Podcasts about green innovation

China's industrial policy for clean energy has turned the country into a powerhouse of solar, wind, battery, and electric vehicle manufacturing. But long before the country's factories moved global markets — and invited Trump's self-destructive tariffs — the country implemented energy and technology policy to level up its domestic industry. How did those policies work? Which tools worked best? And if the United States needs to rebuild in the wake of Trump's tariffs, what should this country learn? On this week's episode of Shift Key, Rob and Jesse talk with two scholars who have been studying Chinese industrial policy since the Great Recession. Joanna Lewis is the Provost's Distinguished Associate Professor of Energy and Environment and Director of the Science, Technology and International Affairs Program at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. She's also the author of Green Innovation in China. John Paul Helveston is an assistant professor in engineering management and systems engineering at George Washington University. He studies consumer preferences and market demand for new technologies, as well as China's longstanding gasoline car and EV industrial policy. Shift Key is hosted by Robinson Meyer, the founding executive editor of Heatmap, and Jesse Jenkins, a professor of energy systems engineering at Princeton University.Mentioned: Jesse's downshift; Rob's midshift. --Music for Shift Key is by Adam Kromelow. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

(0:50) - Sustainable building components create a good indoor climate Become a founding reader of our newsletter: http://read.thenextbyte.com/ As always, you can find these and other interesting & impactful engineering articles on Wevolver.com.

Rob van Haaren is a Dutch-born entrepreneur and CEO of Proximal Energy, a Cleveland-based SaaS company transforming asset management for solar and energy storage projects.Rob has long been interested in renewable energy engineering — he holds a Master's from Columbia University in Earth and Environmental Engineering and a PhD from Columbia as well with a focus on utility-scale energy storage optimization and engineering. He also has over a decade of experience blending bridging academia and industry, working as a photovoltaic and storage analyst at First Solar.Since founding Proximal, Rob leads a remote AI-driven team to deliver advanced analytics and agentic tools that help large asset managers optimize performance and reliability in utility-scale projects spanning multiple gigawatt hours of storage.In addition to his work at Proximal, he is also an Expert in Residence at BRITE Energy Innovators, which we've heard about from Rick Stockburger back on Episode 161.As you'll hear in our conversation today, Rob is an engineer, a problem solver, and a deep thinker who is passionate about transforming the way society manages utility-scale energy, and we're lucky to now have him as a founder in Cleveland!-----LINKS:- https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-van-haaren/- https://proximal.energy/-----SPONSORS: Impact Architects & NinetyImpact Architects & NinetyLay of The Land is brought to you by Ninety. As a Lay of The Land listener, you can leverage a free trial with Ninety, the platform that helps teams build great companies and the only officially licensed software for EOS® — used by over 7,000 companies and 100,000 users!This episode is brought to you by Impact Architects. As we share the stories of entrepreneurs building incredible organizations throughout NEO, Impact Architects helps those leaders — many of whom we've heard from as guests on Lay of The Land — realize their visions and build great organizations. I believe in Impact Architects and the people behind it so much, that I have actually joined them personally in their mission to help leaders gain focus, align together, and thrive by doing what they love! As a listener, you can sit down for a free consultation with Impact Architects by visiting ia.layoftheland.fm!-----Stay up to date by signing up for Lay of The Land's weekly newsletter — sign up here.Past guests include Justin Bibb (Mayor of Cleveland), Pat Conway (Great Lakes Brewing), Steve Potash (OverDrive), Umberto P. Fedeli (The Fedeli Group), Lila Mills (Signal Cleveland), Stewart Kohl (The Riverside Company), Mitch Kroll (Findaway — Acquired by Spotify), and over 200 other Cleveland Entrepreneurs.Connect with Jeffrey Stern on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreypstern/Follow Jeffrey Stern on X @sternJefe — https://twitter.com/sternjefeFollow Lay of The Land on X @podlayofthelandhttps://www.jeffreys.page/

The Mohua Show is a weekly podcast about everything from business, technology to art and lifestyle, But done and spoken ईमानदारी सेConnect with UsMohua Chinappa: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohua-chinappa/The Mohua Show: https://www.themohuashow.com/Connect with the GuestVincent Doumeizel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincent-doumeizel/Follow UsInstagram:https://www.instagram.com/litlounge_pod/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMohuaShowInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/themohuashow/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/themohuashow/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themohuashowFor any other queries EMAILhello@themohuashow.comEpisode Summary: In this captivating episode, we are joined by Vincent Doumeizel, who makes us dive deep into the transformative potential of seaweed and its impact on sustainability, economy, and environmental health. Seaweed, a versatile marine resource, is emerging as a solution to some of the world's most pressing challenges, from climate change to food insecurity. We explore its role in reducing greenhouse gases, supporting marine biodiversity, and offering a sustainable alternative to traditional agriculture. Additionally, we discuss its growing importance in global food systems, biofuel production, and bioplastics. Featuring insights from marine biologists, environmentalists, and entrepreneurs, this episode highlights the innovative ways seaweed is being cultivated and utilized across industries. We also examine the challenges of scaling seaweed farming and its potential socioeconomic impacts. Join us to learn how this unassuming marine plant could lead a revolution in sustainability and help pave the way toward a greener, more resilient future.Chapters:00:00 - Highlights01:37 - Introduction02:23 - Journey with Seaweed03:46 - The Challenge of World Hunger07:01 - Inspiration to Focus on Seaweed08:50 - What is Seaweed Revolution & Its Impact12:01 - Seaweed a SuperPower14:01 - Seaweed an Option for Women Empowerment17:49 - Seaweed Manifesto20:38 - Seaweed Supporting Marine Ecosystem22:02 - Seaweed and Fashion Industry24:45 - Obstacles for Scaling up Seaweed Farming29:09 - India & Seaweed Revolution32:48 - Future Vision for Seaweed34:14 - Supporting Seaweed35:51 - Future Plans DisclaimerThe views expressed by our guests are their own. We do not endorse and are not responsible for any views expressed by our guests on our podcast and its associated platforms.TheMohuaShow #MohuaChinappa #Podcast #Vincent Doumeizel #Sustainability #SeaweedRevolution #ClimateAction #BlueEconomy #MarineBiodiversity #GreenInnovation #EcoSolutions #RenewableResources #FutureOfFarming #OceanHealth #PodcastEpisode Thanks for Listening!

In this episode of Backstage, we go backstage with the Awesome Green Software (AGS) project, a pioneering initiative from the Green Software Foundation's Open Source Working Group. Project leads Ahmad Antar and Abid Ali, along with contributor Josh Rauvola, share how AGS is building a centralized platform for developers to access tools, libraries, and frameworks to create greener, more sustainable software. They discuss the innovative tech behind AGS, the project's progress toward launch, and its potential to make green software development accessible to organizations worldwide.

In this episode of The Sustainability Journey, we explore the unique sustainability challenges and opportunities facing the Middle East with one of the region's leading voices, Hassaan Ghazali. From water scarcity to the transition from an oil-based economy, we dive into the pivotal role of public-private partnerships and SMEs in driving the green revolution. Ghazali, who has worked extensively on mega projects, green finance, and innovation hubs, shares his perspective on how the region can lead the Global South in sustainability efforts. "Without public-private partnerships, things are going nowhere." — Hassaan Ghazali

Making change is all about innovation. That's no different when it comes to the energy sector. In this episode of Energized: Building the Future of Energy, host JJ Ramberg and Enbridge CEO Greg Ebel talk to two innovators in the energy sector. First, we hear from Uli Homann, a Distinguished Architect in the Cloud and Enterprise business at Microsoft, about how generative AI is putting new strains on our energy systems—and creating new opportunities to make the grid more efficient. Then, JJ talks with Caitlin Tessin, Vice President of Strategy and Market Innovation at Enbridge, and Ryan Begin, CEO of Divert, about how we can create natural gas from a surprising source: wasted food. Subscribe to the GZERO World with Ian Bremmer Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.

Making change is all about innovation. That's no different when it comes to the energy sector. In this episode of Energized: Building the Future of Energy, host JJ Ramberg and Enbridge CEO Greg Ebel talk to two innovators in the energy sector. First, we hear from Uli Homann, a Distinguished Architect in the Cloud and Enterprise business at Microsoft, about how generative AI is putting new strains on our energy systems—and creating new opportunities to make the grid more efficient. Then, JJ talks with Caitlin Tessin, Vice President of Strategy and Market Innovation at Enbridge, and Ryan Begin, CEO of Divert, about how we can create natural gas from a surprising source: wasted food. Subscribe to the GZERO World with Ian Bremmer Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.

White House's deception regarding economic decline. The Biden administration's $1.7 billion electric car production budget, focusing on General Motors and Stellantis, highlights corporate welfare and the genuine beneficiaries. Job creation, automobile sector economic issues, and the long-term repercussions of government interventions disguised as green innovation are examined. Get your 2024 Trump Silver Presidential Medal here: https://bit.ly/TrumpSilver Secure & Preserve your future against market & government unpredictability. Visit https://colonialmetalsgroup.com/rtd or call 888-521-2448 to speak with the experts today. Get your questions answered about a Self-Directed IRA. Special offer: You'll receive a safe and up to $10,000 in free silver from Colonial Metals Group. Start your own Silver Standard. Learn about and join the RTD Silver Team to automate your silver accumulation: https://www.rethinkingthedollar.com/silver-team/ ----- The 5 Steps To Monetary Savviness (Unplug From the Matrix) ----- Go to the RTD Website to start your journey: https://www.rethinkingthedollar.com/ Keep Up with the Latest: Subscribe for the latest news and trends to never miss out! Connect with RTD! Your hub for all our social media platforms. Subscribe & never miss out. https://www.rethinkingthedollar.com/social-media Support the RTD Mission: Our goal is to educate through video & written articles a contrarian viewpoint against mainstream lies in order to wake up the masses. Any contribution to the mission helps. Thanks in advance!!! https://www.rethinkingthedollar.com/donate/ DISCLAIMER: The financial and political opinions expressed in this video are those of the guest and not necessarily of "Rethinking the Dollar." Views expressed in this video should not be relied on for making investment decisions or tax advice and do not constitute personalized investment advice. The information shared is for the sole purpose of education and entertainment only. Some links included in description are affiliate links and cost you no additional money if used.

Daniel Barnes, CCO at Bright.Blue, a division of Bright.Green, discusses the evolution and mission of the company—integrating advanced technology for parking, charging and contactless technology with advertising. With origins in smart vending solutions, the company now offers comprehensive kiosks that streamline EV charging and enhance customer experience through dynamic advertising and unattended retail. Barnes highlights their strategic partnership with Paythru, focusing on compliance, customer convenience, and profitability. Bright.Green aims to transform EV charging into a seamless, profitable experience, envisioning a future where advanced data analytics and innovative payment solutions drive industry growth and customer satisfaction. Daniel Barnes https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-barnes-b8517194/ Bright.Blue https://bright.blue/ Bright.Green https://bright.green/

The climate emergency, loss of nature and deadly pollution threaten to destroy our homes and eliminate many of the millions of species that share this beautiful planet with us. Join ACT NOW in commemorating World Environment Day with the 5th Edition of #TomorrowNeverComesActNow, the world's largest and longest environment online event. The event brings together organizations and individuals from the world over to present their climate actions, share their insights, and generate awareness about how we are geared towards restoration of our environment, and for taking care of the only planet we know.More than 50 000 participants have participated the past 4 years. DMI was part of the world's longest and largest environment online event, collaborating to ensure Nordic countries are represented as we gear up for Narendra Modi's visit to the third Indo-Nordic summit later this year. Listen to the 2 seesions of the event led by Erik Solheim and Rina Sunder.

Send me a messageIn this thought-provoking episode of the Climate Confident podcast, I'm joined by Ditte Lysgaard Vind, Chair of the Danish Design Council and author of the book Danish Design Heritage and Global Sustainability. Ditte sheds light on how Danish design heritage influences global sustainability and the crucial role of living within planetary boundaries.Ditte emphasises the importance of "planetary boundaries" which include crucial limits like climate change and biodiversity. She argues that adhering to these boundaries isn't just about conservation but is essential for thriving within our means. We delve into the practicalities of Danish design, known for marrying functionality with aesthetic appeal, and discuss how these principles can inspire sustainable practices globally.We also explore the transformation needed in business models, highlighting "product as a service" as a sustainable alternative that promotes long-term quality over short-lived consumerism. Ditte points out that significant systemic change is necessary and discusses the potential of bio-based materials as sustainable alternatives in various industries.For anyone interested in how design can lead to more sustainable business practices and a healthier planet, this episode is a must-listen. Dive into the full conversation to discover how you can incorporate these sustainable principles into your daily life and business strategy.Don't forget to check out the video version of this episode.Hiss & Tell: Cat Behavior and BeyondWelcome to "Hiss and Tell", a podcast about cat behavior and more!Listen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifySupport the Show.Podcast supportersI'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing supporters: Lorcan Sheehan Hal Good Jerry Sweeney Andreas Werner Devaang Bhatt Stephen Carroll Marcel Roquette Roger Arnold And remember you too can Support the Podcast - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent Climate Confident episodes like this one.ContactIf you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - get in touch via direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn. If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show. CreditsMusic credits - Intro by Joseph McDade, and Outro music for this podcast was composed, played, and produced by my daughter Luna Juniper

In this week's episode, I had the privilege of talking to Julia Salant from EcoVadis, where we tackled the increasingly essential role of technology in scaling up sustainable practices within supply chains. Julia elucidated EcoVadis' digital solutions, designed to assess and improve the sustainability performance of their vast network of companies.We dived into the specifics of their three main offerings: the Sustainability Business Rating solution, the iQ Plus tool for regulatory risk scanning, and the Carbon Action Manager for suppliers' climate action. Julia highlighted the simplicity of sharing sustainability and carbon scorecards within their network, a system that empowers companies to meet growing regulatory demands efficiently.We also grappled with the trajectory of emissions reporting and the shift from voluntary to mandatory regulations, including the potential future need for audited scope three emissions. Julia presented a candid perspective on the catalysts for genuine change, emphasising the power of investor demands and the buyer-supplier relationship over regulatory measures.An insightful segment of our chat focused on strategies for engaging suppliers in sustainability reporting and how established customer-supplier dynamics foster commitment to decarbonisation. Julia shared success stories, underscoring the practical steps companies can take to initiate or advance their sustainability journeys.Tune in for a thorough dissection of the sustainability challenges faced by businesses today and how technology, coupled with targeted strategies, can enhance our collective effort to mitigate climate change. And don't forget to check out the video version of this episode on YouTube.Support the showPodcast supportersI'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing supporters: Lorcan Sheehan Hal Good Jerry Sweeney Andreas Werner Devaang Bhatt Stephen Carroll Marcel Roquette Roger Arnold And remember you too can Support the Podcast - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent Climate Confident episodes like this one.ContactIf you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - get in touch via direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn. If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show. CreditsMusic credits - Intro by Joseph McDade, and Outro music for this podcast was composed, played, and produced by my daughter Luna Juniper

In the enchanting world of wine, where the romance of tradition meets modern innovation, Grape... The post Episode #772 – Green Medal Winners Unveiled! Join the Celebration of Green Innovation! appeared first on .

