Global Minima

10Power CEO Sandra Kwak joins Global Minima to talk about how she uses data in her effort to improve energy access in underserved communities across the world. Topics covered include the falling prices of storage, how solar can help provide clean water, and her work with the Foundation for Climate Restoration.

Mia Oppelstrup is really into electric cars. Lucky for her, she works at EV charging station company Volta. In this episode, we delve into trends in EV usage, how Volta decides how many stations to put in and when to add more, and why EV stations are a sound investment for retail centers looking to drive consumer traffic.

Lindsay Baker’s passion centers at the intersection of humans and their work environments. As the former VP and Head of Sustainability at We Work and current board member of The Clean Fight, SPUR and Measurabl, she has a lot of thoughts on how workspaces can be both more sustainable and more livable. In this episode, we ask Lindsay about her recent blog on upskilling building managers on efficiency tools, static versus dynamic sustainability ratings for buildings, her work with The Clean Fight, embodied energy in buildings, how the COVID-19 crisis might be the thing that pushes building owners to execute efficiency improvements, and her latest Sci Fi reads.

Danny Wilson, IoT sensor engineer, renaissance man and friend of the podcast joins us to talk about what he’s learned from his time in the sensor space, what the future looks like, and how haunted houses led him to a career in engineering.

"Energy efficiency is dead," proclaims industry veteran and founder of OpenEE and Recurve Matt Golden in this episode of Global Minima. Matt shares his thoughts on how indiscriminate reductions in consumption are no longer the target, how demand flexibility is replacing these aging metrics, and why more modern ways of managing energy consumption are better for carbon reduction and cost savings.

From her origins in what was called conservation in the 1970s to her work as an environmental psychologist studying what makes people decide to pull the trigger on improved efficiency and clean energy, Dr. Jane Peters has a unique and valuable vantage point on what it takes to implement the kind of changes the world needs to reach carbon reduction goals. In this interview, Sustainabilist founder Dr. Jason S. Trager chats with Dr. Peters about her past and current work including her recent work in defining California's new M&V guidelines.

The thinker, author, and all around advocate for Integrative Design joins us from his blizzard-proof tropical paradise in Colorado. From his latest paper: Recalibrating Climate Expectations to how design software wastes energy by limiting the angles pipes can be connected in buildings, Amory dishes the data on energy efficiency.

Mary Ann Piette is a Senior Scientist and Division Director at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Her work focuses on energy-using technologies and buildings as well as grid integration. Additionally, she runs the Demand Response Research Center, whose goal is to understand “what works,” in the field of Demand Response (DR). Mary Ann relieves the days of capturing data on 3x5 cards stored in a records room and reflects on how streaming services and automated control are revolutionizing the way DR is capturing and analyzing data--and how the technology is still accelerating.

Dan talks about how data collection on air quality has gone from sealed air cans to air quality sensors connected to smart phones, and what data can tell us about environmental sustainability measures.