Impactfully No. 73: Accelerating towards a climate-neutral car
This week, Polestar innovates on sustainability within the EV market, Roots Studio preserves world culture through digital licensing, and the United States Digital Service brings commercial expertise to government software development.
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As companies continue investing in sustainability, I'm starting to see more of them developing products without a carbon footprint – not just to reduce emissions but to eliminate them altogether. Take the net zero shoe coming from Allbirds next year or Apple's recent release of the Series 9 watch, which can be configured as a carbon neutral product. These are high-profile launches, but I think we'll see a lot more of this going forward.
I'm especially impressed that companies have managed to go carbon neutral with tangible products. It's one thing to move a service business to renewable energy sources, but reworking the supply chain to make a product carbon neutral is complicated and requires years of research.
That's why I continue to geek out over this week's featured employer, Polestar, for their efforts to develop a carbon neutral electric vehicle. I've been watching them for years – if you've never heard of them before, they're a performance EV brand that shares a technology history with Volvo.
Polestar has an effort they call Polestar 0, which is their aim to build a climate-neutral automobile by 2030. They might not get there – it's an ambitious timeline after all – but they're already making significant progress.
For example, they partnered with another company, Bcomp – not to be confused with Certified "B Corp" that we frequently feature in the newsletter – to develop flax-based composites for the seats in the Polestar 5. For the Polestar 4, they used recycled bottles to build a mesh seat material similar to performance apparel. They're also using aluminum in the body of the Polestar 5 to support recyclability. Really cool stuff!
Unfortunately, these are some pricey wheels – this is a performance brand after all. That said, I'm hopeful more automakers take a lesson from this approach. Going to an EV is a good thing, and now we can push for even more ambitious sustainability goals.
If you want to work on the cutting edge of sustainability, check them out. If not, don't worry – I've got you covered with a bunch of other job opportunities this week:
Polestar is a performance EV brand with an ambitious effort to product a climate-neutral car by 2030. Most of their development is done in Europe since they're a Swedish company, but with U.S. sales picking up, they're hiring for a number of roles stateside.
- Business Controller – Mahwah, NJ
- Product Marketing Manager – Mahwah, NJ
- Manager, Technical Accounting – Mahwah, NJ
- Senior Technical Accountant – Mahwah, NJ
Twelve is a Certified B Corp working to combat climate change by converting carbon dioxide into plastics and fuels to support other uses. They have a bunch of venture capital funding behind them and are hiring for a broad range of roles, including more on their website.
- Senior Manager of Project Development – Remote
- Manager, Accounting – Berkeley, CA
- VP, Finance – Berkeley, CA
- Delivery Manager – Remote
- Associate Director, EH&S – Berkeley, CA
- Director of Program Management, Capital Projects – Berkeley, CA
- Supply Chain Analyst – Berkeley, CA
- Vice President, Supply Chain – Berkeley, CA
- Controls Engineering Manager – Berkeley, CA
SmarterX uses consumer product data to help businesses reduce their environmental impact. One of their social impact efforts is to divert waste from landfills by connecting retailers to organizations like Feeding America.
Most of the AI roles I come across require significant experience, but SmarterX has a great internship opportunity if you want to apply AI to social impact and are just breaking into the industry.
- Senior Customer Success Manager, Retail Enterprise Accounts – Boulder, CO
- IT Support Analyst – Boulder, CO
- AI Data Intern – Boulder, CO
MAPS is a nonprofit advancing research and education on the therapeutic potential of psychedelic substances, particularly for treating mental health conditions. In addition to the nonprofit arm, they also run a for-profit public benefit corporation – some of the roles below are for the nonprofit, and some are for the PBC.
As a reminder, PBCs are better than standard C Corp structures – to those of us in the social impact crowd at least – because the company is legally required to balance mission with shareholder interests.
- Accountant – Remote
- Brand Lead and Head of Marketing – Remote
- Head of Market Access – Remote
- Director / Sr Director, Life Sciences Attorney – Remote
- Chief of Staff to the Deputy Director – Remote
- Director of Education and Business Development – Remote
- Social Media Manager and Creator – Remote
- East Coast Major Gifts Officer – Remote
Palmetto is a solar energy company that stands out for its benefits. They offer unlimited PTO, student loan repayment, stock options, and professional development reimbursement to name a few – I usually see a handful of these at other companies, but to see all of them at a solar energy company is unheard of.
- Employee Experience Manager – Charlotte, NC
- Warehouse Associate – Charlotte, NC
- Quality Program Manager, Palmetto Finance – Charlotte, NC
Emerson Collective tackles critical issues like education, healthcare, and environmental protection with a mix of philanthropy, investing, and advocacy. Believe it or not, now is the time to start looking for internships for next summer, and Emerson Collective has a lot of them. This is just a subset – check out their website for more (and consider sharing with the college students in your circle).
- Climate Migration Analyst – Washington, DC
- Executive Assistant, Regional Migration – Washington, DC
- Senior Manager, Facilities and Workplace Experience – Washington, DC
- Summer Intern, Communications & Campaigns – Washington, DC
- Summer Intern, Fellowships – Palo Alto, CA
- Summer Intern, People Team – Palo Alto, CA
- Summer Intern, Philanthropy: Social Innovation – Palo Alto, CA
- Summer Intern, Policy & Government Affairs – Washington, DC
Roots Studio works with Indigenous communities to digitize their art and make it available for licensing to other companies, providing economic opportunity to cultures around the world. Maybe it's the artsy side of me speaking, but I love this idea and how it's preserving and expanding cultures. They've worked with brands like prAna, REI, and Cotopaxi, so they keep good company.
- Marketing and Communications Lead – Remote
United States Digital Service is a really cool opportunity to use your tech company background for civil service. You apply for a rotation with the government and work up to four years solving critical challenges in the nation's infrastructure.
You won't find a traditional set of job postings here – if the mission resonates with you, follow the links below to a general application for roles in engineering, product development, operations, data science, and more. Their talent team meets with you to discuss a good fit for their ongoing projects.
- General application – Remote or Onsite (learn more about how this works here)
GiveWell is a research organization helps individuals and donors identify the most effective ways to use their donations – sort of like a return on investment guarantee for social impact.
There are myriad philosophies when it comes to philanthropy and how money should be spent. The idea here is that investing in healthcare and poverty overseas has the biggest impact, which you can see reflected in the researcher roles below. These are great opportunities if you want to shape charitable giving through a global lens.
- Senior Researcher – Remote
- Senior Malaria Researcher – Remote
💡 Job source of the week: Terra.do
I just discovered Terra.do this week, and it may be love at first sight.
Not only do they have a climate job board, they have a bunch of resources for breaking into the climate action industry. If a climate career sounds great but you don't have a clue where to start, give this website a gander.
Do you have an EV or have your heart set on one in particular? Tell me all about it! I'm not in the market for a new car, but I'm always on the lookout for innovation.
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