-related losses better. (source)
Examples:
Jupiter Intelligence models flood, fire, and sea-level threats.
Climate X quantifies climate-related financial risks.
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7. AI-Verified Carbon Offsets & Reforestation
Satellite-based AI can reduce carbon removal accounting costs by > 40%. (source)
Examples:
Pachama tracks forest growth to confirm carbon absorption.
Sylvera rates carbon offset projects, ensuring transparency.
🎯 So what?
Instead of trying to put the genie back in the bottle — about as likely as me doing a beautiful ballet dance in a sparkly pink tutu — we should make friends with AI.
Consider its power below. Surely, it’s a “team member” that’s hard to ignore.
Knowledge equal in scale to 200 million books
IQ of 120-140 (top 1% of human brain power)
Analytical speed of [1 to 15] seconds
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2.
🎙️ Podcast — $30M of VC capital for AI-powered grid management in 30 countries with millions of customers served
Daniel Schnitzer, CEO of SparkMeter, was my guest on a recent Entrepreneurs for Impact (EFI) podcast.
Dan has raised $30M to harness AI for smarter power grid management in 30 countries with millions of customers served.
SparkMeter offers grid-management solutions that enable utilities worldwide to run profitable, efficient, and reliable systems.
Their investors include mutual friends at Clean Energy Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and Elemental Impact.
Dan's experience includes work at DNV GL and a PhD in engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon.
✅ In this podcast, you’ll learn these four important takeaways from Dan.
How an 8th-grade science project and a trip to Haiti laid the foundation for this company
Why they chose to build solutions involving hardware, software, and communications instead of just one or two of those pieces
How their structured customer discovery channeled 75 utility executive interviews into the formation of their new product offering
Why we shouldn’t wait for a crisis to start building health relationships with mindfulness and therapy tools like IFS
🎯 So what?
Listen to the episode and share your thoughts on my LinkedIn post.
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3.
💪 Do hard things this year. Here’s why.
No, this is not some pep talk from a sweaty grade school basketball coach who just read the latest self-help book from a garage sale.
If what we’re doing now feels hard, there are two interpretations.
We’re doing it wrong — Find a new way. For example, trying to do too much because we’re afraid of hurting someone’s fragile little feelings by saying, “No, I can’t take that on right now. I have other commitments.”
We’re building a moat — Maybe we’re blazing a path that leaves a trail of fire for our competitors to walk through. We reach the promised land first while they’re still wrestling with the web of three-inch thorns we trekked through years ago.
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To get some inspiration, check out the Japanese practice of misogi.
It’s a traditional Shinto ritual that involves standing under a mountain waterfall, allowing the ice-cold water to purify the body and mind.
The modern interpretation is doing something memorable, something that seems impossible, something with a 50/50 chance of working out.
Examples might include:
A multi-day silent retreat
Running a marathon
Fasting for 24 hours every two weeks
Making a solo backpacking trip
Learning a new language to navigate a foreign country for two weeks
🎯 So what?
What hard thing will you choose this year?
Not because you “have to” but because you “get to.”
(Insert cheesy 1980s music from the closing scene of a heart-warming film aimed at boosting youth confidence.)
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4.
✅ Pessimist? Optimist? Who cares. Just do something.
I woke up in a funk last week.
I had no desire to go to the gym, sit in the sauna, freeze in the cold shower, meditate, or start work like a caffeinated tiger.
Maybe it was the morning news I had listened to.
Or the struggles I know that so many climate founders are going through.
Or realizing that our youngest child will start high school next year.
Then I remembered this quote from Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia and author of Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant.
“There's no difference between a pessimist who says, ‘It's all over, don't bother trying to do anything, forget about voting, it won't make a difference,' and an optimist who says, 'Relax, everything is going to turn out fine.' Either way, the results are the same. Nothing gets done.”
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After a seven-second hug* from my wife, I lifted heavy things at the YMCA (i.e., weights, not post-election feelings), sweat like a CEO with a month of runway, and got the F**** to work.
🎯 So what?
Get inspired to be a more adventurous, authentic leader. Check out other quotes from Yvon’s book:
“The goal of climbing big, dangerous mountains should be to attain some sort of spiritual and personal growth, but this won’t happen if you compromise away the entire process.”
“At Patagonia, making a profit is not the goal because the Zen master would say profits happen 'when you do everything else right'.”
“Uncurious people do not lead examined lives; they cannot see causes that lie deeper than the surface.”
“A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing.”
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* The minimum effective trigger to release oxytocin, a hormone that brings trust, calmness, and creativity. Romantic, I know.
** That’s “freak.” Get your mind out of the gutter.
🌎 How else can I help you?
Climate CEO peer group: Capped at 100 people, representing $40B of value or assets under management. Don’t be so “lonely at the top.” No one understands CEOs like other CEOs. Find your tribe here. Join the waiting list today.
Executive coaching with me: I serve as a private thought partner to 2-3 CEOs, investors, or post-exit founders at a time. We cover business and personal opportunities for growth.
Apply at our website: www.entrepreneursforimpact.com
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High fives and such,
Chris