This is really great to hear! Thanks for your response and bringing this to our attention.
Afrothunder
Karma: 18
Thanks so much for sharing this analysis Saulius. I wasn’t familiar with these numbers, and admittedly also weakly held the uninformed view that corporate welfare reforms had limited impact on the welfare of farmed animals. However, I’m curious to know, have any other non-industry aligned animal welfare experts expressed their opinions about the welfare footprint project’s estimates?
Thanks! I found this helpful, especially the part on explicitly writing down impact mechanisms, as well as ways of measuring them, even if they’re imperfect. As a next step, it would be useful to know if there are ways of structuring/managing a corporation such that it is broadly aligned with increasing impact through these mechanisms.
Hi Aaron! Thanks for your response. Yes, some friends and I have been thinking about one/two ventures that sell carbon credits in exchange for financing transitions to plant-based consumption or production (can clarify further if that would be helpful).
I’m thinking of value alignment more broadly i.e. that the venture starters may hold some values (in our case concern for animal welfare, global + local pollution) that they would like to see the venture advance, or at least not compromise, while also satisfying investor demand for profit. But the values could also be other things. For instance, Lyft might have held as founding values to pay drivers ‘fair’ wages—what things could they have read/learned to help them guide the growth of their company in such a way that it was aligned with this goal? Let me know if that makes sense—not sure it does!
[Question] What are some of the best books/reads on starting value-aligned for-profit ventures?
Hi Ben! I second this comment; I would love to learn more from your experience. In particular, I would love to learn more about how you have balanced working in Silicon Valley and implementation contexts during different stages of your venture, as well as more about some of the initial challenges you faced with developing/launching the product that are specific to the start-up space in development context. I am personally also very interested in this kind of career trajectory!
Climate Refarm is hiring for a managing director!
We are a public benefit corporation aiming to accelerate the transition to a just, plant-based food system using the voluntary carbon market. We’re developing the first carbon crediting methodology for plant-based food procurement, which recognizes and quantifies the avoided emissions associated with dietary shifts. Leveraging this methodology, we seek to partner with plant-based advocacy organizations to subsidize plant-based foods in institutions like schools, hospitals, and universities through the sale of carbon credits.
About the role
We are looking for a fourth co-founder to join our team on a full-time basis as a managing director. The Managing Director will play a critical role in developing our program for food procuring institutions. You’ll lead pilot projects with food procurement institutions from customer discovery through implementation and monitoring. This will involve working alongside partner nonprofit organizations to secure plant-based menu commitments from food procuring institutions, and coordinating with menu design and kitchen operations consultants to carry out project implementation. You’ll also help us set up outreach and sales processes for carbon credit purchasers, who provide the up-front funding needed to make projects happen. Most importantly, you’ll help us translate what we learn from customer discovery and pilot project implementation into an approach that can scale to thousands of institutions and billions of meals.
As a co-founder, you will have substantial responsibilities and discretion to shape the company’s trajectory. We’re looking for someone who is entrepreneurial, highly committed to effective environmentalism and animal advocacy, and eager to put their imprint on an exciting social impact company.
If this sounds like you or someone you know, you can learn more about the position, preferred qualifications, working conditions and the application process here. Please direct any questions to careers@climaterefarm.com.