Russell Pullan turned his childhood passion for environmental issues into a career as a venture capitalist in cleantech. He was at Cleantech Group founder Nicholas Parker’s kitchen table in Toronto in the 90s when the term “cleantech” was coined. Since then, Russell has helped to build and run over $1 billion of companies, projects and venture capital funds for Carbon Trust, Nomura, Saudi Aramco and UK Green Investment Bank - Sustainable Development Capital.

He’s also a former CalSTRS Pension Fund Greenwave Initiative Advisory Board Member and board director at YPO’s Sustainable Business and Impact Investing Network.

Russell recently swapped his VC hat for the CEO role in eLeapPower, a cleantech startup providing solutions to help make electric vehicles more commercially viable. He shares his enthusiasm for cleantech, and why he thinks corporations should get ready to be more focused in the sector.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

You’ve been around cleantech since the beginning. What sparked your interest in this sector?

I believe that global warming is our greatest existential threat. I've been an environmentalist since I was in grade six, when I joined the local pollution charity, kind of an NGO in Toronto. I was worried about the issue, and I was just 10 years old.

I basically went into venturing. I started the first venture capital firm for cleantech in the UK, and one of the first in Europe, a group called The Carbon Trust. It was an interesting model in that while it was an independent VC, it was backed by the UK government under Tony Blair’s administration. I ran their venturing arm. We had some early successes because we hit what I call the ‘first wave’ of clean tech in the early 2000s and we had a $250 million dollar fund. I ran larger and larger funds globally for sovereign wealth fund types, all of which are in the clean tech space. My whole career focus has been about investing in low carbon.

Is there a genuine increase in CEOs’ willingness to implement ESG and climate-related initiatives into their modes of operation?

They really care now. It's irrelevant if they want to or not; they're going to go out of business if they don't—and that's not even taking into consideration their customers or the pressures of Nasdaq and so on. You want to get ahead of the curve. You don't want to show up at Nasdaq and say that you haven’t thought of gender parity or diversity or environmental issues.

How has the perception of environmental issues changed over the decades?

I went to INSEAD and did an MBA because I knew nothing about business and I wanted to work internationally. One of the first classes was about the environment and business. The professor asked the class if anyone had ever donated money to Greenpeace. There was complete silence, but I spoke up and said, ‘Well, I haven't donated money, but I've worked for them.’ All 200 students just swiveled to me with a sense of confusion and anger, like, ‘Who let this guy in?’ Fast forward to today I get less of that. Back then, there was no real link of the environment to the curriculum of MBA classes and to future business leaders like there is today.

You had a successful career as a VC. What drove you to become an entrepreneur and the CEO of eLeapPower?

Out of the thousands of technologies I've looked at with my teams, this was the first one that I believed was a truly game-changing technology. We are bringing green mobility to the automotive sector that enables Electric Vehicles to charge directly from renewable energy sources, and even put clean power back into the grid—a feature that will help shape society’s future energy infrastructure. We’re getting polluting vehicles off the road. It’s a culmination of my life's work helping to lower carbon. After talking with my wife, I put my own money into the business and we moved to Toronto from England. We've gone from just myself and my partner who created the technology to 50 people. We've got a customer in China called Chery International, which is the third or fourth largest producer of EVs there.

How would you describe the synergy in the automotive sector between startups and established automobile manufacturers?

There’s certainly no fear from the OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) because all the major car companies publicly say they’re committed to becoming electric and are making statements about how much money they're going to invest in EVs. But the reality is the technologies aren't fully established yet. Automakers have to build innovation into their vehicles and they really don’t know how. They're looking for new solutions, and any tech startup with an exciting, relevant and proven technology is going to get a good hearing from the OEMs.

How do you manage consumer attitudes to electrical vehicles?

EVs have been limited by three key factors—EVs are slow to charge, expensive and have range limitations. Our technology solves these pivotal factors—and much more—to make the overall transition to EVs easier. EleapPower lets EVs charge directly from the grid without an on-board charger to achieve higher performance in both driving and charging operation. Additionally, our inverter allows EVs to charge directly from renewables like solar and wind, finally making EVs truly green.

What trends do you see shaping cleantech over the next few years?

I’d encourage people to check out the Infinity recycling fund on plastic out of Holland. They invest in technologies that convert end of life waste to commodities.I'm very interested in agriculture innovations; tilling practices are an often-overlooked contribution to carbon contribution. We’re seeing the same things with bamboo and plant fiber. I also like the innovation in urban vegetable gardens that are situated next to grocery stores, which cuts down on pollution.

Can you share some good cleantech resources for entrepreneurs and investors?

Voyager VC based in London, which invests in early-stage climate technology companies. Tonic, a talent network connecting people to disruptive businesses shaping a carbon-free future. Real Leaders, an online community and magazine for impact CEOs. And Bloomberg’s New Energy Finance, for research and analysis on the trends driving the transition to a lower-carbon economy.

Cleantech is coming for the cars