Unlocking ClimateTech — 7 Trends to Watch in 2022
It has been said that “Type A” people make New Year’s resolutions because when you give us a break from work we don’t know how to relax and want to find a way to be productive. This year, to provide an outlet for some of that productive energy, our team at G2 Venture Partners assigned ourselves a question over the holidays: What is one big theme or trend that will be critical for our business and industry in 2022.
As you might expect, people were overachievers and came back with long lists (or maybe we were lazy, “if I had more time I would have written a shorter letter”). We were, however, remarkably consistent across the team with our answers. Here is our summary:
People
Working to fight climate change is cooler than ever — Every week multiple people reach out to us to discuss ways to focus their careers on climate. This will allow our sector to level-up like never before, with more companies and more talent.
Labor shortages will continue to be rampant — This will accelerate trends towards automation and building out remote workforces to allow employees maximum flexibility. It will also increase the need for worker retraining and improved hiring / retention / employee management platforms.
Electrification
Everything is going electric — Electric vehicles were just the beginning, a “gateway drug” towards consumers and enterprises electrifying every part of their lives and businesses, especially buildings.
Charging infrastructure must improve — What we have today cannot support everyone driving an electric vehicle. We need more and better charging infrastructure before it becomes a bottleneck to electrification.
Supply chains
Shortages and delays push towards on-shoring — COVID highlighted the risks that come with global supply chains, causing companies to rethink their manufacturing strategies.
Robots will become mainstream — Warehouses will finally be automated, with robots taking on repetitive or dangerous tasks and augmenting human labor.
Policy
Federal and international gridlock — Geopolitical instability, and lack of bipartisan compromise at the federal level will create space for subnational leadership at the state, local, and corporate level.
Finally, a topic that has not yet achieved consensus within our team but always sparks a heated debate: blockchain / crypto / decentralized technology, and its ability to help combat climate change, especially via solving collective action challenges.
Do you agree? If you are building something relevant to any of these themes, we would love to hear from you. Did we miss something big? Let us know where else we should be focusing.
The G2 Venture Partners team can be reached at g2vp.com/people.