Name: WTF: An Interview With Tim O'Reilly by Returns on Investment
Duration: 36 min 56 s
Description: On this episode of ROI, David Bank chats with technologist and entrepreneur Tim O'Reilly about his new book WTF: What's the Future, and Why It's Up to Us.

What technologies can get us to net-zero steel? Dr. Christina Chang knows this space as well as anyone in venture capital. She's a PhD chemist and inventor in fields from solar PV to advanced manufacturing, a former steel startup CEO, and now a partner at Lowercarbon Capital. Join us to learn:

-- Which technologies can help cut steel emissions -- and why near-commercial options like CCUS and hydrogen can't get us to net-zero
-- How modularity can help electrochemical iron-making drive down the green premium
-- What the Inflation Reduction Act means (and doesn't mean!) for green steel production costs


Christina's full background: A chemist, climate tech founder and CEO, Dr. Christina Chang has invented technologies across nanomaterials, catalysis for mining waste remediation, thin-film solar panels, solar water-splitting for H2 production, and sustainable steel.

She is a Partner at Lowercarbon Capital, the multi-billion dollar VC firm backing kickass companies that fix the planet profitably. Previously, Dr. Chang led federal funding for sustainable manufacturing research ARPA-E, including steel, chemicals, cement, rare earths, and carbon-negative building materials.

Dr. Chang earned her PhD in Physical Chemistry from Harvard. On the Marshall Scholarship, Dr. Chang earned an MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures from Imperial College London and an MPhil in Chemistry from the University of Cambridge. She graduated summa cum laude from Princeton with a Bachelor's in Chemistry, with Certificates in Engineering Biology, Applications of Computing, and Materials Science and Engineering. She is a United States Presidential Scholar, a Goldwater Scholar, a Draper Laboratory Fellow, and an alumna of the Research Science Institute.

What Do We Need for Net-Zero Steel? Christina Chang, Partner @ Lowercarbon Capital

For investors, taking sustainability seriously requires high-quality company-level data. That, in turn, requires standards that ensure companies across industries and economies are providing this kind of investor-useful data. We need accounting standards for sustainability reporting, just like what we have for financial reporting.

Our guest this week is from the international body that's tackling this task. Elizabeth Seeger is a Wharton MBA alum and board member at the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), a 14-member body within the world's standards-setter for accounting, the IFRS Foundation. The ISSB released this summer a pair of global baseline standards for sustainability and climate reporting. They're working with countries and international organizations around the world (G7, G20, central bank governors, and more) to drive global adoption.

Listen to learn:
-- How the ISSB is unifying the global maze of sustainability accounting standards
-- How the board draws on financial reporting concepts in underpinning its sustainability reporting standards
-- How sustainability reporting standards in public markets affect private markets.

Bio: Elizabeth Seeger has over 20 years’ experience of standard-setting, investment and working on sustainability topics. She joined the ISSB from global investment firm KKR, where she served as Managing Director, Sustainable Investing, responsible for helping oversee the firm's consideration of sustainability matters throughout KKR’s investment process and part of KKR's Global Impact team. She also oversaw KKR’s public sustainability reporting efforts, including the development of SASB and TCFD-aligned reporting. Before joining KKR in 2009, she served as a project manager in the corporate partnerships programme (now known as EDF+Business) of Environmental Defence Fund.

Elizabeth's comments represent her views and opinions and not those of the ISSB or the IFRS Foundation.

Bringing Accounting Rigor to Sustainability Reporting -- Elizabeth Seeger, Board Member @ ISSB

Over the past decade, climate tech venture capital has expanded rapidly. Total funding increased by 12.5x and new venture firms like Clean Energy Ventures emerged, filling critical gaps in the capital stack and helping founders reimagine a more sustainable future.

Our guest, Matt Cohen, Principal at Clean Energy Ventures, has dedicated his career to helping climate tech entrepreneurs scale their businesses. He and his colleagues are focused on maximizing impact, investing only in companies that can mitigate 2.5 gigatons of CO2 by 2050. 

In this episode, Matt returned to Penn, his alma mater, and joined host Ian Miller to discuss Clean Energy Venture’s mission and share his insight on:

- Finding your unique strengths as a climate tech investor or operator

- Identifying pockets of opportunity across climate technology verticals

- Communicating a compelling vision and generating investor excitement as a founder 

Any feedback? Please reach out
ianmill@wharton.upenn.edu

Financing the Future of Climate Tech - Matt Cohen, Principal @ Clean Energy Ventures

Ina Sebastian reads MIT CISR's January 2025 research briefing, which she co-authored with Stephanie Woerner, Peter Weill, and Daniel Woerner. See the text version and related content at https://cisr.mit.edu/publication/2025_0101_DigitalSustainability_SebastianWoernerWeillWoerner.

Abstract: Sustainability is a cost of doing business for many companies today—but it is also an opportunity for creating value. Companies only achieve value, however, by embedding sustainability goals into company strategy and then developing capabilities to advance these goals. Our survey analysis suggested that there are four distinct strategic sustainability goals: compliance and efficiency, customer and investor reputation, new revenue, and company purpose. Companies in the research that pursued strategic sustainability goals beyond compliance and efficiency saw bottom-line impacts such as greater EBIT, more revenues from innovation, and improved customer experience.

Business Value from Digital Sustainability

On this episode of ROI, David Bank chats with technologist and entrepreneur Tim O'Reilly about his new book WTF: What's the Future, and Why It's Up to Us.

WTF: An Interview With Tim O'Reilly

Returns on Investment

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