Episode 9 – Dawn Lippert
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Dawn Lippert is the Founder & CEO of Elemental Impact and a founding partner of Earthshot Ventures, leading efforts to mobilize philanthropic and private capital to scale technologies addressing the world’s most urgent challenges. Under her leadership, Elemental has invested in 160+ companies across 150 projects including 14 first-of-a-kind facilities that have raised $11.5B in follow-on funding, created 17,200 jobs, and driven impact across all 50 states and 100+ countries. Her insights on investing and the intersection of innovation, technology, local impact, and policy have been featured by The Economist, Politico, Bloomberg, Axios, and TED.
In this episode of Pilali, cohosts Ashley and Wren sit down with Dawn Lippert, founder and CEO of Elemental Impact, to discuss climate innovation, investment, and the role Hawaiʻi can play in developing solutions for a rapidly changing planet. Dawn shares how Elemental works with entrepreneurs building climate and energy technologies, combining investment with hands on support to help companies navigate capital, workforce development, policy, and community relationships. The conversation highlights how the organization has helped generate billions in follow on funding and thousands of jobs while recycling investment returns back into nonprofit climate work.
Ashley, Wren, and Dawn also explore the tension between development and environmental protection, and the importance of earning community trust when building new energy and infrastructure projects. Dawn reflects on Hawaiʻi as a place where global climate solutions can be incubated through strong relationships with local communities. The discussion closes with a sense of urgency and optimism, emphasizing that technological innovation, community partnership, and entrepreneurial energy can all play a role in addressing climate change.