When we imagine what our energy transformation will look like, we tend to focus on the shiny new toys — solar panels, electric vehicles, Tesla powerwalls, and Nest Thermostats. While those products are necessary for a carbon net-zero future, they are in no way sufficient. Today on RYA, I chat with Benjamin Birnbaum, partner at Keyframe and co-founder of TeraWatt Infrastructure. Ben is consumed with the energy transition technologies that we don’t see, but are critical to fighting global warming and climate change. 

In this episode, Ben and I take a deep dive into real estate’s disconnect between the boardroom and boiler room. We also explore how New York City’s Local Law 97 addresses this challenge with a pathbreaking effort to spur the transformation of New York City real estate to cap carbon emissions. 

Tune in as we discuss:

• Ben’s career journey
• The challenges cities must address in order to meet net-zero emissions goals 
• The true costs and challenges of electrifying transportation, and why Ben and his partners started TeraWatt Infrastructure
• Biden’s ambitious infrastructure plans
• Keyframe’s new approach for funding the cleantech revolution

It’s not every day that I have the opportunity to interview two utility executives — especially from Texas, and especially a mere two months after the historic freeze in the State of Texas. While we didn’t spend a lot of time dissecting the causes of the February grid failure, much of our conversation addressed the types of challenges, programs and  solutions that utilities — in this case CPS Energy, the nation’s largest municipally owned electric utility — are thinking about and implementing in the aftermath of the Texas freeze.

On today’s episode of RYA, we host Rudy Garza and Rick Luna, Chief Customer Engagement Officer and Director of Technology & Product Innovation at CPS Energy, respectively. Rudy and Rick are two utility executives who are clearly thinking deeply about the future of utilities and the need for customer-centric programs that focus on energy efficiency and management, demand response, and conservation. To that end, CPS has issued an open RFP that seeks to crowdsource energy efficiency and conservation programs that will augment their already award-winning Save For Tomorrow Energy Program (STEP). 

Interestingly, our conversation meandered a bit and ended up at a place that I am very familiar with: the growing importance of customer education, proactive communication, and engagement across digital and other more traditional communications channels. As Rudy pointed out, the utility of tomorrow will only thrive if there is a true partnership between customers and their utility. Customers have rights, but they also have responsibilities. It is incumbent upon utilities to engage those customers and both aid, encourage and prod those necessary behavioral shifts.

Tune in as we discuss:

• Rudy and Rick’s respective career journeys
• Consumer attitudes following the Texas grid outage
• The role of businesses and homeowners in making sure that we avoid future outages
• The role of carbon capture in a net zero future

Today’s guest on Raising Your Antenna is Siobhan Clarke, Operating Partner of Launchpad — a bp scaling engine accelerating the growth of digitally-led businesses that re-imagine energy. As Operating Partner, Siobhan is helping bp reinvent its company and lead from the front on building a clean energy future.

Siobhan brings a unique perspective to cleantech investing as she hails from the SAAS venture capital world. She was attracted to cleantech for both its economic opportunity as well as its mission-driven nature. While reflecting on her past life as well as her new one, Siobhan critiques what she feels is the broken model of VC investing (and cleantech investing, specifically) and how the Launchpad investment thesis addresses those definiens — thereby unlocking the full potential of emerging technologies as well as delivering handsome returns to investors.

Tune in as we discuss:

• Siobhan’s career journey
• The dramatic rise of VC investment in cleantech and the factors driving today’s gold rush
• Launchpad’s unique approach to cleantech investing
• The dynamics that arise when a legacy company partners with a dynamic startup
• Advice for entrepreneurs who are stuck in the quagmires of funding and scaling

Learn more about Launchpad here: https://www.itslaunchpad.com/

Since recording this episode, Launchpad announced its fifth portfolio company - Finite Carbon. Details on the acquisition can be found here: https://www.itslaunchpad.com/blog/bp-acquires-majority-stake-in-largest-us-forest-carbon-offset-developer-finite-carbon

One of the nice things about hosting a podcast is the opportunity to make new friends and reconnect with old ones. On today’s episode of Raising Your Antenna, I was able to do both. I've known Adam Bergman for 15 years as we go back to the halcyon days of the solar revolution and have stayed in touch as renewables have waxed and waned as well as reinvented itself in an effort to stay relevant, attract investment and most importantly continue its quest to mitigate climate change and effect systemic transformation of the way we use and consume natural resources. As the Managing Director of EcoTech Capital, Adam has transitioned into AgTech and FoodTech and he shares with us his thoughts on a host of related topics. My new friend is Andrew Rose who is the Executive Director of Innovation, Strategy and Business Development at MidAtlantic Farm Credit, an organization that finances loans for farms, homes, equipment and buildings, land, construction and improvement, as well as loans for production and operating. On today's episode of RYA, Andrew and Adam touch on topics as diverse as Faux Shrimp in Singapore, food waste and landfills, cyber Agtech, Burger King and ESG.

