• The last decade of climate action illustrates corporate leaders’ success in executing sustainability initiatives grounded in a robust business case. Companies can stack many value drivers, from increasing supply chain visibility and resilience and operational efficiencies to optimizing around evolving regulations. 

• Regulations incentivizing and mandating decarbonization across sectors, increased flows of private and public capital, and growing pressure from consumers and investors will only strengthen the business case for climate action.

• However, not all aspects of the climate transition are scalable in the immediate-term, and individual corporate action has its limits. These instead present opportunities for corporations to create value over the long haul. Firms can lead in many ways, from coordinating demand signals to joint policy advocacy - which in turn will further cement and accelerate the business case for decarbonization. 

• Firms have never been better equipped to meet the moment than today: the data, tools, infrastructure and coalitions that are enabling the “win-win” aspects of climate action are the same ones that help set up corporations for constructive collective action.

Galvanize & Portfolio Updates

Galvanize in the News!

• This month, we welcomed two new VPs to our growing real estate team, Nadine Anderson and Rachel Reardon. Read more in Real Estate Alert here. Welcome to the Galvanize family, Nadine and Rachel!

• As all eyes were on Silicon Valley Bank, our Co-Executive Chair, Tom Steyer, shared his thoughts on the effect its collapse will have on climate tech with Bloomberg.
  
  Tom notes: “Most banks, they’re banking against assets or cash flow. When you think about a startup, which has a good chance of having neither, you understand why many banks shy away. They chose to understand and work with startups.” 

• Saloni Multani, partner and co-head of Innovation & Expansion, joined Canary Media’s Shayle Kann on the Catalyst podcast to discuss what trends in the broader banking system mean for climate tech companies. Listen to the full episode here.

• Tom joined Capital Allocators podcast for a segment discussing his career trajectory from founding Farallon Capital, his Presidential run, and work today at Galvanize. Listen to the full episode: "Investing to Save Humanity”

Events

• At Ceres Global, Tom spoke with Anne Kelly of Ceres Policy Network on the importance of corporate and investor climate policy advocacy.

• On March 7, Seth Kirkham, Chief Investment Officer of Galvanize Global Equities and Neal Kemkar, Senior Vice President of Policy hosted a webinar on investment opportunities in the new era of global climate industrial policy – from the IRA and Infrastructure Bill to the CHIPS Act and more.

Venture & Growth Portfolio News

• The Routing Company (TRC) expanded to a third California agency with a new five-year contract from Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit, the North Bay’s newest passenger rail serving Marin and Sonoma counties. TRC also named Dick Alexander as Chief Development Officer. Dick previously served as TRC’s Vice President of Business Development.

• Regrow was awarded the top place in Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in agriculture - read more about their work here. Regrow also announced a partnership with xarvio Digital Farming Solutions – a digital products provider by BASF Digital Farming -  to advance the decarbonization of agriculture by enabling farmers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration.

We’re hiring!

Galvanize Climate Solutions

Impact

• Vice President, Impact Measurement (San Francisco (preferred), New York)

Global Equities

• Operations Manager, Galvanize Global Equities (London)

• Vice President, Investor Partnerships (New York, NY)

• Analyst or Associate, Asset Management (New York, NY)

Portfolio Companies

• See our job board featuring open roles at our Innovation & Expansion portfolio companies and our opt-in talent network for active job seekers and those who are passively considering a career change
• Several of our portfolio companies have open executive searches, especially in Go To Market functions like sales and marketing, in finance, and in HR / people ops. Please submit any leads you personally recommend to: portfoliotalent@galvanizeclimate.com.

What We Are Reading

New York Times: What’s Holding Up New York’s Climate Progress? Apartment Buildings

'We believe that cities and municipalities are going to increasingly impose restrictions on carbon emissions in an effort to limit the effects of climate change.  We hope this helps incentivize real estate owners to decarbonize their assets. However, we are not waiting. We are proactively setting up the playbook to decarbonize assets because we believe that doing so will be accretive, but it will likely have the side benefits of making our properties resilient to the oncoming carbon tariffs.” – Rachel Reardon, Vice President of Acquisitions, Real Estate  

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Corporate Boards Boosted Sustainability Experience in 2022

“It is great to see much greater familiarity of sustainability on corporate boards. We have moved well beyond the point where a single board member can hold the responsibility for alignment, the topic needs to be owned by the committee and ultimately the Chairperson.” – Seth Kirkham, Chief Investment Officer, Global Equities

Bloomberg: Warming Above 1.5C Likely in Near Term Unless World Acts Now, UN Says

“The IPCC’s latest report highlights the urgent need to accelerate the climate transition throughout our entire economy. With this reality in mind, our work at Galvanize is grounded in the belief that investing in climate solutions is an urgent need, and a “win-win”, simultaneously benefiting the planet and profits. We hope that more of our private sector partners realize this urgent opportunity and join us in working towards achieving material climate impact.” – Nicole Systrom, Chief Impact Officer