Helping investors make better decisions may be the driving force. But the reality is that the U.S. may be moving closer to mandated Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosures for the first time.On March 21, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a proposed ESG disclosures rule that would require public companies to disclose their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other climate change risks. Join us to learn more about what this regulation means, how it will impact your organization and what you can do to prepare. Moderator: Grant Harrison, Director & Senior Analyst, Sustainable Finance & ESG GreenBiz Group Speakers: Dan Quintas, Director of Product Management, ESG & Sustainability Cloud, OneTrust Adblock test (Why?)

There’s a new alliance in town: The Energy Storage Solutions Consortium. With founding members including Meta, REsurety, Broad Reach Power, the consortium has a vision: provide the tools needed to assess and maximize emission reductions from energy storage.  Energy storage has a starring role in our new, decarbonized future. It’s often called the “linchpin technology” of the energy transition, with the promise of complementing clean, cheap intermittent energy resources — namely wind and solar — to displace dirty energy resources. With grid-scale energy storage poised for significant growth, getting this right today could have exponential impacts tomorrow.  But realizing energy storage’s full decarbonization benefits requires the deployments to optimize for emission reductions. And that isn’t a given. Doesn’t energy storage always reduce emissions? Nope. Energy storage projects are financed and structured to maximize return on investment. Often they make money through selling energy at market rates to the grid, determined by electricity’s supply and demand at a given moment. Grid operators go for the cheapest resource first, then work their way up to more expensive resources as needed — known as the merit order. That incentivizes storage projects to save energy for times when rates are higher — which may not align with maximum decarbonization benefits.  Consider a  a wind farm. When the farm is generating power, rates may be quite low, as neighboring wind farms are likely also generating cheap energy. It may be more financially attractive to save the energy for when rates are higher — even if that means other dirty generation sources need to come online.  If the goal is to decarbonize the power sector (and it is), we need to change the financial model for these projects. That requires two innovations: emissions related to energy generation in real time, and the incentivization of emission reductions.  Do we know real-time emissions information for energy generation?  Better understanding where and when emissions are created is key to decarbonizing the power sector — and the objective of the Energy Storage Solutions Consortium.  The consortium aims to create an open-source, third-party-verified methodology to quantify the emission reduction benefits of energy storage, giving organizations visibility into the true impact of new energy storage deployments, according to a release. The methodology could provide guidance on where to deploy stored energy to align with net zero goals. The process is deceptively simple: It measures the tons of emissions displaced through the charging and discharging of energy storage facilities at specific locations and points in time. In order to do this, the consortium’s energy market calculate real-time, location-based emissions displaced as a result of clean energy resources  — a concept called “locational marginal emissions.”  As more organizations are looking towards reaching 24/7 carbon free energy, a cottage industry has popped up with innovators looking to better understand real-time emissions. Many of the organizations I’ve been watching in this space have joined this consortium, including REsurety, WattTime, Clearloop and Microsoft.  The collaboration between these early movers is worth watching as they create customer-facing products that drive decarbonization.  How can we better incentivize emission reductions?  As with all capital-intensive, privately funded projects, energy storage capability requires funding. So the puzzle becomes, how can we structure deals to send price signals that align with emission reductions?  One of the consortium’s founding members, Meta, is piloting a new financial structure to explore this question. The tech giant selected three of its Texas energy storage projects, with a combined capacity of 9.9 megawatts (MW), for which it will compensate the project developer based on the emission reductions they create.  The pilot, which Meta detailed in a blog post, is designed to test if this twist will lead to meaningful emissions reduction. Meta will take a look at the success of the program in June 2023, using the consortium’s tool to verify the outcomes.  If successful and scaled, it could have major decarbonization potential. According to Meta, Texas’ ERCOT power grid currently has 1.5 GW of standalone storage in operation, with 38.2 GW in the interconnection queue. If the methodology is correct, that energy storage could result in the equivalent of 2.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide reductions.  Adblock test (Why?)

