Redwood at San Francisco Climate Week for Earth Month
Redwood’s CEO and Co-founder Josh Garrett and Senior Account Executive Jessica Harrington celebrated Earth Month at San Francisco Climate Week last month and left inspired by the climate innovation emerging in the Bay Area. Our entire team was honored to join forces with SF Climate Week, as their official PR agency and want to take a moment to highlight some key takeaways Josh and Jessica left the event with.
To kick off the week, Jessica hosted a Meetup for her company College to Climate, enabling college students and recent grads to network with other young people they could attend events with throughout the week. We even saw some of the same faces at Redwood’s Climate Comms & Media Mixer later that week!
Redwood’s Mixer was hosted at the beautiful Marker Hotel in its restaurant space, Tratto. It hosted journalists and other climate communicators, climate industry professionals, and more for refreshments and delightful conversations about ways to tell genuine stories about solutions that move the needle for climate progress and your business. A special thanks to everyone who joined us!
Josh and Jessica attended numerous other sessions throughout the week and left with a few takeaways shared below in case you weren’t at the event but also wanted to benefit from the insights the city was buzzing with.
Many of the sessions hosted conversations centered around advice for early founders. Black Girl Environmentalists’ Happy Hour at Patagonia featuring Nneka Kibuule Principal at Aligned Climate Capital. Nneka spoke about her journey into sustainable investment, to a room filled largely with early career professionals. When asked about what to do when you don’t know where to begin with starting your own venture, Nneka pointed to the value of accelerator programs as sources of funding and support.
Later in the week, McGee Young of WattCarbon and Aaron Hall of Intropic Materials echoed a similar sentiment as they spoke to a room of young founders, aspiring entrepreneurs, and students at the Earth First x True Ventures breakfast. The event gathered a room of bright-eyed, climate-passionate young people, to which the speakers shared valuable perspectives focusing on the pitfalls and best practices for early-stage ventures. For example, how to not mistake friction with traction and the importance of knowing the value of reaching your true audience, versus just generating buzz. Similar to Nnkea, McGee, and Aaron also emphasized the value of accelerator programs for early founders. They made the point that you don’t need to know everything to get started and that conversations with key stakeholders in your industry are the most beneficial.
Another in-depth conversation surrounding climate finance was the Navigating Climate Finance session hosted by Pulse Fund, featuring prominent voices in climate investment who provided insightful looks into the state of climate funding and pathways for early or first-time founders. The discussions around climate finance were particularly forward-thinking, tackling the challenges of derisking and fostering confidence in nascent markets. The proactive engagement with diverse capital providers—from strategic partners to financiers—is crucial for pioneering projects aimed at setting industry benchmarks (FOAK and NOAK).
Beyond the finance speak and techy conversations about climate solutions and funding (which we loved) there remained a persistent need for moving beyond the largely agreed-upon rhetoric and echo chamber of solutions and actionable strategies. The underlying tone was often, something that resembles “we understand the strategy, but where’s the action”. With that said, the SF Climate Week team did an incredible job ensuring the vast majority of the events offered were free and accessible to the community. Nonetheless, we’d love to see more community engagement around climate solutions that help not only move climate progress but also educate beyond the echo chambers, address inequities, and build resilience.
One thing that sets many climate conferences apart from other professional events is the vast number of industries that convene in one place. Climate conferences like SF Climate Week are not just centered on energy, AI, or career-building opportunities for job-seekers. They are often all of that and much more. It’s not often that founders of alternative industrial chemical manufacturing companies convene with conservationists and educators, all in the same place, for the same purpose–to build a more sustainable world and ensure a healthier, habitable future. The inherent interconnection of the climate challenge enables a diverse range of stakeholders to rightly be at the table and the conversations are vastly more interesting because of it.
Thank you to everyone who made this week so incredible — especially Morgan Campell and the entire SF Climate Week team and slew of volunteers, Matthew and the 9Zero team, Climatebase, and all of the partners who made everything possible. We look forward to doing our part to make an even bigger splash at next year’s event!
If you’re a journalist who attended the event and you’d like to get in touch with the organizing team now or in the future, please contact us at info@redwoodclimatecomms.com!