In honor of Earth Day, Doug sits down with journalist and founder of Climate Positive Now—Kenn Busch, to discuss the intricacies of carbon management and its environmental implications.Throughout the episode, Kenn demystifies the complex dynamics of carbon's interaction with our environment and highlights some innovative approaches to utilize carbon management for environmental gain.Looking for continuing education credits related to sustainability? Check out Ken's CEU below! Climate Positive Materials for Sustainable Interiors, A CEU course brought to you by OFS    Follow Doug on LinkedIn.Click here to get your copy of Doug's children's book—Design Your World.Follow Imagine a Place on LinkedIn.

Hosts Will Larry and Victoria Guido chat with Sanghmitra Bhardwaj, CEO and Founder of Insusty. Sanghmitra shares her journey from a small village in the foothills of the Himalayas to becoming a founder in France, driven by firsthand experiences with climate disasters and a passion for sustainable living. Insusty, a sustainability loyalty program, is a platform incentivizing individuals to adopt climate-positive actions through rewards, thereby fostering a community motivated towards environmental stewardship. The show digs into the mechanics and vision of Insusty, highlighting how the platform rewards eco-friendly actions like volunteering and donating, rather than purchases. This approach aims to bridge the gap between the desire for sustainable living and the practical challenges individuals face, such as the perceived high costs of sustainable products. Sanghmitra reveals the evolution of Insusty, including strategic pivots towards niche markets within the circular economy and the importance of transparency and impact measurement in building trust with consumers. Towards the episode's conclusion, the conversation shifts to broader implications of sustainability in technology and business. Sanghmitra expresses curiosity about future expansions of Insusty, particularly in tracking and rewarding individual daily eco-actions more effectively. She also touches upon the challenges and triumphs of being a solo female founder in the tech and sustainability sectors, underscoring the significance of community, perseverance, and innovation in driving change. Insusty (https://www.insusty.info/) Follow Insusty on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/insusty/), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/theinsusty/), or X (https://twitter.com/the_insusty). Follow Sanghmitra Bhardwaj on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanghmitra-bhardwaj-515428236/) or X (https://twitter.com/sustainwithsan). Follow thoughtbot on X (https://twitter.com/thoughtbot) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/150727/). Become a Sponsor (https://thoughtbot.com/sponsorship) of Giant Robots! Transcript: WILL:  This is the Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots podcast, where we explore the design, development, and business of great products. I'm your host, Will Larry. VICTORIA: And I'm your other host, Victoria Guido. With me today is Sanghmitra Bhardwaj, CEO and Founder of Insusty, a sustainability loyalty program for individuals. Sanghmitra, thank you for joining us. SANGHMITRA: Thank you so much for having me here. I'm super excited for the podcast and to discuss various topics that we are about to. And I'm sure that it's going to be a learning experience, not just for the audience, but also for me. So, thank you for this opportunity. VICTORIA: Why don't we just start off getting to know you a little bit? Tell us something exciting going on in your life, maybe outside of work. SANGHMITRA: Okay, so, well, recently, I joined a pole dancing class. I wanted to challenge myself and see if I have the core strength that I need to be strong. And I also feel that it's something that I always wanted to do to come out of my comfort zone. So, it's been fun so far. VICTORIA: I tried that, and I thought that I would naturally be good at it because I'm a rock climber. And so, I thought I'd have all the right muscle groups, but the coordination and [laughs], like, expression of it is still challenging if you've never done it before. SANGHMITRA: Yeah, definitely. And I think there are some techniques and if you don't do it right, like, you will not get it at all, those poses and, like, how you climb the pole and everything. So, I completely relate to your experience here. VICTORIA: I want to do more dance, actually, because the mind-body connection and getting into that feeling of flow is really interesting for me. And I think it's like expressing through your body, which 80% of communication is non-verbal, which is really interesting. SANGHMITRA: Yeah, that's true. Just to add to it, I wanted to also share with you that I used to do modeling back in India, and I really love expressing myself with my body. And it's been super interesting to see that. And also, when I have conversations with other people, these are the things that I observe a lot. Is it the same for you? Do you also observe other people's body language when they are talking to you and probably change some topics that you are trying to discuss? VICTORIA: Yeah, absolutely. You can tell if people are listening to what you're saying. They, like, lean in a little bit, or if they're not really wanting to relate to what you're saying, they're, like, crossing their arms in front of you. So, as someone who works in business development, I definitely pay a lot of attention [laughs] to all that stuff. But I'm curious, how did you go from being a model in India to founder and CEO where you are today? SANGHMITRA: That's something that I would love to talk about, and also, it has to do from where I come from. So, I come from a very small village in the foothills of the Himalayas. There, I witnessed climate disasters firsthand. In 2013, there were a lot of cloudbursts happening in those areas. An entire village next to my village disappeared completely without a trace. And those were some moments in my life where I really felt like we live in a world where you can be far from Europe...for example, currently, I live in France, and here, when heat wave happens, we all suffer and people talk about it. But I have seen, like, the adverse effect of what it can lead to. So, there was a part of me that always wanted to do something in terms of the impact that I create, like, with my work. So, I started doing modeling, which was something for myself as well to gain some confidence. At the same time, I worked with sustainable brands in India. I modeled for them, and then I discovered their work. I got inspired by it, and I realized that it's something that interests me a lot, and I wanted to pursue my studies in it to know more about it. So, that's when I came to France to pursue my master's in sustainable finance to discover more about this field and to see where I belong. And finally, I founded Insusty, where I could see that I could bring my inspiration from the sustainable brands that I worked with. Whether it's from the fashion or, the food industry, or the travel industry, I could see the inspiration coming from there. At the same time, I could see how we need to create mass adoption through incentivizing climate action, which was something that I explored during my studies. And I kind of went with Insusty, and that was the beginning of my founder journey. WILL: I have a question about the way you grew up, and you're saying in a village. Can you expound a little bit on that? Because you said, climate change wiped out an entire village. And so, when I saw that in the email, I was like, I don't think I've ever had a chance to actually talk to someone that lived in a village. I grew up in the United States. So, like, help paint that picture. When you say you grew up in a village, what do you mean by that? What was it like growing up in a village, and also, what do you mean by the next village got entirely wiped out? SANGHMITRA: Yeah. Living in a village it's like being a part of a tiny, well-knitted community, and it's, like, everyone knows everyone. And sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad because when people gossip, of course, it spreads like a wildfire. As well as when you need support and when you need help, this community is always there, too. So, the part of belonging to such a community and to kind of engage with people is something that I really enjoy about coming from a small village. And that's something that I oftentimes search in France, where I can be a part of such communities as well, where people inspire each other. For example, currently, I'm a part of a wonderful community of women of color founders living in Europe. It's called Founderland. And it's thanks to Founderland that I found you then I could join this podcast. So, when it comes to the small village, this is what I really really love about it is the small knitted community we have. When I say that the entire village next to my village disappeared, I mean that when there was the cloudburst in the mountain, the soil and everything drowned the entire village. So, there was a school, and we used to hear a story about the school, where the kids were told by the teachers to run because there is a cloudburst, and "We are about to die if we stay in this place." And as a student, as a kid, what do you think first? You think about packing your bags instead of running. So, the kids ended up packing their bags before they could run, and by that time, it was too late. So, this is just one of the heartbreaking stories that I'm sharing with you right now, but it had been something that really left a mark in my life. VICTORIA: I really appreciate you sharing that story because when I talk to people about climate change, I think it's really easy to get this nihilistic attitude about, well, climate change is going to kill us all in 20 years. So, why bother doing anything about it? And what I usually answer back is that climate change is already killing people. And then, it's happening in your own neighborhood, even, like, you know, I live here in San Diego, and it's always between, like, 60 and 80 degrees every single day [chuckles], but our beaches are collapsing. There are neighborhoods that are more impacted by pollution than others and are experiencing environmental impacts from that and their health, and everything like that. So, I'm curious how it all comes together with what you're doing with Insusty and how you're inspiring people to take action towards sustainability in the here and now. SANGHMITRA: Actually, I have a question for you and Will. I wanted to understand, for example, if you purchase something in terms of, for example, it's related to fashion, or it's related to food products, what is the criteria that's most important to you? And maybe probably you can tell me, like, the top three criteria that are most important for you when you buy something. And then, I would love to share how Insusty can help you buy better. VICTORIA: When I'm looking to buy things, I look for, like, price. I want it to be reasonable, but I also don't want it to be so cheap that it means it's a really poor quality. So, I want to find that balance between, like, quality and price. And I do also care about sustainability, and, like, what is the background of the company that I'm buying it from? You know, what's their reputation? What's their, like, practices? Like one example is, like, the rugs for your house. So, I like to buy rugs that are made from sustainable fabrics and dyes and that I can wash them because I have a dog. And so, that's kind of, like, what I think through when I buy things. But it's not always easy, especially with clothing, because it seems like anyone who makes clothing, there's just always this risk of it being sourced at some part in the manufacturing pipeline having to do with either child labor or really terrible sustainability practices. WILL: Yeah. I would say, for me, early on, especially when I was growing up, we didn't have a lot of money, so it was just whatever is the cheapest, whatever we could afford at that moment. It wasn't really looking into the quality, or sustainability, or any of those items. Some of the stuff I look back on that I ate often, I'm like, whoa, man, that was not the best thing. But it was the cheapest, and it was what we ate and things like that. So, now that I'm older, my wife has been talking to me about some of that stuff, and it's like, oh, I had no idea, because of the environment I grew up in, that, like, that's even affecting me. And that was kind of why I asked you about the village thing is because I feel like we can get in a bubble sometimes and not even be aware of what's happening to other people. And I think, Victoria, you said something about people not understanding climate change. It's kind of tough at times to talk about climate change when you live in...where I'm at in Florida, it's like, okay, it gets hot, and then it gets cold. And yeah, we have a hurricane every now and then, but whenever you told the story about the village, it's like, oh, wow, like, that's a different game. That's a different level. I didn't even know about that. So, I think that's kind of my journey now is I am starting to understand sustainability. I think a lot of times I still have that I grew up with nothing mindset and want to get the cheapest thing because sometimes buying sustainability is super expensive. So, that's why I'm glad that I'm talking to you, so maybe I can learn some of those things. So yeah, that's kind of been my journey with it. SANGHMITRA: That's really wonderful to get your insights because now I can tell you confidently what we do. Basically, when I talk to people, it was generally the same thing that I asked them, "What's the most important thing when you buy, like, the top three most important things?" Sustainability was definitely one of them, but cost was always there. Regardless of the background that they are from, cost was something that they all thought about. So, what we do at Insusty is that we incentivize individuals to do something good for the planet. It can be, for example, you want to volunteer at an NGO next to your place. You want to get rewarded. So, what we do is we offer you loyalty points that help you to buy from sustainable brands. So, you try these products because, oftentimes, as Will also mentioned, there is a perception, and it's also a reality, that sustainable products tend to be more expensive. So, we try to deal with that by offering a loyalty program that incentivizes climate action. And in terms of the sustainable brands, they get new customer base. They get to interact with these customers. They get to see their product and sites. What is something that the customers really like? What is something that can be improved? How can they improve in terms of their own sustainability and their impact? For example, their supply chain operations and so on. So, it's something that we provide them and help them also with insights as well as new customer base. We try to support them with that. At the same time, on an individual level, we help with the cost factor, which is one of the most important things. When we want people to change, when we want people to adopt sustainable lifestyle, we kind of need to incentivize that so that mass adoption can be possible. VICTORIA: So, I'm imagining, like, I want to know a new brand that I want to buy clothes from, like essential clothes. I could go into the app and, like, find companies that produce the thing that I want, and then I could get points and rewards for buying consistently from that brand. SANGHMITRA: So, we are not like an actual loyalty program. So, you only receive points when you do something good for the planet. You don't receive points when you purchase from brands. This is a loyalty program where we give you points when you do something good for the planet, for example, donations. For NGOs, we have volunteer programs that individuals can participate in and receive loyalty points. But in the future, we are ambitious, and we want to go far. And we think that each and every activity of an individual can be tracked in terms of sustainability, how they are segregating their waste at home, how they're managing that, and so on, and give them points for each of their eco actions. VICTORIA: Awesome. Yeah. Okay. I love that. Yeah. So, what kind of things would earn me points, like, in my home ownership here? SANGHMITRA: If you volunteer with an NGO nearby or if you would like to participate in an event, for example, if you want to donate clothes, all these eco actions can give you loyalty points for the moment. And in the future, we want to also track the actions that you do at home. You save electricity, for example. You want to walk to the office instead of taking a cab, and all these activities, so that we can kind of make the experience also for the user a bit more like a game so that they enjoy doing it at the same time they receive rewards. And they can make purchases as well with the sustainable brands on our platform. VICTORIA: I like that because I've been talking with my partner about how do we live more sustainably, or how do we, like, reduce our consumption or give back. And I think if it was gamified and we got points for it, it's more motivating because then you also see that other people are doing it as well. And so, you're part of a community that's all trying to take the same action. And that will have a bigger impact than just one individual, right? SANGHMITRA: Yes, definitely. And we do have that feature on our platform where you could see near your area who donated and who is working in a particular NGO, so based on the fact that if the individual is comfortable in sharing that. Most of the time, when someone does something good for the planet, they would love to show it to the rest of the world. So, we have seen that people love to share their experiences and their badges, saying that, okay, they donated, for example, five euros to this NGO, and so on. So, they really love that. And it feels also really good to see this community and to get inspired by it. Mid-Roll Ad: When starting a new project, we understand that you want to make the right choices in technology, features, and investment but that you don't have all year to do extended research. In just a few weeks, thoughtbot's Discovery Sprints deliver a user-centered product journey, a clickable prototype or Proof of Concept, and key market insights from focused user research. We'll help you to identify the primary user flow, decide which framework should be used to bring it to life, and set a firm estimate on future development efforts. Maximize impact and minimize risk with a validated roadmap for your new product. Get started at: tbot.io/sprint. WILL: I think it's going to take all of us doing something to help with climate change and to make a difference. So, I like how you're incentivizing. You're making a difference. You say you get reward points. So, once I do an item or an action and I get reward points, what does that look like on the backend of it? SANGHMITRA: For the individuals they have a dashboard to track their actions. They have a dashboard to also track what they are purchasing. So, if they're purchasing food or they're purchasing more items related to fashion, they can also check