🌍 Climate investing for family offices (Issue #133)
Plus, what climate tech software means for an $80B VC investor, "Hanlon’s Razor" (don’t assume the worst), and that feeling that you're unwilling to feel.
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Today’s topics.
Report — Climate investing for family offices
POV — What climate tech software means for an $80B VC investor
Mental model — Hanlon’s Razor (Don’t assume the worst)
Mental fitness — What is the feeling you're unwilling to feel?
1.
Report: Climate investing for family offices
A frustrated founder once said:
“If you’ve met one family office, then you’ve met one family office.”
That is, they’re all different. It’s hard to find them and understand if your company aligns with their investment interests.
Thankfully, this new report from CREO — The Fundamentals of Climate Investing For Families — helps demystify things by describing five archetypes of families’ journey into climate investing.
Pages 17-27 are amazing and highlight:
Impact measurement
Risk profile
% overall AUM
Sector and asset class focus
Financial return expectations
Family alignment and control
Thanks to Jason Scott — Co-chair at CREO, Partner at Spring Lane Capital, and fellow climate finance adventurer for 17 years — who brought this report to my attention.
2.
POV: What climate tech software means for an $80B VC investor
Last week I chatted with Madeleine Goldberg, an investor at Insight Partners, about the influence of climate tech on their portfolio.
Her report is a great summary of that thinking — De-risking climate change with software: opportunities, challenges, and resources for innovation.
As an excerpt, consider how this legislative update below will make 1,000’s of additional companies (outside of climate tech) care about climate tech.
While the U.S. SEC’s upcoming climate disclosure rules have not been finalized yet, California lawmakers passed the first US mandatory emissions disclosure bill in September 2023 which should require about 5,000 companies earning over $1B annually to report not only their direct greenhouse gas emissions, but also their Scope 3 or indirect emissions (i.e. coming from employee business travel or upstream supply chain activities).
If the little ole’ $80B number caught your attention, then you’ll also want to know that their “investments range from $10-$15M Series A deals to $100M+ later-stage growth and majority deals.”
3.
Mental model: Hanlon’s Razor (Don’t assume the worst)
As I prepared my MBA students at UNC-Chapel Hill to travel to Ethiopia for some social entrepreneurship consulting with off-grid solar leader d.light, my fellow UNC professor Tim Flood gave this sage advice:
“When you encounter ambiguity in language or culture, assume the best.”
Hanlon’s Razor is a variant. And it requires a rewiring of our internal voice and our negativity bias.
“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by neglect.”
Or by incompetency, lack of preparation, and a LONG list of less nefarious reasons.
Assume the best. (Unless you’re certain the other person is out to get you.)
4.
Mental fitness: What is the feeling you're unwilling to feel?
We all wear metaphorical horse blinders and football pads, trying to avoid hard conversations or painful memories.
But if we answer this question honestly, we might find the growth we’re seeking.
This teaching comes from a Buddhist teacher and contender for the “most calming voice ever recorded on a podcast,” Tara Brach. Check her out.
🙏 Share this newsletter with a friend.
Because we need more folks waving the climate tech flag.
That’s all, y’all.
Make it a great week because it’s usually a choice.
~ Chris
Founder @ Entrepreneurs for Impact
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P.S. Over 100,000 CEOs are members of CEO peer groups. Are you? Check out our community for climate tech CEOs at Entrepreneurs for Impact.
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(As these photos show, I’m an actual human writing this newsletter. Not AI. 🤖)
