Diamond-Michael Scott
Climate Tech Investor and Evangelist Taj Eldridge
Today, as the General Partner of Include Ventures, an enterprise aimed at Black and Brown founders and investors, Taj brings together an impressive portfolio of expertise in fintech, media, energy, transportation, and the circular economy.
Asked to share his views about the world of climate investing, where he now spends a big chunk of his time, Taj had this to say: “Fear of climate change won’t change behavior. Introducing people to electric pickup trucks, longer-lasting clothing that looks good, or athletes and hip-hop artists that invest in climate tech just may.”
“The narrative is always about the negative things that are happening. At the same time, I think there are positive things that can happen with the impact of climate change such as job opportunities. So in many ways, it’s an economic issue.”
“The thing that we’re often seeing is that the people who are creating the impact in terms of greenhouse gas emissions are the ones least likely to be impacted by it. On the other hand, communities of color, poor communities, are not only the one’s most impacted by climate change and environmentalism but there are the ones who are producing the least of what impacts us.” It’s for this reason that Taj holds such a panoptic public health, economic, and social justice perspective around the climate issues at hand. This, he says, becomes particularly useful in terms of discussing climate change in an impactful way that connects with people versus in an adversarial and blameworthy manner.