that. They can check the total number of points that they have received so far, where they have used it, and so on. And at the backend, for us, we see it as the total number of transactions that are taking place, so, for example, how the loyalty point is being used. So, we have APIs that are in place between our platform and the platforms of other sustainable brands in our network. So, in our backend, we can see the transactions; for example, an individual used 100 points to get 10% off from one of the sustainable brands on our platform. And in terms of the sustainable brand side, even they have their own dashboard. They can also track how many individuals are using their points on their platform, and so on. So, they also have access to their own analytics dashboard. And through the same application, they can also provide us the payments through subscription and transaction fees. VICTORIA: Yeah, that's really interesting. And so, I understand that you've been in the journey for a little while now. And I'm curious: if you go back to when you first got started, what was surprising to you in the discovery phase and maybe caused you to pivot and change strategy? SANGHMITRA: So, one thing that I pivoted with was the type of brands that we wanted to onboard. Before, we had a very open approach; for example, we want brands that are sustainable, or if they are upcycling, or if they have, like, a particular social impact attached to it or an environmental impact attached to it. So, we were focusing on having the horizons a bit like the aspects of choosing a sustainable brand to be a partner. It was a bit broader for us. But when we talked with the people, they wanted a niche. For example, they wanted upcycle products. They wanted more brands in the circular economy domain. And that's when we realized that we need to have a niche. So, we focus on the brands that are more linked towards circular economy that are promoting the values of recycling, upcycling, and reusing the products. So, that was when we pivoted with the idea that we should not be open to all sustainable brands. However, we need to be really accurate with our approach. We need to focus on a particular niche. At the same time, we need to also make sure that we measure their impact and report it to our customers to ensure transparency on our platform. So, that became a priority more than having more and more brands on our platform. WILL: Yeah, I really...that was actually one of my questions I was going to ask you because I like how you are vetting them because I've, especially here in the States, I've seen, like, companies, like, slap 'non-GMO' or 'gluten-free.' And it's like, well, it doesn't even have wheat in it, so, like, yeah, it's gluten-free. So, it's like, it's more of a marketing thing than actually, like, helping out. So, I'm glad you're vetting that. How has that process going for you? SANGHMITRA: It's actually going really well, and we have established a five-step onboarding process. And in the first two steps, we also focus on measuring their impact. We have a self-evaluation form. We also check if they have some existing certificates. We also make sure that we have enough data about their supply chain and how they are working. And these are some of the information that we also share with our consumers, the one who would be interested to buy products from these brands, to make sure that we are transparent in our approach. There's also one more thing that we do. It's the quarterly reporting. So, every three months, we also report the individuals who are buying from sustainable brands on our platform that, okay, this brand did better this quarter because they implemented a process that, for example, is reducing a certain amount of emissions from their supply chain, or any other departments. So, these are some of the information that we also share with the individuals. VICTORIA: And what does success look like now versus six months from now or five years from now? SANGHMITRA: For the moment, success would look like for me to have more connections, more people who support our project and our initiative, and the more people joining us. In terms of the next six months, I think it would be linked to fundraising. But I wouldn't go so far at the moment because, for me, I take one day at a time. And this is something that has been super helpful for me to streamline my tasks. So, I take one day at a time, and it's working really well for me. WILL: What are some of your upcoming hurdles that you see? SANGHMITRA: When I talk about hurdles, I often see it in two parts, one being the internal hurdles and the other one being external. So, in terms of the internal hurdles, it can be something like I'm putting myself in a box that, okay, I'm a single woman founder. How can I do something good? And just doubting myself and things like that. These are some of the internal hurdles that I'm working on every day [chuckles]. I'm also talking to executive coaches to get their advice on how I can improve myself as well to overcome these internal hurdles. However, in terms of the external hurdles, these are some things that are not in my control, but I try my best to make the most of it. Currently, in terms of the external hurdles, I would say that I live in a country where I used to not even speak the language. So, initially, the hurdle that I experienced was mostly the cultural hurdle. But now it's more related to the fact that I am a single female founder, and there are perceptions around it that you need to have a co-founder. And there are a lot of different noises everywhere that doesn't allow you to grow. VICTORIA: And you're not just a founder, but you're also an author. And I wanted to ask you a little bit about your book, the Sustainability Pendulum. Can you share a little bit about what it is and why you wrote it? SANGHMITRA: So, Sustainability Pendulum is the book that I wrote last year, and I always wanted to write it. And last year, I put myself to work, and I was like, at least every day, I'm going to try and write one page, and probably by the end of the year, I can finish the book [chuckles], and that's what I did. I had to be super consistent. But I came up with Sustainability Pendulum, and it's about the stories from the past and the sustainable approaches that we had in the past, how we used to...in different religions, we have some stories written in the scriptures related to sustainable practices. And oftentimes, when we talk about sustainability today, we talk about the future. We talk about implementing different technologies and, doing a lot of innovations, and so on. However, we don't look into the past and see how efficiently things were handled when it came to sustainability in the past. And these are some of the stories from the past, from different religions, and how it transcends to today's sustainability issues and solutions. So, that's what the book is about. And why it's called the pendulum, it's because how the pendulum moves. I think it's obvious [laughs], so the pendulum's to and fro motion. It goes to the past, and it goes to the future. So, that was the whole concept behind the sustainability pendulum. WILL: That's amazing that you wrote a book, much, much respect on that. I am not an author, so...And I also know because my wife she's been talking about writing a book and the different challenges with that. So, kudos on writing a book. Would you write another one? SANGHMITRA: Actually, I would love to. I'm just looking for something that equally inspires me how it did for the last one. But I think once you come out of that space and you're consistent with writing the book or consistently working to achieve something, I think eventually it comes to you. So, I don't know what are the challenges that your wife mentions that she faced in writing the book. WILL: Like, having enough to write about, like you said, just sitting down each day writing a book. And I think publishing a book is tough. I know we've come a long ways, like, you can self-publish now instead of going through publishing companies, and just those different avenues of how many steps it takes. It's not just writing a book, sitting down and writing a book, and sharing with everyone. It's multiple steps that you have to go through. SANGHMITRA: Definitely. I couldn't agree more with you on this one. Just to add to it, how I managed to do this was also because I structured the book earlier. And in order to also publish it, I realized that I don't want to wait. And I self-published the book as soon as I found out that, okay, this is perfect, and it's ready. I need to just move forward with it. What helped me as well was the way I structured the book earlier. And then, I was like, okay, every day, this is what I'm going to work on. And it kind of helped me to get to the end of it. WILL: That's awesome. I like how you had forethought and how it made it easier for you to come up with ideas and write it. So, that's awesome. SANGHMITRA: I wish the best to your wife as well for her book. And I hope that once it's ready, you will let me know about it. WILL: Yes, I definitely will. You're talking about being a woman founder who is single. I don't want to assume. So, why is it tough for you to be a woman founder who's single? SANGHMITRA: When I say single female founder, it means that I don't have a co-founder. It's not, like, my relationship status but just [laughs] the fact that... WILL: Yes. Yes. [laughter] SANGHMITRA: Just that I am a single founder, like, then I don't have a co-founder, which oftentimes poses as a risk, especially when you talk to an investor. This is what I feel based on my experience. But I think the times are changing, and I feel that the more the project is growing, the better it is getting in terms of the people who are interested as well to be a part of Insusty as an investor or as a partner. Things have become better now than they were a few years ago. So, I can see the change. But, initially, I did used to feel low about it that, okay, I'm a single female founder, and oftentimes, it was considered as a challenge. But if you take my perspective, I think, for me personally, it possibly was also one of my biggest strengths because I could be that one person going to the meetings, and I felt that people were more open to share things. They did not feel threatened by me. And that was something that really helped me to also form connections with people. VICTORIA: I love how you connect having a small community in your village where you grew up to creating a community around yourself as a founder and having a village that supports you, and you feel comfortable around the community as well, and as part of that community. If you could go back in time and give yourself some advice when you were first getting started with Insusty, what advice would you give yourself? SANGHMITRA: Slow is good. When I say that, I mean that every time we talk about different startups and different companies, and it's always about how rapidly the startup is growing, how exponentially they are growing, and so on. But I feel that in terms of when you really want to create an impact, and you are in the green tech space as well, being slow and getting somewhere is better than going fast and then having a burnout. So, one of the things that I would tell myself when I just started would be slow is good. WILL: Even with coding and a lot of things in life, I feel like that's really good advice: slow is good. Slow down––enjoy the moment. So, I like that advice. VICTORIA: I was going to say, it sounds like a more sustainable pace for yourself also [laughs]. SANGHMITRA: Exactly. VICTORIA: Sustainability in the environment, and also in our own energy, and emotions, and motivation to get things done. So, I love that. WILL: I see what you did there [laughter]. VICTORIA: Yeah, [inaudible 30:40] all back. Do you have anything else that you'd like to promote? SANGHMITRA: I would really love to also tell people that I'm very open to communication. So, if anyone would like to reach out to me on LinkedIn, it would be really awesome, and we can get on a call as well. I have my Calendly link right on my profile, and I'm very open to communication. So, if there is someone who would like to talk to me about any of the things that interest them or probably something that they could advise me or I could learn from them, I'm more than open to do so. VICTORIA: Love that. And then, do you have any questions for me or Will? SANGHMITRA: So, in terms of the development part, I do have some questions, like, in the technical side. So, when it comes to the fact that we have to kind of calculate the eco actions of individuals in the future, we want to also see if we can calculate the daily actions that they do, for example, walking instead of taking a cab, or segregating their waste, et cetera. I wanted to know, in the future, I want to implement these features, but can we actually get a perfect product around it? Is that possible where we can track everything? WILL: Yeah. So, when you say track everything, like, I know you talked about walking and some of the different actions. Can you expound on that? SANGHMITRA: For example, instead of IoTs...because I know that some hotels they do use IoT devices to track the water consumption, and so on. However, on an individual level, how can we just track it through the smartphone or through the app that they have? Because, okay, walking can be tracked. This is actually one of the challenges I'm facing, so I want to just be open about it, and I'm very open to ideas also. If you have some ideas that I could experiment around, I would really love to. In terms of the activities like walking, waste disposal, and so on, do you think that there are some kind of features that we could implement to track these actions? One of the things that I was thinking about was we let people take a photo of how they are segregating the waste in the end, and through that, we can tell them, "Okay, this is great," and we give them the points. But how can we do it and also automate it at the same time? VICTORIA: So, one approach that I know when people work at thoughtbot on these types of issues and trying to figure out, like, what is the right feature? How are we going to implement this? Going through a product design sprint where you spend a week with a product designer and someone who can, you know, really quickly create MVPs. And you go through this process of figuring out what's the most important feature. And you're talking to users, and you're trying to...you're going through that discovery process in a short period. And we actually have a video series where we walk through every step of that process. But, like, for me personally, things that I can think of in my life that I would want to track one thing I've been trying to do more is actually electronic recycling, which in the U.S. my neighborhood is different. It's only open on, like, Thursdays and Saturdays. And I have to, like, really remember to go out there and, like, put my electronics out there. And I don't think it's very, like, well-known. So, I think that would be something interesting to, like, promote as possible. And we also have the green bins now, which are new, which allow you in California to, like, have composting. So, you have now your regular trash, your recycling, and your compost bins. So, actually, like, trying to use those and track them. Otherwise, one of the things I think about is, like, reducing the amount of plastic consumption, which includes things like, you know, when you buy toilet paper, it comes wrapped in plastic. How can I incentivize myself and my partner and even my family to, like, switch away from those types of products and get more into, you know, using towels instead of paper towels or finding alternative methods for getting those products while reducing the amount of plastic that comes with it? SANGHMITRA: That's super interesting. I'm really, really glad to have your insights as well. I do have a question for you. Have you worked with startups in the field of impact? And if so, what have been some of the ideas that you really loved to implement? VICTORIA: Yeah, actually, we had another guest on the Giant Robots podcast who I think you're connected with as well who created essentially, like, a GoFundMe but for environmental projects and in areas that, you know, a 5,000 grant to help do a beach cleanup could have a really big impact. Like funding programs and marketplace for those types of green projects in areas that are the most impacted by climate change and have the fewest resources to actually do anything about it. So, I thought that was really exciting in trying to figure out how can we use tech to solve problems for real people, and for people that don't typically get the focus or the majority of the funding, or the majority of time spent in those communities. So, that, I think, is what is really exciting: to see people come from those communities and then figure out how to build solutions to serve them. SANGHMITRA: That's really wonderful. Is there, like, a specific market where you have seen growth of such startups and companies more? The companies especially you have worked with in the past and in there in the field of impact, are they mostly from the U.S., or which are the markets they are from essentially? VICTORIA: Yeah. So, I mean, I'm from the U.S., so that's where I see the most. I'm in San Diego. So, when I go to, like, startup weeks and things like that, that's where I'm getting the majority of my exposure. I do also know that there is a Bloomberg Center focusing on excellence and data in the governments. And that's not just U.S.-based but going more global as well, so trying to teach civic leaders how they can use the data about whether it's sustainability or other issues that they're facing too, like, figure out how to prioritize their funding and in what projects they're going to invest in from there. So, I think that's really interesting. I don't know, I don't know what the answer is, but I know that there are some countries that are hoping to make the investments in sustainability and ecotourism, as opposed to allowing industry to come in and do whatever they want [laughs]. So, I don't know if that answers your question or not. SANGHMITRA: Yeah, I think it completely answers my question. Thank you for sharing that and also a bit more. WILL: There's so many things that I've learned through the podcast. So, I'm excited to see the impact it has. And I think you're doing an amazing job. VICTORIA: Thank you so much for coming on and being with us here today and sharing your story. SANGHMITRA: Thank you. WILL: You can subscribe to the show and find notes along with a complete transcript for this episode at giantrobots.fm. If you have questions or comments, email us at hosts@ giantrobots.fm. And you can find me on Twitter @will23larry. VICTORIA: And you can find me on Mastodon @thoughtbot.social@vguido. This podcast is brought to you by thoughtbot and produced and edited by Mandy Moore. Thanks for listening. See you next time.  AD: Did you know thoughtbot has a referral program? If you introduce us to someone looking for a design or development partner, we will compensate you if they decide to work with us. More info on our website at: tbot.io/referral. Or you can email us at: referrals@thoughtbot.com with any questions.