Tune in as we discuss:
 

• How AgTech fits into the sustainability and cleantech industry
• The most exciting blue oceans, white spaces, and opportunities in the agricultural industry
• The biggest bottlenecks in the AgTech industry
• Why the food side of AgTech is consequential for sustainability
• Comparing the solar industry with AgTech
• Defining the respective responsibilities of the public sector, private sector, and nonprofits as the AgTech industry grows.
• And more…

Learn more about EcoTech here https://ecotechcap.com and MidAtlantic Farm Credit here https://www.mafc.com/

Read “How South Korea Is Composting Its Way to Sustainability”  https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/03/09/how-south-korea-is-composting-its-way-to-sustainability

Tune in as we discuss

• Using the resources of corporate America to not just make money but to drive social impact
• Chante’s experience as a leader in the movement to transform our cities into smart cities
• Advice for securing pilot projects, undertaking design initiatives, and launching community impact initiatives
• Perspectives on the bubble that has emerged around clean mobility/transportation
• ...and more

Heather and I had a fascinating conversation that touched on the respective roles of the public sector, both federal and state, as well as the private sector in advancing a clean energy future. We agreed on a lot, disagreed on some, but the tenor of the conversation and one that I hope can be mimicked by our political leaders, was characterized by mutual respect, data-driven arguments, and an understanding that while reasonable people can disagree on how to get there, the goalposts must be climate change mitigation.

Tune in as we discuss:

• Clean energy policies
• The role of media in the clean energy industry
• Perspectives on the respective roles of the federal and state government in fighting climate change
• The optimal way that the public and private sectors can best partner for climate change mitigation
• Facilitating bipartisanship solutions
• National Clean Energy Week 2020
• ...and more

National Clean Energy Week 2020 will be held on Sept 21 - 25. Learn more and register here: https://nationalcleanenergyweek.org/

When we think about sustainable finance, we tend to focus on the capital needs for renewable energy products, green bonds, and carbon trading and credits. While these are all key components of sustainable finance, they do not begin to tell the full sustainable finance story. 

On today’s episode, I speak with Nicole Andersen, Managing Partner of Redsand Ventures. Every organization thinks they are unique, but Redsand, at least from where I sit, really is unique. Redsand specializes in innovation strategy, investment and venture creation for companies that are pushing the boundaries of sustainable finance. 

I'm pretty sure that most of my listeners with a background in sustainable finance will be amazed at the innovation and disruption that is poised to upend the industry as well as provide it with the scale it needs to fund the estimated $60 trillion in debt investment that is needed to effect meaningful change across the industry. Nicole’s background cuts a wide swathe across the sustainability ecosystem and today’s conversation reflects her smarts and innovative mind.

Tune in as we discuss:

• How Nicole sits at the crossroads of financial services, sustainability and climate change
• Who the pioneers in the financial innovation space are when it comes to climate change and sustainability
• The economic upside of this innovation
• The comparison between climate change and if the pandemic will serve as a wake-up call to take the threat of climate change more seriously
• And more...

Today's guest is someone who has been a sustainability thought leader from multiple vantage points - as a journalist, NGO board member and advocate, climate change summit delegate and sustainable finance investor. Sasja Beslik, in his role as Managing Director and Head of Sustainable Finance at J. Safra, has a powerful pulpit in which to motivate and mobilize his industry to unleash the power of its capital to mitigate carbon emissions and climate change.

On today’s episode, Sasja, with both candor and transparency, points out the peculiarity of how the Paris Climate Conference overlooked the impact of the financial services industry on climate change, addresses how corporations must close the gap between the values they profess and the behaviors that they employ and gives examples of companies that are doing it right and those that are not; and as a special treat for me, engaged me in a conversation about marketing as it related to the profound impact investment decisions have on the environment and carbon mitigation. 

Tune in as we discuss:

• The role of sustainable finance
• What Sasja hears from European government and business leaders about the US as a partner in climate change mitigation
• Sasja's guidance on ESG investments
• The importance of understanding what sustainable finance is, its objectives, and why it is so critical to climate change
• The comparison between climate change and the lack of preparedness around COVID-19

The National Renewable Energy Lab, NREL for short, has been in existence since 1977. It was founded by the Carter administration as a reaction to the oil shocks of the mid-70s. It was the first acknowledgment by the federal government that our economic and national security interests demanded that we diversify our energy resources from exclusively fossil fuels to renewables. The clean energy economy was born! In the 40+ years since the founding of the laboratory, the clean energy industry has experienced fits and starts but has ultimately developed into what today is a mature, well-funded industry that enjoys support from both the public and private sectors.

Richard Adams, our guest on today’s episode, is the Director of the Innovations and Entrepreneurship Center at NREL and oversees two fascinating programs: The Innovation Incubator - a technology partnership with Wells Fargo and GCxN, a technology accelerator partnership with Shell. Richards’ position situates him at the crossroads of clean technology innovation and the public/public partnerships that fund and dictate the needs of much of that innovation.

Richard’s insights into the evolution of the clean technology industry, the respective interests and responsibilities of the diverse entities that comprise the cleantech ecosystem, and the state of early-stage cleantech investing are driven by his day-to-day interactions with Shell, Wells Fargo, the other hundreds of NREL stakeholders, as well as with the early-stage cleantech innovators that he supports.

Today’s podcast is an exciting one as we’re lucky to have Talia Rafaeli, Investment Director at Porsche Ventures as our guest. Talia has built an incredibly successful career as a Venture Capitalist at a couple of Israel’s most successful VC firms such as Gemini and Stage One. In the past year, Tali made the decision to move to the corporate VC world and specifically into the mobility industry.

As one of the world’s preeminent luxury car manufacturers, Porsche is no different in that it is playing catch up to Tesla, Waymo and others, but it has quickly jumped into the deep end of the pool with both innovations as well as acquisitions. Talia, as Porsche’s Investment Director who is spearheading much of that innovation through acquisition strategy, will share her thoughts on a number of the issues impacting both the industry at large and Porsche in particular.