Carbon crypto coin | Women in Climate Tech funding | Conscious Culture Pledge
Plus, free clean energy startup course for 59,000 students, 4-day workweeks, and we become what we admire.
Good morning, folks.
Yeah, it’s time to bring out the shorts and frisbees!
Or wait, I don’t recognize this weather?
Yesterday it was 70 degrees in Durham, North Carolina.
On February 3rd — the average high is 52 degrees.
Gotta get more done!
Cheers,
Chris
Dear grandchildren, we need a carbon crypto coin.
Amazingly, four of the last six podcast guests at Entrepreneurs for Impact, mostly climate tech VC investors, have chosen this book as a top recommendation.
The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
Although I’m not a fiction reader — is that a “bug or feature?” — I just finished it via Audible on 1.5x speed. (Of course.)
In addition to making climate change of the future feel real today, the author — a prominent science fiction writer, not an economist — put forth the idea of a carbon coin to provide financial incentives to reduce greenhouse emissions.
His inspiration came from Dr. Delton Chen, Project Director of the Global Carbon Reward Initiative.
This Mashable article — How a coin for carbon could save the planet — summarizes that concept. Here are some highlights.
[It is] a Bitcoin-like currency that the Ministry gives out for carbon sequestration — that is, any project that sucks CO2 out of the air, whether it’s carbon capture or farmers rewilding their fields — at a rate of one coin to one ton.
Oil companies get coins if they stop being oil companies, basically, leaving their assets in the ground for a century or so.
Farmers in the developing world who’ve never heard of a VC could get the coin just for changing their agricultural practice or letting fields fall fallow.
The key point is that the world’s central banks agree to back it, buying Carbon Coins on a schedule that slowly raises their price.
Coins can then be bought and sold on currency exchanges like any other.
The planet-saving coin thus becomes the safest investment in history, even more so than U.S. Treasury bonds.
Note that Kim’s Carbon Coin is NOT the same as Stan, as “Carboncoin — already the name of a fly-by-night cryptocurrency, one of hundreds that fill the public spaces of the internet like spam.”
For similar letters to our future kids’ kids, check out Mashable’s series, Dear 22nd Century, with titles such as:
Welcome to Cloud City: The case for going to Venus, not Mars
How asteroid mining will save the Earth — and mint trillionaires
Women in Climate Tech — Anybody want to support its programs?
Women+ in Climate Tech (WiCT) is seeking program sponsors who believe that diversity is a driver of value and impact in climate tech.
Since its launch in January 2021, the group has experienced significant growth and now serves more than 1,000 subscribers and 600 members around the world.
Hosting monthly events, networking, a mentorship program, and special projects, WiCT helps members find careers in climate, matches funders with entrepreneurs, and spearheads programs that drive diversity in our field.
Connect with them for more information: julianne@benecomms.io
Free course on clean energy startups — 59,000 other students
If you or a friend is looking for a primer on entrepreneurship in solar, energy storage, or green real estate, here’s a free one that I teach via Coursera and Duke.
Sea levels — One foot higher by 2100
If you need a little fear to get the juices flowing, here it is.
“By the end of the century, global mean sea level is likely to rise at least one foot above 2000 levels, even if greenhouse gas emissions follow a relatively low pathway in coming decades.” — NOAA climate.gov
#OhSh*t #ClockIsTicking
I don’t like pessimism as a source of motivation. But I have found reality to be helpful.
We have to stay positive if we’re going to get to carbon negative.
4-day workweeks — Dumb idea?
Nope.
I’m not there right now. But in the summers, I am.
To show its growing popularity, over 400 businesses have signed up to Conscious Culture Pledge — “Bridging execution with Humanity” — where a big focus is a team that only works four days per week.
Below are the other commitments these companies are making.
I especially like #6, #7, and #8.
“As a Conscious Company, I commit to:
Putting the team’s health and well-being first.
Keeping standards for execution high, but fair.
Giving feedback frequently, consistently, and candidly.
Treating time with the company as one moment in a thriving career.
Making culture deliberate — and not accidental or afterthought.
Inviting all members of the team to embrace the mentality of a founder — which means giving them the ability to speak up, make decisions, and move forward.
Making work hours count in order to not have to count work hours.
Encouraging personality, fun, self-care, and a personal life — and not treating these as “sacrifices” to the altar of overwork.
Welcoming people of all personalities, backgrounds, beliefs, and philosophies.
Caring deeply about impact — both in what the company does for the world, and what it does for its people.”
And FWIW, the spark for this movement is Ryan Breslow, the Founder & Executive Chairman of Bolt, an online checkout payment company valued at $11B after the $355M they raised last month.
Oh, and he’s also the same Ryan that criticized Silicon Valley's “sacred cows” on Twitter and then stepped down (up?) from CEO to Chairman a little while later.
“When I grow up, I want to become myself.” — Huh?!
This is either…
A line that means nothing, drips with cringe, and emanates from the cheesiest self-help book in the world.
Or…
Wise words from our middle teenager as he pretended to freestyle rap over breakfast cleanup this morning.
You be the judge.
But as you judge, remember this other juicy nugget:
“We become what we admire.”
Is that me and my mission?
Or is it someone else’s?
[Insert tail between my own legs because I know it’s sometimes the latter.]
That’s all, y’all.
Make it a great week, because it’s usually a choice.
— Chris
P.S. “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
— Jiddu Krishnamurti: Indian philosopher, speaker, and writer (born 1985)
If you sometimes feel like the weirdo who’s building companies that solve social or environmental challenges, keep at it. You’re probably the healthy and sane one in the crowd.
—
Dr. Chris Wedding
Founder and Chief Catalyst, Entrepreneurs for Impact
The Only Private Executive Mastermind Community for CEOs, Founders, and Investors Fighting Climate Change
A nori token is already out there to be a carbon crypto. They li k buyers and sellers of carbon negative projects
There’s a carbon crypto coin- it’s called a nori token . They are voluntary but doing exactly what you talked about to trade carbon negative projects