Former New York Giants football player and "Good Morning America" host Michael Strahan in early September launched a skincare line including beard wash, shaving products and moisturizer formulated and manufactured by Evolved By Nature, a Boston-based biotechnology startup developing petrochemical replacements formulated from natural silk protein.The development is notable as yet another example of innovation made possible by technology that builds on, amplifies or measures the power of nature — it’s an emerging subcategory of climate tech some experts have dubbed "nature tech." I like to think of these technologies as either mimicking the Earth’s ecosystems or focusing explicitly on accelerating natural systems’ inherent ability to regenerate. There have been literally dozens of funding and partnership announcements related to this space during the past month alone, if my bloated inbox is any indication. As suggested by a white paper published this week by the coalition Nature4Climate, the term nature tech can be used to describe a broad range of applied and information technologies all focused on this goal — helping scale nature-based solutions to climate change. Those who are exploring and developing the category further split nature tech into four categories:  ecosystem and biodiversity monitoring mechanisms enabled by satellites, light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensors, DNA testing and other scientific approaches;  deployment solutions, such as drones, for reforestation or ecosystem restoration;  verification approaches, often based on blockchain and artificial intelligence, that can be used for accounting and disclosure; and applications and software that helps create marketplaces for nature-based solutions, connecting them with would-be investors or buyers. "We see these technologies as strengthening the case for nature-based climate solutions," said Shyla Raghav, co-founder and chief portfolio and partnership officer for media organization Time’s new CO2 initiative, still operating in stealth mode. Raghav was one expert who provided input for the white paper, for which I contributed the foreword. "They help demonstrate the degree of permanence," she said, underscoring a primary benefit of nature tech solutions. She added, later in our conversation: "Nature tech is really going to be a critical accelerant for bringing nature-based solutions to scale." The early pioneers of nature tech Chances are, you’ve already heard about many ventures taking up the nature tech mantle.  Consider the aforementioned Evolved By Nature, which raised $120 million in Series C funding in June. It falls under the nature tech category of "deployment" — because its approach uses principles of biomimicry, biology and chemistry to call upon nature to help eliminate the use of fossil fuels-derived products. The startup’s product, Activated Silk, can serve as a replacement for certain petrochemicals in skincare or that act as protective coatings for leather and textiles. Meanwhile, the mulberry trees grown to feed the silkworms provide regenerative benefits to the agricultural lands and communities in which they are planted. The substance itself helps displace a petrochemical alternative. The Michael Strahan skincare line is using Activated Silk 33B, a polypeptide that naturally boosts skin barriers.  Another example of a company using technology on behalf of nature is Living Carbon, which is genetically modifying poplar trees to sequester more carbon and concentrated metals, such as nickel.  Also falling under the deployment category of nature tech is a series of drone startups focused on helping scale reforestation or ecosystem restoration including DroneDeploy, backed with more than $142 million, which has an active practice focused on forestry management; DroneSeed, championing "rapid" reforestation; Dendra Systems, focused on managing land and biodiversity restoration; and Sentera, which supports agronomists with decision-making.  Other ventures defy a simple label, such as Terraformation, which is using solar panels, desalination and native seeds to reforest desertified microsystems in places such as Hawaii. Terraformation this week announced a relationship with Eden Reforestation Projects, self-described as the "world’s largest nonprofit restoration organization." Under the partnership, Eden will use Terraformation’s seed banking technology to cultivate nearly 160 biodiverse, native seeds for projects in Kenya and Mozambique. One of the most active — and probably the largest — categories of nature tech centers on monitoring, reporting and verification. This includes satellite ventures, as well as blockchain and artificial intelligence services sprouting to monitor and manage more precisely the carbon-sequestering services of forests, agricultural land, wetlands and the like. The nonprofit Ctrees, led by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist Sassan Saatchi, launched a global platform that plans to provide operational-level data for first carbon projects starting in early 2023. Many entrepreneurs are chasing this space. Another oft-mentioned startup attracting substantial investments is Pachama, which uses data from sensors, satellites and other data collection resources to measure carbon sequestered by forests. Its $55 million Series B funding included investors Future Positive, Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Lowercarbon Capital, along with celebrities including Serena Williams, Ellen DeGeneres and Portia DiRossi. Elsewhere, you’ve probably heard of Planet Labs, founded 12 years ago by three NASA scientists, which is working with many high-profile companies including financial services firm Moody’s, which uses the service to analyze ESG risk data. The company estimates that its satellites capture up to 30 terabytes of data on a daily basis. One example of how its technology is used to protect nature stems from the company’s relationship with Organic Valley, which is using the satellite images to measure pasture health on dairy farms.  