SF Bay Climate Tech: Aug 22 - Aug 30
Nature X Carbon meetup tonight, building electrification, climate change in Africa, the circular economy, art and film in the North Bay, climate justice, and more!
Hi all,
Start off the week tonight with the Nature X Carbon monthly meetup at the SF Commons. Tomorrow, join a three-day course for local contractors on building electrification in Oakland. On Thursday, head downtown for a convening on climate change and Africa hosted by Connecting Climate Entrepreneurs (CCE), an organization started by U.S. Department of State, Salesforce, LinkedIn, and GE at COP26. If beverages and the circular economy are more your thing, swing by a talk on sustainability trends with AB InBev and Pelliconi in SoMa that same night. Finally, if you’re up by in the North Bay and looking for a Thursday night activity, stop by the Petaluma Arts Center for a discussion on three short films about sustainability, then check out check out the Ecolibrium art opening in Point Reyes on Saturday. Next week, head to a talk on Climate Justice with Marvin Brown at Manny’s on Monday, then go to the Exploratorium for the 5th Annual German-American Mobility dialogue on sustainable transportation.
SF Bay Climate Tech is off next week and will be back after Labor Day
Hot Take: Dry Take
I don’t know about you, but my #climatetwitter feed has been dominated this week with some grim photos: The Chongqing River in China, The Loire River in France, The Colorado River in the US, and the list goes on. The before and after images are striking.
In the city of Chongqing, China, the water level dropped to reveal previously submerged Buddhist statues thought to be about 600 years old.
The fact of the matter is that most of us take water for granted; the reality on the ground proves otherwise. We must grapple with the consequences of climate change and shift our consumption patterns - thereby reducing the use of this precious resource. Lower water use is beneficial for all - from reducing our energy footprint to our greenhouse gas emissions, and keeping our water bills affordable in an increasingly unaffordable region.
So, what can you do? On an individual level: Take shorter showers (a 10 minute shower uses about 9 gallons of water), xeriscape your yard, buy fewer things (1800 gallons of water goes into the production of a single pair of jeans), and do full loads of laundry in an energy efficient washer (EPA certified washers can save you up to 7,000 gallons of water every year. Want to learn more interesting water facts to drop at the next cocktail party, check out a full list from ThinkH2O here!
The good news is that there are several new climate tech solutions hitting the market to help us manage our water resources. Cambrian Innovation from Boston uses bioelectric processes to treat wastewater and simultaneously generate biogas energy, and each reactor can handle about 20,000 gallons daily. TaKaDu from Yehud, Israel offers monitoring and analytics as a cloud service, and has prevented 1 billion liters of water loss across the Unitywater utility system in Australia. Desalination pioneer WaterFX from San Francisco uses solar panels to remove the salt from drainage water from farms in California’s Central Valley, producing 8 gallons per minute of pure water from the saline discharge.
WaterFX has debuted its Aqua4 Concentrated Solar Still, which can produce 65,000 gallons of freshwater a day just by using solar energy.
Our friends at Imagine H2O are on the case! The organization runs annual competitions to support early stage companies applying new technologies to the water problem - everything from precision agriculture to wastewater processing. So far, more than 250 startups have participated!
Over 1.8 billion people live in regions that face absolute water scarcity - and unfortunately this number will continue to grow. There’s significant room for new climate tech companies to provide solutions across the board to better manage this resource. Reach out to us and share your ideas – we’ll include them in upcoming newsletters. Every drop counts!
– Sonam Velani
This Week
🏞 Nature X Carbon Bay Area Monthly Meetup: Tue, Aug 23
🔌 Building Electrification for Local Contractors, Wed, August 24 - Fri, Aug 26
🌍 SF Climate Convening on African Opportunities + Workshop: Thu, Aug 25
🍺 Sustainability Trends with AB InBev and Pelliconi: Thu, Aug 25
🎬 Lexicon of Sustainability: Thu, Aug 25
🎨 Ecolibrium - Eco Art Exhibit, Sat, Aug 27 (opening)
⚖️ Creating A Climate of Justice w/ Marvin Brown: Mon, Aug 29
🇩🇪 5th German-American Mobility Dialogue: Tue, Aug 30
🏞 Nature X Carbon Bay Area Monthly Meetup
When: Tue, August 23, 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM PDT
Where: The SF Commons, 540 Laguna st, San Francisco, CA 94612
Monthly meetup focusing on the intersection of nature and climate including carbon markets, ecological restoration, climate justice & more.
Please join us for our Nature X Carbon monthly meetup: The gathering is for people interested in the intersection of nature and climate including carbon markets, nature based offsets, ecological restoration, corporate sustainability, water, wildlife preservation and more.
🔌 Building Electrification for Local Minority Contractors
When: Wed, August 24 - Fri, August 26
Where: Cypress Mandela Training Center, 977 66th Ave., Oakland, CA 94621
Register now for Project Based Training in Building Electrification! Earn while you learn to electrify residential homes!