"Why Setting Up Shop in Finland is a Game-Changer for Your Business" introduces Finland as a premier destination for entrepreneurs keen on innovation and sustainability. Scandicorp Group City: Stockholm Address: 28 Vasagatan Website: https://scandicorp.com/ Email: info@scandicorp.com

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In the latest episode of the Climate Confident podcast, I had the pleasure of speaking with Davide Ceper, CEO of Varda. We delved deep into the innovative solutions Varda is bringing to the agriculture sector. Here's a quick overview of our enlightening discussion:Davide shed light on Varda's pivotal projects - Field ID and SoilHive. Field ID is a groundbreaking approach to standardising agricultural field identification, making data sharing more efficient and enhancing transparency in the farming sector. On the other hand, SoilHive aims to revolutionise soil health data accessibility, focusing on aiding farmers in adopting sustainable practices.We also explored the significant environmental impact of agriculture, contributing to a considerable portion of global greenhouse gas emissions. Davide emphasised the need for collaborative efforts in data sharing and transparency to tackle the pressing challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss.Furthermore, we discussed the implications of COP 28 on agriculture, where Davide highlighted the sector's newfound recognition in global environmental discussions and the need for actionable, long-term strategies.Don't miss out on this insightful conversation, which is not only a deep dive into agricultural tech but also a look at the broader implications for environmental sustainability. Tune in for an episode that's as informative as it is thought-provoking!For more updates and insights, check out Varda's innovative tools at fieldid.varda.ag and app.soilhive.ag.Keep listening, keep learning, and let's stay climate confident! And don't forget to check out the video version of this episode at https://youtu.be/jQp66zP_bBMSupport the showPodcast supportersI'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing supporters: Lorcan Sheehan Hal Good Jerry Sweeney Christophe Kottelat Andreas Werner Richard Delevan Anton Chupilko Devaang Bhatt Stephen Carroll William Brent Marcel Roquette Roger Arnold And remember you too can Support the Podcast - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent Climate Confident episodes like this one.ContactIf you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - get in touch via direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn. If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show. CreditsMusic credits - Intro by Joseph McDade, and Outro music for this podcast was composed, played, and produced by my daughter Luna Juniper

Hello, Climate Confident listeners! In this episode, we delve deep into the shoe industry's environmental footprint with the insightful Diana Yanes, a seasoned expert with a passion for sustainable innovation.Diana brings to light a staggering reality – almost 24 billion pairs of shoes produced annually, with a whopping 90% ending up in landfills within their first year. This contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, a fact that calls for urgent attention and action.In our conversation, Diana elucidates the multifaceted challenges of shoe manufacturing, from the extensive use of diverse materials to the complexities of biodegradation. She brilliantly navigates us through the nuances of materials like leather and their impacts, underscoring the need for a shift in our perception of beauty and functionality in footwear.What stood out in our dialogue was Diana's emphasis on small, yet impactful changes. She champions the idea of capsule collections as a step towards sustainability, demonstrating how replacing current materials with more eco-friendly options can make a considerable difference.This episode isn't just about the problems but also about viable solutions and the role of consumer awareness. Diana urges us to be more inquisitive and responsible, reminding us that our choices as consumers have far-reaching consequences.To learn more about Diana's work and her approach to sustainable shoe manufacturing, tune in to this enlightening episode. It's a must-listen for anyone keen on understanding the intricate balance between fashion, functionality, and environmental stewardship in the shoe industry.Until next time, keep striving for a more sustainable future and remember, every step counts!And don't forget to check out the video version of this episode on YouTube.Support the showPodcast supportersI'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing supporters: Lorcan Sheehan Hal Good Jerry Sweeney Christophe Kottelat Andreas Werner Richard Delevan Anton Chupilko Devaang Bhatt Stephen Carroll William Brent Marcel Roquette Roger Arnold And remember you too can Support the Podcast - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent Climate Confident episodes like this one.ContactIf you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - get in touch via direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn. If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show. CreditsMusic credits - Intro by Joseph McDade, and Outro music for this podcast was composed, played, and produced by my daughter Luna JuniperThanks for listening, and remember, stay healthy, sta...

In today's episode of the Climate Confident podcast, chatting with Caroline Chalmer, CEO of Finematter, a platform transforming the jewellery industry.Caroline brings a unique perspective to the table, sharing her journey from the fashion world to championing sustainability in jewellery. Finematter isn't just a brand; it's a mission to revolutionise how we perceive and interact with jewellery. With their circular economy model, they're setting a new standard – focusing on made-to-order pieces, repairs, remodelling, and importantly, recycling.We explore the challenges of making an industry known for its lavishness more sustainable. Caroline's insights on circularity - reducing production waste, repairing to extend product life, and recycling existing materials - are a blueprint for other industries.One of the most striking points was the significant CO2 emissions from gold mining, underscoring the importance of recycling in reducing environmental impact. Caroline's discussion on the tangible and emotional value of jewellery, and how recycling can be a meaningful process rather than a transactional one, was particularly thought-provoking.We also touched on how Finematter is changing perceptions about recycling gold, traditionally viewed as a desperate measure. Caroline highlights how their model allows customers to repurpose their assets, retaining emotional value while contributing to a more sustainable practice.Lastly, Caroline's vision for the future is inspiring. With plans to expand globally and make circularity in jewellery commonplace, she's paving the way for a more sustainable and conscious consumer world.DOn't forget to check ut the video version on YouTube, and remember to stay Climate Confident!Support the showPodcast supportersI'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing supporters: Lorcan Sheehan Hal Good Jerry Sweeney Christophe Kottelat Andreas Werner Richard Delevan Anton Chupilko Devaang Bhatt Stephen Carroll William Brent Marcel Roquette Roger Arnold And remember you too can Support the Podcast - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent Climate Confident episodes like this one.ContactIf you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - get in touch via direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn. If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show. CreditsMusic credits - Intro by Joseph McDade, and Outro music for this podcast was composed, played, and produced by my daughter Luna JuniperThanks for listening, and remember, stay healthy, sta...

November 16, 2023 - David Work, vice president of customer project delivery for the New York Power Authority, explains how the state is hoping to leverage the purchasing power of the New York City Housing Authority to spur induction stove innovation.

In today's episode of the Digital Supply Chain podcast, I talked nanomaterials and packaging with Federico Trotta, Co-Founder and CEO of Metalchemy. As we unpacked the potential of this nascent industry, we discovered how Metalchemy is pioneering solutions that could revolutionise sustainability in supply chains and beyond. Our conversation took a deep dive into Metalchemy's groundbreaking antimicrobial technology – a beacon of hope for industries grappling with stringent preservative regulations. It's not just about prolonging shelf life anymore; it's about reinventing preservation with an eco-conscious mindset.We also touched upon Metalchemy's aspiration to lead the global nanomaterial market, transitioning from academia to tangible, societal benefits. Their proactive commercial partnerships aim to catapult nanotechnology from the lab to the frontline, making a measurable impact.Towards the end of the episode we discussed biomaterials. In a world drowning in plastic, bioplastics offer a glimmer of hope. Federico illuminated the challenges and advancements in making bioplastics a viable contender to their synthetic counterparts, both in functionality and cost-effectiveness.The episode concluded with insights into the integration of AI in enhancing the efficiency of experimental processes, a synergy of software and hardware that could potentially accelerate innovation.Tune in to this episode for a journey through the microscopic world with macro implications, and be part of the conversation steering us towards a greener future.For those eager to learn more, Federico invites you to explore Metalchemy's website and join their vibrant LinkedIn community. Stay updated with their latest ventures and be inspired by how nanotechnology is not just shaping materials, but also our environmental consciousness.Check out the video version of this episode at https://youtu.be/0SrZW0z9GxESupport the showPodcast supportersI'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's generous supporters: Lorcan Sheehan Krishna Kumar Christophe Kottelat Olivier Brusle Alicia Farag Joël VANDI Luis Olavarria And remember you too can Support the Podcast - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent Digital Supply Chain episodes like this one.Podcast Sponsorship Opportunities:If you/your organisation is interested in sponsoring this podcast - I have several options available. Let's talk!FinallyIf you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to just send me a direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn. If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover it. Thanks for listening.

Genanvendelse af udtjente biler, en malerspand skabt af alternativ emballage og en grav- eller mindesten skabt af ler. Det er kort sagt hvad podcasten Bæredygtig Business omhandler i dag. For ude i det danske land er der masser af innovative tiltag blandt SMV'er og iværksættere, og hvis det ikke var for blandt andre Steffen Max Høgh og Bæredygtig Business, ville alle de innovative idéer måske gå en smule under radaren. I Bæredygtig Business elsker vi at fremhæve dem, der har løsningerne på tidens store udfordringer, og i dag kan du møde tre iværksættere, som Steffen interviewede, da han var med til Green Innovation Week i Skive i september 2023. Du kan møde: • Lise Korsgaard, Sustainability Manager i Salling Autogenbrug som sælger reservedele fra biler til biler • Sofie Winge-Petersen, Co-founder i paint'R, som har gentænkt den klassiske malerspand, fordi den består af cirka 300 gram engangsplast, som professionelle malere kan bruge spandevis af hver dag • Nikolaj Tymm-Andersen, ejer af Timestone/Tymmstone, der laver gravsten/mindesten, der er skabt af ler fremfor af tung granit Nævnt i episoden: • Green Innovation Week: https://giw.dk/giw2023/ • Lise Korsgaard https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisekorsgaard/ • Sofie Winge-Petersen https://www.linkedin.com/in/sofie-winge-petersen/ • Nikolaj Tymm-Andersen https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikolaj-tymm-andersen-56b95632/ Tips, idéer eller ønsker? Skriv til mig på LinkedIn Du er velkommen til at skrive til mig på LinkedIn, hvis du har idéer til emner, jeg skal tage op i podcasten Bæredygtig Business. Find mig her: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steffenmax/ Ros og konstruktive forslag modtages også gerne. Og hvis du vil give Bæredygtig Business en god anmeldelse i din podcastapp, vil det være fantastisk.

In this week's episode of the Climate Confident podcast, I talked personal carbon allowances with  Prof Denise Baden from Southampton University and Associate Prof Tina Fawcett from Oxford University.Episode highlights:Carbon Allowances: Denise and Tina explained why such a system, could be a key player in our fight against climate change.Incentivizing Low Carbon Choices: We explored the potential of creating economies of scale for low carbon products. Fairness and Implementation: While there are hurdles, the potential benefits in terms of encouraging sustainable choices can't be overlooked.Key Takeaways:Historical Parallels: Comparisons to the EU ETS scheme demonstrate that, persistence could result in tangible benefits. Net-Zero Transition Tool: If successful, this scheme could exist for about 20 years or so, guiding us towards net-zero and then retiring once we get there.The Struggle of Vested Interests: However, high-carbon lifestyle enthusiasts might not welcome this change with open arms.Here are Denise and Tina's links:Tina's explanatory YouTube videoDenise's dabaden.com andGreenStories.org.ukThe video version of this episode is at https://youtu.be/lNmKQCQi7hkAnd as ever, stay Climate Confident!All Business. No Boundaries.Welcome to All Business. No Boundaries, a collection of supply chain stories by DHL...Listen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifySupport the showPodcast supportersI'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing supporters: Lorcan Sheehan Hal Good Jerry Sweeney Christophe Kottelat Andreas Werner Richard Delevan Anton Chupilko Devaang Bhatt Stephen Carroll William Brent And remember you too can Support the Podcast - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent Climate Confident episodes like this one.ContactIf you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - get in touch via direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn. If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show. CreditsMusic credits - Intro by Joseph McDade, and Outro music for this podcast was composed, played, and produced by my daughter Luna JuniperThanks for listening, and remember, stay healthy, stay safe, stay sane!

In this episode, we delve into a conversation with Eric Corey Freed - an architect, author, and teacher with a remarkable sense of humor and a crucial role as the Sustainability Director at Cannon Design. Eric shares his unique perspective on climate change, preferring to liken it to a disease no one would want our planet to catch, rather than using conventional, and in his opinion, benign terms. We explore his drive for making meaningful impacts in the industry and discuss his knack for causing 'good trouble'. Prepare for enlightening insights and a good laugh in this engaging conversation!Meet the 2022 Impact IconsFollow along with Impact Icons on Instagram and LinkedInImpact Icons is an Imagine a Place Production, presented by OFS, Mortarr, and Ecomedes, Inc.

(0:40) - Thermal battery helps industry eliminate fossil fuels

Is investing in climate tech just a trend, or is it the future of venture capital? Doerte Hirschberg, a leading figure in the VC world, challenges the status quo and brings a fresh perspective to these questions.Doerte Hirschberg is the co-founder and managing partner of Climentum Capital, a venture capital firm that focuses on climate tech investments. With a background in traditional investments, she has transitioned into the climate tech space, bringing with her a wealth of knowledge and a unique perspective on the intersection of business viability and environmental sustainability.In this episode, we delve into:The transition from traditional investments to climate tech.The intersection of climate tech and business viability.The role of women in venture capital and the gender gap in VC investment.The role of regulations and capital in shaping Europe's climate tech future.Balancing work and family life in the demanding world of venture capital.Don't miss out on this insightful conversation. Subscribe to our channel and join us in exploring the future of climate tech investing with Doerte Hirschberg.

In der heutigen Folge spricht Michael Lorenz mit Stefanie Balzarek, Co-Founderin von Avori. Gemeinsam mit Philip Schaumburg Anfang des Jahres gegründet verfolgt das in Bielefeld ansässigen Unternehmen das Ziel, andere Unternehmen als Dienstleister auf dem Weg der Grünen Transformation zu begleiten und zu unterstützen. Im Gespräch erklärt die studierte Elektroingenieurin und „ClimaTech Enthusiastin“ was es überhaupt mit der Grünen Transformation auf sich hat, wie es sich anfühlt mit einem eigenen Start-Up durchzustarten und warum die Energiewende im öffentlichen Diskurs positiver adressiert werden sollte.

Paul Shahriari is a visionary and a do-er – It's a powerful combination.  Today, he shares the mission and vision behind the company he cofounded Ecomedes. You'll hear his inspiring story behind what set him down this path of sustainability - if you've ever had a college professor you loved, you'll appreciate Paul's story.  Paul and the Ecomedes tribe are determined to make more informed choices easier for designers and consumers and they are already succeeding. This is a fun conversation, it was really cool to learn about his business and I enjoyed Paul's energy.Click here to get your FREE copy of the Imagine a Place journalFollow Imagine a Place on LinkedInConnect with Doug Shapiro on LinkedIn

In this episode of Environment Variables, we cover the State of Green Software Report with the Green Software Foundation's very own lead researcher Tamara Kneese. She and host Chris Adams delve into the insights from the report including key topics such as the carbon footprint of crypto mining, regulations for generative AI, and the role of consulting firms in shaping emerging technologies. They also discuss how the results highlighted the impact of the tech industry, AI sustainability, and the need for responsible innovation. To find out just how interesting the results of the survey have been and everything in between tune in now!

Title: Investing in Green InnovationIn the midst of a global economic downturn, sustainable businesses need to grow and innovate to survive in uncertain times. But just how easy is it to get investment? The EU recently announced the Green Deal industrial plan, aiming to fast track Net-Zero projects in Europe, making 250 billion euros available for greening industry. Alongside this, the US Inflation Reduction Act also includes a $369 billion package for clean energy projects, and there have been calls for a similar scheme to boost businesses in the UK.Can UK businesses take advantage of the rush to go green? And if so, how? To help us answer this question, we are joined by Jon Dishotsky, an investment partner at Giant Ventures who builds and backs purpose-driven companies, and Wiktor Warchałowski, CEO and founder of Airly, who supply real-time air quality data for governments and businesses. This episode of the Sustainability Solved Podcast is sponsored by Good Citizens.Good Citizens is an eyewear brand like no other. Born to untrash the planet of single-use plastic. Good Citizens turns a discarded single-use plastic bottle into a pair of 100% recycled frames. It took them 752 days & 2500+ failed attempts to perfect the first pair of sunglasses. Even more unique, the modular system means you can repair each part in seconds. So, if your dog munches on them, it's all fixable.Use this discount code GREEN20 to get $20AUD off and help untrash the planet.Highlights:· More capital has been raised in the last 12-24 months than ever before by investors, however the pace of investment into companies has slowed down significantly.· Wiktor tells us about his experience going through the investment process, and the multitude of benefits it has brought to his company.· We discuss what types of questions are asked by investors and if this differed across various investment bodies. For Wiktor, his team built an FAQ list to be prepared for their next investment meeting as they noticed a reoccurring theme amongst questions.· Jon gives us a detailed insight into the question: how much money should a business ask to have invested in them?· We look at how investment can put pressure on companies to scale too quickly, consequently having negative impacts on the organisation's progression.· “Capital does not help you innovate”; Jon shares his findings from a study that shows that companies that raised less than $100 million outperformed their peers who raised 5x more, meaning they continued to innovate significantly over a long period of time.· Wiktor discusses the importance of working with investors that align with your organisation's values and goals.· Jon and Wiktor share some eye-opening and raw advice about building a business, gaining investment, and prioritizing innovation.Resources: The Inflation Reduction Act Green Deal Industrial Plan Giant Ventures Airly Sustainability Solved

(0:40) - New additives could turn concrete into an effective carbon sink

Aberinnovation is described as world-leading facilities and expertise within the biotechnology, agri-tech, and food and drink sectors. Caroline Evans visits the Innovation and Enterprise Campus on the outskirts of Aberystwyth, where industry and academia are collaborating and expand our green technological horizons.

The Sustainability Marathoner is back.Decarbonizing Healthcare is all we do here at Green Innovation Group.You probably listen to this podcast, because you care about that too.And this episode is somewhat of a special. We're welcoming our new team member and previous podcast guest, Kristoffer Hvidsteen, who is joining the Green Innovation Group team.This podcast is about his journey in sustainability and why he's so keen on decarbonizing the healthcare sector with us.Enjoy!

edie's #SustyTalk series of exclusive interviews continues with Ofwat's senior director John Russell, who outlines which green innovations the UK water sector will need to reduce its environmental impact and adapt to climate change. John provides top tips on enabling collaboration for green innovation and taking projects past pilots. He speaks with edie as part of the £4m Water Discovery Challenge. For full information, visit https://waterinnovation.challenges.org/

How does the Healthcare sector impact climate change? Frederik Van Duers, CEO of Green Innovation Group, tells Better Worlds that global Healthcare accounts for 4 to 6 percent of carbon emissions. Why? The usual suspects, but also single use devices, drug production and waste. incredibly “When drugs and devices are purchased by hospitals they enter Narnia and nobody knows where they go when they are disposed of, how many are wasted or how many are put to use.” What helps? Delivering preventive service independent of material consumption that can be delivered through telemedicine, for instance. Can we advise people to do some of the habitual changes that are associated with better health outcomes, such as smoking? Prevention and preventive healthcare are the biggest opportunities to go to the inner circle of the circular economy. Speaking with host Julian Guderley, Frederik provides his impression of blockchain, land use technology and gives an overview of the Web 3 landscape in the healthcare sector. Green Innovation Group is a global boutique management consulting firm that promotes green tech companies. They work on projects they believe will decarbonize the healthcare sector, with some of their biggest sectors being Farming, meta and the healthcare sector at large, including insurance companies. Their mission is to work with organizations that want to be more sustainable, formulate and deploy their strategy, or to help executive strategies already in development. Green Innovation also focuses on capacity building, training staff who may not have sufficient knowledge about the circular economy to integrate into industrial processes. Frederik Van Deurs CEO, Green Innovation Group Decarbonizing the Health Sector

In Folge 56 berichtet der Wettbewerbsökonom Justus Haucap dem Juristen Rupprecht Podszun von einer hochkarätigen Konferenz in London: Wenig royal, aber nicht minder spannend ging es dabei um „Mergers, Innovation and the Labor Market“. Sollte die Wettbewerbspolitik auch den Arbeitsmarkt im Blick haben? Was zeigt die aktuelle Forschung beim Zusammenhang von Fusionen und Innovationen? Außerdem sprechen die beiden über den Aufreger der Woche und warum ein Podszun-Gutachten einer dreitägigen Diskussion standhalten muss. Literaturhinweise Aghion P., N. Bloom, R. Bundell, R. Griffith, P. Howitt (2005), Competition and Innovation: an Inverted-U Relationship, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 120, Issue 2, , Pages 701–728: Aarow, K. J. (1962), Economic Welfare and the Allocation of Resources for Invention, erschienen in: NBER, The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity: Economic and Social Factors, Princeton University Press. da Cruz, V., M. Newham (unveröffentlicht), The Impact of Mergers on Green Innovation. Gilbert, R. J., M. G. Newbery (1982), Preemptive Patenting and the Persistence of Monopoly, The American Economic Review, Vol. 72, No. 3, pp. 514-526. A. R. Hashmi (2013), Competition and Innovation: The Inverted-U Relationship Revisited. The Review of Economics and Statistics ; Vol. 95 No. 5), pp. 1653–1668. Heinemann, A. (2020), Kartellrecht auf Arbeitsmärkten, Wirtschaft & Wettbewerb.

