The Solar Spill by SunCommon

Solar Spill Solutions Season Finale! In the final episode of the Solar Spill solutions season, we review and provide updates on each of the solutions we discussed throughout the season, and give a preview of our next season that kicks off in the fall. As well, stay tuned for a special episode in September, where we'll do a deep dive into the Inflation Reduction Act!

Solar In this episode of the Solar Spill, we're finally turning our lens onto SunCommon's own solution, solar! We'll discuss the impact, timing, and cost of photovoltaic energy as a scalable solution to climate change, and we promise that we're coming into this with an objective perspective. Note: One of our mics encountered an error during the recording so we had to use a backup track for Tavit's channel. Please excuse the drop in quality.

Transportation Transportation is how we move through our lives. We commute to work, take regular trips to the store, and visit our friends and family. And, these individual modes of transportation are typically powered by non-renewable fuels... But what if we experienced rapid electrification of our personal vehicles? Could transportation be a key component in the fight against climate change?

Special Episode - Climate Action Film Festival: Jane Fonda As we prepare for the 3rd annual Climate Action Film Festival, we're taking a quick break from the "Solutions Season" of the Solar Spill to bring you some of our favorite content from last year's festival. We were honored to be joined by the inspiring actor and lifelong activist, Jane Fonda who gave a stirring keynote address about civil disobedience in the climate movement. Check out the conversation, and join us virtually on March 16th and 17th for the Climate Action Film Festival.

Special Episode - Climate Action Film Festival: Bill McKibben As we prepare for the 3rd annual Climate Action Film Festival, we're taking a quick break from the "Solutions Season" of the Solar Spill to bring you some of our favorite content from last year's festival. We were honored to be joined by the iconic environmentalist, author, and leader of the climate group 350.org, Bill McKibben. Check out the conversation, and join us virtually on March 16th and 17th for the Climate Action Film Festival.

Special Episode - Climate Action Film Festival: Strong Winds As we prepare for the 3rd annual Climate Action Film Festival, we're taking a quick break from the "Solutions Season" of the Solar Spill to bring you some of our favorite content from last year's festival. Check out Matagi Mālohi: Strong Winds, the film that is the subject of this episode's conversation, and join us virtually on March 16th and 17th for the Climate Action Film Festival.

Carbon Capture And Storage Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a process that claims to remove, transport, and store CO2 from industrial processes such as power plants that burn fossil fuels. Is CCS a realistic component of the fight against climate change, or is this technological approach creating more problems than it solves?

Solar Spill Solutions - Regenerative Agriculture Conventional agriculture is depleting; mono-cropping and factory farming are taking essential nutrients out of the soil, creating less nutritious foods, and contributing to climate change. What if older practices of land stewardship - now being called Regenerative Agriculture - could grow more sustaining and sustainable foods while fighting climate change by capturing gigatons of carbon?

Solar Spill Solutions - The Fed Since the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic, The US Federal Reserve has been propping up the oil industry with emergency funding. But could The Fed actually be an important component of the fight against climate change? Note: we had some internet issues during the recording and Susannah had to switch to her phone. Apologies for the change in audio quality during the episode.

Solar Spill Solutions - Sail Freight Global shipping emits over 1 billion tons of carbon per year, making it the sixth-largest emitter in the world after China, U.S., India, Russia, and Japan. But what if shipping went back to its roots by powering our global fleets with wind power? Could Sail Freight be a viable component of the solution to climate change?  

Introducing, The Solutions Season! Susannah and Tavit are back for a themed season that puts proposed solutions to the climate crisis under the microscope. In each episode, we'll be examining a solution to an element of climate change for its impact, timing, cost, and any other unique factors, then assigning the solution a letter grade. Tune in to this episode to understand how each solution will be measured.  

Coming Soon: Solar Spill Solutions As 2021 draws to a close, we're winding down Season 3 of The Solar Spill. However, today's episode will give you a sneak peek at Season 4, which is shaping up to include some of our most exciting content yet... Beginning in January, we'll be analyzing proposed solutions to climate change to see if they're viable and scalable. We'll also discuss whether the solution should become a priority in the fight against climate change. Lastly, dear listeners, we've created an email address for the show: solarspill@suncommon.com Please feel free to suggest any solutions YOU think we should include in the coming season — We'd love to hear from you!  

