Local non-profit venture capital fund partners building “Wikipedia of climate solutions”

Two Roaring Fork Valley-based organizations have partnered to build such a tool.Conduits of climate impacts This is the result of the Pitkin County-based nonprofit Global Warming Prevention Project (GWMP) and VoLo Earth Ventures, a decarbonization-focused venture capital (VC) fund founded in Snowmass. It was launched last fall.

“Wealthy Americans and the world are complicit in climate change,” said Jacqueline Francis, founder and executive director of GWMP. “Anyone who has benefited from a fossil fuel world should want to transition to a new energy economy that is not based on fossil fuels. There is no doubt that we are here.”

This database includes approximately 60% of businesses and 40% of nonprofit organizations worldwide. Climate categories such as carbon sinks, energy, finance, social and cultural pathways are displayed.

Organizations listed in the database are the result of submissions to GWMP’s Keeling Curve Award. The award is an annual program launched in 2018 that awards $50,000 each to 10 projects that demonstrate the ability to reduce, replace, or remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Francis said a team of 12 analysts is vetting applicants.

Users can click on a listing to learn more about an organization, including its impact on underrepresented groups and areas of greatest financial need.

She hopes that funders and philanthropists can use this database as a springboard for larger research, meaning that those who have the money and those who need the money can help meet climate change goals. We envision this as a method to introduce

With more applicants than awards available, this database provides organizations that do not win an award an opportunity to reach out to global climate change funders. Since the Keeling Curve Award’s inception, venture capitalists have asked Francis about applicants who did valuable work but didn’t win the award.

By partnering with VoLo, the database will benefit from the foundation’s expertise in architecting tools to help funders make optimal investments and contributions to accelerate decarbonization. VoLo uses proprietary tools to analyze which projects are most likely to be commercially successful and therefore profitable in the climate market.

“Energy is the lifeblood of the global economy. How energy is produced and consumed is all changing at the same time. The global economy needs to move away from fossil fuels,” said VoLo co-founder Chris Taller. he said. “If the world’s biggest emitters of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases are motivated to change because it’s more profitable, then we can get there faster. think.”

Both he and Francis said the partnership between GWMP and VoLo was a natural choice. They say the intersection of venture capital and decarbonization is a necessary step in encouraging climate-friendly efforts, rather than hindering them.

“We live in a capitalist society. Most people I meet, no matter their age, are still trying to make money in life. And that drives everything,” Francis said. Ta. “I was just reading something and John Kerry (former Secretary of State) said that money runs the world. So if you don’t take that into account when making decisions, how things change. You’re going to ignore a large part of it.”

He said winning the Keeling Curve Award will enable winning organizations to access more funding, and he hopes the database will provide similar opportunities for all publicly traded companies. Participants are encouraged to update their profile in the database annually.

As GWMP continues to award Keeling Curve Awards, the database will accumulate even more organizations for funders to choose from.