The summer heat is in full swing, so let's revisit why systems like district energy could be a sustainable way to heat and cool communities—ultimately working towards a zero carbon footprint. Jeff Westeinde, President of Zibi Canada and Founding Partner of Windmill Development Group joined thinkenergy to talk about how Zibi, which aims to be Canada's most sustainable development project, embraces district energy and One Planet Living. Relive this episode as part of thinkenergy's Summer Recharge!    Related links LinkedIn, Jeff Westeinde: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-westeinde-a46b4843/ LinkedIn, Windmill Development Group: https://www.linkedin.com/company/windmill-development-group/?originalSubdomain=ca Zibi: https://zibi.ca/   --- To subscribe using Apple Podcasts:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thinkenergy/id1465129405   To subscribe using Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7wFz7rdR8Gq3f2WOafjxpl   To subscribe on Libsyn: http://thinkenergy.libsyn.com/ --- Subscribe so you don't miss a video: https://www.youtube.com/user/hydroottawalimited   Check out our cool pics on https://www.instagram.com/hydroottawa   More to Learn on https://www.facebook.com/HydroOttawa   Keep up with the Tweets at https://twitter.com/thinkenergypod   Transcript   Dan Seguin  00:06 This is thinkenergy. The podcast that helps you better understand the fast changing world of energy through conversations with game changers, industry leaders, and influencers. So join me, Dan Seguin, and my co host Rebecca Schwartz, as we explore both traditional and unconventional facets of the energy industry. Hey everyone, welcome to the summer rewind edition of the thinkenergy podcast. While we recharge our batteries during these lazy hazy days of summer, we're bringing back some blasts from our podcast past. We'll be reintroducing some of our most popular interviews that garnered a lot of attention and interest. There's been a lot of talk about the future electrification of energy on the path to net zero. The episodes we've selected are very future focused with themes around Green Innovation, renewable energy, and our impact on the environment. So I hope you enjoy the summer rewind edition of today's episode. In the meantime, have a happy summer. And we'll be back on August 15. To kick off another exciting season. Cheers. I'm Dan Seguin from Hydro Ottawa, and I'll be hosting the thinkenergy podcast. So here's today's big question. Are you looking to better understand the fast changing world of energy? Join me every two weeks and get a unique perspective from industry leaders as we deep dive and discuss some of the coolest trends, emerging technologies and latest innovations that drive the energy sector. So stay tuned as we explore some traditional and some quirky facets of this industry. This is the thinkenergy podcast.  Hey, everyone, welcome back. This is the ThinkEnergy podcast. What happens when you use a network of hot and cold water pipes, bury them underground and then use them to efficiently heat and cool buildings - even whole communities, you get something called 'district energy'. And it's not a new concept. A quick search will reveal that its origins can be traced back to the second century BC to the invention of the hypocaust heating systems that powered the hot water bath of the ancient Roman Empire. Famously a hot water distribution system in Chaudes-Aigues, in France, is regarded as the first real district heating system. It used geothermal energy to provide heat for about 30 houses in the 14th century, and the US Naval Academy in Annapolis began steam district heating in 1853. If you're like me, maybe you're wondering why modern civilization did not continue to use this efficient and environmentally sustainable technology more. There are some European countries such as Denmark, where district energy is mandated, but for the most part, it is largely gone the way of ancient Rome and public bathing. The latter is not such a bad thing in my mind, with more and more socially conscious citizens around the globe, district energy is once again seeing a surge in popularity and becoming a preferred method, thanks to its lower and energy efficient operating costs, reduced supply disruptions, and environmentally sound methods of heating and cooling buildings, municipalities and property owners are intrigued by this ancient alternative energy technology. So, here's today's big question: Is the world ready to embrace district energy as a viable means to power our communities? Is the nation's capital ready to have the first one planet zero carbon community district energy system in the country? Well, my guest today is the founding partner of the Thea partnership. One of Canada's most sustainable real estate development companies, as well as the president of Zibi Canada, which aims to be Canada's most sustainable development project. He's also an active investor and entrepreneur in both environmental, clean tech and real estate sector with active investments in solar energy, site remediation, and the beneficial reuse of waste. Dear listeners, please welcome Jeff Westeinde. Jeff, can we start by you telling us a bit about your background, the Zibi project and what drives your passion to build sustainable communities?   Jeff Westeinde  05:24 Well, so I guess my background, I always say I'm an entrepreneur. I'm an engineer by training, but entrepreneur by practice. So I've, I've had one, what I call real job in my career, I worked for a company for a little over a year, it quickly became apparent that I was unemployable. So I had to start my own business. And I've always been in the environmental sector. So I started I started my career as an environmental contractor cleaning up industrial messes and some of the wastes of the past. And as part of that, I would watch our clients the way they were cleaning up properties, and then what they would do to redevelop them. And I was pursuing trying to, you know, clean up the environment, make the planet a better place. And yet, so the practices we were using, were actually making it worse. We're trucking contaminated soils. You know, the time I lived in BC, we're picking up soil, putting it in a dump truck and hauling it across the Rocky Mountains into a landfill in Alberta. And nobody can tell me that's good for the environment. So very good. quickly decided that we shouldn't say very quickly but decided while I continue to move up the food chain, and start to buy contaminated properties and start to develop places and communities. And because we were purchasing contaminated properties, the commitment that we had was, let's do better than we've done before. So let's push the envelope about how can we live in a sustainable way? How can we ensure that what we're building today doesn't cause the problems that we're cleaning up on the very site for developing so that's maybe a bit of a background as to you know, why how I got into this and in my passion around, you know, leaving, like, I don't know if you're ever in the wilderness, but there's a rule, leave the campsite better than you found it. And I think that rule, that should be a planet wide rule, and it's historically as you know, as not being so.   Dan Seguin  07:12 Okay, Jeff, you're on the record saying that the way we build communities does not support health, happiness or the environment. What do you mean by that? And how does Zibi differentiate?   Jeff Westeinde  07:28 So, I might even be so bold as to say that, I would argue that most of our planning, especially in North America, is actually shortening the lifespan of our own citizens. And that's because we're so car reliant. We're so socially isolated in the way that we build. So think about a typical suburb. In a typical suburb, if you want to get up and, you know, go get a coffee, buy some milk, bring your kids to school, the very first thing you do is go hop in your car and drive. And that that leads to, you know, the stats that can predict the rate of diabetes, the rate of obesity, the rate of all sorts of other chronic diseases by the postal code you live in, was shocking. So, this car centric suburban lifestyle is not good for you. So that's the health side of it. The happiness side of it, I'll just point to one stat. And that's that you can use, there are statistics that say you can determine the level of happiness of somebody by how many of their neighbors they know by first name. Well, when you live in the suburbs, you know, you might know 2, 3, 4 neighbors, or those people whose kids are your age, or those guys you play hockey with, but you don't have the unexpected collisions as you're walking to the coffee shop or as you're bringing your kids to school. So again, that urban sprawl arguably leads to a lot of source of social isolation. And if something happens to an older person, you fall, you break a leg, even as a young person and you're inside your house. Similarly, you're not looking out your window and seeing people and waving at them and those types of things. So how we build our communities, I think is really important for health, happiness and obviously for environmental sustainability. And what we're doing at Zibi is making sure that you will not be car centric, that you do have these collisions with your neighbors. As you're walking around the neighborhood. We actually have social programming that, you know, we have snowshoe nights and that when Cirque du Soleil comes, we have a night that is just for the residents of Zibi that come, you know those kinds of things to make sure you feel like a part of that community.   Dan Seguin  09:49 How did you discover the one planet system? What can you tell us about it and your goal to build the first one in Canada?   Jeff Westeinde  10:00 Well, so we'll talk about how we discovered it first, and that's good. Myself and my business partners were behind the very first LEED Platinum buildings in Canada. So we built the first LEED Platinum building in BC, Alberta, Ontario, and in the country as a whole and the LEED Platinum building we built in Alberta - I was visiting one day A couple years after we'd built it, and LEED Platinum is literally the Platinum standard, the most sustainable in the lead system. And I watched one of the residents of his LEED Platinum condominium building drive a Hummer SUV into the parking garage, and said, you know, it's great that our building is sustainable, but we really have an impact and how the users are using the building and how they're, how they're living their lives. So we started scouring the planet, literally to say, Well, is there a system that would really impact not only how we build our buildings and how they operate at a point in time, but how do we engage the people, the users that are using those places? So one planet, we get rated on things like health and happiness and social engagement, along with all the other architectural and engineering features of a community. And the way one planet works: very simple. The name says it all we have to live as if we only have one planet. Most people when I say that look at me and sort of go, but we only do have one planet. And we need to remind them that if you live like a typical Canadian, you're using four planets of resources to sustain your unsustainable lifestyle, and Americans using five planets, Europeans using three planets, and all we're doing is stealing from future generations, and the developing world to sustain our unsustainable lifestyles. So one planet really is all about both environmental sustainability, like technical sustainability and social sustainability, with one planet worth of resources, and it's a very holistic program. Very audacious goals, we're going to talk about zero carbon. So as you know, Zibi is in the nation's capital in Ottawa and Gatineau. You know, we are we are today we're going to be at plus 34 degrees. Six months from now we'll be at minus 34 degrees Celsius and to be zero carbon in this environment. It's the Holy Grail. So achieving one planet is not an easy thing to do very audacious. But that's where we said, No, that's the bar we need to hit, we need to again, leave our campsite better than we came to it.   Dan Seguin  12:35 I was fascinated that this method, 'district energy' dates back, like I think is 3000 or 4000 years to the time of the Roman Empire. What are some of the key benefits of the energy system you're implementing in your community? And why has it taken this long for folks to embrace it with it's being around for so long?   Jeff Westeinde  13:01 Well, like most technological breakthroughs, it is not the technology itself or even the concept itself that gets in the way, its people. So regulators, you know, if you look at how our grid works, say in Ontario, you cannot run a district electrical system. I can't, I couldn't produce energy and give it to my neighbor. Because we have a regulatory body that says you can't do it. And there are good reasons for that it was around safety and security and all those types of things. But we've ended up with all of these barriers, that that would prohibit the transportation and sale of energy. And, you know, I talked about electricity. But what's very interesting at Zibi - our district energy system is just hot and cold water. And there are no regulations currently in Ontario and Quebec, around moving hot and cold water. So that allowed us to start a district energy system. Answer so yeah. Again, the reason I would say you don't see more of them is the regulatory hurdles to implement the district energy system are enormous. However, the benefits are huge. And I'll use a very, you know, high level example that if you were to have a, you know, a Shopify data center, a good Canadian company, unlike Amazon, as a for instance. That is in constant cooling. So it's rejecting heating all the time. Right? And beside it, you have the Nordic spa, another great company that always needs heating, but needs to therefore be rejecting cooling. When you put those two side by side, and they're swapping energy back and forth. So your load is so much less. That's the concept of District energy is that by sharing and you know, a commercial building has different loads than a residential building has different loads than a retail building. By sharing those loads, they have different peaks, either for peak shades, you'd be you have less capital expenditure and you're more efficient. Why is it taking so long? It drives me crazy, but I really do think it's regulation is the key item why.   Dan Seguin  15:13 Aside from regulation, what have been the challenges you encountered bringing this technology to market in Canada? The sight of your one planet community alone, straddling Ontario and Quebec, is really unique. Tell us about the challenges and how your passion has gotten you through.   Jeff Westeinde  15:34 Yeah, I'm not sure how long this podcast is, but I could talk for a week about the challenges. Yeah, as you talked about, we do span the provincial border between Ontario and Quebec. You know, we jokingly say, both sides have a different word for everything. Because one speaks French one speaks English. Even the rule of law is different to one side of the other the legal system. So, you know, we need to repeat everything twice when we do this, but what I'll tell you is, I would say that the way that we've overcome what are just an enormous amount of challenges, I won't even get into what they all are, but it was it was crazy. Boy, when we overcome it was we shared our vision. And actually, I would say was our community's vision of saying, this is where our region started. Arguably, this is where, you know, the roots of our country started was on this site. And when we when we purchased the property was a fenced off locked off contaminated former industrial site that nobody had seen unless you worked at domtar. For probably 100 years, people didn't realize there's a waterfall in the middle of the city. What the community talked about in the vision that we had was no, we need to do something truly world class like something that people would come to our region and say Quebecers Ontarians, Canadians, look at the communities and the places that they create. And with that vision of being world class, we were fortunate that that politicians in the region, federal, municipal and provincial, all endorsed out the community endorse it. So when we started to bump up against bureaucracy and regulations, we were able to remind everybody that our commitment or contract to all of our stakeholders was, we're going to do some world class. Now world class, meaning different, and bureaucracies and regulations exist to enforce the same. So we were able to say, listen, you've got to empower, talk to the politicians, you've got to empower the bureaucrats who are paid to make sure that everybody does everything the same, to say, No, we've got to look at this one differently. We're not looking to do anything unsafe or unreasonable. But there's a better way and we've got to find it. And it was really that vision of world class and the endorsement that we got from all of the public stakeholders who said, yeah, we want to be world class. We don't want to just build another suburb of the City of Ottawa or Gatineau.   Dan Seguin  18:08 Now through a marketing lens, how did you position this alternative energy system that provides heating and cooling to your communities' new housing projects? What was the value proposition for prospective buyers and investors.   Jeff Westeinde  18:25 I think the key one, one of the lessons we've learned about sustainability and building sustainable buildings and building sustainable communities, is, most consumers don't, you know, while it's a nice to have being sustainable, it's not something that they're making a purchasing decision around. That's changing. I think more and more people are starting to look at that, but historically hasn't been important. So the key to sustainability is, we need to, we're going to allow you to be much more environmentally sustainable, socially sustainable, without any impact to your lifestyle. So when it comes to district heating and cooling, we said, listen, we're going to deliver you zero carbon district heating and cooling at the same market cost as a carbon based system, and you won't know. If you know you're going to turn your heat on, it's going to get hot, you're going to turn up your cooling on it's going to get cool, and you're not going to pay any more of the market. So that was that batten marketing. I mean, that's a no brainer to everybody that Okay, hold on, I get the exact same as I would get in a carbon based system but I'm zero carbon or more sustainable. That's a pretty easy sell at that point.   Dan Seguin  19:33 Okay, now I'd like to explore design aspects. District energy equipment inside a building occupies about one fifth of the area of conventional systems that boilers and chillers take up. I'm assuming this provides more flexibility in designing your buildings and community. By eliminating traditional HVAC systems, what building design options did this enable you to expand on?   Jeff Westeinde  20:06 There's some easy ones like if you think about rooftop patios, as a for instance, you know, if you have a rooftop patio beside a big chiller that's making a bunch of noise is not a great rooftop. So by  being able to eliminate that equipment. You know, our rooftop patios are much nicer. But really as a place maker, as a developer, the key aspect for us was if you know if you take all of that mechanical and electrical distribution space, and you end up with instead real estate that you can use, it's another added benefit to saying that that district energy makes financial sense or can make financial sense. It wasn't easy to unlock that but can make financial sense. So, so yeah, it obviously the less constraints you have on a building, the more flexibility you have and district is one tool for that for sure.   Dan Seguin  21:06 Now, wondering if you could zero in on the energy distribution system that harnesses excess heat from the Kruger paper mill on the Ottawa River and the temporary thermal plant that was or is built to serve residents businesses in your community.   Jeff Westeinde  21:24 Sure, yeah. So are, you know, like talking about the benefits, or sorry, the rationale behind district that if you have different energy cycles between neighboring buildings, you can share that energy. Our district energy system is actually based on that very same principle that Kruger operates a tissue mill, directly across from Parliament Hill. They, it's a very efficient, very successful mill. But as part of that process, they bring in millions of litres of water a day, heated up to over 40 degrees Celsius. Use it several times in their papermaking process, but then discharge it into the Ottawa River at about 30 degrees Celsius, anywhere from 25 to 30. So what we're doing is saying listen, you're discharging the millions of liters of hot water into the Ottawa River. Why don't we strip that heat so then what we're doing is we're taking it from 25 to 30 degrees down to seven to 10 degrees and discharging out into the Ottawa. River in our heating system or in the heating season. So that's the concept behind it's very rudimentary engineering, it's strictly heat transfer between water. So, so pretty straightforward from that point of view. What the temporary plane that you speak about is our district energy system. That backbone heating system at Kruger is not yet built that's getting built this season. However, we have users in our buildings right now. So, we have temporary plants that are providing that but the infrastructure for the district the pipes in the streets and hot and cold water system is there. So those temporary plants are going to operate for about another year, after which will be on our permanent system.   Dan Seguin  23:06 In addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving energy resilience. Is it fair to say that district energy deliver economies of scale in areas with high population? What are some of the short and long term benefits for the owner and end user alike? And how do these factor into the government carbon reduction targets?   Jeff Westeinde  23:33 Well, yeah, so the short term is if you can be more efficient, so if you have dense populations with different energy cycles, so different peaks and whatnot, as we talked about earlier, you need to spend less capital because you're peaking is at a lower level. And you're sharing energy between so that your overall initial energy utilization from the grid or from the gas system is lower because you're sharing more so overall that drives efficiency. And at the end of the day efficiency then drives lower greenhouse gas emissions and ideally, lower and more stable costs because your energy inputs are a lower percentage of the overall district. So say in our case, you if we're harnessing heat from Kruger, there are no escalation in the cost of that heat. It is waste industrial heat that otherwise wouldn't go anywhere. Whereas if we're connected to the Ontario grid, as you know, you know, costs have escalated very significantly. So that energy input if that is our key input, our energy costs are going to be higher. So we're fortunate that again, the combination of we sit in Ontario and in Quebec, so we have two different electrical and two different gas grids. We have waste heat and our cooling is going to come largely from the Ottawa River. So we have low cost inputs with waste heat and Ottawa River cooling. And we have four different grids we can tap into for alternative and for other energy if need be. So that then allows us to control our costs. So again, just an example of how you can drive efficiency and provide more price stability, while at the same time reducing emissions.   Dan Seguin  25:22 Okay. Do alternative energy sources like district energy reduce exposure to fluctuating energy prices? How are the rates/cost determined for residents? Are they comparable to current rates? And are they stable?   Jeff Westeinde  25:41 Yeah, so, yes, not all district energy systems are the same. Obviously, it depends on what those inputs are. But in the case of the Zibi community utility, our district energy system, but then our key inputs are that waste industrial heat and cooling base from the Ottawa River, both of which obviously have are stable. There's there is no Yeah, well, I shouldn't say we have some commercial transactions that go on without but not like the grid that allows us to decrease our reliance on the grid for other inputs. So to answer the question on rates, yes, our rates are comparable to market. And we've actually indexed them to the price of Quebec hydroelectricity. And for anyone that understands electrical grids, I would suggest that in North America, Quebec is likely the most stable grid in all of North America. I would say that it is a national utility for the province of Quebec. And I would say, you know, all Canadians are very proud of our healthcare and if they ever tried to take it away, there'd be riots in the streets. I would suggest that if anybody tried to raise electrical rates in Quebec, similar to what's happened Ontario, there would be even bigger riots in the streets. So, you know, we are expecting that will allow us to provide really stable pricing over the long term to our, to our customers.   Dan Seguin  27:09 Now, how important was it to find a strategic partner like hydro Ottawa, that had more than 100 years of experience and a strong track record to create safe and reliable utility infrastructure?   Jeff Westeinde  27:24 The partnership with Hydro Ottawa was critical. And again, consumer acceptance of that of the district energy system. You know, if you think about reliability if you're a consumer at Zibi, and you said, Okay, well what happens if my heating or cooling goes off? Who do I call if I see, well, you know, I am Jeff and here's my cell phone, you know, call me up at the cottage and I'll see if I can help you. That's not exactly reassuring. When you say 'Well, you call Hydro Ottawa" and they will is not who I would normally, you know, they, they're, they're, you know, the relative reliability stats of Hydro Ottawa better than me, but it's 99.999 something percent uptime, you know, 24 hour response, etc., etc. So, being able to bring that credibility of a utility operator to our district was absolutely critical for overall consumer acceptance and I would even say regulatory acceptance. You know, when we started talking about listen we're going to be moving hot and cold water in the you know energy in the form of hot and cold water around the around our community all municipal officials provincially "Okay, let you know if they did you have experience with this?" when we say well, Hydro Ottawa is our partner, it is an automatic acceptance of all know, okay, you guys are credible we understand let's carry on. So having Hydro Ottawa as a partner has been truly exceptional for us to be able to pioneer this.   Dan Seguin  28:50 Jeff, in addition to district energy, what else is he planning to feature in terms of other advanced technology and innovation to achieve zero carbon living for the residents and tenants on site?   Jeff Westeinde  29:08 Yeah, again, I know your podcast is not that long so I could talk forever about this, but I'll give you some key examples. So you know, again, trying to decrease reliance on carbon based transportation systems. So you know, the personal vehicle. You know, having car sharing, having excellent access to transit, when you're looking at other things that have a carbon footprint, how we build our buildings, the components that go into our buildings, the materials that go into our buildings, some are very carbon intensive. So again, we're targeting those that aren't carbon intensive. Even things like if you look at logistics, you know, when you buy a head of lettuce at the at the grocery store, the carbon it took to get that lettuce to the grocery store is embedded in that very product. So having urban agriculture, you'll see urban gardens, we've got a couple on site now. So all sorts of areas where anywhere where we can target things that are that use carbon to get delivered to or to, as part of the system that we're in. We're looking at incrementally changing all of those things. And those increments when they add up, turn into some big numbers. So that's really our focus.   Dan Seguin  30:27 Jeff, how about we close off with some rapid fire questions? Are you ready to go? What is your favorite word?   Jeff Westeinde  30:36 Serendipity. Yeah, I love serendipity. Because good things happen when you're not paying attention.   Dan Seguin  30:42 What is one thing you can't live without?   Jeff Westeinde  30:46 That was an easy one, my wife, I could be dead without that!   Dan Seguin  30:52 What is something that challenges you?   Jeff Westeinde  30:54 The word "No." I'm not good at taking the word 'No', it's how Zibi exists.   Dan Seguin  31:00 If you could have one superpower, what would it be?   Jeff Westeinde  31:03 I'd love to be a shapeshifter, be able to get inside different systems, different beings and understand how and why they work. I have endless curiosity. So I think being a shapeshifter would be amazing.   Dan Seguin  31:15 If you had to turn back time and talk to your 18 year old self, what would you tell them?   Jeff Westeinde  31:21 First, I would say smarten up and stop doing dumb things. But no, I think the one thing I would say is listen, relax. You know, something that has come to ring true with me, the Roman philosopher Seneca said, you know, "luck happens when opportunity meets preparedness". And I've been very fortunate to be lucky. But there's only one thing I can control in there. I can't control luck, I can't control opportunity. All I can do is control preparedness. So get prepared and just relax, pay attention, good things will happen.   Dan Seguin  31:52 And lastly, what do you currently find most interesting in your sector?   Jeff Westeinde  31:57 I love the fact that public health - so right now, you know, as you know, we're in the middle of a covid pandemic - public health is leading that across our country. But here in Ottawa, it's Vera Etches, I love the fact that our public health officials are starting to be included in our urban planning policies. So in Ottawa, Vera Etches participated in that. So remember I said earlier, you know, the way we plan is shortening the lifespan of our citizens. Public health starting to get involved in that. I'm really hoping that there will be an influence where they'll say, "if we planned communities this way, then here are the health benefits of it. If we do it that way, here's the health benefits." That's not currently happening. So I find that really exciting.   So, you know, we've been talking mostly about the Zibi project, which is one of the many things I do you know, if you go to Zibi.ca, then you can find more about Zibi and if you look to hello@zibi.ca anybody that wants to connect they're very good at getting people to me. I'm not much of a social media person, I do have a LinkedIn profile. I don't use it very often. But you can find me on LinkedIn and I'm good at responding to messages there as well.   Dan Seguin  32:41 Well, Jeff, we've reached the end of another episode of The ThinkEnergy podcast, last question for you. How can our listeners learn more about you and Zibi? How can they better connect?  Again, thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you had a lot of fun.   Jeff Westeinde  33:35 Well, this was fun, Dan, and thank you for your interest in Zibi and One Planet. That's fantastic.   Dan Seguin  33:42 Thank you for joining us today. I truly hope you enjoyed this episode of The thinkenergy podcast. For past episodes, make sure you visit our website HydroOttawa.com/podcast. Lastly, if you found value in this podcast, be sure to subscribe. Cheers, everyone.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is regarded as a fundamental enabler of green initiatives. In this episode, partners Francesca Gaudino and Carlos Peniche in our IPTech practice, discuss the role of green technologies, data and AI in green innovation including 'red' and 'green' AI, regulation of AI in Europe, how AI interacts with sustainability in practice and looking ahead to developing environmentally sound technologies that are sustainable enough to face the environmental challenges that the world faces when it relates to its impact to the environment.

