How Tony Stark encouraged Robert Downey Jr. to consider action on climate modify
4 min readActor Robert Downey Jr. used a lot more than a decade portraying a genius scientist searching to help you save the universe as Tony Stark, aka Iron Gentleman.
These days, he’s looking to replicate that achievements in authentic existence, tackling a substantially much larger challenge — local climate alter.
Armed with a global viewers and thousands and thousands of dollars in investments, the actor has put his enthusiasm to work via his two-yr-outdated group, The Footprint Coalition (FPC), which aims to reverse the effects of excessive climate on three fronts: by supporting scientific analysis, increasing resources for startups, and making out information about sustainable systems.
“From my day occupation, I know that the very best matter you can be on a film set is a connector, supporting everyone who’s mastering a section figure out how to talk better, and then also be in a position to assume ‘is there a superior way to notify the tale,’” Downey mentioned. “It’s been a heck of a studying curve. But I jumped in with equally toes.”
Downey 1st unveiled the strategy for the coalition at the Amazon (AMZN) re:MARS meeting back again in 2019. Because, then it’s evolved into a broader initiative that provides traders, storytellers, and scientists to the table to “mobilize” people who may not have been a section of the weather conversation.
Earlier this calendar year, the coalition launched two new financial commitment cash to support providers building systems and enterprise versions aimed at tackling the hardest environmental worries contributing to weather modify.
Downey has currently invested approximately $10 million of his very own revenue into Footprint Coalition Ventures’ (FCV) money, which focuses on early stage and late-stage prospects. It has made a rolling VC fund by AngelList to provide 1000’s of capable and accredited traders into the fold, and scale its impression.
“You’re only as good as your skill to vet, and then intuit the persons, the teams, the solution, the sector, and the time and timing of what the possibilities are,” he explained. “There are numerous far better minds guiding me alongside. There’s so much that I feel part of it is to not just get caught up in the shiny objects, but seriously appear at which of these autos if you kick the tires, actually, you know, slash the mustard.”
The cash, led by Jon Schullhof and Steve Levin, have backed six corporations so significantly. Seattle-dependent Cloud Paper results in rest room paper and paper towels from bamboo, while Aspiration Lender focuses on sustainable investing. Media system Arcadia Earth, Amazon-backed startup Turntide Technologies, biodegradable plastic business RWDC Industries, and pure insect protein maker Ynsect spherical out the portfolio.
Downey said he is significantly centered on innovation tied to sustainable farming and agriculture technologies or agtech, a sector that has seen a surge in VC investments in excess of the earlier 5 several years. Final yr alone, agtech startups raised much more than $4 billion, an raise of much more than 30% from the past yr, dependent on details from Crunchbase.
“It is one of the largest challenges…there is no justification for us not staying ready to feed the hungry,” he said.
In addition to the coalition’s financial commitment arm, the actor has leveraged his storytelling competencies, to create quick kind information highlighting the technology powering the particular person companies, and addressing climate challenges at hand. Downey claimed FPC designs to extend further than that, to build extended sort documentaries and podcasts. He’s also looking to slender a political divide, on the matter of weather transform, which has significantly become polarized.
“I truly want to see the people today and I want to see things by means of their eyes,” he mentioned. “Once I know any person, I fully grasp a lot more about why I can respect their eyesight.”
Downey’s true existence activism has roots in his most famous part. As a billionaire tycoon, Iron Man’s Tony Stark created an armored accommodate to escape his captors and guard his individual daily life, and utilized technological innovation to deal with genuine daily life troubles. Now, the actor is seeking to use his platform to make a dent in what he sees as the greatest crisis of his era — climate change.
“The fantastic issue about Tony was above time, he targeted significantly less and a lot less on his tech and a lot more and a lot more on his character, but he failed to lose any of that skills,” Downey mentioned. “I’m keen to commit the total of time it can be heading to just take to do my part to be part of accomplishing this correct. Which is the most cherished commodity. How considerably of your time are you ready to sacrifice for this?”
Akiko Fujita is an anchor and reporter for Yahoo Finance. Stick to her on Twitter @AkikoFujita
