Ep. 129: Rodrigo Prudencio, Worldwide Corporate Development, Amazon Climate Pledge Fund

Today's guest is Rodrigo Prudencio, who works in Worldwide Corporate Development at Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund.

We discuss a lot in this episode, including what got Rodrigo initially passionate about climate change, the lessons he learned from the last cleantech wave, what led him back into cleantech and his role at Amazon, and a deep dive into the Climate Pledge Fund, its areas of focus, and how Amazon will measure its success.

This episode was recorded live on October 22, 2020 as part of the Co_Invest Cleantech annual flagship event. We’d like to thank Clean Energy Trust for putting on this event, and allowing us to participate.

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Climate Pledge Fund profile, focus areas, and early investments
• Rodrigo’s history and background
• How cleantech has changed in the years since Rodrigo last focused on it
• Key lessons learned from Cleantech 1.0
• Amazon’s Climate Pledge
• Role of big companies like Amazon in the climate fight
• Role of policy and regulation vs innovation
• Role of activism
• Future of capitalism

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• The Climate Pledge: https://www.theclimatepledge.com/
• Amazon’s Carbon Footprint: https://sustainability.aboutamazon.com/environment/sustainable-operations/carbon-footprint
• Amazon Sustainability: https://sustainability.aboutamazon.com/
• Climate Friendly Badge: https://www.forbes.com/sites/prakashdolsak/2020/10/06/will-amazons-climate-pledge-friendly-label-transform-online-shopping/#743aa58ef9e5
• Chamath Palihapitiya Tweet: https://twitter.com/chamath/status/1318910679856807937
• Amazon PAC: https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063716163
• Carbon Pricing: https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/7/20/17584376/carbon-tax-congress-republicans-cost-economy

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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant