Hothouse 2.0

Thinking about what's next

Climate Solutions  //   ISSUE  #84   //   HOTHOUSE 2.0

For much of the last two years, Hothouse has been a labor of love, labor largely shouldered by Michael Coren and myself. As most of you know, Coren took a position with The Washington Post in December. It is my pleasure to carry this project forward.

With Coren’s departure, the last few months have been an opportunity for me to reflect on the past, present, and future of this project. I’m ready to share some of these reflections, as well as my vision and plan for taking Hothouse forward. 

First up, a different kind of sustainability—that of this publication. 

In the early days of Hothouse, we hustled to produce four issues a month, digging deep to churn out pieces every week. This heavy emphasis on editorial production early on was chaotic and fun.  

But, looking back now, I can appreciate that this initial publishing cycle—commissioning, writing, and editing four issues of reported pieces a month between the two of us—wasn’t sustainable. This also left other crucial elements of the publication—namely operations and fundraising—languishing on the back burner. 

But according to recent research, nonprofit organizations that invest more time in their operations and fundraising efforts have a longer term impact than their counterparts that shy away from these activities, lest they be seen as “non-charitable” or “greedy.”

So I’ve been busy the last few months laying the groundwork to make Hothouse sustainable and successful for the long haul. And I now believe I have the roadmap to take this project forward. 

But I’ll need your help to do it. 

Today, Hothouse lands in the inbox of 4,901 people. But just 87 individuals are paying subscribers. That’s a little north of $450 in monthly reader revenue. 

For much of my first year contributing to Hothouse, I volunteered my time. In those early days, my mentality was this: It takes investment to build good things, and while I didn’t have money to offer the project, I did have my time. February 2021, I came on to copy edit Hothouse. It wasn’t long before copy editing became sourcing art, and sourcing art became sourcing writers, and sourcing writers became pulling together grant applications. 

I saw Hothouse as a means of imagining and building a better world. I still do. So, I invested in Hothouse. If you see the value of this work, I ask that you consider doing the same.

Your purchase of a yearly subscription will directly support a return to publishing twice monthly. Paying subscribers are also a key signal to grantmakers and funders as to the value of this work, meaning that your subscription goes farther than $6 a month. 

Finally, your support will build on top of the foundation I have been busy laying these last few months; the wheels have very much been turning behind the scenes. This spring, Columbia University renewed a grant to support the continuation of this work and the most recent issue of Hothouse was syndicated in Popular Science. At the beginning of June, Hothouse was accepted into the Institute for Nonprofit News, which will potentially allow the project to participate in NewsMatch (NewsMatch is a program matching donations from individuals starting early November through the end of the year). In addition, veteran reporter and editor Peter Gelling joined Hothouse as a part-time contributing editor, while Peter Bearman and Phillip Smith have agreed to serve as advisors.

The final piece of the roadmap looking ahead involves adapting Hothouse’s editorial focus to the present. Come September, this project will be three years old. As Hothouse has evolved and matured, so have the challenges it set out to address.

For one, the climate tech and policy landscape has evolved at a rapid clip over the last couple of years. Thanks to the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act last summer, the United States has gone from lagging internationally on climate action policy to being a model.

In a dedicated dispatch next week, I will share how I see changes to the climate solutions landscape informing the purpose and vision of this project moving forward. 

The shift in need that Hothouse serves has been percolating in the back of my mind ever since my investigation into the carbon credit market last summer. Following the article’s publication, I heard directly from readers appreciative of how the piece gave language to concepts that they’d been attempting to articulate for months. 

There’s power in unearthing emerging ideas, refining them, and helping them spread. The more something is made clear, the easier, too, it is to hold it to account. 

In several ways, I see that reported piece doing what I would like other Hothouse dispatches to do in the future. 

Stay tuned to learn more,

Cadence Bambenek

Editor-in-Chief