Good Morning
Did you like Marshall’s review of Black Sheep Farms’ fake lamb last week as much as we did? Hit us up to submit your own clean product review - we’d love to feature you.
Headline roundup:
Biden touts ‘American manufacturing comeback,’ announces Tennessee charging plant (BBG)
Alfa Romeo unveils new electric-hybrid SUV with NFT, blockchain technology (CNBC)
The Greendicator
Top Deals of the Week
Watershed, a carbon accounting SaaS startup, raised a $70M Series B at a $1B valuation led by Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia (WS)
Protix, a 12-year-old, Dongen, Netherlands-based manufacturer and supplier of insect ingredients for animal feed and for (derp) human consumption, has raised €50 million in funding. Backers in the round include the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (SC)
Quaise Energy, a startup trying to scale geothermal energy, raised a $40M Series A led by Safar Partners (BW)
Battery storage systems startup ION raised a $30M Series A led by Clear Creek Investments, VoLo Earth Ventures, and Alsop Louie Partners (BW)
Destinus, a months-old, Vaud, Switzerland-based company that's developing liquid hydrogen-powered aircraft, has raised $29 million from Conny & Co, Quiet Capital, One Way Ventures, Liquid2 Ventures, Cathexis Ventures, and ACE & Co. (TC)
Grid edge software company Utilidata raised $26.75M in funding led by Moore Strategic Ventures (PRN)
Green hydrogen technology developer Verdagy raised a $25M round led by TDK Ventures (BW)
Rondo Energy, a two-year-old, Oakland, Ca.-based industrial decarbonization technology developer, has raised $22 million in Series A funding co-led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Energy Impact Partners. (TC)
Climate insurance startup kWh Analytics raised a $20M Series B led by Lacuna Sustainable Investments (BW)
Splendid Spoon, a plant based meal delivery service, raised a $12M round led by Nicoya (PRN)
eAgronom, a six-year-old, Tartu, Estonia-based farm management software startup focused on carbon credits, raised $7.4 million in Series A funding. Yolo Investments and ZGI Capital co-led the round (TC)
Navier, a nearly two-year-old, San Francisco-based company that aims to develop hydrofoil boats with beefy battery backs and electric motors at an affordable price compared with other leisure boats, has raised $7.2 million in seed funding. Co-leading the round were Global Founders Capital and Treble (TC)
BasiGo, a year-old, Nairobi, Kenyan-based company working to make and launch a fleet of electric buses, has raised $4.3 million in seed funding. Novastar Ventures led (TC)
Green Theory
Joy Convoy
Giants, centuries old, tower all around. As dappled rays sneak between the thick canopy of old growth redwoods, past the generation of upstarts filling a lower layer, and finally down to the loamy forest floor, the cool, temperate air dances with life between the trunks. Heads tilt back to locate the treetops, and hats drop to the ground as jaws fall in awe. Behind, across from the downed caps, a web of tangled roots stretches high and wide, concealing the fallen giant from which they once grew. This log, now returning its nutrients to the forest itself, has over 1,500 growth rings: one for each year of its life before the tumble. The old enchanting coastal redwoods lost another living relative.
We’re not going to get to a sustainable future without sustaining our struggle with joy. We’ve touched on the centrality of joy in perseverance, but how does one actually practice joy? Engaging with the physical or natural world presents a bridge to joy for many. From going for a walk with a friend, to simply inspecting a plant on the sidewalk, the former Stanford lecturer and artist-in-residence at Recology SF explores stepping off of the producer/consumer treadmills in How to Do Nothing. Not only do the company of loved ones or calming strolls bring delight in and of themselves, they also return us to the beings, places, and things that color our care for the clean, resilient future.
And if “doing nothing” is too radical for you, the neoliberals at Forbes have another suggestion: gratitude. Gratitude encodes our experienced joy, and lets us feel it fully. Writing down specific instances of gratitude, or taking a deliberate daily moment to dwell on the good, one begins to look for and perceive more joyous moments. Climate change is bound to bring destruction and grief, and that makes gratitude all the more critical as more sober to the reality. By reflecting on and paying attention to what makes us grateful, today, we cultivate joy without fear of the future.
True, more old growth redwoods will pass, as the safety and health of California’s tinderbox of forests wanes (see: Giant Sequoias). It’s challenging to picture the grove’s trees meeting their decomposing comrade’s fate, or worse. And yet gratitude for the joy of seeing the trees standing now can never be taken away. Here at GB, we’re practicing joy across a range of physical exertion levels: exploring the wild wintry backcountry on skis, cooking with new plant-based meats (definitely sear until crispy), and–of course–reading. How are you sustaining yourself with joy?
The Closer