Other measurement-focused startups mentioned in the white paper include NatureMetrics, a U.K. company that measures biodiversity; forest monitoring and management software firm Treemetrics; and carbon intelligence and reviews service Sylvera. The other two categories — which hinge on verification and connection — are in many ways tangential to the broader universe of measurement solutions. "Increased processing power, better algorithms, machine learning and wildly available data, make it possible for nature-based carbon projects to be monitored and credited at greater scale," note the white paper’s authors. "This will increase confidence in the robustness of nature-based solutions." Among some companies worth watching in the verification and connection categories are NCX, creating a forest carbon marketplace; Nori, developing a platform that rewards farmers for carbon sequestration; CarbonStack, developing local afforestation projects; and Taking Root, a forest restoration organization explicitly centered on smallholder farmers. The white paper argues that many of these verification and information sharing solutions are crucial for more investments to flow into nature tech. In particular, the authors suggest, nature tech could play a critical role in connective stakeholders — such as the Indigenous communities that are stewards to more than half of the world’s biodiversity and the financial institutions interested in financing protective or regenerative projects.  But it’s not a panacea: "Many of the most vulnerable people in these ecosystems don’t necessarily have access to basic technology," the authors write. "Nature tech is no replacement for meaningful stakeholder engagement and traveling out to local communities to engage with people — in their language — and to understand their needs." That said, according to the World Economic Forum, an estimated $44 trillion of economic value — more than half of the world’s GDP — relies on nature. That’s a fact more corporations — and the White House — are just beginning to comprehend. Reporting frameworks that account for corporate impact on biodiversity and nature are germinating, but there are few formal resources for those calculations and disclosures today. As I wrote in the foreword of the Nature4Climate white paper, that’s another reason investing in solutions that meet the nature tech job description makes sense both financially and for the sake of the planet.  Adblock test (Why?)

Date/Time: September 15, 2022 (1-2PM ET / 10-11AM PT)It is estimated that each year 600 million pounds of candy are consumed in the United States during the Halloween season. The materials used for candy packaging are notoriously difficult to recycle, with the vast majority ending up in landfills. That’s why Rubicon created Trick or Trash™, an educational program designed to help reduce the waste that accumulates every year around Halloween. Candy wrapper recycling boxes are provided free of charge to schools, universities, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations, providing communities with a fun and easy way to help make Halloween a bit more sustainable! Each Trick or Trash box helps keep hundreds of candy wrappers out of landfills. But it is the recycling education tied to Trick or Trash—provided by teachers to their students, business owners to their staff and customers, and community leaders to their members—that inspires lifelong commitments to fostering the circular economy and a more sustainable world. On this webcast you will hear from a panel of Trick or Trash partners that make this program a reality in all 50 states. Rubicon, g2 revolution, and the National Wildlife Federation will discuss their learnings from the front lines of sustainability education: from implementing a program at scale to collaborating across diverse networks and audiences to driving tangible behavior change. The panelists will share their unique insights into “what works” for sustainability education and their ideas for inspiring communities to contribute to and to advocate for a circular economy future. Moderator: Suz Okie, Director of Design Strategy & Senior Analyst, Circular Economy, GreenBiz Group Speakers: Katie Kinnear, Director of Engagement Strategy, Rubicon Kristy Jones, Director, Higher Education Programs, National Wildlife Federation Rachael Kroll, National Accounts Manager, g2 revolution LLC If you can't tune in live, please register and we will email you a link to access the webcast recording and resources, available to you on-demand after the live webcast. Adblock test (Why?)