Eco-Friendly Holiday Shopping Guide WAIT! Don't touch that "Add To Cart" button, there's still plenty of time to find awesome holiday gifts for your friends and family, WITHOUT the terrible impact of fast shipping. In today's episode, we'll share sustainable gift ideas that will brighten up the holidays without a smidge of guilt.   Source Articles: https://www.wbur.org/npr/1060989079/looking-for-holiday-shopping-sales-theres-a-low-impact-option Amazon commits to zero-carbon shipping by 2040 https://www.etsy.com/impact https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/climate-emergency-calgary-city-gondek-1.6250308https://www.popsci.com/story/diy/quit-wrapping-paper/ https://www.therealreal.com/ https://www.thredup.com/

Gratitude Is Our Attitude! Ever since we started the Solar Spill we've covered a seemingly endless news cycle of alarming news about the climate crisis. This week, we want to center on gratitude and talk about some of the recent things - big, and small - that make us feel gratitude when it comes to the fight against climate change.   Source Articles: https://grist.org/article/google-maps-now-shows-the-lowest-carbon-route-for-car-journeys/ https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/politics-global-warming-september-2021/toc/2/ https://www.climatechangecommunication.org/all/climate-change-american-mind-september-2021/ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/climate-emergency-calgary-city-gondek-1.6250308 https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/when-movements-work  

What Happened At COP26? A few episodes ago, we provided a quick primer to COP26, where we laid out key themes that would act as a bellwether of the overall success of the conference. In today's episode, we're checking in on those areas of focus to determine if COP26 was a big step forward for the fight against climate change, or if it was all just one big "COP" out.   Source Articles: https://www.reuters.com/business/cop/un-climate-negotiators-go-into-overtime-save-15-celsius-goal-2021-11-13/ https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/12/the-good-bad-irn-bru-how-cop26-played-out https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/13/22778646/glasgow-global-climate-summit-cop26-adaptation-finance-loss-damage

Solar Panel Recycling All recycling faces the same problem - how do we recover usable material, and what do we do with it once it has been recovered? Is there a market for it? Who wants it? And once we've figured that out, are there enough facilities around to scale these processes and make them financially viable? As we look ahead to a decade of repowering America with renewable energy, its critical that we get ahead of the challenge of recycling solar panels before they hit a landfill. In this week's episode, we talk to SunCommon's Warehouse Lead Neil Henderson, about the emerging space of recycling solar panels, and how he and his colleagues on our B-Team are trying to keep us ahead of the curve.   Source Article: How the recycling industry is preparing to tackle solar panels

The Purpose-Driven Business As the world awakens to the reality of the climate crisis, we're seeing that there are so many interlocking systems that empower and incentivize extractive, polluting, and profit-motivated behaviors. In our first-ever interview on the show, we talk to Jason Nachamie and Colin Healey, from the Sustainable MBA program at the University of Vermont Grossman School of Business to help us unpack how the B-Corp movement is a crucial component to addressing the climate crisis.   Source Article #1: https://climate-xchange.org/2021/10/14/mastering-an-impactful-esg-program-in-the-new-normal-of-business/ Source Article #2: https://www.multicapitalscorecard.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Reinvigorating-PBC-Statute-in-Vermont.pdf  B Local NYC: https://www.blocalnyc.com/ B Lab: https://bcorporation.net/about-b-lab VBSR: https://vbsr.org/

A Quick Primer For COP26 In just a few days, thousands of people will convene in Glasgow, Scotland for COP26, a conference centered on the goals set out by the Paris Climate Agreement. In this quick episode, Tavit gives you a primer on everything you need to know about COP26, and what developments you should look for in the weeks to come. Source Article #1: https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2021/10/13/what-to-look-out-for-at-cop26 Source Article #2: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/united-nations-cop26-climate-change-summit/ Solar Spill Episode on the latest UN Climate Report: https://thesolarspill.podbean.com/e/s3e5-the-ipcc-report-and-societal-collapse/ 

...A Brighter Future "SunCommon believes that everyone has the right to a healthy environment and brighter future – and renewable energy is where it starts." As a company, we rally around that statement of purpose every day, and in today's quick episode, we explore how that statement is actually 100% verified by science!    Source Articles: https://www.space.com/climate-change-dimming-earth

Budget Reconciliation & Biden's Climate Agenda Much of President Biden's agenda to fight climate change is riding on an ambitious 3.5 trillion dollar budget reconciliation to fund some truly transformative programs. On this episode of The Solar Spill, we're covering what's in the proposal and why Biden's own party is trying to have some parts of the proposal removed.   Source Articles: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/08/climate/arizona-senator-sinema.html

Spillin' and Drillin' in Los Angeles After the recent oil spill off the coast of Huntington Beach in Los Angeles, we found some reasons to hope in a recent zoning change that will finally dismantle over 1600 extractive oil sites throughout LA county. It's a win, not just for the environment, but for environmental justice.   Source Articles: https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/04/us/california-oil-spill-monday/index.html https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-21/l-a-county-drilling-ban-is-an-environmental-justice-feat https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/hidden-oil-wells/  

