The Impact Together Community is an initiative of the team at BASE Associates. Membership is free and limited to the founders, CEOs and leaders of companies working on solutions for the climate crisis and environmental sustainability. Members benefit from: free coaching, free bi-monthly workshop, free bi-monthly resources, partnership opportunities and community awards.
The Miller Center Accelerator is designed for high-potential social enterprises with proven traction, working on women’s economic empowerment, climate resilience, or the intersection of both. This 6-month accelerator program combines mentorship with structured curriculum to help social entrepreneurs address gaps in their impact model, business model, and growth strategies, and ultimately move them along the path toward growth, significant scale, and investment.
The primary purpose of CalSEED is to address a critical funding gap in the early stages of the energy technology development pipeline. Most entrepreneurs and researchers require multiple rounds of funding over several years to successfully commercialize their new energy invention. To obtain this sustained, long-term funding – either through private capital or large government grants—entrepreneurs and researchers must first demonstrate that their concept is feasible.
CalSEED provides small funding awards to help California entrepreneurs, researchers and businesses prove out the feasibility of new scientific concepts for energy applications. These small funding awards, along with support services, provide a launch pad to help entrepreneurs be successful in their clean energy ventures.
ETIPP employs a community-driven approach to identify and plan strategic clean energy and energy resilience solutions that address a community’s specific challenges. This approach leverages the experience and expertise of local community leaders, residents, and organizations with the ETIPP partner network. The ETIPP partner network connects selected communities with regional nonprofit or academic organizations, energy experts at DOE research institutions, and DOE offices to navigate options for addressing local clean energy and energy resilience challenges.
By participating in ETIPP, communities receive substantial support from ETIPP experts in the form of technical assistance on energy analysis and planning (see Technical Assistance below). Each community is also supported by an ETIPP regional partner that can assist with identifying and developing a community’s needs and goals.
Bloomberg Philanthropies and Kapwa Consulting recently announced the Climate Challenge Justice 40 Capacity Building Fund (J40 Fund). The purpose of the J40 Fund is to provide funding to support community-based organizations to engage and partner with their local government to advance community-led projects that align with the Justice40 Initiative.
Investment areas include: clean energy and energy efficiency, clean transit, affordable and sustainable housing, training and workforce development, the remediation and reduction of legacy pollution, and the development of critical clean water infrastructure.
The fund is managed by Kapwa Consulting, LLC, who will issue approved awards as direct professional service subcontracts to qualified contractors. Contract amounts for community-based organizations are estimated to be up to $30,000. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the pool of funds is depleted; to apply to Round 3, do so by April 14th.
Entrepreneurs & Researchers: C2M is now accepting climate tech applications — low-carbon energy, green chemistry, food, and water technologies covering both mitigation and adaptation — for its 2022 cohort. For those technologies selected, interdisciplinary, hand-picked teams of UC Berkeley grad students will help identify the most viable initial markets, prospective customers and partners, funding sources, and related strategies. Each project receives approximately 1,000 hours of free commercialization assessment.
This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) seeks to empower regions to harness the benefits of a clean energy future. This FOA supports multiple avenues for localities to improve their energy efficiency, reduce carbon emissions, and bolster their local workforce through research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D) projects for renewable-fueled energy systems and technical assistance to support manufacturers in adopting innovative, smart technologies to help better manage their energy use.
Under this FOA, DOE will provide up to $7.5 million to support activities that drive innovation, deployment, and technical assistance activities for clean energy technologies that are critical for climate protection under two topics:
Topic Area 1: Advanced Technology Demonstration in a Renewably Supplied District Energy System
Topic Area 2: Regional Initiative to Integrate Smart Manufacturing and Energy Management Systems
Shell UK has announced a new program for energy start-ups – Shell StartUp Engine UK – in partnership with Unreasonable Group (Unreasonable). The program focuses on scale and growth-stage start-ups that are best placed to accelerate a fair and just energy transition, improve access to energy and help consumers make smarter energy choices. CEOs of these start-ups will benefit from high-profile mentorship, access to potential investors and partners, and being part of the Shell and Unreasonable start-up communities.
The Greentech Alliance brings together green technology businesses that fight climate change with their products and services in the most responsible and respectful-to-our-planet manner, to support them with advice about funding, impact, visibility and strategy with the help of top VCs, journalists, advisors and entrepreneurs. Their mission is to push forward Greentech companies that put our planet before profit.
Top priorities:
ARPA-E’s Performance-based Energy Resource Feedback, Optimization, and Risk Management (PERFORM) program intends to quantify grid management risks at the asset and system levels, leading to a transformative grid system with reduced costs and improved reliability. Applicants are expected to give technically relevant innovative solutions targeting areas like: (i) bulk and distribution systems, (ii) centralized and decentralized paradigms, and (iii) vertically integrated utilities, markets, and peer-to-peer transactive energy systems.
For more information: Click here
The Mentor Capital Network (MCN) identifies entrepreneurs with solutions to solve world’s social, economic, and environmental problems and supports by connecting them with peers and advisers from within its network. Interested applicants must go through a 3-tier process involving Business plan review, Challenge calls, Direct fundraising assistance or Indirect support. Selected participants would be eligible for networking with alumni and other forms of assistance.
For more information: Click here
Chain Reaction Innovations (CRI) offers a two-year fellowship for innovators focusing on clean energy and science technologies. Through an annual call for innovators, four to six individuals will be selected to join CRI. Program participants will receive the financial and technical support needed to perform early-stage research and development (R&D) that may launch energy or manufacturing businesses in the future.
