#96 Energy dependency, ESG during global crisis, startup spotlight
Good morning to the Understory Community.
This past week has been tough for our world given what is happening in Ukraine. At Understory, our thoughts are with our friends and innovators in Ukraine and anyone who has ties to the beautiful country. 💛💙
What is happening in Ukraine also shed light on two things: energy dependency on a source not aligned with human and democratic values and what corporations are doing to uphold the S in ESG, especially in major crisis like this. While Understory is apolitical and we are not here to talk politics or geopolitics, we want to share the facts.
📚 Worth Noting
#1 energy dependency on a source not aligned with human values
It is not new news that Russia is a major energy supplier. In fact, the following graphic in 2014 was showing this trend.
What about oil? In 2016, the data was available, painting a similar picture.
Fast forward to today, see below for the Russian pipelines delivering energy to the rest of Europe. And Russian has been investing in its northern pipelines to deliver to China.
For the world, transitioning into energy independence and leveraging other energy sources including renewable energy are not happening fast enough. It also beg the questions about consumption. Again, do we need to fly to all corporate major meetings? Do we need to have off sites far away? Maybe the answer is yes and yes but we are looking at a grim reality of how energy power can provide huge leverage and be abused.
#2 what corporations are doing to uphold the S in ESG in this major global crisis?
So far the list is pretty short in our view:
Verizon and T-Mobile offering free international calls and texts to and from Ukraine
Norwegian sovereign wealth fund stopped investing in Russia companies and began to evaluate how to divest
BP pulling its 20% stake in Rosneft
UPS and FedEx stopped freight to Russia
Manchester United withdrew the sponsorship rights of Aeroflot
Formula One canceled the 2022 Russian Grand Prix-
Dell suspended sales in Russia
Delta Airlines pulled code share with Aeroflot
🚀 Funding and Congrats
Actual, a San Francisco – based ESG modeling software company raised $5M in a Seed round.
Virtual Peaker, a KY-based company that provides cloud-based distributed energy platform, raised $16M in Series A.
H2scan, a Valencia, CA-based provider of hydrogen sensors for electricity utilities and industrials, raised $70M in financing.
Leko Labs, a Luxembourg-based carbon negative construction company, raised $21M in Series A.
Palmetto, a Charleston-based clean energy marketplace and technology services platform provider, raised $375M in financing.
💡 Startup Spotlight
Virtual Peaker, a KY-based company that provides cloud-based distributed energy platform.
🎧 Podcast
Joanne Rodriguez of Mycocycle: regeneration powered by fungi
David Wei of SolarKal: simplifying solar procurement
Ed Thomas of Hazel: climate empowerment with a single click
The Understory Podcast is also available on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and Google Podcasts.
⚙️ Jobs
Find and share your open positions on the Understory Slack channel.
🆕 Recruiting Specialist and In Store Style Curator at Borobabi
🆕 Solutions Engineer at Clarity AI
🆕 Sustainability Practice Leader at Salesforce
🆕 Sustainability and Climate Program Manager, Procurement at Google
🆕 Manager - Supply Chain Environmental Sustainability at McKinsey & Co.
🆕 ESG Junior Sales Specialist at MSCI
🆕 Manager, Global Communications at Interface
Key Account Director at Interface
Events Manager at Sweep
Director of Sales at WasteWizer
Senior Business Development Manager at ZigZag Global
State Climate Policy Network Intern at Climate XChange
Sustainability Lead, Nature at Ralph Lauren
Software Engineer and Communications Coordinator at Greenlink Analytics
Enterprise Account Executive at Cloverly
Head of Marketing at Solid World DAO
Principal, Circular Economy at Amazon
Manager, Strategic Relationships - Circular Economy at TerraCycle
Operations Manager at Atmo Home
Multiple roles at Siklus
Head of Sustainable Products at Boston Materials
Head of Climate at Diginex
Multiple Roles at MightyFly
Senior Position in Late-Stage Technology Investing at Revaia
Finance Intern at Wallet Max
🗓 Events
March 23: Understory’s Startups Driving Sustainability - March Showcase. RSVP
April 23: Atlanta Green Business Market Fair
Do you have any events to share? Post them in our Understory Slack community.
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