Climate lens on learning, working, and building startups
Climate is where technology was a decade ago. There are no longer tech companies; every company uses tech in their domain. Similarly, we don’t need climate companies; we need to apply a climate lens to everything we do. This means we have to learn about climate science and action.
That’s exactly what Terra.do sets out to do. Watch the episode here:
Climate education and jobs
Terra.do is primarily a climate education startup. It has built a library of online courses, some available asynchronously for free while the flagship one structured as cohorts of about 50-100 learners earns revenue. The company’s mission is to get 100 million people educated in climate science enough to contribute to solving climate change problems. Kamal’s ambition is to work with institutions to make relevant material available to blue-collar workers and even farmers in the medium term.
The courses are a blend of textbook material available in an online learning management system and live/recorded sessions with experts on a wide range of climate-related topics. The benefit is in the curation and credibility – everything is summarised and meticulously linked to credible sources – so that the layperson doesn’t get lost in endless, sometimes toxic, debates on the internet.
When asked about how the company balances the arguments, Kamal Kapadia explains the multiple lenses that she applies when designing the courses – science, systems, and equity/justice.
Since the majority of students are based in the US and India, the case studies in the course also focus on these two places. But there is a global feel about the cohorts and curriculum overall…in line with climate change itself, of course.
The courses encourage learners to seek a ‘climate job’ while they are still learning through one of the largest global job boards and community approaches to applying for these.
Communities for sharing and starting up
Terra believes that the community aspect is crucial in maintaining learners’ enthusiasm, so it encourages graduates to share and network with one another through WhatsApp groups and Slack channels. In-person meetups happen in bigger cities.
Indeed, Terra graduates have formed their own communities, focusing on the needs of climate tech startups. One such example is Ganesh Shankar of the Sustainability Mafia. Another large community, Climate Collective, was set up by another entrepreneur, Pratap Raju.
These two community founders shared the gaps that they are trying to fill – helping entrepreneurs get clients and raise funding. While none of these act as trade bodies, they believe they can act as knowledge-sharing platforms.
