🥝 "Fusion energy is our inevitable future"
(055) In the meantime, let's keep reducing food waste
Good Morning
What we’re reading this week:
The Greendicator
Top Deals of the Week
![FuZE-Q reactor is shown here during assembly FuZE-Q reactor is shown here during assembly](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%2Fab59e663-f3a7-463d-91a9-cb67884388b4_730x486.jpeg)
Newcleo, a 1.5-year-old, London-based developer of nuclear technology that aims to reduce radioactive waste and prevent nuclear accidents by keeping the reactors it plans to build in a constant, subcritical state, has raised €300 million in funding. Investors include the Agnelli family’s holding company Exor NV. (BBG)
Zap Energy, a company that is working to commercialize fusion energy, raised a $160M Series C led by Lowercarbon Capital (TC)
C-Zero, a 3.5-year-old, Goleta, Ca.-based company that's developing a tech for decarbonizing natural gas (methane) into hydrogen and solid carbon, has raised $34 million in funding led by SK Gas. More here.
Connected Energy, a twelve-year-old startup based in Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK, that repurposes used electric vehicle batteries for use in commercial-scale stationary energy storage systems, raised an $18.4 million round. Participants in the deal included Volvo Group. (ET)
Posh, a Bay-Area startup that automates EV battery recycling, raised a $3.8M seed round from Y Combinator, Metaplanet, Outbound Capital, and others (PRN)
Travertine, a months-old, Boulder, Co.-based carbon dioxide removal and industrial chemical production startup, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by Grantham Environmental Trust and Clean Energy Ventures. More here.
Green Badger, a nine-year-old, Savannah, Ga.-based SaaS developer that caters to the green building construction market, has raised $1.125 million in seed funding. Shadow Ventures led the round (F).
Green Theory
Climate [Mindset] Change
In a town without composting, you’ve just finished half of your dinner, and scraped the rest in the garbage. Returning your condiment of choice to the refrigerator, you see food teetering on the edge of edible, slowly degrading on the back of the lower shelves. With a sigh, you drag the take-out containers and tupperware out of the fridge, and survey the damage. It’s all going to the garbage. Next week will be better.
No one wants to waste food, and yet about half of all food waste occurs in the home. True, system-level changes will help cut down on food loss and waste. At the same time, the need for systemic shifts doesn’t relinquish the responsibility of the individual: we’re inextricably linked.
There are endless tips for living more sustainably. While educating people on paths to a lower carbon footprint can seize on the desire to change one’s ways, how does one inspire that desire in the first place?
Dr. Katherine Hayhoe’s Saving Us offers frameworks for building bridges of empathy and understanding in a world of climate deniers. Connecting the merits of a safer planet for all to the real lived experience of those around you helps center your conversation on shared perspectives and values. In this way, you stay grounded in mutual understanding, as opposed to elevating challenge and conflict, and egging on egos. On a larger scale, the BBC explores climate anxiety, and the dual healing effect of many sustainable interventions. Spending more time walking and biking, rather than driving, for example, improves quality of life measures. Reducing pollution, providing green space, and so on, all tangibly improve health and happiness. Better framing helps paint the universal fright of change in a less scary light. Even the best positioning contends, nonetheless, with the power of routine.
Overdesigned, Underdelivered
No matter how well designed a sustainable product, behavior, or space, a rush to adoption is anything but guaranteed. Food waste-fighting founder and CEO, Tessa Clarke, explains the barriers to change: before you try something new, its inconceivability can stifle the imagination, and block action. She describes ample avenues to sustainably stock your kitchen and store your food, as well as compelling reasons to change. For instance, the sheer cost of food waste can add up–the average US household wastes $1800 of food each year. Still, these persuasive arguments and prescriptive plans lack the key step of helping initiate the desire to change itself. For that, we’ll have to turn outward.
Social Beings
The choice of an individual doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Ultimately, Clarke reveals that the single best way to inspire action comes from social influence. Backed up by Robert Frank’s research, behavior from cigarette smoking to rooftop solar can be most powerfully explained by the customs and patterns of those around you. This phenomenon weakens the impact of appalling statements about how much food we waste in aggregate–as it validates the experience of wasting food, demonstrating an (albeit unsavory) norm of today. On the flip side, pushing wasteful practices out of style would go a long way in changing behavior toward more conscious consumption. Because of our interconnected influence, indirectly or directly, even one person’s choice kicks off a ripple effect.
Inspiring and Sustaining Change
Ultimately, powerful as it may be, shame can’t compete with support as a social mechanism for more sustainable ways. As scientists strive to study repeatable interventions and better understand behavior change, one thread unites the advice on seeing change through. As Columbia Medical School Professor and behavior change research director, Donald Edmondson, explains, the people who value your striving and “troubleshoot challenges that arise can be a big help as well.” Individuals’ support fuels the individual’s actions.
As we uplift the climate conscious and build strategies to spare humanity the worst of the crisis, one should never lose sight of the everyday challenges that dissuade motivation. To step outside the food waste paradigm: building a sustainable fashion brand is one thing–getting people to shift their perspective on fashion itself, another challenge of its own.
To unite more people in climate awareness, those promoting sustainability must pay attention to and refine their approach to inspiring the will to change, too. Clarke explains the instinct to hoard food sits alongside our innate instinct to share. Opening up connections between people, and providing a new life for unwanted food, she aims to slash UK waste by tapping into our deepest-held virtues. True, transforming leftovers trash into longer-lifed treats requires rethinking and maybe even discomfort. Donaldson, for the science of behavior change view, concludes, “Even though successful behavior change is difficult, it’s not impossible, especially when you can leverage support that helps to keep you on track.” Networks of support and trust present fertile ground for green advocates to focus. Unlocking sustainable change together, we can live better and employ brilliant climate solutions to their fullest.
The Closer
Such a great video! CLACKCLACKCLACKCLACKCLACK!