Welcome to Part 3 of our series "What Would Dolly Parton Do: 9 To 5 in the Climate Tech Sector"! This week, we’re diving into Twelve, a startup focusing on creating chemicals from air instead of fossil fuels. As I wrote this week’s newsletter, Dolly’s classic "Better Get to Livin’" kept playing on repeat in my head. As a climate professional, I often hear that many support the fight against the climate crisis but don’t want to give up their current quality of life. And Twelve embodies the definition of "better get to livin’" by allowing people to use the products they want without affecting the environment so drastically. This Berkeley, California-based startup is looking to shake up the status quo of how things are made. These "things" range from sunglasses to car parts to equipment for NASA. But why is this important? Thank you for asking that excellent question.  When different products are made, fossil fuel-derived petrochemicals serve as a main ingredient due to its carbon-heavy makeup. The International Energy Agency released a global report on petrochemicals listing plastics, fertilizers, packaging, clothing, digital devices, medical equipment, detergents and tires, among others, as commodities reliant upon petrochemicals for assembly. However, co-founders Kendra Kuhl, CTO, and Etosha Cave, CSO, discovered an alternative option in an electrochemical reactor that cuts fossil fuels out of the equation completely. Heidi Lim, director of product ecosystems at Twelve, broke down how this reactor works. "Our technology transforms carbon dioxide and water molecules using renewable energy. We split up and then rearrange molecules into building blocks that are typically made from fossil fuels." Lim dubs the process industrial photosynthesis. (Don’t worry if you have to pause to remember what your high school science class taught you about photosynthesis. I did, too.) Via a membrane, "[Twelve] is making a CO2 electrolyzer … and doing what plants do; we’re taking water and CO2, just like plants, and using that and some form of energy, solar or wind, and using that to make these new chemicals."  Essentially, the electricity separates the CO2 and water, and the membrane allows for the separated elements to be recombined into different chemicals. This entire process is housed in a reactor that can be installed in any industrial system, using the CO2 byproduct from the system itself, or using carbon dioxide captured from the air, or even using CO2 released from landfills, according to Lim. Either way, unnecessary CO2 is used in a manner that completely cuts out petrochemical use.  From this technology, many products have been reborn as CO2Made, including PANGAIA Sunglasses, Mercedes car parts, Tide detergent ingredients and the latest reveal — jet fuel. In a CNBC interview, Twelve’s third co-founder and CEO, Nicholas Flanders, said that CO2Made jet fuel is compatible with existing engines and has 90 percent lower emissions than conventional jet fuel.  In addition to Twelve’s impressive technology, Lim was proud to highlight the company’s commitment to equitable hiring and diversity of thought: "We care a lot about diversity here, and it comes directly from the founders." Lim explained that Twelve is an extremely collaborative work environment and thus benefits from as many perspectives as possible.  [embedded content]Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts on both ends (my flight into California was delayed nine hours, and unfortunately meetings had to be rescheduled. But at least United gave me a $100 credit, right? Right?!) prevented me from speaking directly to Twelve’s trio of co-founders. But the technology, employee camaraderie and constant flow of exciting funding announcements and partnerships serve as a glowing indication of leadership quality. Okay, and that’s Twelve! Next week will wrap up our series, but until then, here’s a clip of Dolly Parton hosting "Saturday Night Live" dressed as the world’s most glamorous peacock. That woman can really do no wrong.  [embedded content]Adblock test (Why?)

Date/Time: September 14, 2022 (1-2PM ET / 10-11AM PT)Innovation and startups have a critical role to play in creating the climate future we want, especially in the face of lagging policies and yet-to-be-realized market demand. While fears of a recession in the U.S. and mass layoffs are driving down startup valuations and freezing hiring, climate startup funding deals are at least on track with last year, with more funding reserves to sustain the current downturn. Pitchbook reported in June that climate tech is the third most disruptive industry over the next five to 10 years. What is the current state of climate tech funding, and what does this mean for the state of startups and investors over the next 12-18 months?  Topics will include: How investors are deploying capital Ways startups can design a resilient fundraising strategy Methods for startups to plan for long-term success in times of volatility Moderator: Sherrie Totoki, Director of Startup Programs, GreenBiz Group Speakers: Leah Garden, Climate Tech Reporter, GreenBiz Group Catherine Von Burg, CEO & President, SimpliPhi Power If you aren’t able to tune in live, you can register to access the archived webcast footage and resources after the webcast. Adblock test (Why?)

