This video is from PAW Climate 2021 - the first ever conference on applications of machine learning to private-sector climate tech.
The goal of the conference is to draw more ML professionals to work directly on solutions to the climate crisis.
Conference overview: https://bit.ly/paw-climate-2021
Conference website: https://www.predictiveanalyticsworld.com/climate-tech-conference/2021/agenda/
Discover how early-stage climate tech companies are using machine learning to help meet their challenges.
Panelists:
Michel Gelobter, Managing Director, REFLECTIVE EARTH https://www.reflectiveearth.org/
Diego Saez-Gil, Co-founder & CEO, Pachama https://pachama.com/
Elizabeth Nyeko, CEO & Founder, Modularity Grid https://www.modularitygrid.com/
Sierra Peterson, Climate Tech Investor
Hosts: Sasha Luccioni and Eugene Kirpichov
Questions:
2:39 What differences can you expect as an ML professional an early stage climate startup vs. a big non-climate ML player?
8:06 What are the most important things to consider / common challenges when deploying ML for climate tech?
13:05 How to prioritize climate change / ML applications given constrained funding and expertise?
21:51 How do you estimate the market for your product in climate tech?
29:05 (to Sierra) As a VC, what are some of the challenges of balancing climate change impact vs. business pressures?
32:49 (to Sierra) What areas are you most excited about as an investor, esp. areas where ML can play a role?
38:21 (to Michel) You've dedicated a lot of attention to environmental justice - what issues should ML professionals in climate be mindful of?
41:27 (to Elizabeth) What are some of the technology challenges Modularity Grid is working on?
46:38 (to Diego) What angle did you take when creating Pachama?
Panelist bios:
A leader and manager with extensive experience building new institutions and driving social and technical innovation in the private, public, & non-profit sectors.
Michel's book, Lean Startups for Social Change was published in 2016. In addition to working with social sector organizations on implementing the lean startup, Michel directs the innovation & energy practices at infoedge, a firm leading innovative information strategies for a number of industries. Michel was recently a Senior Fellow with the Packard Foundation, developing a new innovation portfolio for climate policy-making, and founded Cooler (a company whose mission is to connect every consumer purchase to a solution for global warming), BuildingEnergy.com. He served as Chief Green Officer for Hara, the leading enterprise energy and environmental management software startup.
Beyond business, Michel also has a long history in research and teaching, policy, and advocacy. He is a lecturer at U.C. Berkeley and presently serves on the Boards of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Ceres, and the California Clean Energy Fund. He led Redefining Progress in designing the world’s most aggressive climate legislation (AB32 -- signed into California law in August of 2006), was a Congressional Black Caucus Fellow with the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee; Director of Environmental Quality for the City of New York, and founding director of the Environmental Policy Program at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. He also served as Issues Director for Mayor Dinkins' campaign for Mayor of New York.
Diego Saez-Gil is the founder and CEO of Pachama, a Y Combinator-backed startup working to accelerate the flow of capital to carbon capturing projects starting with forests biomass projects. Pachama harnesses satellite images and machine learning to verify the carbon storage on forests and then connects directly project developers with carbon credits buyers in an open marketplace.
Prior to Pachama, Diego co-founded Bluesmart, an IoT company that raised $20M in venture capital in Silicon Valley and China and was acquired by industry leader TravelPro. Diego also co-founded WeHostels, a pioneering online travel marketplace which was acquired by StudentUniverse. Diego was awarded with the MIT 35 Innovators under 35 and was selected as High-impact Entrepreneur by Endeavor Global.
Sierra Peterson is an investor, board member and former executive and policymaker. Currently working on something new in climate tech investing. Previously, she was a Partner at Lionheart Ventures where she led the fund's investing in early-stage technologies for climate stabilization. Prior to Lionheart, Sierra created and led corporate development teams for venture-backed financial technology platforms responsible for more than $3 billion in sustainability investment. She has worked in market-driven climate protection since 2005, serving with the International Energy and the Obama-era White House Office of Energy and Climate Change. Sierra currently serves on the Board of Directors of Climate Neutral and as an advisory board member with and investor in several phenomenal startups.
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