Who Are You, and What is this Newsletter?
Hi! I’m Jon Powell. Thank you for visiting Sustainability at the Frontier. I’m thrilled that you’re here. Welcome.
I am a chemical/environmental engineer, a tech leader, an academic researcher, an impact investor, an author, and an educator. I have poured tens of thousands of hours into understanding and driving outcomes that benefit the environment in some fashion. My career arc can largely be attributed to an insatiable curiosity about the world, a desire to more deeply understand the world, and a wide range of mentors, friends, and colleagues who have shaped or informed my thinking.
This newsletter is a companion to the professional activities I am leading through my company, Apex Catalytic, which I founded as a vehicle to do high-end advisory and R&D supporting the world’s leading organizations on frontier challenges in sustainability - more on that below.
I built this newsletter after a reflection exercise in which I thought deeply about aligning my strengths and experiences with what I perceive to be gaps or needs related to the question, “What can help create sustainable outcomes in the world?”
That deep reflection I mention yielded multiple observations, including that the world could benefit from translating the latest scientific findings to a broader audience of practitioners “doing” sustainability work for their job or those interested and curious about sustainability. Part of the way I’ve had to operate during my career is wading into the new and unknown, figuring it out, and then applying what I’ve learned to a real-world problem or challenge that I was facing, or my company was facing, or a student was facing, or a client was facing.
I aim to publish a new post weekly, with inspiration from each post coming from one (or both) of the following:
Original research or insights that I develop independently, or based on something I’m working on, or have worked on before
My synthesis of new research (mainly peer-reviewed publications written by leading academics working on a problem relevant to sustainability broadly)
As someone who has published many peer-reviewed scientific journal articles and has worked on leading-edge problems in the private sector for more than 20 years, I’ve consistently observed a gap between research and practice and worked to narrow that gap. Curbing climate change and driving sustainable outcomes demands an “all hands” approach that leverages learnings and perspectives from many individuals and sectors. Too often, I’ve seen fantastic research work languish in anonymity because it’s hard for the average person to access and understand, and translating the findings to the “real world” is difficult. Connecting the dots between research and practice is a strength of mine, so in success, this newsletter will enable readers to uptake the information and insights in a way that is practically useful to them in their work.
This is an independent newsletter where I write about topics that interest me. I’m thrilled to be made aware of anything interesting you’re working on, so please feel free to reach out on LinkedIn, but I do not plan to take requests.
Should We Work Together?
This newsletter is a partial outgrowth of ongoing work for my advisory and R&D firm, Apex Catalytic. We combine our expertise, proprietary software tools, data, and an enablement-centric approach to advise people at organizations to drive sustainable outcomes in many forms. We are industry-agnostic. Our work tends to align best with large corporates that are somewhat mature in their sustainability actions, large investment firms with sustainability as a core part of their mission, start-ups with novel sustainability-enabling technology needing support to scale, and non-profits with innovative operating models or with missions addressing new or under-explored sustainability challenges.
Our multi-scale, cross-domain work as practicing professional engineers, impact investors, technology leaders, academic and corporate R&D scientists gives those we advise access to a deep and broad pool of resources to drive innovation, quickly. If you think our background and your needs could be a fit for an engagement, please click here to fill out a short intake form so we can explore how we might help you. Even if we are not a fit to work together now, odds are we have connections and resources that may help you, so please reach out. Many thanks!