Is Bigger Better? Discussing Community-Scale Solar One of the most efficient ways to fight the climate crisis and power our lives with renewable energy is by building community-scale solar projects, but these projects are often met with a lot of local resistance. In this episode, we'll explore the arguments against large-scale solar projects and how these projects could be adding even more value and benefits to the very communities that try to reject them.   Source Articles: https://www.nylpi.org/new-nylpi-report-new-yorkers-pay-the-price-for-peaker-plants-emissions/ https://energynews.us/2019/12/11/study-black-low-income-americans-face-highest-risk-from-power-plant-pollution/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/coal-plants-smother-communities-of-color/  

Explaining the Electric Vehicle Tax Credit Expansion A key component of Joe Biden's goal to ensure electric vehicles (EVs) make up at least 50% of U.S. vehicle sales by 2030, is a proposed expansion of the Federal EV tax credit. The proposal also seems to contain a goal to boost U.S. union jobs. In this episode, we'll break down what's included in the proposal and discuss some of the pros and cons.   Source Articles: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/11/us-democrats-propose-dramatic-expansion-of-ev-tax-credits-that-favors-big-three.html https://electrek.co/2021/09/15/which-electric-vehicles-still-qualify-for-us-federal-tax-credit/ https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/14/tesla-toyota-and-honda-criticize-4500-tax-credit-for-union-made-evs.html https://www.epi.org/publication/why-unions-are-good-for-workers-especially-in-a-crisis-like-covid-19-12-policies-that-would-boost-worker-rights-safety-and-wages/  https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/c-change/subtopics/coronavirus-and-climate-change/

Electric Vehicle Chargers Have an Equity Problem The Infrastructure Bill has earmarked $7.5 Billion towards the expansion of America's EV charging network. However, recent studies point to inequity in where EV chargers are located. In this episode, we explore some simple tactics that could make the distribution of EV chargers more accessible to underserved communities, as America races to electrify our roads and highways.   Source Articles: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-infrastructure-plan-takes-ev-chargings-inequality-problem-2021-09-01/ https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/when-do-electric-vehicles-become-cleaner-than-gasoline-cars-2021-06-29/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/stacynoblet/2021/04/15/growing-ev-adoption-the-solution-already-on-the-road/?sh=367b92146aa3

The Greenwashing of Green Buildings In this episode, we confront “a new gold standard for green architecture”, which paradoxically designs for the inclusion of diesel generators. You read that right: Architects are using the concept of resilience to justify a major step away from reducing the carbon output of their supposedly "green" buildings... Yikes.   Source Articles: https://www.archdaily.com/951861/attempting-to-redefine-the-meaning-of-green-could-weaken-efforts-to-mitigate-climate-crisis    

Examining Enerty's failure in New Orleans post-Hurricane Ida As millions of homes and businesses were left without power due to Hurricane Ida, we found that Enerty, New Orleans' only utility, has had decades of reports and recommendations to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels, and use renewable energy to strengthen the grid. Instead, they've fought climate-related recommendations and legislation as recently as 2020.   Source Articles: https://gizmodo.com/utility-that-blacked-out-new-orleans-was-too-busy-fight-1847586645 https://www.all4energy.org/uploads/1/0/5/6/105637723/power_outages_in_nola__the_problem_implications_solutions_and_moving_forward.pdf https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/hurricane-driven-blackouts-in-new-orleans-send-a-dire-warning-about-the-need-for-distributed-energy/  

Hey, New Yorkers... Net Metering is Changing! As Tavit prepares to go solar at his home in New York's Hudson Valley, Susannah shares her deep knowledge on Net Metering. Our dynamic duo also chat about some upcoming proposed changes to the policy that could have a huge impact on solar savings for homeowners who are considering making the switch.

Parenting in a Climate Crisis With the simultaneous release of UNICEF's Child Climate Risk Index, and Greta Thunberg's searing Op-Ed in the New York Times, we are called to examine our role and responsibilities as parents in the age of climate crisis. Exploring ways to steward both the environment and our children will be instrumental in preparing them for the future that lies ahead.   Source Articles: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/19/opinion/climate-un-report-greta-thunberg.html https://www.unicef.org/reports/climate-crisis-child-rights-crisis https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2011/10/12-ways-to-mess-up-your-kids/246806/

