YOUR NAME IS BEING REMOVED
FROM THE BUILDING ([original](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/your-name-being-removed-from-building-josh-felser)) ([raw](?raw))Josh Felser
Climate Tech Investor Focused on the Enterprise
Published Jun 5, 2023
AN OPEN LETTER TO CEOS ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE
I am a serially successful founder and investor having co-founded the first Internet music company and two venture capital funds where I invested in Airtable , Patreon , BetterUp , and Intercom among others. I was lucky to have been a leader during the digitization of everything in the late 90s and now I am a participant in the decarbonization of everything through my venture capital fund, Climactic . Several years ago I made a decision to dedicate the rest of my life: my charity, my politics, to fighting climate change and its impact on OUR planet! There is no solution to climate change that doesn’t start and end with CEOs of major corporations setting and achieving aggressive net zero goals.
The good news is that 90% of GDP is currently covered under a company’s net zero goal.
So I am writing this letter to you, the CEO of a major corporation, and I know that your climate fight is not easy. You are being pressured by your board, your investors and politicians to roll back your net zero goals for what will eventually look like short-sighted financial and political reasons. However, your corporate platform, more than any other (government, NGO, consumer, celebrity) has unparalleled potential to save the planet and all of us who live on it.
The top 100 companies are responsible for 71% of all greenhouse gas emissions.
This is the moment for you to carve out a legacy that you and your descendents can be proud of, because, after all, their very lives are at stake. What do you want your kids and grandkids to say about you? Which side of history will you be on because “History has its eyes on you”.
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With an assist from El Nino, global warming is now set to breach the 1.5 degree threshold within 5 years not the 15 years most had forecast.
Know that if you are on the wrong side of history, every other accomplishment of yours will fade to black. There are far too many examples of leaders on the wrong side of foundational issues/movements (from civil rights, opioid crisis, slavery, LGBTQ), who have been written into the history books as the villains, despite the good they may have accomplished prior. In fact, listen to your own employees who are increasingly demanding change from you.
⅓ of workers now say they will only work for companies who prioritize sustainability.
By harnessing the power of your position you can make a resounding difference. I imagine you already know how you can have the greatest impact so the challenge is about your will to take action. Nevertheless, here are a few ways you and your company can address climate change today:
- Make Net Zero Goals = Financial goals: Set, and more importantly, PRIORITIZE AND ACHIEVE, ambitious, transparent targets for carbon reduction that align with science-based targets. Elevate your net zero goals to the same level as your financial goals.
- Desegregate Sustainability: Stop thinking of sustainability as a separate, siloed department and start integrating it into every department. This will have the added benefit of helping you attract the best and the brightest. 40% of college grads say they want to pursue careers in sustainability.
- Scale Renewable Energy: Position yourself at the forefront of the clean energy revolution. Support renewable energy projects and adopt innovative technologies BEFORE they are cost-neutral, because of the long term financial promise of cheap clean energy.
- Incent and Educate Your Workforce: Equip your employees with the knowledge, tools, and opportunities to contribute to sustainability initiatives. Offer bonuses and commissions to motivate your employees to innovate and deliver sustainable solutions.
- Embrace the Startup Ecosystem: Help new companies get off the ground, scale and iterate their tech and products vs waiting for volume and perfection. Your early adoption will dramatically accelerate evolution of the solutions corporations so desperately need to hit their net zero goals. Be a pioneer not a follower.
- Champion Environmental Justice: Stand for fairness and equity. Acknowledge and address the disproportionate impacts of climate change on marginalized communities and ensure your solutions don't leave them out. For example, cap and trade hurts vulnerable populations by incentivizing emission increases in frontline communities, undermining environmental justice and exacerbating the disproportionate burdens that these communities already bear.
- Propagate Best practices: Openly share the solutions that are working and perhaps more importantly the mistakes you have made along the way. Your authentic leadership will inspire your elite community to also do the right thing.
The choices you make today will echo into the future: your future and your kids’ future. Your actions or inactions will become a part of the story your children and future generations tell about you. Will they say you rose to the challenge when the planet needed you most, or will they be embarrassed and angry that you let them down and missed a profound opportunity to safeguard their very existence?