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.

Today on Raising Your Antenna, we are joined by two individuals who are at the forefront of the data and mobility space and leading the charge to make Big Data both responsible and valuable to the people that it is serving. Ben Volkow, the founder and CEO of Otonomo, and Yuval Cohen, founder and managing partner at StageOne Ventures, an l fund that invests in early-stage B2B deep tech startups in the Israeli ecosystem, share their professional backgrounds, what they saw that motivated them to be first movers in this space, and how they understand both the promise and potential risks of a Big Data World. Yuval was among the first investors in Otonomo and, in full disclosure, Otonomo is a client of Antenna Group, but one of the things that make Ben and Yuval special is that they are straight shooters which today’s episode will make clear.

Tune in as we discuss:

-Ben and Yuval’s professional journeys

This episode of Raising Your Antenna was recorded live in Salt Lake City at the Solar Power International podcast center. On this episode, we are lucky to have one of the visionaries of the distributed energy movement, Dan Nordloh. Dan is General Manager of DCentrIQ, a newly formed division of Faith Technologies. DCentrIQ is providing distributed energy technology and capabilities for a sustainable future through innovative distributed energy resource systems and Internet of Energy (IoE) control platforms.

Dan shares his expertise with us about the DER revolution, both the opportunities and challenges, how it will force utilities to change their business model, and how battery technology is the next frontier in widespread DER adoption.

Tune in as we discuss:

-Distributed Energy Resources (DER)

Learn more about https://www.dcentriq.com/

Special thanks to Jim Spano and RadiantREIT for sponsoring the SPI podcast center

Today on RYA, we host Henry Gordon-Smith the Founder and Managing Director of Agritecture Consulting. Henry has a lot to say about the current AgTech scene, both the business and moral imperative driving the industry and where we are, as a society, both making strides and falling short.

Tune in as we discuss:

NYC AgTech Week is 9/21 - 9/26.

On this episode of Raising Your Antenna, we are lucky enough to feature ZenCity and its CEO Eyal Feder-Levy. ZenCity perfectly fits the model of a company that uses data, as captured through “social listening” and other publicly available platforms, to enhance our everyday lives. As Eyal will explain, ZenCity’s algorithms capture anonymous conversations and feedback and transform it into actionable items for elected officials and municipal bureaucrats who can then respond and govern accordingly. To take one of the innumerable examples, a city official may decide to change the garbage pickup from Tuesday to Wednesday. The driver of the decision may be cost or some other consideration but either way, the municipal department in charge of waste is eager to understand the impact and consequences of the change. Until ZenCity, there was no real real-time feedback mechanism to analyze the success or failure of the program. Today, municipalities that have signed up with ZenCity (as of this taping there were already 50 clients) can get this feedback and act on it in an efficient and expeditious manner.

Eyal will discuss this, as well as provide some advice, and motivation, for early-stage companies that are hoping to sell their products and services to the public sector.

Tune in as we discuss:

Learn more about ZenCity on their website here: https://zencity.io/