Date/Time: August 30, 2022 (1-2PM ET/10-11AM PT)As pressure mounts for corporations to see both financial return and greenhouse gas emissions reductions with their transition to EV fleets, charging management software could be the answer. AMPLY Power and WattTime have partnered to help fleets to automatically charge when electricity generated GHG emissions and costs are lowest. Research from WattTime has shown that emissions-optimized charging can further reduce associated emissions nearly 20% annually and up to 90% on individual days. Webcast speakers will discuss: How to plan for peak renewable energy timeframes on the grid to reduce emissions, while charging at the lowest cost energy windows A real-world customer success story who reduced costs and GHG emissions with managed charging The top metro areas that benefit from energy and GHG co-optimized charging Moderator: Heather Clancy, VP, Editorial, GreenBiz Group Speakers: Lexi Wiley, VP of Marketing and Communications, AMPLY Power Chiel Borenstein, Senior Partnerships Manager, WattTime If you can't tune in live, please register and we will email you a link to access the webcast recording and resources, available to you on-demand after the live webcast Adblock test (Why?)

Part 1 of the new Climate Tech Weekly series, "What Would Dolly Parton Do? 9 to 5 in the Climate Tech Sector"Before we dive in, I need to say thank you so much to everyone who responded to my call for climate tech startups with influential women steering the ship. I received so many messages I literally had to create a new folder in my inbox to keep everything organized … a.k.a. Please be patient with me about my response time! Welcome to the first article in our brand new series, "What Would Dolly Parton Do? 9 To 5 In the Climate Tech Sector." First up is Living Carbon, a synthetic biotechnology company based in Hayward, California.  One sunny Friday, I walked into an unassuming building and was met by a woman with a glowing smile — Living Carbon CEO and co-founder Maddie Hall. She instantly set the tone of the tour as informative yet conversational, cracking jokes and sipping seltzer throughout our afternoon together.  What is Living Carbon and what is its purpose? So what does a synthetic biotech company do? Hall breaks it down for me: It all comes down to trees. As we walked through the lab and growing center, Hall explained that Living Carbon starts with the seedlings of hybrid poplar trees and genetically alters the seeds. "We start with these undifferentiated plant cells, or the plant version of stem cells, and we go through this process called particle bombardment where we use a combination of helium, gold particles and a vacuum. We also do gene editing with CRISPR [a technology often used to edit genes]." Living Carbon grows the seedlings from a few cells on a petri dish to fledging trees, and are in the process of building a specific greenhouse for the plants once they grow to a certain height; for now, the trees are housed in a special room with specifically designed LED lights. Living Carbon then sells the trees to landowners seeking to transform their own properties to more productive systems. Additionally, Living Carbon sells credits to carbon credit buyers — I’ll expand on that aspect of the company later on. Once transferred from the lab to the earth, the real fun begins. As the trees grow and live, they accumulate highly concentrated amounts of nickel from the soil and capture higher than normal amounts of carbon from the atmosphere once planted in the ground. Nickel is a natural component of soil, but when too much has built up due to industrial processes, it can actually inhibit natural growth.  What makes these trees stand apart from the multitudes of tree planting campaigns around the world is the genetic engineering that increases their effectiveness for eliminating hazardous materials from the natural world and higher growth rate. Who is leading the charge? Lounging in the conference room, appropriately decorated with wall art depicting branches in a forest, Hall and I discuss Living Carbon’s inception and creation.  Before Living Carbon, Hall worked at venture capital firm Y Combinator on special projects focusing on the future of artificial intelligence (AI). As she learned about the technology of the future via her clients, her own passion to make an impact began to bloom.  "We’re already working on something that is decades in the future and what the world will sort of look like. You start to think a lot more about existential threats to humanity, and climate is one of them. So I did a deep dive looking for something similar to AI but for climate change." And her path became clear: plant biotechnology. "You have all of these really brilliant tenured researchers who have spent most of their lives working on crops or sometimes even chemicals, but you go into plant biotech because you really like plants." So Hall, alongside her co-founder, Patrick Mellor, decided to provide a third option for these singular minds: A private company that supports both lab and field research and implementation for multiple species of trees.  Hall counts herself among those who really like plants. Since childhood, the CEO explained her whole world has been influenced by greenery via her family, saying, "My grandmother was on the board of the arboretum in Seattle for 50 years as a volunteering member…and my other grandma was a librarian who studied plants and birds and my mom did flowers."  Being a woman in the climate tech sector When I asked Hall to describe her experience as a female founder in Silicon Valley — a space famously oversaturated with male CEOs — she dropped the jovial tone. "Neither [my grandmother or mother] had the chance to start a company. So I feel like [Living Carbon] is the company that I would have wanted all of the women in my family who came before me to also have the opportunity to start."  And it's not just a family legacy Hall considers when evaluating her role as CEO. She describes the implications of starting a business in her late 20s, acknowledging that if she wanted to become a mother, the time for Living Carbon was now or never. And this dilemma, she elaborates, of family versus work is a decision frequently weighed by women that men in her position don’t tend to consider. Furthermore, Hall describes her hesitancy to engage in PR for Living Carbon until multiple clients were booked, saying, "I wanted us to have scientific credibility … because I saw so many hit pieces on female founders coming out and I’m like, I know at least 20 male founders who had done the same things but didn’t get an entire article." Moving forward at Living Carbon I recently wrote about Frontier, a new philanthropic advance market commitment (AMC) that finances early-stage climate tech companies with the potential to invigorate a carbon capture and credit market. In June, Living Carbon was announced as one of six companies chosen to receive money from the AMC, allowing the company to sell carbon credits created with the carbon sequestered from the atmosphere via the trees planted.  With this new funding, Living Carbon will continue to scale up. When I asked if the public would be able to pick up one of these super trees from their local Lowe’s sometime in the near future, the answer was a firm no. Hall made it clear that Living Carbon wants to make a massive impact, saying, "If we’re at Home Depot or Lowe’s, it's one person planting a tree, but what we want is to be working on a massive scale." That massive scale is more to the tune of planting thousands of trees where an old mine used to be, rehabilitating the soil and habitat. And isn’t that, after all, the reason why trees exist in the first place?  So there you have it, folks. The first official entry in the series "What Would Dolly Parton Do? 9 To 5 in the Climate Tech Sector." And don’t worry. I’ll let Dolly play me out…(skip to one minute in to get to the actual song). "You better get to livin…" [embedded content]Some quotes in this article were altered for clarity or length.  [Want more great insight on technologies and trends accelerating the clean economy? Subscribe to our free Climate Tech Weekly newsletter. ] Adblock test (Why?)

Grid outages.Hurricanes, wildfires, flooding, and other severe weather. Ever-fluctuating energy prices. Growing demand for fewer emissions and “greener” practices. Organizations of all sizes and industries are facing new energy challenges. But now, there’s a solution to help you overcome these challenges, so you can operate with greater energy efficiency, sustainability, and cost control. It’s called Energy as a Service, and it’s revolutionizing the way organizations create and consume energy. This e-guide explores the ins and outs of the Energy as a Service business model. Learn about the three trends shaping the new energy landscape Find out how Energy as a Service solves your energy challenges Discover microgrids and other technologies behind the model Read about two Energy as a Service ventures backed by Schneider Electric™ and global investment firms Explore a real-life success story Determine if Energy as a Service is a good fit for your organization Greater energy control is at your fingertips. Ready to get it for less risk and zero upfront costs? Download the e-guide to get started. Adblock test (Why?)

