Grunge Meets Grid: How Pearl Jam’s Carbon Price Led Me to Battery ETFs
The world is electrifying at an accelerating pace, and while solar panels and wind turbines grab most of the headlines, the real power behind the transition lies buried in rocks and embedded in chemistry. Batteries and the critical minerals that go into them are the plumbing of the clean energy transition. They’re not the shiny bits on rooftops or the turbines on hills, but the essential connective tissue that makes decarbonized transport and renewable-powered grids work. And in a world where governments, automakers, and utilities are all betting big on electrification, long-term investors are asking the right question: How can we get meaningful, diversified, fossil-free exposure to the core of this transformation?
At least, that’s the question I’m asking as I rebalance my personal portfolio, and a question I was recently asked by Pearl Jam. That’s right, the grunge rock heavy hitter recently reached out to me to ask how they could invest their personal carbon pricing of their concert travels at $200 per ton. They’ve been doing that for a long time, with guitarist Stone Gossard leading that focus. Their efforts have included supporting projects like Amazon rainforest reforestation, sustainable fuels, and photovoltaic technology. For instance, during their 2018 US and European tours, they offset approximately 3,500 tons of CO₂ emissions through conservation work on Afognak Island in Alaska, home to old-growth coastal temperate rainforests.
But when they reached out, they were pivoting a bit. Like pretty much everyone, they’ve realized that it’s possible to invest in the future and get a financial return. A mutual contact knew of my work assessing startups, dissecting portfolios like those of Breakthrough Energy Ventures (far too many obvious thumbs down investments), and advising investment funds, and connected us.