In this episode, partner Eva-Maria Strobel and senior associate Tiffany Conley in our IPTech practice, discuss green trademarks in green innovation that includes various types of trademark protection and rapid developments in this space, key challenges when registering green trademarks, navigating the revocation of registered trademarks based on deceptiveness, and looking ahead to new trends and developments from both a European and Asia Pacific lens.  

In this episode, partner Nathalie Marchand from our Paris office is joined by special counsel Grace Wong from our Hong Kong office, to explore differing collaboration trends and entities in green innovation, considerations regarding green innovation agreements including background and foreground IP rights, protecting the confidentiality of green innovations and how to navigate a termination of the collaboration.

In this episode, partner Mackenzie Martin and senior associate Tanvi Shah in our IPTech practice, discuss the role of patents, trade secrets and plant variety rights in green innovation – and in particular how they incentivize and promote technological development.

In this episode, Julia Hemmings, a partner in our IPTech practice in London, and Rebecca Lederhouse, an IP counsel based in our Chicago office, discuss the role of marketing in green innovation and the increasing regulatory scrutiny around green claims in advertising. They focus on green claims as a key area of regulatory focus, key tips and tricks to consider when using green claims in advertising, and what's next in the pipeline from a US and EU lens.

Data and IP in green innovation play an important role in CG&R businesses and in this new episode, partner Eva-Maria Strobel is joined by Renata Amaral, partner at Trench Rossi Watanabe Sao Paulo*, to explore key legal considerations from an IP & data angle that companies should consider in relation to green innovation, including what elements are crucial to address sustainability/meet ESG goals and the competitive advantage IP rights give while undertaking your sustainability journey. *Trench Rossi Watanabe and Baker McKenzie have executed a strategic cooperation agreement for consulting on foreign law.

