#99: Carbon prices are up 4x in 2 years

Also, $1.1 trillion for low carbon infrastructure, brutal feedback, and why you could delete all team meetings

Feb 28, 2023

Good morning, folks.

In today’s 3-minute read, we’ll cover these 5 juicy nuggets below — as refreshing as that moment when you realized you didn’t need to have (or voice) an opinion on every topic under the sun. 🤯

Climate Startups & Investment

#1 — 🔥 The voluntary carbon market is heating up.
#2 — 💪 Want to get a job in climate tech?
#3 — ☀️ $1.1 trillion was invested in the low-carbon energy transition last year.

Productivity & Living the Good Life

#4 — 🛠 What’s the most brutal advice you could give me?
#5 — 🕒 Shopify just deleted team meetings and freed up 76,500 hours of productive time.

Onward and upward,

Chris

#1 — 🔥 The voluntary carbon market is heating up.

I know, bad pun.

And if you can’t read all the logos, no worries. I need reading glasses, too. 🤓

But just click to expand this market map from Puro.Earth and all its glory.

And with compliance carbon prices above 100 Euros/tonne now — up from 25 Euros in 2021 — it’s easy to understand why so many companies see a giant future TAM (total addressable market).

One day, many voluntary players could (will?) be compliance market players.

Here’s the 5-year trend on EU carbon prices from Trading Economics.

Thanks to Eric Wilburn, Head of Product at Earthshot Labs (finance ecological restoration projects) for sharing the market map with me.

#2 — 💪 Want to get a job in climate tech

Well, here’s your list!

In addition to the amazing folks behind these groups below, thanks to Guillaume de Dorlodot, founder of Startup Basecamp, for curating this list.

🚀 Climate Tech VC has a job board along with lots of other resources and insights into the sector.

🔺 Climate Draft is a coalition of climate tech startups and VCs. Most of their jobs are based in the US, but they do have wider reach into Europe.

🔬 Deep Tech Jobs 🧬 🚀 ♻️ is the UK and Europe’s leading source of Deep Tech companies and jobs.

💪 Terra.do is a community for those looking to transition into climate and provides job fairs and events for its members (membership is free)

🌏 MCJ Collective is an online community for those seeking to get into climate tech. They have a number of jobs with their portfolio companies

💼 Climate Jobs List focuses primarily on climate tech with jobs across the world and on every continent.

And don’t forget to check out Climatebase, too. 👍

Which job sites did we miss? Let me know with a LinkedIn post. 🙏

#3 — ☀️ $1.1 trillion was invested in the low-carbon energy transition last year.

That sounds like a lot, right?

And it’s a lot more than $849 billion last year.

So is it time to celebrate?

Not yet.

BloombergNEF states that the “world must invest an annual average of $4.5 trillion for the remainder of this decade in order to get on track under BNEF’s Net Zero Scenario.”

On a brighter note, here are some highlights from last year:

Renewable energy project investment hit a new record of $495 billion, 17% more than the prior year.
Electrified vehicles and infrastructure investment totaled $466 billion, 54% more than in 2021.
Geographic investment was dominated by China with $546 billion, followed by the EU at $180 billion, and the US at $141 billion.
Power grid investment added another $274 billion on top of the $1.1 trillion, much of it required to enable a smarter, cleaner grid.
Corporate investment also brought in $119 billion on top of the $1.1 trillion, in the form of public and private markets, but was down 39% year over year.

Share Entrepreneurs for Impact

// 🌎 Can I help you? //

If you’re a climate startup CEO (growth stage) or investor, you might find value in these two things I provide at Entrepreneurs for Impact.

Climate Masterminds — The #1 peer group community for growth-stage startup CEOs and investors fighting climate change. We share best practices, wins, challenges, and hard-earned wisdom. Capped at 36 members. Join the waitlist.
1:1 Executive Coaching — When we grow, our businesses grow. The bottleneck is often us, not other team members, capital, or customers. Capped at 5 CEOs or investors. Join the waitlist.

(Or you might already be an enlightened servant leader that has accomplished 100% of your personal and professional goals in life. If so, please come and teach me. 😇)

#4 — 🛠 What’s the most brutal advice you could give me?

Most folks don’t like advice.

When I was in private equity, a Managing Director once told me that I “bristled” upon hearing feedback. 😳

I wanted to insert the emoji for a scared porcupine here, but all I could find was a hedgehog. Not quite as bristly as I used to be. 🦔

I had another Managing Director tell me that I was “a self-starter to a fault.”

I took that as a confused compliment. 😜

Anyway, the pearl of wisdom in this post comes from one of my favorite podcasts below. Seriously big thinkers.

So, in your next 360 review with peers or managers, maybe try to run towards (not away) from feedback. 🔥

To make that easy for your reviewers, consider asking — “What’s the most brutal advice you could give me? #LoveYou”

#5 — 🕒 Shopify just deleted team meetings and freed up 76,500 hours of productive time.

That’s not a typo.

Below are the details from The Street.

[On January 3] Shopify CEO Kaz Nejatian announced that all previously scheduled recurring work meetings with three or more people would be removed from their calendars, and a two-week "cooling off" period would be enforced before any meetings could be scheduled.
Nejatian also announced that meeting-free Wednesdays would be reinstated and large meetings (50 people or more) would be limited to a six-hour window on Thursdays.
The deleted meetings clear up more than 76,500 hours from employee work calendars.

Should you cancel all team meetings?

Maybe not.

But “meet-less Wednesdays” and a rethink on recurring meetings might be worthwhile. 🧐

Also, “meat-less Wednesdays” could be a great idea. (Says the cow writing next to me.)

That’s all, y’all.

Make it a great week, because it’s usually a choice.

Cheers,