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Dawn Lippert
Elemental Excelerator + Earthshot Ventures + Emerson Collective
Dawn Lippert is a visionary entrepreneur dedicated to accelerating climate solutions and fostering deep community impact.
She established Elemental Excelerator in 2009, which has since facilitated over $200M in funding for climate technology projects, with a portfolio of 150 companies operating across various sectors and geographies.
Dawn's team at Elemental Excelerator consists of 55 experts spanning technology, policy, entrepreneurship, and investment, with a presence in multiple locations including NYC, Washington DC, Honolulu, and San Francisco.
In 2021, she initiated Earthshot Ventures, a $90M venture fund supporting climate-focused entrepreneurs leveraging cutting-edge technologies like AI and machine learning.
Besides her entrepreneurial endeavors, Dawn has provided climate advisory services at Emerson Collective, covering investment, philanthropy, policy, and communication.
Her educational background includes a Bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies and an MEM in Energy Systems and Markets, both from Yale University, along with studies at Lakeside School and The Mountain School of Milton Academy.
Throughout her career, Dawn has held various influential roles in organizations such as Nth Cycle, WiRE: Women in Renewable Energy, Earthshot Ventures, Emerson Collective, and several others, demonstrating her broad impact in the climate and energy sectors.
Highlights
2 year birthday for Inflation Reduction Act today! 🥳 And $27B GGRF awards are obligated by EPA! 💚 Huge. I'm happy to mark the day with some good news -- today we welcome Adrian Deveny, one of the IRA's architects in the U.S. Senate, as our newest Elemental Policy Fellow. I've known Adrian for 15+ years across New Haven, New Delhi, Washington DC... and I'm honored that we finally get to work together.
Check out the link below for his hot takes on IRA, including this on GGRF:
“The GGRF is one of the most exciting provisions in the IRA. The hope of the GGRF is to tackle one of the toughest decarbonization challenges—how to bring clean energy projects to lower-income communities. The vision of the GGRF was to try and solve this problem through innovative financing by capitalizing a variety of national, regional, and local “green banks” because the Federal government is not in the best position to directly fund these types of projects.
For the GGRF to succeed, however, it will need climate tech innovators to bring creative project ideas and business models to these green banks that solve the tough challenges to decarbonization, especially in low-income communities. It will be very exciting to watch that program unfold."
Adrian also shared why he decided to work with Elemental Excelerator:
"What I love about Elemental is that you are on the front lines of working directly with entrepreneurs not only to deploy their tech, but to solve these types of policy problems. My goal in working with Elemental is to think about how the next phase of Federal climate policy could supercharge technology innovation and accelerate the commercialization of breakthrough ideas in climate tech."
If you are also working on both implementing current IRA policies AND designing future policies that further support innovation and entrepreneurs, get in touch.
Shoutout to our policy team and fellows: Avra van der Zee, Christina Angelides, Josh Stanbro 🇺🇦, Ann Bruton, Mark Chambers, Gwendy Brown, Melinda Hanson, Melissa Uhl, Frances Sawyer, Evan Weber, Catherine Coleman Flowers, Na'im Merchant, Tyler M., Alicia Molt-West, Britt Carmon
https://lnkd.in/giwg7A7w
I don't have a ton of photos from college, but this is one that I love. It's my dad, great Uncle Bernie, and great Aunt Carolyn at my Yale graduation 18 years ago this week. I had a sense that day that I was one of the luckiest kids in the world to get to learn Environmental Studies here, and it's surreal to be back on campus today.
3 takeaways from Yale's 10th Innovation Summit:
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My dad's refrain - that learning is just as much about the students around you as it is about your teachers - is true. (He was a teacher... so he can say that!). There's something special about long friendships and shared experiences. Such a joy to spend time with Steph Speirs who I've known for more than 20 years, first as a fellow outdoor trip leader and then as a co-founder of Solstice, Ben Healey who still thinks I'm my sister..., my fellow panelists Nancy Pfund & Richard Kauffman & Jahi Wise who I learned so much from in our conversation about investing for impact AND returns, and how to leverage both public and private capital for maximum good.
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Teams are teams, whether you're playing soccer or investing in climate. It was a treat to spend time with Elemental crew Daniella Henry & Amir Chireh Mehr & Sadie Henderson who light up every dinner conversation, and especially Samantha Grassle who "reverse pitched" Elemental to a roomful of savvy entrepreneurs. Good to be on the other side of the grilling now and then!
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"I'm not a big fan of stasis... I'm a big fan of dynamism, innovation, and entrepreneurship" - our LP and co-conspirator Tom Steyer. He is one of the most curious and inquisitive people I've ever met (and is also a terrific host). Spending time with our portfolio founders like Marshall Cox & Jason Salfi & Matthew Eisaman, who are running through walls to bring heat pumps and sustainable fuel and CDR to market, are evidence that entrepreneurs are key to figuring out this climate conundrum.
Huge thanks to Josh Geballe & Stuart DeCew and so many others for bringing together more than 2,000 people and reconnecting us all to Yale, New Haven, and each other in order to do more good in the world. Thank you!

