Boulder Climate Ventures Kicks Off Its Second Year
Calling all clean tech innovators: Boulder Climate Ventures’ programs are now available for credit and will include the guidance of new Executive-in-Residence Alice Havill.
Interested in Getting Involved with Boulder Climate Ventures?
BCV's fall seminar series is now available for credit as MBAX 6570: Business Opportunities in Climate Tech. It will be held on Fridays, Aug. 21 to Oct. 9, from 12:30–3 p.m.
The eight-week seminar series will feature top experts discussing next-generation technology and opportunities for innovation in clean tech. It is open to students, researchers and professionals interested in viable business solutions to climate change.
Like last year’s series, this year’s seminars will look at essential climate tech topics, including climate imperatives, the future of green energy, energy use and distribution, climate solutions in space, resource scarcity and more.
Building on the success of its inaugural year, Boulder Climate Ventures (BCV) is kicking off its second year with enhanced offerings and involvement of new Executive-in-Residence Alice Havill.
has committed to continuing its support of BCV. ĢӰ Boulder was the first public university in the United States to join the University Climate and Energy Ventures program, which also supports programs at Stanford, MIT, Oxford, Technical University of Munich, Nanyang Technological University and National University of Singapore, among others. BCV is a collaboration between the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility (CESR) and the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, with support from the College of Engineering and Applied Science.
“ĢӰ Boulder was a natural choice for Breakthrough Energy Discovery to support through our University Climate and Energy Ventures initiative. The university has both strong technical expertise in science and engineering and strong business education programs, both of which are important for the development of climate-focused entrepreneurs,” said Meghan Bader, director of Breakthrough Energy Discovery. “Additionally, the university demonstrates leadership in working to license and support commercialization of technologies.”
Alice Havill, previously a business fellow with Breakthrough Energy, comes to Leeds from Fractal Climate, where she is the founding partner. Havill and her team have served as fractional executives and advisors to over 300 early-stage climate tech startups across industries and around the world. Prior to Fractal Climate, she served in leadership roles at two clean tech startups and has expertise in circularity, biochemicals, waste-to-fuel and advanced manufacturing. She has also supported the investment in and management of portfolio companies through the ĢӰ Impact Fund.
“I’ve had the privilege of supporting the commercialization of cutting-edge innovations all over the globe, and I’ve found ĢӰ to be world class in this space,” Havill said.
“I’ve had the privilege of supporting the commercialization of cutting-edge innovations all over the globe, and I’ve found ĢӰ to be world class in this space.”
—Alice Havill, Fractal Climate Founding Partner and Boulder Climate Ventures Executive-in-Residence
“The Boulder Climate Ventures program at ĢӰ Boulder is a welcome addition to this ecosystem, bringing our state’s best innovators and entrepreneurs together and accelerating climate technology deployment for commercial benefits. I look forward to teaching the BCV class and helping students unlock viable solutions to our biggest climate-related problems,” she said.
The BCV fall seminar series serves as a pipeline to the spring Clean Tech Venture Discovery course. Last year, six student teams participated in the program, and two projects continued into the summer. One team went into the EcoGlobal entrepreneurship program at Stanford University, while another team began building its prototype with some funding from Leeds.
“Part of the goal of BCV is to take all of this fantastic research happening at ĢӰ Boulder and get it out of the lab and into the marketplace,” said Katherine Ratledge, program manager at CESR and a member of the BCV team.
In June 2026, the BCV team attended a conference hosted by Breakthrough Energy in partnership with MIT. Leeds joined representatives from more than two dozen universities.
“BCV was proud to be a presenter at the conference,” said Ratledge. “We spoke about the strength of ĢӰ’s clean tech ecosystem and our ability to capitalize on that at ĢӰ Boulder. Breakthrough Energy commended us for being leaders on community engagement.”