As part of the $120M statewide initiative to electrify buildings this is a Project Based Learning training, where Participants will learn building electrification (space heating/cooling and water heating) best practices while participating on actual paid projects.
Session 1: Residential Building Electrification Overview
Session 2: Heat Pump HVAC & Heat Pump Water Heater Fundamentals
Session 3: Heat Pump Installation Best Practices
🌍 SF Climate Convening on African Opportunities + Workshop
When: Thu, August 25, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM PDT
Where: 44 Tehama St, 44 Tehama Street, San Francisco, CA 94105
Join Bay Area leaders for a convening + workshop that will focus on climate opportunities in Africa.
The U.S. Department of State, Salesforce, LinkedIn, and GE launched the Connecting Climate Entrepreneurs (CCE) initiative at COP26. Since its launch, CCE has grown to include 10+ more organizations (including Arm) and we are building a delegation to visit Ghana (Sept 26-30).
Join us and other Bay Area leaders in climate, technology, and entrepreneurship to discuss in detail the climate opportunities across Africa. We have also organized a workshop to engage and challenge the attendees.
🍺 Sustainability Trends with AB InBev and Pelliconi
When: Thu, August 25, 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM PDT
Where: Mind the Bridge Innovation Center, 450 Townsend Street, San Francisco, CA 94107
An innovation industry talk focused on the main innovations that can disrupt the market in the field of sustainability and circular economy.
Mind the Bridge and Pelliconi (worldwide leader of bottling technology) are hosting an industry talk focused on sustainability and circular economy in the beverage and closures industries. The talk will focus on how big corps such as AB InBev and innovative startups from Silicon Valley are tackling the problems and offering disrupting solutions for a brighter and more sustainable future.
🎬 Lexicon of Sustainability
When: Thu, August 25, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM PDT
Where: Petaluma Arts Center, 230 Lakeville Street, Petaluma, CA 94952
Douglas & Laura Howard-Gayeton discuss three short films from the Lexicon of Sustainability web series and the larger context of their work.
Douglas Gayeton and Laura Howard-Gayeton discuss three short films from the Lexicon of Sustainability web series and the larger context of their work educating, engaging and activating people to pay closer attention to how they eat, what they buy, and where their responsibility begins for creating a healthier, safer food system in America.
🎨 Ecolibrium - Eco Art Exhibit
When: August 27, 3-5:00 PM (Reception & Opening)
Where: Gallery Route One, 11101 California 1, Point Reyes Station, CA 94956
This exhibit features Terra Art Collective, a group of eco artists
The title of our show, Ecolibrium, suggests the need for a global, societal revolution to create a new state of harmony with the larger natural world. People with greater resources must consume less, move less, and learn to enjoy lives that help create a balanced relationship with a thriving biosphere. This will also help disadvantaged people in America and around the world to prosper, rather than continue to bear the brunt of our ecological folly.
Terra Art Collective’s art strives to bring new visions, information, and engagement with these urgent issues. We strive to create art to help us envision a new ecological balance--satisfying human needs while fostering a vital, productive biosphere.
⚖️ Creating A Climate of Justice w/ Marvin Brown
When: Mon, August 29, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM PDT
Where: Manny's, 3092 16th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
The United States’ long history of injustice makes it difficult to take decisive action on climate change. What can be done to change this
What can we do to ensure a more just future?
In his book, A Climate of Justice, Marvin Brown calls on us to become involved in transforming our social climate from a climate of injustice to a climate of justice. He proposes that such work requires that we use a more comprehensive interpretive framework than the triadic formula of Western thought; tell stories that include those that suffered the misery caused by settler colonialism and white supremacy; and create a civic space grounded in civilian rights for provision and protection, rather than military or commercial power.
🇩🇪 5th German-American Mobility Dialogue
When: Tue, August 30, 4:00 PM – 8:15 PM PDT
Where: Exploratorium, Green Street, San Francisco, CA 94111
Join us for our 5th German-American Mobility Dialogue: Resilience and Sustainability in Transportation - Conflict or Smart Combination?
Going back to 2017, the German-American Mobility Dialogue event series has become a hallmark for international exchange on mobility and transportation, with a particular emphasis on California and Germany. The keynote, the panel, and the breakout sessions consist of mobility experts covering the academic, industrial, and public sectors, debating recent issues and future trends of mobility. This year will be no exception when 150 experts and guests will discuss in an interactive setting of this in-person event.
Join the Fun!
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Volunteer
We're excited to grow the Climate Tech community in cities across the globe! What started as an 8-person mid-pandemic outdoor dinner has since morphed into a 1,500+ strong and ever-growing group of rockstars trying to change the world. We're looking for volunteers to help us expand our programming into a full roster of community-wide meetups, subject-specific events, mentorship programs, site visits, and more. We aim to be a community resource - built for and by our community. Share your thoughts and we look forward to working with you!