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Catherine talks to Kim Baker, Senior Director of Innovation at Elemental, which funds circular economy and climate tech solutions through a non-profit model. Elemental is on a mission to redesign the systems at the root of the climate problems , and it’s built a platform for scaling equitable, market-driven solutions, and to uplift people and communities around the world. Since 2009, Elemental has invested in over 130 growth-stage companies.
Kim Baker has over 15 years of experience in launching and growing engineered systems into industrial and municipal markets. Currently, she works at the intersection of the built environment and carbon-related investments together with the design of technology demonstration projects.
We find out what sets Elemental apart as a funder and hear about just a few of the many different types of businesses in the Elemental portfolio, including Trove, Thrilling, Goodr and Reath. Kim explains how Elemental finds and selects the companies it invests in, and tells us more about her background, and her ‘why’.
Podcast host Catherine Weetman is a circular economy business advisor, workshop facilitator, speaker and writer. Her award-winning book: A Circular Economy Handbook: How to Build a More Resilient, Competitive and Sustainable Business includes lots of practical examples and tips on getting started. Catherine founded Rethink Global in 2013, to help businesses use circular, sustainable approaches to build a better business (and a better world).
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About Kim Baker
Kim Baker has over 15 years of experience in launching and growing engineered systems into industrial and municipal markets. Currently, as a Senior Director of Innovation at Elemental, she works at the intersection of the built environment and carbon-related investments together with the design of technology demonstration projects. Prior to joining Elemental, Kim co-founded an early stage venture and led the market launch of a product line as a Sr. Product Manager for a company through its acquisition. She holds a BS in Environmental Engineering and an MBA in Sustainable Management.
Elemental says “We are on a mission to redesign the systems at the root of climate change. In 2009, we launched a new non-profit model for funding climate tech deployment. Breaking down barriers to innovation alongside entrepreneurs provides us unique insight into the policy, market, and technology innovation needed to build systems to uplift people and communities around the world. Elemental has invested in over 130 growth-stage companies and celebrated more than 20 exits, funded more than 100 technology projects, and built a platform for scaling equitable, market-driven solutions to climate change.”
Interview Transcript
Provided by AI – add ~2:30 mins for the finished episode
Catherine Weetman 00:03
Kim, welcome to the Circular Economy Podcast.
Kim Baker 00:06
Hi, thank you. Happy to be here.
Catherine Weetman 00:08
Yeah. Thanks so much for joining us. And could we start by asking you to give us a background to Elemental as a funder, and talk a bit about what sets it apart from other funding organisations?
Kim Baker 00:20
Yes, absolutely. Well, Elemental has been around for over 10 years now. So it was one of the first entities to even think about applying the accelerator model to climate tech and innovation. So it’s just been fascinating to watch its growth over time. elementals, also a nonprofit. So we’re absolutely so much more than just an accelerator or a funding agent. We think about things in a systems approach, we know that all of these operations and all of these issues are so directly linked at their core. And so we strategize about how to sort of uplift all of the sectors, all of these climate related issues together to build a better future that we’re all hoping for. So as it stands today, elemental has about 140 companies and its portfolio, we’ve enjoyed over 20 exits. And we really thrive on spotting that next kind of up and coming entrepreneur that sits across sectors like circular economy, food, agriculture, water, and so so much more.
Catherine Weetman 01:34
That sounds fantastic. I’m almost thinking of breaking off to send my CV in it sounds like a great thing to be involved in, particularly the nonprofit angle of thinking, you know, really sets it apart. So having had a look at the different types of businesses in the elemental portfolio, and as you say, this 140 which include end cycle, and listeners may remember that brilliant story, when I saw spoke to the co founder, Dr. Megan O’Connor back in episode 67. And I noticed one of the recurring themes is connecting those people or organisations who need things with those people or organisations who have what’s needed. So could you give us a couple more examples that kind of helped to shrink our production and consumption footprint by making those connections?