The Environmental Impact of War Warfare and our environment have always been in a close relationship, and indeed war has a terrible impact on land, sea, and air. In this episode of The Solar Spill, we'll examine the environmental impacts of the U.S. war in Afghanistan, and imagine a near-future where our logistical tools of destruction could be turned to the task of fighting climate change.   Source Articles: https://tinyurl.com/TSSS3E611 https://tinyurl.com/TSSS3E622 https://tinyurl.com/TSSS3E633 https://tinyurl.com/TSSS3E644 https://tinyurl.com/TSSS3E655  

The IPCC Report... and Societal Collapse?! With the release of the IPCC report on climate change, the link between fossil fuel consumption and climate change is irrefutable. As well, a 1970s MIT study about the collapse of society keeps lining up with our current reality. Through a discussion of these reports, we find reason for hope and even more inspiration to take action.     Source Article #1: https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3xw3x/new-research-vindicates-1972-mit-prediction-that-society-will-collapse-soon Source Article #2: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-58138714  

Gamifying Climate Enforcement As COVID-19 forced many businesses to shut down or pause, the EPA suspended their usual regulations. Now, as states are emerging from the pandemic, enforcement of the EPA's various guidelines is proving to be a challenge. Perhaps, a challenge that is best suited for everyday citizens, like us!   Source Article #1: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/07/ecocide-environmental-harm-international-crime/ Source Article #2: https://theconversation.com/im-suing-scott-pruitts-broken-epa-heres-how-to-fix-it-94089 Source Article #3: https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2019-07/documents/memoenhancingeffectivepartnerships.pdf

A Legal Framework To Punish Polluters In the second of a two-part segment of The Solar Spill, we're exploring a legal framework that could help fight the corporations most responsible for the pollution fueling the recent heatwaves across the globe.   Source Article: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57641167

Heatwaves & Heat Domes In the first of a two-part segment of The Solar Spill, we'll explore how climate change has worsened the deadly heatwaves that have settled over the Pacific Northwest. As the Earth continues to boil, it can seem that the worst effects of climate change are inevitable... So, stay tuned for the next episode, where we'll explore a legal framework that could be a powerful tool to fight the corporations most responsible for the pollution fueling these deadly heat domes.   Source Article #1: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/unprecedented-heat-wave-in-pacific-northwest-driven-by-climate-change/ Source Article #2: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/heat-dome-deadly-hot-weather-descends-on-pacific-northwest

The Carbon Footprint Sham Did you know that the concept of a "Carbon Footprint" is part of one of the most successful (and deceptive) marketing campaigns in recent years? Learn all about the voice behind the propaganda on Season 3 of The Solar Spill.   Source Article: https://mashable.com/feature/carbon-footprint-pr-campaign-sham/

That's A Wrap! A Look Back At The 2021 Climate Action Film Festival The Climate Action Film Festival (CAFF) was a huge success, raising over $9,000 for local climate action groups. Our hosts, Susannah and Tavit, discuss the incredible stories that were addressed during the festival, their key takeaways, and SunCommon's upcoming plans for an Earth Day Encore event! 

The 2021 Climate Action Film Festival: The Climate Action Film Festival (CAFF) returns virtually this March! We're bringing together activists, filmmakers, and communities to witness and celebrate stories of climate action. CAFF's mission is to amplify voices and inspire further action in addressing the climate crisis, locally and beyond.

Plastics Are Everywhere: From the bag your cereal comes in to your tube of toothpaste, to the clothes you wear and your hobbies, nearly every part of your day touches single-use plastic. And although the Plastic-Free movement has really caught on over the past few years, we learned that going plastic-free isn't always as cut and dry as it seems... Listen to find out more!

Understanding Your Carbon Footprint: The U.S. has the highest carbon footprint per capita in the world, and is second only to China for the country with the highest total emissions. The average carbon footprint for a single person in the United States is 16 tons per year. Do you know how much CO2 your lifestyle produces? Listen on to find out...

Our Guide To Building A New Home With Solar: There are a lot of advantages to building a modern, efficient, and “smart” home. Pairing efficient building design with the latest technology, like heat pumps, energy efficient appliances, solar, and battery storage can reduce your energy bill significantly, or — if you opt for solar — eliminate it entirely.

Electric Vehicle FAQs: The performance and price of Electric Vehicles are now comparable to, if not better than, the traditional internal combustion engine. Plus, it's better for the planet. So why aren't more people making the switch?

How to Find the Right Solar Installer for Your Home Going solar is a big deal. You want to maximize your production to cover your electricity, get the highest quality equipment, save money, and experience these benefits for decades to come. You want to choose the best company, but with so many choices out there, how do you narrow it down?

Have you ever wondered where your electricity comes from? As we work toward a future powered by 100% renewable energy, it's important to know where we're starting from.