2021: The Year of Hard Work
Discover more from The Lighthouse
2021 was not the year that most expected (or wanted) but I would like to think of it as the year that we started to do some very hard work.
Hard work because many of the efforts in 2021 won’t see an immediate impact. In James Clear’s book Atomic Habits, he uses the analogy of melting an ice cube (I realize this is not an ideal analogy for climate change but stick with it). An ice cube doesn’t melt if you increase the temperature from 10 degrees Fahrenheit to 30 degrees, but that doesn’t mean you haven’t made progress or that those actions don’t matter. Persistence and background progress is what get us to breakthrough moments where we see the cumulative impact of past efforts, similar to the impact of getting to 32 degrees.
To those that are doing the hard work whether it be a founder starting a company, researchers in labs working on the latest innovations, teachers in schools preparing our future generations, or policymakers working through the details of legislation, we at Buoyant applaud you for your persistence and we look forward to the benefits to come.
To call out a few of our most loved background progress examples in climate tech:
Climate investment and legislation in passed US Federal infrastructure bill
Extended Producer Responsibility laws enacted in Maine and Oregon
For Buoyant, 2021 the year we have finally been able to take action and share more of what we are building. We made our first two investments, highlighted below, and have two others that will be announced in early 2022.
We continue to be honored and humbled by the support and interest Buoyant has received. We couldn’t ask for a better climatetech community or network of support.
In recognition of the end of 2021 Buoyant Ventures and its Partners are making donations to the following non-profits, detailed below, Evergreen Climate Innovations (formerly the Clean Energy Trust) & the Michigan Climate Venture. If you would like to learn more about these organizations please contact us!
We wish all of you a good end to 2021 and can’t wait to see you in 2022!
Allison & Amy
Buoyant’s First Investments: StormSensor & SupplyShift
We couldn’t be more excited to share our first two investments publically!
StormSensor: Real-time data and modeling for stormwater and wastewater infrastructure to avoid urban flooding and bring high-resolution insights to water managers and infrastructure planners.
Why we are excited: The impacts of underinvestment in water infrastruture and urban flooding are being realized and we need better and real-time data to help solve for these issues. StormSensor has the right team and approach to help communities solve for these pain points.
Read More:
Water as a Barometer of Climate Change & Buoyant’s Investment in StormSensor
GeekWire: StormSensor raises $10M for rain management tech amid severe flooding across the world
Fortune: Term Sheet
SupplyShift: Supply chain transparency platform for ESG metrics and action to drive ESG improvement, including deep decarbonization for buyers and investors.
Why we are excited: Supply chain networks can be engaged to enable actions to decarbonize and improve working conditions. SupplyShifts provides the platform to do this by tracking ESG metrics and providing action oriented solutions.
Read More:
Data Drives ESG Action (including deep decarbonization) — Buoyant’s Investment in SupplyShift
Full Press Release: SupplyShift raises A3 funding round to accelerate supply chain sustainability innovation
If you are a ClimateTech founder and want to share what you are building with us, please submit it here!
We wish we would have…
Gotten so many great people to share their 2021 and 2022 thoughts! We were thrilled to be included. Thanks ClimateTech VC!
What we are…
…Reading
PWC’s State of Climate Tech 2021: Almost 40% of the dollars invested in Climate Tech since 2013 were invested in H2 of 2020 and H1 of 2021! ($87.5B of $222B)
How to Invest in More Underrepresented Founders, Hannah Davis provides excellent advice on investing in under represented founders.
Women’s climatetech career moves at Sunrun, Mosaic, Cypress Creek, Brookfield, Arcadia, LevelTen and more, an overview of how women are shaking up climatetech. We are happy to see that this will be a regular feature on Canary Media
52 things I learned in 2021, an annual review of one man’s learnings, my favorites are #1, #12, #21, #25, and #47
Rising From the Antarctic, a Climate Alarm, a great long form interactive article exploring our ocean’s currents and what we are learning with new data
Net-Zero Jargon Buster - a guide to common terms, a great guide by Science Based Targets to the growing list of climate terms
…Watching
The Crucial Intersection of Climate and Capital, Nili Gilbert discusses the financial sector’s role in decarbonization and investing in climate innovations
Tracking the whole world's carbon emissions — with satellites and AI, Gavin McCormick shares his learnings on counting and attributing emissions and the work being done to evolve this process.
Don’t Look Up, if you need a more subtle way to approach climate change with family…
…Listening To
Outrage & Optimism 135: NO SUBSTITUTE FOR NATURE WITH ZAC GOLDSMITH There’s no pathway to capping our global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius without protecting and restoring nature.
Catalyst podcast: Quantum computing could be a critical climate solution
Buoyant Venture Updates
We are thrilled to have our own Managing Director, Amy Francetic, highlighted as one of five ClimateTech Investors to Watch!
For fun (since you’ve made it this far…)
Aspen recently placed a melting gondola at a popular lift exit to highlight the impact of climate change. In their Instagram post on the installation they shared that since the winter of 1946-47, Aspen’s average temperature has warmed by three degrees Fahrenheit. We’ve lost 30 days of winter since 1980 alone.
Like what you are reading? Subscribe to The Lighthouse or share it with a friend!
The Lighthouse is a resource for climate tech updates and a channel for us to regularly share our perspective on Buoyant’s investment thesis and industry sectors. We know we are not alone in producing great content and will amplify the voices of others by highlighting those resources we find thought-provoking.