Kim Baker 02:24
Absolutely. Megan’s a fantastic founder. I’m so excited that she spent some time with you previously, I had a listen to the podcast, it was wonderful. It’s always inspiring. Yeah, so So you know, there’s a couple of things that go go into the thought process, our current economy, which we all know is quite linear. That’s what we’re here to talk about, and to create change to help close the loop on that. But in the linear scenario, elemental really understands and builds upon the fact that frontline communities often bear the burden of that linearity, meaning we’ve got landfills and industrial facilities located directly in these communities globally. And so a visual to think about this problem as it relates to our conversation today is one garbage truck of textile is dumped in landfills, and burned every single second of every single day. So think about those people in those communities that happened to be positioned adjacent to wherever that landfill is, think about the air quality, the water quality, etc. So through our work at elemental in our portfolio, there’s a couple of things kind of key issues that we’re looking to solve, absolutely to connect people to things and create jobs and hire within those communities that might be most heavily impacted. And so when I think about the circular economy, it’s not just one or two industries, it’s everything, every single thing on this planet can become circular, or it can become nature based. And so we think about it from a macro point of view, with the concept of platforms at the forefront, platforms that will stand up our manufacturing or industrial processes are buying and selling of tomorrow, platforms for carbon reduction, optimization of all of our stuff, etc. And then from that point on, we see these series of sort of acute viewpoints with very, very specific areas and cycle would be one great example with an alternative to mining or an alternative materials approach. And so then we start to sort of deepen the focus of the lens to think about in each individual sector, what exactly can we implement in terms of technology to help close the loop there. So it’s two things. It’s a platform approach, building the systems and the structure that we need across the board, and then it’s finding those very, very niche sort of direct solutions to help each and every one of the industries that we all live in to become circular?
Catherine Weetman 05:09
Yeah, that’s it just sounds like you, you kind of, really, you really are thinking about the system’s perspective and thinking about what’s going to make the biggest difference not just to the circularity, but to the impact on communities and so on. And, you know, I read a while ago about how most incineration plants are put in areas where, you know, communities are already already deprived. So then, you know, people are purposefully making the decision that it’s better to dump all this air pollution here. And it’s it just seems so unjust. So could you could you give us a few examples of those kinds of platform? Systems that you mentioned?
Kim Baker 05:54
Yeah, I’d love to in first, just a little snapshot, if you don’t mind, which is I started my career in environmental engineering spent an incredible amount of time in the field. And I would always think about it when I when I got in my car, and I drove home from the refinery, at the end of the day. During the day I was, you know, in complete head to toe PPE, a respirator mask, the whole nine yards. And then I got in my car, and I drove home. And the people that live within a mile, half a mile, a quarter of a mile of the refinery, don’t have PPE, they don’t get in their car and drive home. And so what are we doing, and that was the kind of light bulb moment for me of these systems are broken, we can clean up the mess, but we also need to figure out how not to create the mess in the first place. So to answer your question, a couple of platform related technologies that I’ll share with you today. Two of them are focused specifically in the textile industry. And one is a more broad sort of overreaching across the board approach. So maybe I’ll share that one first. That one is Reath. And they’re a company based in Scotland. And they’re one of our newest investments in this space. Actually, what they’re doing is they’re tagging and tracking circular assets. Just like we have the QR codes on everything we see and do now you pull up the menu these days on a QR code, same idea. They’re building a complete 100% digital platform for our stuff. And so this concept of data and transparency are absolutely critical to enabling us the reuse the resale, the upcycling of goods, it just so happens that they’re working with leading brands across the EU, like Marks and Spencer, who have these lofty, huge sustainability goals, which are amazing. But there’s a gap in the execution of that. And so here comes right into the picture, you need this data, you need this tracking and AI solutions to actually make decisions that matter. So that’s one really fun example that can be applied quite quite broadly across various industries.
Catherine Weetman 08:17
Okay, just just before, I asked you for some, some other examples, because I know, there are more examples sort of on the platform theme. And I’m really keen to explore those. But just coming back to your your background, Kim, so you kind of told us about the and I had a sort of similar similar thing, I suppose when you suddenly realise that you’re kind of part of a big problem. And, you know, for me, it was a tiny little part I was playing in, in helping big companies get slightly more efficient at selling selling stuff we generally didn’t need. And for you, it was about the, you know, the fact that you’ve got the PPE to protect you from all the pollution but the community around around the site hadn’t. But how did you then kind of go from that lightbulb moment to then working at elemental?
