Tuesday, July 24, 2018
Matt Petersen On The California Climate Cup
Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) and the California Clean Energy Fund (CalCEF) recently announced the California Climate Cup (https://laincubator.org/climatecup/), a new startup competition tied into the upcoming Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco in September. We sat down with Matt Petersen, President and CEO of the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI), to learn more about the new initiative and how it hopes to help startups with innovative solutions to climate change.
What's the California Climate Cup?
Matt Petersen: We created the California Climate Cup, after discussion with the Governor's Office and others, to really use the leadership ability of California to help address climate change. The Governor has a conference in September, and was seeking to highlight exciting startups in the fight against climate change. The categories that are at the center of that fight are transportation electrification, the nexus of energy and digital tools for a sustainable city, including blockchain and fintech solutions, Internet-of-Things, etc. We wanted to go out there, and see what the world had to offer, thinking that we need to see these solutions deployed in cities. We felt it was really important to help the category winners, and potentially the finalists, get their solutions in front of the cities around the world. C40 and the California Clean Energy Fund (CalCEF) worked with LACI to share the information about this with members in the C40 network, and we will do the same with places like the City of LA and the City of Auckland, making sure that the startups and founders here are able to get in front of people to share their game-changing ideas.
How did the competition come about?
Matt Petersen: When you think about the world coming to California in September, to talk about global climate action, they're not just here to see what California is doing, they are hoping to share what is going on around the world in cities, states, and regions, as well as startups, working on climate action. That's the spirit of what we're trying to tap into. California is one of the biggest markets in the world. We're the fifth largest economy in the world, and startups around the world want to enter the market here. This is one opportunity to do that. The category finalists in the competition will come here to pitch on September tenth, and the category winners will be flown to San Francisco to present publicly at the Climate Action Summit. They will be able to do a quick pitch, and we'll also announce the grand prize winner there. We want to really find a way to help unlock the solutions these startups have created. I think we need all hands on deck, for all of the cities and states in the U.S. to come hre to LA, for nations to lead around the climate, and we need the business sector to tell us about solutions we might not have imagined. For example, years ago, I never would have imagined something like Bird would exist. But now, we see how quickly they are proliferating, as a great last-mile first-mile solution. Although they do have safety challenges, that's the kind of innovation we lvoe to see from startups. We want to find those founders and the startup solutions they have created.
What's the benefit of the startup approach to solving the climate problem?
Matt Petersen: There are a lot of startups that come out of the clean tech space, and don't always make it. However, we know there are some game changing startups who have really advanced the ball in terms of addressing climate change. Bird is just one recent example. What we want to do, is figure out what ideas are out there, and how we get them on stage to share their points, and inspire others at the same time. We both want to help them see success for the best ideas, and maybe also inspire the next entrepreneur to fight climate change through a startup solution.
What's LACI currently working on, outside of this initiative?
Matt Petersen: At LACI, our mission is to create an inclusive, green economy. We're focused on three primary strategies to do that. We continue to work with our portfolio companies, and are doing things like startup competitions, and partnering with others. We are working on market transformation, under which are transportation electrification efforts with the three biggest electric utilities in California, the California Air Resources Board, Mayor Eric Garcetti, and the MTA. Now, we've started to bring on corporate partners like BMW. We want to see how we can go farther, faster, and bring ourselves to a zero emissions future by 2028, or some portion thereof. We're trying to figure out where we can most quickly get to 100 percent renewable energy. We hope to reach that goal by 2028 for the Olympics. Third, is community. We want to bring the green economy to disadvantages communities in the region, because they will benefit from this the most. We want to lower operating costs, create fewer emissions, create green jobs, and help the under-represented become the next entrepreneurs and part of the green workforce economy. Those are our priority areas, but we're broadly looking at cleantech across the board, in the areas of emissions, transportation, moving towards 100 percent renewable energy, and the third piece are sustainable cities.
Given the political climate, it seems many now are no longer looking at the U.S. as a receptive place for clean energy and climate. What would you tell startups why they should engage with California in the area of climate change?
Matt Petersen: We're the fifth largest economy in the world, and we've been able to grow our economy while reducing our emissions at record rates. We're showing that you can do well, by doing good. It's really critical to humanity's future that we can figure this out. We can't just rely on governments and corporations, we need innovators to help figure this out, while improving quality of live. I think we're proving with our cities that we can really bring the benefits of the green economy to everyone.
Thanks, and good luck!