June 26th, 2020
It’s been a historic month.
A month of heartbreak, change and a massive outpouring of support and solidarity for racial equality and justice following the tragic and racially motivated deaths of George Floyd and many others such as Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and Atatiana Jefferson at the hands of police.
In the past month, protests have led to much-needed reform nationwide. On June 7th, the Minneapolis City Council pledged to dismantle and rebuild the city’s police department. On June 8th, Democrats in Congress introduced a police reform bill that would bring major changes to policing across the country. On June 14th, three big California police unions - Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Jose - introduced reforms. On June 11th, Louisville passed Breonna’s Law, which bans no-knock warrants in honor of Breonna Taylor.
In solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement for police reform and accountability, we participated in our local peaceful protests against police brutality and racism.
Consider the disparate treatment of African Americans and people of color by the police and similarly, the disproportionately damaging effects of environmental impacts on our communities of color. While the transition to clean energy universally benefits us globally, improvements in air quality will boost the quality of life of those who live near industrial sites, who are often people of color, says Elizabeth Yeampierre, co-chair of the Climate Justice Alliance. While we continue to rally against racial injustice, we must continue to push simultaneously for climate solutions to alleviate the impacts of climate change on disadvantaged and frontline communities that disproportionately bear these environmental burdens.
Some positivity for the planet
In celebration of World Oceans Day on June 6th, below is a round-up of innovative companies tackling clean mobility on the waves.
When we think about clean mobility, we often think of electric cars, trucks, buses and airplanes. Now, we have electric boats too, thanks to innovative companies like X Shore which makes high-speed electric boats that provide a new, cleaner way to ride the waves. X Shore recently raised 5 million euros of funding and plans to further expand in Europe.
Credit: X Shore
French clean boat maker, Sea Bubbles makes an electric hydrofoil water taxi described as a “James Bond car, available for everybody, but with zero wave, zero noise, zero CO2 emission.” Seabubbles aims to deploy its environmentally friendly water taxis to 50 cities in the next few years, and we can’t wait to ride one!
Credit: SeaBubbles
When we think about how much we depend on our oceans, we want to thank the people at Surfrider, who have been working for decades to protect and preserve our oceans, waves and beaches. Surfrider’s citizen scientists and advocates are doing important work, especially since the U.S. government has proposed cutting funding for the EPA and NOAA. Anyone can join Surfrider’s more than 150 ocean protection campaigns.
Credit: Surfrider Foundation
Investing In Our Future
Even amid these unprecedented crises, large corporations like Amazon have set a goal to reach “net zero” carbon emissions by 2040 with the announcement of the Climate Pledge Fund, designed to invest in companies in the transportation, energy generation, battery storage, manufacturing and food and agriculture sectors.
Clean Energy Ventures Co-Founder and Managing Director David Miller was recently featured in the GreenBiz 350 podcast, discussing how climate tech companies can measure their emission-reduction potential.
U.S. companies that make plant-based replacements for meat, eggs and dairy did well in Q1’20, raising $741M, just $6M less than the sector raised during all of 2019, according to The Good Food Institute.
Governments are getting into the act, with the UK government launching a 45 million pound “Clean Growth Fund” to help startups supercharge development of clean energy and low-carbon technologies. The fund, expected to grow to 100 million pounds by next year, is part of the UK’s initiative to reach net-zero carbon by 2050. Meanwhile, the European Union is moving ahead with the world’s most climate-ambitious stimulus package, including tens of billions of euros for clean hydrogen and other clean energies, as part of a multi-trillion euro spending package.
Meanwhile, investors poured a record $12.2 billion into socially and environmentally responsible companies during the first four months of 2020, more than double the amount invested in the same period a year ago, according to Morningstar and The Wall Street Journal. ESG funds have done better this year than their non-ESG counterparts, Morningstar says - good news for investors and the environment.
Climate tech investing isn’t just for the wealthy and well-connected. Anyone can invest in sustainability startups by joining crowdfunding climate tech investment funds such as GoMassive or funding individual companies like solar + battery nanogrid provider YouSolar on StartEngine. Another fund, Decarbon8 recently launched by angel investors in Seattle with a different setup: People make tax-deductible donations, rather than invest, to help very early-stage climate-tech startups get off the ground.
It’s heartening to see investors step up to provide critical funding for climate tech and mission-driven companies working to preserve the planet and make our lives better.
We continue to remain diligent in highlighting these stories of hope and fighting for the planet and its people.
“There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.”- Audre Lord
Mission Control Communications
San Francisco, CA
United States
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mc² tectonic shifts: hope during COVID-19 …
We hope you are all staying safe during this difficult time.
As always, we are grateful to be part of a sector that, above all else, is focused on mission-based efforts. We’d like to shine a light on how our climate-tech portfolio is pivoting to support communities during COVID-19.
We hope they inspire you as much as they inspire us.
p.s. Take a few minutes to view this weekend’s breakout video which encapsulates our sentiment’s exactly. Hindsight 2020, indeed.
Tamar Robotics shows a swift installation in a Jerusalem Corona Ward of its COVID-19 ventilation system.
Just few of the COVID-19 efforts from our amazing clients:
Tamar Robotics: Within a week of COVID-19 hitting Israel, Tamar Robotics formed a new division to design and deployed its non-invasive Greenhouse Hood to protect medical teams and patients in hospitals from infection.
Clean Energy Ventures: In an open letter on March 24, Clean Energy Ventures, along with 26 additional VCs and 14 non-investor supporters, pledged to continue to seek out and invest in promising early-stage organizations amidst the impacts of COVID-19.
