The Trellis Climate team has been busy, recently announcing catalytic investments in Nitricity and Tandem PV while deepening our connections within the first-of-a-kind (FOAK) climate infrastructure ecosystem.

At this year’s Yale Philanthropy Conference, themed “Catalyzing Change,” Prime Coalition’s Executive Director, Sarah Kearney, participated in a panel alongside Sheena Strawter-Anthony, Director of Impact Investment Strategy at the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund. Liqian Ma, Global Head of Sustainable and Impact Investing Research at Cambridge Associates and Prime Fund Advisory Committee member, moderated the discussion. The conversation centered on “the evolution and challenges of impact investing in philanthropy.” Together, they explored the promise of catalytic capital—how philanthropists can deploy charitable dollars while offering the possibility of financial recovery—and how it is distinct and also complementary to mission investing among returns-prioritizing investors.

Lara Pierpoint joins Addison Stark, CEO and Co-Founder of AtmosZero, and Sasha Bukhari, Data & Ecosystem Associate at the Cleantech Group, for a fireside chat entitled Catalytic Capital: The Future of Climate Infrastructure.

Gigi Alsaadi, CRANE fellow at Prime Coalition, highlights the essential role of nonprofits in scaling sustainable technologies at the Sustainable Engineers Association's (SEA) “2025 Sustainability Conference: Adaptation – Planning for Future Challenges."

As the founder of The Leargas Group and former Global CEO ofUnited Way, our newest board member, Brian Gallagher, brings decades of experience in impact-driven strategy and philanthropy. In this short Q&A, he shares insights into his work, what draws him to Prime’s mission, and his perspective on the intersection of capital and impact.

As we look back on 2024, we’re filled with gratitude for the incredible partnerships that have joined us in our mission to unlock catalytic capital and change the future of climate finance. Together, we’ve advanced innovative solutions to tackle the climate crisis. We want to thank every partner and program participant who joined us on this journey. Your contributions and collaboration inspire us to keep scaling solutions to achieve a world in which humanity thrives without the threat of climate change.

This year, Trellis Climate organized a two-part panel “Achieving Speed and Scale: Financial Tools for Catalyzing FOAK Climate Projects” at Verge 2024 in San Jose, CA. The session was focused on highlighting the role of corporate partnerships for supply, plant construction, and offtake in bridging the commercialization gap.

We are thrilled to announce The Green Blueprint, a new podcast hosted by Lara Pierpoint, Managing Director of Trellis Climate, in partnership with Latitude Media, about the architects of the clean energy economy.

We’ve already invented many of the technologies we need to decarbonize the global economy. But much of that tech is still sitting on the sidelines, waiting to get financed and built at scale.

So what can we learn from the people who are bringing new technologies from the lab to the market, constructing first-of-a-kind projects, building companies, challenging and transforming incumbents, and finding the right kind of investment to support their scaling?

The show profiles the people who are doing the dirty work of scaling clean technologies: founders, investors, engineers, policymakers, and organizational leaders who are solving a complex set of challenges in the quest to scale quickly.

Keri Browder, our Director of Impact Accountability and Director of Project Frame, joined Steering Committee member Dan Miller of The Roda Group on his podcast, Climate Chat, to talk all things climate investing and impact!

Our Executive Director, Sarah Kearney, participated in a panel discussion titled 'How do we get there? Investment Mobilization + Private Sector Engagement' at the Climate Tech Summit, hosted by Google X and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) during New York Climate Week.

Lara Pierpoint, Managing Director of Trellis Climate, took part in the 2024 Carbon Removal Capital Summit in San Francisco. This summit, organized by Santander CIB in collaboration with the XPRIZE Foundation, brought together global leaders and experts in carbon management to discuss pivotal strategies for rebalancing Earth's carbon cycle.

Lara Pierpoint moderated a panel titled Innovative Financing Models for Carbon Removal Projects, alongside four incredible women who are unlocking new approaches to finance CDR, including Annalise Downey, Head of Climate Consulting at Sylvera, April Allderdice, CEO of MicroEnergy Credits, Nicole Pasricha, Head of Climate and Impact at ALMA, and Shirin Jamshidi, Director of Investments, Asia, Middle East, North Africa at the DFC.

Members of the Trellis Climate team, including Managing Director Lara Pierpoint, Principal Emily Lewis O'Brian, and Principal Lee Scott, spoke at several New York Climate Week events while also attending a dozen sessions focused on the critical capital gap faced by climate technologies as they scale for impact. The Trellis team’s active participation in these conversations around First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) climate projects brought forward invaluable insights on the challenges and opportunities for accelerating the transition to a net-zero economy by supporting FOAK projects.

Prime Coalition was honored to attend the White House’s Climate Capital Convening for an engaged discussion about driving capital to climate solutions, centered around the Biden administration’s Investing in America agenda, on May 30, 2024.

Margaret Lee joined this live-recorded podcast episode originally taped at SXSW 2024, joining Cortney Newell, Senior Director of Development at Activate, Olivia Strader of LH Capital/Lyda Hill Philanthropies, and Pat McGrath from the Schmidt Family Foundation as they discuss “how philanthropic organizations can uniquely contribute to the advancement of climate tech by leveraging their resources, convening power, and innovative funding strategies.”

Lara Pierpoint, Managing Director of Trellis Climate, joins Samia Qader on the Climate Tech 360 podcast to discuss the power of catalytic capital in bridging the FOAK financing gap and accelerating climate tech solutions.

Trellis Climate’s Emily Lewis-O’Brien recounts her experience speaking at the 2024 ARPA-E Summit in Dallas, Texas, joining a number of fellow catalytic capital providers for a panel called Bridging the Scale Gap with Concessionary Capital.

Our retreat in New Orleans was a blend of learning, cultural immersion, and community service. Check out our blog post to learn more about our time in NOLA!

Prime Coalition was honored to join the 15,000+ guests and 750+ organizations participating in this year’s San Francisco Climate Week (SFCW). The Prime team hosted and participated in 4 key events at SFCW, including two Prime hosted events, which were our Climate Finance Reception and our CRANE Tool launch at the panel discussion, Understanding the Future Impacts of Climate Tech — Today.

Additionally, Lara Pierpoint, Managing Director of Trellis Climate, also spoke at two other events, including LabStart’s discussion on how organizations are supporting climate tech entrepreneurs and the Scaling Hardtech Climate Solutions: a FOAK (First of a Kind) Summit. We’re excited to share our topline highlights from each of these events.