It is time for earth3…
earth1 = the era before human impact
earth2 = the era of negative human impact
earth3 = the era of healing and reversal
I’m excited to be focusing more on Climate Tech, or “earth3” as I’m calling it. The 2020s will be THE decisive decade - the potential start of a new era where humans go from negatively impacting the planet to reversing the damage done and tackling the climate crisis. Momentum is moving in the right direction – I applaud recent carbon removal commitments from Shopify, Stripe, and others – and I’d like to see the VC and investing worlds soon talking about earth3 as much as web3.
Where do we start? Everything is connected when it comes to the environment – from climate change to ocean acidification, biodiversity loss, and more – so we need to think holistically. Solely capturing carbon won’t fix everything, but it’s an important start. Unfortunately, with so many environmental risks, it can be tough to prioritize where to act and invest first. My research will be a journey, learning more and thinking of new priorities along the way. Right now, I’m exploring a couple of key themes:
🦶 “Footprint Neutrality” - Software/APIs to help companies calculate their carbon footprint and plan for reduction. Changing the way we do business will have a faster impact than asking consumers and governments to act.
🔁 “Offset Economy” - Funding carbon (and other pollution) removal projects and offset marketplaces. Enable businesses to achieve carbon-neutrality faster and help to remove the excess 1 trillion tons of greenhouse gasses already in the atmosphere.
💡 “Decentralized Energy” - Build renewables closer to consumers if utilities are too slow to respond. Modernize the grid to be more ‘software-defined’.
🥩 “Lab to Table” - Make meat & dairy sustainable in addition to shifting to plant-based. Bring farming more urban and indoors for better water efficiency and less fertilizer pollution.
🚗 “The Great Electrification” - To enable fully electric transport and more, we need better, more sustainable, recyclable batteries, as well as battery alternatives (hydrogen).
♻ “New Material World” - Accelerate the creation of sustainable building materials and packaging, by decarbonizing cement and shifting to plastic alternatives. Balance new material technologies with prioritizing recycled materials.
🏠 “Sustainable Suburbia” - Combine new materials, prefab construction methods, and renewables to fix residential homebuilding & energy use.
This is a start and I’ll be publishing more of my findings along the way, because if others agree and invest in #earth3 we’ll all win.