G2VP: Carbon and Fictiv are 3D printing companies within the portfolio of sustainable investment fund G2VP. The companies have stopped everything they're doing to support COVID-related efforts: Carbon is now focused on test swabs for patient sampling and PPE face shields, with Fictiv also producing face shields. Both companies have altered designs to increase production volumes, and are partnering with a number of other organizations.
Elemental Excelerator: With the closing of their recent round of applications for their ninth cohort, Elemental has committed to continue investing in climate tech startups during these turbulent times. For the safety of all, Elemental has moved its annual Interactive Day online, allowing portfolio companies to demonstrate their progress to investors remotely.
With global shelter in place orders established, we wanted to share how members of the mc2 team are staying sane during this time.
Account Supervisor Connie Zhang just installed these floating shelves as part of her home decoration kick.
Account Executive Margaret Mouat has “brushed” the dust off her acrylic paints
and has been working out virtually with friends.
CEO Caroline Venza baked up some delicious banana bread with a twist.
Account Executive Gavin Li has been spending lots of quality time with his cat, Tuna.
Senior Account Executive Liz Walker has been enjoying the outdoors with her pup Sox in Chicago.
Account Director Cassandra Sweet has been seeing signs of encouragement in surprising places in San Francisco.
We continue to remain diligent in highlighting these stories of hope and the team looks forward to seeing you in the near future.
We admit it.
We get a rush (and serious satisfaction) from supporting the startups that are shaping our future. From the electrification of every flavor of mobility (yes, even planes and satellites) to the deeptech breakthroughs that are bringing us better food, water and resources, our team here at mc² is predicting that this new year, this new decade, will belong to the global class of planet-first startups.
For those of us that have been working in these sectors for decades, this is cause for much celebration (with natural wine, of course) and a renewed drive to sustain these sustainability pioneers.
Here’s to that~
Caroline Venza
Clients events/awards
We are proud to see our clients winning the awards they deserve and pioneering the way as thought leaders at global events.
Eviation’s Alice is listed as one of Time Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2019, chosen from hundreds of applications based on key factors including originality, creativity, influence, ambition and effectiveness.
Danielle J. Harris, Director of Innovation for Mobility at Elemental Excelerator spoke at Comotion LA 2019 (right)
and again in early February at Bloomberg’s New Energy Summit (second to left) in San Francisco.
Raviv Itzhaky (center), co-founder and CTO of Prospera spoke at the Economist’s Feeding the Future event in London about how A.I. is being used to improve food production and use resources more efficiently.
Renmatix was a winner in the 2020 Edison Awards, in the category of energy & sustainability, for its upcycled, plant-based food and beauty ingredients.
Elemental Excelerator’s CEO Dawn Lippert was named to the annual Grist 50 list as one of the world's leading pioneers finding the most innovative solutions to fixing the biggest challenges that face our globe.
Temple Fennell, co-founder and managing director of Clean Energy Ventures, is speaking at the Economist’s Investing for Impact event in February.
Client Coverage
The New York Times: “Aircraft, Big and Small, Are Changing Our Relationship With Flight”
VICE: “We could all be flying in electric planes sooner than you think”
Forbes: “Detecting wastewater leakages with the Internet Of Things”
CNBC: “The battery decade: How energy storage could revolutionize industries in the next 10 years”
Forbes: “This Company Is Converting Energy Efficiency Into Currency”
New faces at mc2
Bri Boone, Winter Intern. A recent graduate of UC Berkeley with honors and a degree in Conservation and Resource Studies, Bri spent 3 years with UC Berkeley's International and Executive Programs to develop training for international environmental professionals and, in 2017, founded Epsilon Eta, UC Berkeley's first environmental professional fraternity.
Connie Zhang, Account Supervisor. With time spent at the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and the City of San Francisco on sustainability issues, Connie is a veteran communications specialist with 7+ years of agency experience developing strategic public relations and marketing campaigns for environmental and sustainability initiatives.
Cassandra Sweet, Account Director. A 15-year veteran at the Wall Street Journal, covering cleantech and sustainability, Cassandra has extensive experience with energy and environmental markets, companies and policy. She’s written for GreenBiz and other publications and is focused today on how to support mc²’s amazing clients.
mc² Awards
Future-tech Communicators, Margaret Mouat and Gavin Li of mc², Win Bronze and Finalist at Bulldog PR's Annual "PR Up & Comer" Awards.
Congrats Margaret and Gavin!
mc² CEO Caroline Venza acted as Master of Ceremony for Planet Tech at Web Summit's annual gathering in Lisbon
What’s inspiring us right now
Chris Burkhard’s Under the Arctic Sky. “Chris’s imagery is always stunning and a beautiful reminder of the world we’re working to protect.” ~Caroline
Oakland Museum of Art's Burning Man exhibit, "No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man". Whatever you think of the festival itself, its Ten Principles, including radical self-reliance, civic responsibility and leaving no trace, are good tenets for all of us to keep in mind. ~Alison
Paul Nicklen and Cristina Mittermeier’s work through Sea Legacy. “Both National Geographic photographers, Paul and Cristina’s gorgeous photos and video work demonstrate the power of media and art to inspire hope in saving our planet. Check them out on Instagram @sealegacy!” ~Margaret
The de Young Museum's Soul of a Nation: A must-see exhibit in remembrance of art at the height of the civil rights movement and a stark reminder that the fight for social justice comes in all shapes and sizes. ~Connie
Global investment in renewable energy projects rose 1 percent in 2019, to $282.2 billion, while new wind and solar power capacity jumped nearly 13 percent, to an estimated 180 gigawatts, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Knowing we're still getting more clean energy, despite the lack of more supportive government policies, gives me hope for the future. ~Cassandra
Best wishes from the mc2 dream team.