Sustainable Solutions For a Green Future

Panelists & Organizational Background

• Tracy Marder (Moderator/Founder)
  • Founder of 22 Capital Group, a venture capital fund focused on increasing export capacity through social impact.
  • Founder of "We Are Enough," a nonprofit educating women on investing with a gender lens.
  • Executive in Residence at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (arts district downtown).
  • The incubator is a public-private partnership between the City of Los Angeles and LADWP supporting early-stage sustainable clean tech.
  • Recently released an impact report focusing on seed-stage companies measuring economics, environment, and social impact.
• Nancy Fund (DBL Partners)
  • Managing Partner of DBL Partners, spun out from J.P. Morgan in 2004 (first fund) and 2008; now manages a $400 million third impact fund.
  • DBL is one of the largest impact VC funds in the U.S., investing in Tesla, SolarCity, and Nextracker.
  • Thesis: Social and environmental goals enhance rather than sacrifice top-tier financial returns.
  • Focuses on sectors with slow innovation cycles where 20th-century infrastructure is being disrupted (automobiles, energy, aerospace, agriculture, conservation).
• Tom McGrath (Vital Clean Tech Ventures)
  • CEO of Vital Clean Tech Ventures; former film industry gaffer/cinematographer who transitioned to clean tech after witnessing environmental damage in the Canadian Tar Sands.
  • Organization takes a project development approach blending commercial off-the-shelf and breakthrough technologies.
  • Utilizes an asset mix of equity and debt financing, often requiring "insurance wraps" to make investors comfortable with clean tech projects.
  • Core philosophy: "People, Profit, Planet" via Benefit Corporation or L3C structures.

Investment Themes & Market Opportunities

• Transportation & Automotive
  • The auto industry is the first major new IPO in the sector since the 1950s; Tesla is identified as the pivotal company unhinging transportation from oil.
  • Electric vehicles represent a massive opportunity to decarbonize a sector that has been "asleep" for decades.
• Energy & Storage
  • The energy storage market is projected to grow from a tiny rectangle today to a multi-billion dollar international market within the next decade.
  • Case Study: Cal Edison and Tesla developed battery storage to address the Aliso Canyon gas leak, avoiding expensive and dirty peaker plants.
  • Advanced Microgrid Solutions: Currently running a project in the conference building to automatically optimize energy loads based on grid strength and temperature, eliminating manual customer intervention.
• Aerospace
  • Los Angeles and Seattle are hubs for "Gen 2 space clusters" (e.g., SpaceX), creating highly valued companies after a decline from the 1960s to present.
  • Planet: Produces nanosatellites to image Earth daily, aiding climate understanding.
  • Mapbox: Democratizes mapping access; critical for emergency response during fires (e.g., Sonoma/Napa).
• Food & Agriculture
  • Traditional ag companies (John Deere 1838, Cargill) are largely 19th-century entities requiring modernization.
  • Data-Driven Farming: Big data tools provide farmers with 20 million acres of performance data to optimize fertilizer use and economic viability.
  • Food Waste: The U.S. wastes 600 million pounds of food per person annually (ranking 23rd out of top 25 waste countries); "Appeal Sciences" extends avocado shelf life with non-GMO plant-based mixtures.
• Conservation
  • No private sector iconic names currently exist for conservation (vs. historic non-profits like Sierra Club/Audubon).
  • DBL is developing a stealth-mode company to attach business purpose to conservation, specifically capturing carbon revenue.

Project Development & Specific Initiatives

• Vital Clean Tech Ventures Projects
  • Microgrids: Partnering with UCLA on a program where employee EVs provide/receive power from the grid based on usage needs.
  • Biogas: Projects in island nations (Fiji, Jamaica, Philippines) converting former sugarcane lands to produce natural gas via anaerobic digestion, creating gas, liquid fertilizer, and biochar.
  • Financing: Secured 100% project finance for biogas projects in partnership with Norway's Sovereign Debt Fund using insurance wraps.
  • Hydrogen & Dewatering: Developing breakthrough hydrogen technologies and rapid dewatering methods to separate solids without energy input.
• UN & Global Alignment
  • Aligns projects with UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Education (4), Sustainable Energy (7), Climate Action (13), and Partnerships (17).
  • COP23: Fiji is hosting COP23; Vital Clean Tech is developing wind and biodigester projects there.
  • Market Scale: World Bank/UN calculations estimate a need for $1.3 trillion/year in sustainable energy project capex by 2030.
  • Workforce: Partnering with universities to develop a workforce capable of creating investment-grade energy project proposals from DOE energy audit databases.

Entrepreneur Presentations (Founders)

• Michelle (Mammoth Trading)
  • Problem: California lags 40 years behind Nebraska and 10 years behind Texas in groundwater management; only 1 in 4 wells are metered.
  • Stakes: Groundwater accounts for 40% of state water use (up to 66% in drought); 1 in 4 Californians (10 million) rely solely on groundwater.
  • Solution: Deploying 100 groundwater meters across California to benchmark data, track performance in real-time, and enable irrigation improvements.
  • Case Study: A farmer discovered his pump was 30% less efficient than thought; replacing the old pump saved energy costs immediately, proving data drives business profit.
  • Goal: Shift groundwater management from a regulatory threat to a business optimization tool to increase rural livelihoods and water security.
• Dakota Simler (Thor Trucks)
  • Observation: While consumer logistics (e.g., Amazon Prime) have innovated rapidly, commercial trucking innovation has stagnated for 60 years.
  • Market: Global heavy-duty truck market is $410 billion; regional/vocational trucks represent a $13 billion niche.
  • Driver: Fleet operators require Return on Investment (ROI), not just policy incentives, to adopt green solutions.
  • Inflection Point: Battery costs have dropped sufficiently that heavy electric vehicles are approaching cost parity with diesel.
  • Strategy: Thor Trucks focuses on a customer-driven innovation cycle; innovation will be driven by business economics once costs surpass diesel.
• Azita Yazdani (Exergy Systems)
  • Problem: Centralized water infrastructure is aging (repair costs >$100 billion/year in US) and inefficient (30% water loss in pipes); outdated technologies cannot remove pharmaceuticals and complex chemicals.
  • Market Shift: The ultra-pure water market is growing 30% annually (vs. 5% for traditional water), valued at $16 billion.
  • Solution: Decentralized, point-of-use water recovery using patented electrodeionization technology.
  • Performance: Achieves ~90% water recovery rates with costs 70% lower than traditional water treatment.
  • Focus: Targeting the tech sector, the largest global water consumer, to recover and repurpose high-purity water at the source.

Policy & Equity Discussion

• State Policy Recommendations (Nancy)
  • California must maintain long-term visibility on policies like cap-and-trade, net metering, and RPS standards to lower investment risk.
  • Policy commitments must exceed 1-2 year cycles to avoid the volatility seen with the California Solar Initiative.
  • State incentives are needed to level the playing field between legacy fossil fuel industries and fledgling clean sectors.
  • Priorities: Support energy storage growth, sustainable agriculture, and workforce training to reflect state diversity.
  • Diversity Stats: Women comprised 19% of the solar workforce in 2013, rising to 28% last year; minority participation is also increasing.
• Equity & Inclusion (Tom)
  • Emphasizes the need to engage with forums and incubators (like LA Cleantech) to build an egalitarian workforce.
  • Draws parallels to the film industry's 1990s/2000s efforts to diversify technical crews behind the camera.
  • Suggests that project development inherently requires partnerships ranging from local communities to global bodies.