The trifecta of innovation, policy & capital
Natural climate solutions to climate problems
At a panel discussion we held at Rain Headquarters, pioneering climate investor Nancy Pfund shared thoughts from a lifetime of guiding transformative technology such as solar and EVs, from the edge to the mainstream. "No matter how great your technology and your vision for the future, you have to start where people are today and bring people along with you, and it's not always easy.”
Wildfire is increasingly recognized as a key driver—and result—of climate change, and it’s familiar to hear conversations about rapid wildfire response, fire intensity management and wildfire preparedness. An often-overlooked but essential part of solving for the changing frequency and intensity of wildfires is recognizing and promoting the role of climate policy in shaping how we move forward in the wildland-urban interface and our public lands.
As part of SF Climate Week, we welcomed panelists Nancy Pfund and Gayle Miller, who, along with our CEO, Maxwell Brodie, discussed what Nancy calls the trifecta of innovation, policy and capital. “When all those three things can come together around a climate business opportunity, that's where the magic really happens.”
“If we just start to train our professionals in the concept of autonomy, the concept that we can respond faster, that we can literally triple our response time—from 8 hours a day to 24 hours a day—and we just start to have that conversation in a boots-on-the-ground way, that we prove slowly and incrementally that this technology works.” —Gayle Miller
Nancy, Gayle and Max talked about the evolution from skepticism to the widespread adoption of solar power and electric vehicles. They highlighted the role of California's pioneering climate policies in shaping the future we’re now living, where for weeks at a time California has been fully powered by renewable energy during daylight hours.
The journey of solar and EVs from fringe technology to mainstream is lived experience for Nancy, a pioneering climate investor known for her work funding EVs and solar early on. "You have seen the blood sweat and tears that went into creating what is now kind of a policy we all take for granted and a solution we see for the future," Gayle said to Nancy, in reference to landmark legislation such the California zero emission vehicle credit regulation, and California’s Million Solar Roofs law and with net metering regulations.
Wildfire and Climate
“Wildfires threaten the lives of our communities, our health, our firefighters, but critically they also destroy our natural environment and a key contributor to our natural climate solutions—our forests—which store by some estimates over 3 billion tons of carbon in the state of California.” —Maxwell Brodie
The impact of wildfire on carbon emissions is of increasing concern. All of the greenhouse gas emissions progress the state of California made over the past two decades was eliminated during the disastrous 2020 fire season. In 2021, if the emissions from global wildfires were aggregated, they would rank second only to China in terms of pollution. And, in 2023, wildfires in Canada emitted over 6x the annual emissions of the state of California, and were the highest source of emissions the European Earth observation service has ever measured. Our panelists discussed the role of policy in parallel with new technology and climate investment in alleviating the wildfire problem.
Innovative approaches have the potential to protect communities and to help balance the natural environment in spite of climate change. Starting where we are today is what we must do, to achieve a sustainable tomorrow.
Nancy Pfund
Known for building venture funds around the concept of double-bottom-line investing, Nancy has long been a respected business leader and placed early and successful bets on climate tech startups including Tesla, SpaceX and SolarCity.
Gayle Miller
Currently a Senior Advisor to Brookfield. Prior to joining Brookfield in 2024, Ms. Miller was chief deputy of policy to the California Department of Finance and senior counselor on infrastructure and clean energy finance to the Governor, where she championed the state's landmark clean energy agenda.
Maxwell Brodie
Throughout his career, Max has worked to create compound impact by scaling organizations that produce positive social outcomes with every dollar earned. Max previously co-founded Kaizena and Kira Talent, education technology companies that collectively served in over 10% of US public schools and major institutions including INSEAD, Berkeley, and Yale. Max and his family experienced the 2003 Okanagan Mountain Park Firestorm, which caused the largest mass evacuations in Canada since the second world war and formed the inspiration for Rain.
