Clean Energy Spotlight: Dawn Lippert

Today’s #cleanenergyspotlight wants to create 10,000 climate jobs in the next five years. Dawn Lippert is CEO of Elemental Excelerator, an innovative, climate-focused nonprofit investor whose portfolio is active in all 50 states and more than 95 countries. Over the past decade, her organization has supported over 150 startups primed to make new things possible in the global transition to #cleanenergy. 

For Dawn, #cleanenergy is no passing fad. The Yale graduate has worked on energy and environmental projects across the globe – in Africa, India, and Latin America – and across her career. She has worked as a management consultant in “alternative energy” before starting Elemental. She also is the founding partner of Earthshot Ventures, a VC fund that spun out of Elemental in 2021, and is a board member of CE4A.

“[A]ll the stars are aligned to make really big waves in climate action and climate technology,” she told Pacific Business News in 2021.

“We know good energy and climate people are in high demand right now — and are increasingly expensive. But more federal funds are requiring community engagement and benefits be part of the package, so why not lift up your own local climate expertise?” asked Dawn in an opinion piece she wrote with Aimee Barnes for The Hill in 2022. 

In addition to job demand and creation for the current workforce, Dawn believes very strongly in the workforce of tomorrow. “I think the appetite of youth to work in this (climate) is enormous, especially when we put forward the fact that you can be a graphic designer, an artist, in finance, marketing (and beyond). Now you can do absolutely anything, and I think it is our responsibility in this space to create much clearer pathways (for people) to work in climate technology.” Milken Institute’s Public Finance Forum, 2023.

Congratulations, Dawn, and thank you for your work to empower America’s clean energy future and the workforce powering that transition.