Lead - Climate Partnerships
Apply NowCompany: Edge Collaborative
Location: Stockton, CA 95206
Description:
The Context
The community of Stockton, CA has begun to seed the green economy; over the last 5 years, its collective work has driven $60M+ of public sector investments into residential solar, transportation infrastructure, electric vehicle access, air quality improvements, urban agriculture, and workforce development for young people and marginalized populations.
As a civic incubator, Edge partners with public, private, and nonprofit organizations to tackle systemic economic challenges in Stockton. With a focus on three key areas - jobs and workforce, climate, and community wealth - Edge seeds and supports partner-led initiatives with a range of tools. These tools include access to capital, talent, policy support, and coalition-building.
Position Overview
To date, the Edge Collaborative team has sought to support environmental justice community advocacy efforts and help to bridge local efforts with state-level initiatives. That work will continue. As we look to prepare Stockton for its 'build back better' moment, we're keen to identify high-potential climate tech opportunities in key sectors - that will accelerate key community-driven climate priorities. One of our team's early (and first!) wins was helping to shape and incubate a public-sector partnership that is creating a massive EV car sharing infrastructure (with $3.5M worth of investment from the state of California).
To accelerate our efforts, we're looking for a bright and endlessly curious person to help us bring new climate (tech) partnerships to bear in the Stockton ecosystem. The candidate should be equally fluent and comfortable in environmental justice issues as they are talking to a tech CEO about their latest food tech innovation.
Your Responsibilities May Include
Team Values
Beginner's mindset - we love asking the 'stupid questions' to understand what is possible. Our greatest asset is our curiosity as beginners (not experts). We want to discover how and why particular systems and people have been historically neglected by the public and private sectors.
Undaunted - we believe that bold solutions emerge from the margins (or edges, as we might say). The first answer is usually never right, but we're not afraid of being wrong. We bring a passionate persistence to breaking through the stalemates and road blocks.
Boundless creativity - we thrive as a team. We take inspiration from "keystone species" in ecology - modeling our work after the resourcefulness of penguins and the vibrancy of bees. We cross-pollinate ideas, sectors, and institutions to help manifest the untapped potential of the people we serve.
Humility in service of community - we care deeply about the communities in which we work, and endeavor to put their needs at the center of how we design and incubate new initiatives. We strive to balance the boldness of our imagination with the recognition that slow, sustained trust building with partners is critical to the long-term viability of the work.
Sheer whimsy - we believe that serious work calls for a playful attitude, as we imagine what is possible. Play is derived from a place of joy and speaks to how we aspire to brighten our days. Plus, what's life without a lil bit of whimsy?
We Imagine That...
Stockton can be a demonstration city for a new future. We're seeking partners that want to build this future with us: whether that's nonprofits creating green jobs for young people, climate tech companies that want to test their products in frontier markets, or educational institutions seeking to build new workforce pathways into an emerging economy. With the right partners, Stockton is in a position to drive much of the opportunity and demonstration potential of what happens when an enabling public sector environment (state, federal) can meet an engaged EJ community and a climate tech private sector that is committed to build a more inclusive future in partnership with the community.
Tell us how and why you want to be a part of that mission.
The community of Stockton, CA has begun to seed the green economy; over the last 5 years, its collective work has driven $60M+ of public sector investments into residential solar, transportation infrastructure, electric vehicle access, air quality improvements, urban agriculture, and workforce development for young people and marginalized populations.
As a civic incubator, Edge partners with public, private, and nonprofit organizations to tackle systemic economic challenges in Stockton. With a focus on three key areas - jobs and workforce, climate, and community wealth - Edge seeds and supports partner-led initiatives with a range of tools. These tools include access to capital, talent, policy support, and coalition-building.
Position Overview
To date, the Edge Collaborative team has sought to support environmental justice community advocacy efforts and help to bridge local efforts with state-level initiatives. That work will continue. As we look to prepare Stockton for its 'build back better' moment, we're keen to identify high-potential climate tech opportunities in key sectors - that will accelerate key community-driven climate priorities. One of our team's early (and first!) wins was helping to shape and incubate a public-sector partnership that is creating a massive EV car sharing infrastructure (with $3.5M worth of investment from the state of California).
To accelerate our efforts, we're looking for a bright and endlessly curious person to help us bring new climate (tech) partnerships to bear in the Stockton ecosystem. The candidate should be equally fluent and comfortable in environmental justice issues as they are talking to a tech CEO about their latest food tech innovation.
Your Responsibilities May Include
- Advance green economy objectives in Stockton, by aligning and matchmaking climate tech opportunities with local community needs and priorities
- Interview a series of local (nonprofit, public or private) organizations to understand projects or concepts being contemplated at the intersection of environmental justice and/or newer, more inclusive forms of economic development
- Identify 1-3 local (Stockton-based) organizations with an interest in 'co-hosting' a demonstration project around a priority area (examples: air quality monitoring, food, energy, water tech, etc)
- Source leads and/or new opportunities from within the climate venture ecosystem - by leveraging or building relationships with groups like Prime Coalition (or their Prime Impact Fund), Elemental Excelerator, Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI), Third Derivative, Lowercarbon Capital and the On Deck Climate program
- Partner with the broader Edge Collaborative team to scope and incubate a demonstration project that aligns EJ priorities with outside climate tech know-how
Team Values
Beginner's mindset - we love asking the 'stupid questions' to understand what is possible. Our greatest asset is our curiosity as beginners (not experts). We want to discover how and why particular systems and people have been historically neglected by the public and private sectors.
Undaunted - we believe that bold solutions emerge from the margins (or edges, as we might say). The first answer is usually never right, but we're not afraid of being wrong. We bring a passionate persistence to breaking through the stalemates and road blocks.
Boundless creativity - we thrive as a team. We take inspiration from "keystone species" in ecology - modeling our work after the resourcefulness of penguins and the vibrancy of bees. We cross-pollinate ideas, sectors, and institutions to help manifest the untapped potential of the people we serve.
Humility in service of community - we care deeply about the communities in which we work, and endeavor to put their needs at the center of how we design and incubate new initiatives. We strive to balance the boldness of our imagination with the recognition that slow, sustained trust building with partners is critical to the long-term viability of the work.
Sheer whimsy - we believe that serious work calls for a playful attitude, as we imagine what is possible. Play is derived from a place of joy and speaks to how we aspire to brighten our days. Plus, what's life without a lil bit of whimsy?
We Imagine That...
Stockton can be a demonstration city for a new future. We're seeking partners that want to build this future with us: whether that's nonprofits creating green jobs for young people, climate tech companies that want to test their products in frontier markets, or educational institutions seeking to build new workforce pathways into an emerging economy. With the right partners, Stockton is in a position to drive much of the opportunity and demonstration potential of what happens when an enabling public sector environment (state, federal) can meet an engaged EJ community and a climate tech private sector that is committed to build a more inclusive future in partnership with the community.
Tell us how and why you want to be a part of that mission.