Good Morning
Congress will likely reach an agreement on Biden’s social spending plan next week, as Biden leaves to Europe for COP26. While the deal looks like it won’t feature the CEP (a carbon “stick”), it will include $300B+ of tax credits for clean energy (a big carbon “carrot”). That’d make it the largest climate-focused spending package in global history. (Axios)
California governor Gavin Newsom has signed an executive order calling for CA cars to go all-electric by 2035 (EIF).
Also, we made an “action item archive” and posted it to our website - check it out. Cheers!
Top Deals of the Week
![Malaysia-based Poladrone raises $4.29M seed round to protect crops | TechCrunch Malaysia-based Poladrone raises $4.29M seed round to protect crops | TechCrunch](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8e2462f8-7edf-4801-96ae-abfa68083e7b_1000x667.jpeg)
Pledge has raised $4.5 million in seed funding led by Visionaries Club. (TC)
The story: Pledge is a months-old, U.K.-based carbon measurement and removal API, founded by early Revolut employees.
Why we’re excited about it: Business carbon accounting is a white-hot space right now, driven largely by consumer/investor demand and the spectre of new government regulations. This one has a particularly snazzy website and star-studded founding team. The space is replete with generalists, so new startups are differentiating themselves by going deep: Pledge has decided to start with logistics & transportation, a vertical that accounts for almost a quarter of worldwide CO2 emissions.
Ando raised $6 million led by TTV Capital (IU).
The story: The two-year-old, San Diego-based banking startup that says it invests its customer deposits in carbon-reducing projects like solar initiatives, has raised $6 million. TTV Capital led the round.
Why we’re excited about it: With 5 investment categories across clean energy, transportation, infrastructure, manufacturing, and agriculture/forestry, Ando's portfolio is focused on forward-looking impact, rather than offsetting present and growing emissions.
Other Deals This Week
Berlin-based e-scooter rental startup Tier raised a $200M Series D led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Mubadala Capital (TC)
Indian agritech startup DeHaat raised a $115M Series D led by Sofina and Lightrock (TC)
Jupiter Intelligence, a 4.5-year-old, San Mateo, Ca.-based climate risk analytics company, has raised $54 million in Series C funding co-led by ClearVision Ventures and MPower Partners. (BN)
Via Separations, a five-year-old, Cambridge, Ma.-based MIT spinout focused on reducing energy use in manufacturing, has raised $38 million in Series B funding. NGP ETP led the round. (TC)
Shiru, a 2.5-year-old, Emeryville, Ca.-based biotech startup that identifies and creates novel plant-based ingredients for the global food industry, has closed a $17 million Series A round led by S2G Ventures. (FD)
Satellite Vu, a startup which aims to monitor the thermal footprint of any building on the planet, raised a $20.7M Series A led by Seraphim Space Investment Trust (PS)
pulsESG, a months-old, SF-based integrated SaaS platform for enterprise ESG analysis, has raised $8.5 million in seed funding led by Aligned Climate Capital (BW)
Poladrone, a five-year-old, Malaysia-based startup that's using a combination of drones and analytics software to change the way farms use pesticides, has raised $4.29 million in seed funding led by Wavemaker Partners. (Y)
One Actionable Item
Use less single-use plastic
Single-use plastic is mostly made of coal, natural gas, salt and crude oil. Just start reminding yourself, “that’s oil,” when you see plastic, and I bet that alone will start micro-changing your behavior.
Zero Grocery is a new grocery delivery startup that uses no single-use plastic - they give you glass and you return the packaging for reuse. If you’re interested, send me an email and I can get you $50 off on your first order, or you can get $13-15 off just through the site.
Green Theory
Knockin’ on Jevons Door
Illustration of the Paradox from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2008.12.003
If you’ve ever sat in traffic wondering, “Why can’t they just add another lane?” you’re not alone. Unfortunately, studies show that the addition of new lanes doesn’t improve traffic--it can even make it worse. Put simply, more people drive on the bigger roads, negating the effect.
Another description, Jevons Paradox, posits that an individual government policy or technological advancement aimed at efficiency (in this example, travel speed) will not result in a reduction in total consumption (congestion, on the road). This concept plays a key role in considering the environmental impact of various political and technological interventions in our systems. As discussed in newsletter 20, Jevons Paradox doesn’t hold for some home energy metrics. In other cases, such as the long march of discovery to burn fossil fuels more efficiently, Jevons called it--we keep burning more and more. Pointedly in the paradox itself, by combining government policies with better technology, a society can attempt to balance the improvements brought by scientific advancement with the direct and indirect rebound effects in consumption.
The Closer
Did you know there’s a national park in California with all 4 volcano types? Yes, it’s called Lassen Volcanic National Park, and one of the volcanic sites is even called Bumpass Hell, “with its acres of bubbling mud pots.”
It also happens to be where some friends and I will be taking a backcountry skiing avalanche safety (avi) course this winter. We’re looking for some more people to join us, if you or someone you know is interested! :)