Hindustan Times ST (Jaipur) - Hindustan Times (Jaipur) - City
‘Iron Man’ launches funds for environmental fight
As inventor Tony Stark, Hollywood actor Robert Downey Jr transformed into superhero Iron Man. The Oscar nominee is now taking action against environmental threats to the planet, and is looking at sustainable technology to tackle issues like deforestation and microplastics. The 55-year-old announced on Wednesday he was launching venture capital funds, aiming to “accelerate groundbreaking technologies that are addressing the world’s largest environmental challenges”. Downey’s Footprint Coalition, founded in 2019, is made up of “investors, donors and storytellers committed to scaling technologies to restore our planet”. “We feel (the funds) is a move towards just a little bit of democratisation in this usually very exclusive space,” Downey said. “Rather than raising money infrequently from very large anonymous institutions ... we do the opposite,” Jonathan Schulhof, who will co-lead Footprint Coalition Ventures, said, adding, “We raise money constantly because it’s constantly an opportunity to tell the story and activate and mobilise the audience.” Downey also took part in a panel about the Arctic at the virtual World Economic Forum on Wednesday. He said, “I always feel that if you have great content and the community feels that, the audience grows, that helps us with our access to deals and then we get better outcomes.”