Kim Baker 09:10
It’s a fantastic journey, looking back at the time maybe felt a little differently. i Yeah, so I my undergrad degree is in Environmental Engineering. And I worked for a very large environmental consulting agency, sort of at the onset, which was incredible because it gave me such a bird’s eye view of all these various industries and how they operate. I was working at PG knees switch station in San Francisco, we ran a high voltage cable under the ocean along the train the BART corridor to allow San Francisco to receive enough energy. So I was at the forefront of that. I was working on greenhouse gas calculations with Dow Chemical before the reporting system was even stood up. So I really got to see some of These now very common sort of sustainability oriented goals and initiatives really, really early on. What sparked the interest for me, though, was a project in San Francisco working with green businesses, San Francisco has a fantastic Green Business programme where they run around the city and certify young and mature businesses around their internal greening practices. And it was going door to door business to business in the city, working with the people working with the founders of those individual businesses, educating them and then helping them implement the change at the end of the day. So that was the sort of lightbulb that I wanted to do more related to the builders, the people that were building the businesses that create change. That’s what elemental is all about, ultimately, is a we support the founders at the core of everything we do, we want to elevate the founders, because we know they’re the ones that will catalyse the growth, we need to make it to this sort of green future, we all hope for it. So after that, I went back and I got my MBA in sustainable sustainable management. It’s a very entrepreneurial programme, I started a company after that with a couple of co founders in industrial wastewater treatment. Again, thinking about the circularity approach, how do we work on site remove trucking? How do we reuse some of the critical materials that come out of that wastewater, etc. And then I went on to work as a Senior Product Manager. So I’ve worn a lot of hats, which I love to bring to the table when I work with entrepreneurs is they’re trying to reach these critical growth paths for their their company. And then I found Elemental I mean, I sort of just shared it’s really the perfect intersection of the engineering world, the technical world, but also elevating the founders that are really working, you know, day and night to create this change. And so it’s the perfect marriage of of everything, I came to Elemental. As we started thinking about expanding beyond energy. Originally, Elemental accelerator was founded as energy accelerator. And it was to help Hawaii meet its renewable energy goal, as we discussed just a few minutes ago, the organisation at that time, which I wasn’t part of back then, but the organisation of that time realised energy is also water, which is also agriculture, which is also circular economy. So in order to really create this catalytic change that everyone’s hoping for, we needed to think about it sort of across the board, I came to the programme, just around the time that Elemental was starting to think beyond energy and expand the various sector work that we do. So that’s the story. And like I said, I’ve I’ve done a number of different roles, technical business, business development, sales. And so it’s really fun to then bring all those various viewpoints and pieces of information to to the work that we do at Elemental.
Catherine Weetman 13:08
Yeah, sounds like a really kind of wiggly journey is
Kim Baker 13:13
not a linear journey. It’s not a circular one. Certainly not linear.
Catherine Weetman 13:18
Good stuff. Actually, maybe a circular career kind of sounds a bit limiting, doesn’t it open, even though we think everything circular is brilliant? So just going back to the companies in the portfolio, then could we talk through another couple of examples that are kind of doing that platform role of connecting those who have with those who need?
13:38
I’d love to, I’d love to? Yeah, I’ll give you two more examples, both of which are a little bit more focused in the textile industry. The first company is Trove, Trove is based in the Bay Area in California. And we worked with them starting about three years ago. And we did this just prior to a significant fundraise. So they’ve had great success in the past couple of years. And what trov is doing is allowing big name brands to take control of their resale marketplace. What they’re doing is they’re creating an entire secondary market. And I personally am a huge believer in this. I love when I can go online, with companies like Patagonia, Lululemon, Rei, and find something that has been given a second life essentially. So what Trove is doing on the back end that that you and I as customers maybe don’t see is that they’re a white label technology. They’re providing end to end operations for these big name brands to be able to effectively pull off this resale marketplace it is. It is not an insignificant logistical feat for them to do it and Trove is taking that you know, internalising that at their core Buddy. So, again, they’ve had fantastic growth, they’re working with these huge brands. And something that we really keyed on during our specific project work with Trove, is their ability to hire directly in the communities that might most beam there. What we did with Trove, during their project with elemental, really rings true for a lot of companies related to the circular economy, we focus deeply on the concepts of equity into their company. And what I mean by that is built an entire hiring plan for them to educate upskill hire local talent directly in those communities where those incineration plants might be, like we were just talking about. And so they’ve had a fantastic journey, just related to staffing and growing the company that way.
Catherine Weetman 16:00
Wow, that sounds that sounds really good. And yeah, it’s funny, we, me and my husband, were talking about Patagonia’s WornWear website last night, because of course, I’m always extolling the virtues of it, but he keeps reminding me it’s only in America. And his view is being being the kind of black and white view person that is his view |
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