🌱 Nutella On Your Worms, Anyone? - 8.20.21
One Big Thing to Chew On
Read anything about hydrogen lately? A new study published this week finds that blue hydrogen emits more greenhouse gases than previously thought.
While blue hydrogen is currently the least expensive option for low-carbon hydrogen production, ICF’s analysis shows that green hydrogen could become cost-competitive with it within a decade, depending on the deployment of inexpensive renewable power. (Axios Generate)
If you don’t know the difference between colors in the hydrogen rainbow, never fear - Forbes can explain.
What We’re Listening to This Week
Podcast:
Form Energy’s Iron-Air Battery for Multi-Day Storage - dive headfirst into the energy industry with this gloriously specific (yet accessible) episode. Great podcast all-around. Credit to the one and only Brian Hausser of Plenty for the rec!
Selected Deal Flow by Category
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CPG
Starday, a nearly year-old, New York-based healthy and sustainable food products company whose first product is a low-sugar chocolate hazelnut spread that's made without dairy or palm oil (yes, finally, you can eat nutella without the palm oil!!!), has raised $4 million in seed funding. Equal Ventures and Slow Ventures co-led the round. (TC)
Beta Hatch, a six-year-old, Seattle-based mealworm farming company, has raised $10 million in funding led by Lewis & Clark AgriFood. (TC)
Regrow, a recently-formed, Durham, N.H.-based carbon monitoring and reduction platform for regenerative ag, closed a $17 million Series A funding round with new investors Ajax Strategies and others. (PR)
Apeel, a nine-year-old, Santa Barbara, Ca.-based maker of a casing for fruits and vegetables that keeps moisture in and oxygen out to preserve them longer, has raised $250 million (sheesh) in Series E funding. Temasek led the round. The company’s now valued at $2 billion (sheesheeeesheeeesh). (TC).
Infrastructure
Solid state battery company Prieto Battery raised a $5.7M Series C led by Pilatus Capital (YHOO)
Kairos Aerospace, a seven-year-old, Mountain View, Ca.-based company whose instruments identify oilfield methane leaks and emissions, has raised $26 million in Series C-1 funding. DCVC led the round. (Is helping big oil become more climate-friendly actually climate friendly?) (BW)
Finance
Aspiration, an eight-year-old, Marina Del Rey, Ca.-based bank that bills itself as financial business for eco-conscious consumers is going public via SPAC in a deal valued at $2.3 billion. (FC)
Other
Local-marketplace app Karrot raised $162M at a $2.7B valuation led by DST Global (local>>>Amazon) (BBG)
One Actionable Item
Volunteer to Call Environmental Voters
One of my personal favorite non-profits, the Environmental Voter Project, just launched a very pretty new website. Check it out and learn more about how you can help drive change in the US by calling environmentalists and convincing them that their vote matters.
I’ll be posting this one again when the midterms roll around, I’m sure, but you can have a big impact on these smaller elections too. Their next phone bank time is in just a few days.
Green Theory
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Take a Deep Breath
When people think about greenhouse gas emissions, the image of a coal plant shooting a dark plume skyward readily comes to mind. Due to the ghastly sight of such plumes, local governments frequently try to hide these plants from the view of their wealthier (usually white) residents.
While highly visible pollution combines with invisible particulates to render a staggering death toll that disproportionately impacts Americans of color, all Americans share the same sky, as Heather McGhee’s analysis of Richmond, California demonstrates. Pollutants are not limited by local or international borders, and MIT found that half of US deaths in the contiguous United States are connected to out-of-state emissions.
We know we’re polluting, that it’s hurting all of us, and especially minority communities. So what is the scale of the impact here in the US? Striving for the “Top 10” in superlatives is a favorite American pastime, but ranking 7th in pollution-linked deaths may come as a shock to many. Estimates of the number of Americans dying from pollution annually range from 60,000 to 200,000, and the upward trend since 2017 should signal cause for alarm.
It's more than just deaths we ought to pay attention to. Anyone who’s gone for a stroll on a day marked by wildfire smoke knows the immediate impact on their ability to breathe. Meanwhile, the chronic effect of living near heavy pollutants exposes 14 million Americans to 10x the average US rate of cancer risk.
We cannot escape our emissions, and we cannot ignore the plight of those most impacted by its negative spillovers across the world.
The Closer
Less fun picture this week than last, but it’s important. Here’s the Dixie Fire in CA, taken on Tuesday by local photographer @noah3929