The U.S. is so far behind on high-speed rail compared to other countries it seems the U.S. is Superman and high-speed rail is its kryptonite. However, the more I think about it, the more I wonder — maybe high-speed rail is Superman, and America’s car culture is its kryptonite?If you have had the luxury of traveling outside of the U.S., you will have likely experienced high-speed rail or at least heard about or seen it. You may: Wonder how shockingly behind the U.S. is because it is truly amazing to experience high-speed rail. Wonder why the U.S. does not have abundant high-speed trains.  Brush aside the fact that America is so behind due to its heavy car culture or think that the application of high-speed rail simply won’t work in the U.S.  I know I have thought of all these points when I have experienced the pleasure of traveling on high-speed rail in parts of Europe.  However, what if all that is about to change? What if the U.S. is at the precipice of a major shift where technology, politics and climate action all come together to help spur the adoption of high-speed rail?  Well, it is not that easy or perfect. But, it is not all doom and gloom either. After I spoke with Marc Buncher, president and chief executive officer of Siemens Mobility North America, I realized that the U.S. is much further along on high-speed rail than I thought, even with the hurdles that stand in its way. Buncher is a longtime supporter of and an expert on high-speed rail. Siemens Mobility is a leading provider of all things high-speed rail, including trains, systems and aftermarket parts (Siemens partners with a civil engineering company to lay the track, ballast and perform the maintenance.).  [Continue the dialogue about accelerating electric, clean and equitable transportation and logistics that reduce emissions at the VERGE 22 Transport Program, taking place in San Jose, CA, Oct. 25-27.] The conversation about high-speed rail in the U.S. is not new — far from it. GreenBiz and many others have covered it well. As a refresher, what exactly is high-speed rail? According to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, high-speed rail is any new train line of 160 miles per hour or more. High-speed rail is what allows people to travel from London to Paris, a 300-mile journey, in as little as two hours compared with flying or driving, which takes upward of several hours. High-speed rail has many benefits, including: Creating jobs — every $1 billion in investment creates about 24,000 jobs. Increasing economic activity — every $1 invested creates $4 in economic benefits.  Reducing congestion and boosting productivity — congestion in the U.S. costs $140 billion in lost time and productivity. Reducing dependence on foreign oil, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and providing efficient and high-speed travel choices — high-speed rail is as fast or faster and more efficient than air travel.  If you look at the history of public transit in the U.S. and hypothetically projected it out into the future, in some alternative universe, we would have high-speed rail throughout the country. In the early 1920s, streetcars and mass public transit covered the U.S — and then it all went kaput. Vox uncovered the real story behind the demise of the once-mighty streetcar culture before the current car culture stepped in; I highly encourage you to read that article.  What if the U.S. is at the precipice of a major shift where technology, politics and climate action all come together to help spur the adoption of high-speed rail? So what is going on in the U.S. on high-speed rail? Buncher highlighted a few prominent projects, including the California High-Speed Rail Authority project connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles and Brightline West project connecting LA to Las Vegas. Siemens Mobility is one of two qualified teams involved in the California High-Speed Rail Authority project and is a part of the LA-to-Las Vegas project. Here are some facts about both projects:  California High-Speed Rail Authority Project — Connecting San Francisco to LA Brightline West Project — Connecting LA to Las Vegas The train is expected to reach speeds of 180 mph, allowing for two times faster travel than by car.  The project will reduce 400,000 tons of CO2 annually, equivalent to removing 3 million vehicles. Overall, 50 million one-way trips occur annually between LA and Las Vegas.  Developers aim to begin operation in 2026. Based on my conversation with Buncher and diving deeper into the progress of these projects, I found that the environmental benefits of high-speed are only part of the reason for why it is needed/wanted in the U.S., and politics and funding remain uphill battles.  "I think companies are doing it [deploying high-speed rail] because they see the environmental impact… But when you are a person living in LA that owns a car, I don’t think you are thinking about your carbon footprint. … The same is true for Europe. For example, when you ride a train in Europe, you’re doing it because of the ease of taking a train… and then walking to wherever you’re going in the city center, and that is the real reason that I think people living in LA or Las Vegas are going to take high-speed rail," Buncher said. "But along the way comes huge environmental footprint reductions as well." Even with all the projects and the historic moment in politics with the passing of The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, many uphill battles still remain for high-speed rail in the U.S. Take California High-Speed Rail Authority, for example. The project was approved in 2008 and set to open in 2020, but it was hampered by funding cuts. Based on reporting from July, the project’s initial cost was $33 billion, with $12 billion to $16 billion coming from the federal government. However, the federal government only allocated $3 billion. Now, the project is expected to cost $105 billion. However, some additional funding is potentially coming to high-speed rail overall. It appears funding for high-speed rail didn’t make it into the recently signed Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. But, some funding was created for "major projects" under the IIJA, which could include high-speed rail. "There is money in the first bill [IIJA] … for example $10 billion for mega-projects, which would be things like the Hudson River tunnel in New York City, but also high-speed rail would qualify," Buncher said. "With the $105 billion budget for the U.S. Department of Transportation [to improve rail among other areas of public transit] and the IIJA, we are in an unseen era where we have a lot of money coming into our industry."  The U.S. is far from seeing seemingly endless tracks of high-speed rail. However, we are closer than ever before to the start of experiencing meaningful progress. [Want more great analysis of electric and sustainable transport? Sign up for Transport Weekly, our free email newsletter.] Adblock test (Why?)