In order to achieve Canada's goal of being net zero by 2050, the future of energy will need to look a lot different than it does today. Vince Brescia, President and CEO of the Ontario Energy Association shared how controlling our emissions is a large part of the process, taking into account affordability and reliability of the energy supply, and six recommendations outlined by the Ontario Energy Association in a recent report. Relive this episode as part of thinkenergy's Summer Recharge!    Related links Vince Brescia, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincebrescia/ Ontario Energy Association, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ontario-energy-association https://energyontario.ca/ --- To subscribe using Apple Podcasts:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thinkenergy/id1465129405   To subscribe using Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7wFz7rdR8Gq3f2WOafjxpl   To subscribe on Libsyn: http://thinkenergy.libsyn.com/ --- Subscribe so you don't miss a video: https://www.youtube.com/user/hydroottawalimited   Check out our cool pics on https://www.instagram.com/hydroottawa   More to Learn on https://www.facebook.com/HydroOttawa   Keep up with the Tweets at https://twitter.com/thinkenergypod   Transcript   Dan Seguin  00:06 This is thinkenergy. The podcast that helps you better understand the fast changing world of energy through conversations with game changers, industry leaders, and influencers. So join me, Dan Seguin, and my co host Rebecca Schwartz, as we explore both traditional and unconventional facets of the energy industry. Hey everyone, welcome to the summer rewind edition of the thinkenergy podcast. While we recharge our batteries during these lazy hazy days of summer, we're bringing back some blasts from our podcast past. We'll be reintroducing some of our most popular interviews that garnered a lot of attention and interest. There's been a lot of talk about the future electrification of energy on the path to net zero. The episodes we've selected are very future focused with themes around Green Innovation, renewable energy, and our impact on the environment. So I hope you enjoy the summer rewind edition of today's episode. In the meantime, have a happy summer. And we'll be back on August 15. To kick off another exciting season. Cheers. Dan Seguin  00:02 Hey, everyone, I'm Dan Seguin.   Rebecca Schwartz  00:04 And I'm Rebecca Schwartz, both from Hydro Ottawa.   Dan Seguin  00:07 And we'll be hosting the ThinkEnergy podcast. So are you looking to better understand the fast changing world of energy? Every two weeks, Rebecca and I will be taking you on a tour and discuss some of the coolest trends, emerging technologies, and latest innovations within the energy sector   Rebecca Schwartz  00:26 We'll be engaging in great conversations with game changers, thought leaders and industry leaders who welcome the opportunity to share their expertise and views with you, our listeners.   Dan Seguin  00:37 So stay tuned as we explore some traditional and some quirky facets of this industry.   Rebecca Schwartz  00:43 This is the ThinkEnergy podcast.   Dan Seguin  00:50 Hey, everyone, welcome back. This is the ThinkEnergy podcast and I'm Dan Seguin.   Rebecca Schwartz  00:55 And I'm Rebecca Schwartz. In November 2020, the Government of Canada introduced a bill setting the stage to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Dan, how old will you be in 2050?   Dan Seguin  01:08 I don't know, Rebecca, you have to ask me then, when I wake up from my cryogenically frozen state along with Walt Disney, that's the plan.   Rebecca Schwartz  01:17 Okay, good to know   Dan Seguin  01:19 When you try and wrap your head around what it will take to get Canada to net zero by 2050, do you wonder what kind of energy transformation that will entail?   Rebecca Schwartz  01:30 I'm still thinking about what you said about being cryogenically frozen. But yes, I think it's going to be a massive undertaking and necessary one. Ontario currently produces 163 megatons of greenhouse gas emissions. And 76% of that is from emissions stemming from energy use.   Dan Seguin  01:51 Right. But when we talk about energy, we're not talking about electricity. We're talking about refined petroleum, primarily used for transportation and natural gas to heat our homes and buildings.   Rebecca Schwartz  02:05 That's right. Those two sectors, transportation and buildings make up 76% of the provinces greenhouse gas emissions, however, the electricity sector makes up only 16%. So here's today's big question. What are the keys to net zero success?   Dan Seguin  02:23 It's interesting, because, as you know, despite what the electricity sector in Ontario has achieved in terms of renewable energy, and curbing its greenhouse gas emissions, the conversation almost always still revolves around the electricity sector when it comes to climate change. Which brings us to today's show.   Rebecca Schwartz  02:45 Recently, the Ontario Energy Association released a white paper that reviewed various elements of the provinces energy system and the options available to achieve zero emissions by 2050.   Dan Seguin  02:57 Our guest today is Vince Brescia, President and CEO of the Ontario Energy Association.   Rebecca Schwartz  03:07 Vince, welcome to the show. Perhaps you can start us off by telling us a little bit about yourself and what the Ontario Energy Association does.   Vince Brescia  03:15 Thanks, Rebecca, and thanks for having me on the show. I'm the president and CEO of the Ontario Energy Association. I've been active in public policy work and research since the late 1980s, I guess, inside the government and in various capacities outside of the government, then I've been here at the OEA for the last five years and really enjoying it. Here's of who the OEA is we represent the the breadth of Ontario's energy industry. We have power producers of all the different fuel types, you know, whether that's nuclear, hydro, wind, solar, etc. We have demand response and storage. We have the large electricity distributors representing 75% of Ontario's customer base. We also have the natural gas distributors representing over 99% of Ontario's customers in terms of what we do the OEA conducts Public Policy Research and advocates on behalf of its members. And we also provide forums for education on Energy and Environment issues. So that's a quick snapshot of me and the OEA   Dan Seguin  04:27 Now Vince with respect to the government of Canada's goal to reach net zero emissions by 2050. What is the role of the Ontario Energy Association in this initiative?   Vince Brescia  04:40 Thanks. Yeah, reaching net zero by 2050 will be a massive undertaking, perhaps the largest infrastructure projects in our country's history. So our role at the OEA is going to be to leverage the expertise of our members and advise governments at all levels about how we can make this transition happen. while still maintaining the affordability and reliability of our energy supply, it's going to be a big challenge. And we're all going to need to work together to achieve this goal.   Rebecca Schwartz  05:08 So what kinds of major transformation will it take to achieve the government's goals?   Vince Brescia  05:14 I'll break it down in a couple of different ways. In Ontario, 76% of our emissions come from the energy we use. So reaching our goals will require a major transformation of our energy system. 23% of those emissions come from industrial processes and product use 10% of agriculture, percent based so that gives you the full spectrum of the emissions in Ontario. But because we're an Energy Association, we've focused on the energy component and the transformation required in the energy system. Or there are some overlaps. For example, we're hopeful some of those waste emissions can be turned into energy just as an example. But then turning to energy. Currently in Ontario 80% of the energy we use comes from fossil fuel sources. 48% is from petroleum primarily for transportation uses. Another 28% is from natural gas primarily to heat our homes and buildings. 16% comes from electricity, which is now a clean energy source. So altogether, achieving our goal is going to require us to transform 80% of our energy system. That's a big project. And the three big sources of emissions in Ontario are transportation, buildings and industry. Altogether, those account for almost 80% of our emissions. So we're going to have to swap up the fuels that we use in transportation, we're going to need to decarbonize our building heating systems. And many of our industries and businesses are going to have to adapt to new fuel sources. This gives you a sense of the scale of the challenge. But also with comes that comes with that is a large opportunity of the to go to go hand in hand.   Dan Seguin  06:56 2015 is 30 years away. But it's fair to say that Ontario's emissions have changed a lot in the past 30 years. Vince, can you give us a snapshot of how our energy use has changed since 1990. What sectors and provinces have improved the most?   Vince Brescia  07:16 In 2019. Just to give you a sense of where we're at Canada emitted 730 mega tons of ghgs of that Ontario represented 163 mega tons or 22% of the national total. Over time since 1990, Ontario's emissions have declined from 180 megatons to 163, which is a reduction of about 17 megatons or 9%. We still have another 19 megatons to go to meet our 2030 target of 30% below 2005 levels. That's not factoring in the recent national commitment by our Prime Minister to reduce emissions by 40 to 45%. By 2030. In terms of you asked about how you know how the provinces have, have compared and fared nationally, Ontario has made the largest largest progress nationally. That came primarily from the elimination of coal fired generation in the province. That one policy change resulted in a 31 mega ton reduction reduction in emissions from its peak in 2005. However, a lot of those emissions reductions in Ontario have been offset by increases in emissions from our transportation sector since 1990. Nationally, to give you a sense of how other provinces have done, you know, to the east of Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Quebec together, have reduced emissions by 19 megatons in total since 2005. However, west of Ontario, the emissions profile has been rising. So altogether, nationally, our emissions have been flat since 2005. And if you look back to 1991, they're up from the 600 megatons to the 730 we're at now.   Rebecca Schwartz  08:57 Vince, the Ontario Energy Association outlines six recommendations in the report, can you walk us through what those are at a high level and why you believe they're the keys to netzero success,   Vince Brescia  09:09 I'll do a quick walk through. Our first recommendation is that we need to move as quickly as we can on transportation fuel switching. And that's because we have almost all of the technologies we need to affordably transform the sector and because transportation is our largest source of emissions. So that's what we need to tackle first, and we can do it affordably. Second is we need to start reducing emissions in our natural gas system is our second largest source of emissions. And if we get time later, we can talk a bit about some of the things we can do in that area. The third thing we're going to need to do is to plan to expand our electricity system, all this fuel switching. I've been talking about like for example in transportation, and we're going to need it in industry as well. We're going to need a lot more electricity and we're going to need every type of resource. We're going to need nuclear, hydro, wind, solar storage demand response transmission, you name it, we're going to need the whole package to meet the amount of electricity that's needed. Some people talk about a doubling or tripling of our electricity. Some, we're gonna need a lot more electricity as we transform our economy. The fourth thing that we recommended is that we start to accelerate accelerate hydrogen programs and pilots, we're gonna need a lot of hydrogen in our future, because there's certain types of industrial processes and activities, where it's not so easy to swap out the fossil fuels that we use. And hydrogen seems like a highly likely candidate, or hydrogen based fuels. But we have a bit of work to do to develop those and make them affordable for customers. So we need governments to lean in and help with pilot projects, and put their thumb on the scale, so to speak, to accelerate this economy and help build the infrastructure that we need to service the economy. Fifth recommendation we made is that there be comprehensive energy planning, not just electricity policy. In Ontario, we have tended to have a history of focusing just on the electricity system. And you've heard me mentioned earlier, it currently only accounts for 16% of our total energy use. We now now need to think about our whole energy system holistically. And make a detailed plan about what it's going to cost, what the most likely pathways are. The final recommendation is that we're going to need federal, provincial and municipal coordination. All three levels of governments are active in the space, all are having an impact and can have an impact. But we're not going to be successful if they're not coordinating their efforts, or if they're working at cross purposes, or fighting each other's or turning issues into political wedges, you know, against each other. We need to all work together because you know, as I mentioned earlier, this is a massive undertaking. And if we're going to be successful, we all need to work together in coordination. So that's a quick summary of our recommendations.   Dan Seguin  12:11 You note that in order for the transition to be successful in Ontario, careful attention needs to be paid to three core pillars that are the underpinning of the energy system. What are those?   Vince Brescia  12:24 Yeah, thanks for asking. Now we know from from experience that are three critical pillars that underpin public support for our energy system. The first is sustainability, which encompasses the net zero discussion we are having today. our energy system must be sustainable over the long term, and that includes ensuring that we utilize energy in a way that ensures the environmental sustainability of our communities, and of our planet. Of course, the two other pillars, though, are affordability, and reliability. We have recent experience in Ontario that significant increases in energy costs lead to very negative customer and voter reactions. We must keep our customers informed and supportive of the transition, or they will rebel against the effort. Finally, our modern economy is also very dependent upon reliable energy. customers expect and depend on energy being available when they need it. If we go too long, without energy to heat our homes or power to run our economy, or God forbid, keep our cell phones charged. It causes major disruption for all of us. So our transition must ensure we continue to provide an energy in the reliable fashion that our consumers have grown accustomed to,   Rebecca Schwartz  13:36 In your opinion, Vince, what are some of the biggest barriers and challenges to achieve the 2015 zero emission targets? For instance, are there any activities that we can't fully eliminate?   Vince Brescia  13:47 Yes, some of the biggest barriers and challenges to achieving our goals will come from what some call the hard to abate sectors. These sectors are characterized by high material volumes, and finding alternative processes that are affordable, it's going to be a challenge for us. These are also some of our largest sources of emissions globally. And the big three are cement, steel and chemicals. Cement is one of the largest sources of global emission each tonne of cement produces about a half a tonne of carbon dioxide. And this has two main components. One is from the chemical reaction of turning limestone, which is calcium carbonate, and to lime, which releases co2. The other is from the energy component that we use to cook the limestone to over 1000 degrees Celsius, which is typically fossil fuels. So you have two elements, you have both an energy element and a chemical element that leads to large emissions from that sector. And that's going to be a challenge to decarbonize that sector. Steel is another one steel is the highest emitting industry in the world. It produces 3.5 Giga tons of co2 globally. Like cement, they're both energy In process admissions, we make primary steel out of iron ore, which is iron oxide, we add coal to the iron ore for its heat energy to essentially boil the you're kind of like we did we do for the cement, and for its chemical properties that allow us to strip off the oxygen atoms. This results in a chemical process where you end up with pure iron and co2 emissions. We produce steel in Ontario. And we also produce a lot of cars, which use a lot of steel and steel and a lot of other processes. So we're Ontario is going to have to tackle this one head on and it's going to be a challenge. The third big challenging areas, chemicals, petrochemicals and plastic production are the other large area of emissions globally and Ontario. There's a more diverse range of products here, but the largest one is ammonia, which we use for fertilizer in agriculture. And the next are ethylene and propylene, which are the most important ingredients and plastics. Again, there's going to be some difficulties and challenges and a lot of technology required to decarbonize those sectors.   Rebecca Schwartz  16:07 Let's talk about opportunities and leveraging technology and innovation. What's exciting you or giving you hope for the future?   Vince Brescia  16:14 There are some activities, we're going to need a lot of Innovation and Learning before we'll be able to eliminate emissions. According to the International Energy Agency, almost half the emissions cuts necessary for us to achieve net zero will come from technologies that are not in the marketplace yet. Some of the more exciting areas that are important and looked like they have significant potential, I would say are the following three hydrogen and hydrogen based fuels. governments around the world are developing hydrogen strategies. It looks to be very competitive globally, every major western country is working on a hydrogen strategy. And Ontario in Canada have some leading companies in this area like we have Enbridge Cummins hydrogenics, new flyer Ballard loop energy, planetary hydrogen, hydro energy, it's going to be a very exciting area is watching the hydrogen economy develop. That's what I'm excited about. The other one is energy storage, particularly long duration energy storage. We store lots of energy, now we have the technology. The costs are coming down fast. But what's really going to help us transform our economy is the ability to store energy for a long period of times and learn to do that affordably. There's lots of people looking at that and working on it, it's going to be a significant growth area. And I'm very excited about it. The third big one is is carbon capture utilization and storage, we are absolutely going to need carbon capture and storage if we're going to meet our netzero goals. One of the examples is cement, which I talked about earlier, I talked about this process where we boil the limestone and the chemical reaction leads to a bunch of emissions. The only thing I'm really hearing about from experts who know a lot more about this stuff than I do is that we're gonna need carbon capture to capture the carbon dioxide that comes from that cement. And cement. You know, as I mentioned, it's a very large global emissions producers. And that's just one example. There are lots of places where we're going to need carbon capture in our future to meet our goals. So there's a there's there's three areas that I'm excited about where I think we're going to see a lot of growth.   Dan Seguin  18:21 How important is energy affordability for Ontarians?   Vince Brescia  18:26 It's critically important. History has shown us that Ontarians react negatively to energy cost increase. If the government's Transition Plans a significant negative impact on energy and affordability. Families and businesses will rebel against the plan and the plan will get derailed. Oh, it is critically important. We have to keep it in mind.   Dan Seguin  18:45 What lessons can be learned from when Ontario's electricity rates increase to pay for renewable investments? And how can these lessons be applied to Canada's goal for 2050?   Vince Brescia  18:59 It's a great question. I'll give you my perspective. I think one important lesson we can learn from that experience is that sudden large spikes in energy costs are very upsetting to people and they draw lots of attention. They draw lots of political attention, lots of media attention. I think you can socialize the idea that costs may have to arise incrementally over time and get people used to the idea. However, most households don't pay much attention to public policy discussions and debates. They just look at their bill. They compare their last bill to this one, or this month's bill compared to this month last year to see how it's doing. So whatever plan we develop, if we can avoid sudden spikes, I think you can invoke you can avoid the negative public reactions, like the one we saw. That's what we can learn from that previous experience.   Rebecca Schwartz  19:47 Ontario's electricity system is one of the cleanest in the world. What does removing natural gas from the provinces supply mean for the reliability of the grid?   Vince Brescia  19:58 It's a great question. It's one that's getting discussed more. In the current climate, Ontario's Nash natural gas plants were built only recently to replace the reliability service offered by the coal plants we were shutting down. Once we had the capabilities of these natural gas plants in place, we were able to add a large volume of renewables to our system, resulting Ontario having one of the cleanest electricity systems in the world. These gas plants are like a backup to our electricity system. Most of the time the plants are not utilized much while we power the system with you know, nuclear, hydro, wind and solar and other other sources. That's why our system is so clean currently, because the plants are set seldom run at full capacity, so we get fewer emissions from them. However, when we have a large spike in demand on a really cool day, or a really hot day, these plants kick in to help maintain system reliability. They can be deployed on relatively short notice to meet urgent needs. Like the coal plants that they replace, these plants have access to something that is critically important for grid reliability, vast amounts of energy storage, this capability is not easy or affordable to replace. So we're going to need the services of these plants for some time before we're going to be able to replace them,   Rebecca Schwartz  21:12 can we replace natural gas to heat our homes and buildings and what will it take to make it happen? Vince,   Vince Brescia  21:19 we are going to need to maintain our gases to heat our homes and buildings for some time, we can change what goes into the system to make it cleaner and we can reduce the amount of energy we need from the system. I'll try and put it into perspective for you. The natural gas system currently provides about three times the peak energy of our electricity system. In other words, we would need to quadruple our current electricity system to meet the current peak heat demand if we wanted to transition to electric heat across Ontario. To give you a sense of the scale of that, if we were going to replace all of the gas system with electricity that would require about 24 nuclear generating stations. Or it would take 30 to 50,000 wind turbines paired with long duration energy storage, acquiring about 1.3 million acres for siting, you get a sense that this would be a pretty massive undertaking, and would probably be very expensive for customers. At the same time, we are going to have to expand our electricity system to deal with significant electrification and transportation, which we've talked about, and an industry which we've also talked about. So if we were to add the electrification of the natural gas system on top of that, that would likely not be achievable. So this informs the view that we should be looking at ways to decarbonize the natural gas system. And we're doing that now. Firstly, we've begun to blend renewable natural gas into our system, which takes methane from waste that was otherwise go into the atmosphere. Methane is a very potent greenhouse gas, making this a carbon negative activity. We're also blending green emissions free hydrogen into our gas system. Going forward, we'll be continuously exploring technological advances that allow us to increase the amount of that blend of hydrogen and renewable natural gas into our system. In addition, if we were to pair our current heating system with heat pumps, we can make a significant reduction in the amount of natural gas needed to heat our homes and buildings. On top of all of that, you know, research has shown us that we can affordably achieve significant reductions in the amount of natural gas use through building energy efficiency measures. So when you put all of those things together, you know, our view is that we can deeply decarbonize the natural gas system, and do that relatively affordability which reduces the scale relatively affordably as well and it reduces the scale of the electricity expansion that is going to be required. In Ontario for all these other activities we've talked about.   Dan Seguin  23:52 As we know from your report, refined petroleum makes up 48% of Ontario's energy use mostly for transportation. Are electric vehicles the answer to the transportation sectors greenhouse gas emissions problem here in Ontario.   Vince Brescia  24:10 Yes, they are a large part of the answer. Transportation as you mentioned, it's Ontario's largest source of emissions. passenger vehicles currently make up 57% of our transportation emissions, electric electrification of these passenger vehicles and a smaller short haul trucks and transit uses this can be done affordably with current technology, very exciting. I expect this transition to really accelerate and the next while for heavier and long haul transportation, we may need other solutions to be part of the mix. Long Haul and heavy transportation is less amenable to electrification because the batteries get too big and heavy and refueling time, you know adds significantly to cost for these uses. You know, we could be looking at learning compressed natural gas and renewable natural gas to to get to net zero most analysts seem to think that hydrogen fuel cells will be an important part of the long term substitution for heavy transportation. exciting part, as I've mentioned, we have a number of leading hydrogen companies in Canada and Ontario that are, that are making these these fuel cells. So it's also an economic opportunity for our province. And also, you know, you think of the materials for batteries and some of the the steel and inputs to the these vehicles that we're talking about, there's another economic opportunity there for Ontario. For some other transportations like ships and planes, we're just going to need alternative fuels. And again, the batteries be too heavy, you need a high energy density of the fuel. And we have, we may be looking at variants on hydrogen fuels like ammonia, that are very, very dense in energy in order to the fuel all those activities. And what we're going to do to try and figure out as a way to develop those supply chains affordably to set out those users.   Rebecca Schwartz  26:04 Alright, then, how about we close off with some rapid fire questions?   Vince Brescia  26:08 All right,   Rebecca Schwartz  26:09 what is your favorite word?   Vince Brescia  26:11 Reason   Rebecca Schwartz  26:12 What is one thing you can't live without?   Vince Brescia  26:14 Air And Starbucks coffee.   Rebecca Schwartz  26:17 What is something that challenges you?   Vince Brescia  26:19 golf. I keep trying, but it keeps challenging me.   Rebecca Schwartz  26:22 If you could have one superpower events, what would it be?   Vince Brescia  26:26 Time Travel   Rebecca Schwartz  26:27 If you could turn back time and talk to your 18 year old self? What would you tell him?   Vince Brescia  26:32 Oh, with my new superpower, I'd say invest all your savings and Berkshire Hathaway and leave it there.   Rebecca Schwartz  26:38 And lastly, what do you currently find most interesting in your sector?   Vince Brescia  26:42 You know what I love the technological innovation that is taking place in our sector. I mean, we've been talking about it today. It's exciting. It's a very exciting time to be part of the sector. I'm learning every day about new technologies and processes. And I love it.   Dan Seguin  26:59 Well, Vince, we've reached the end of another episode of The think energy podcast. Thank you so much for joining us today. I hope you had a lot of fun.   Vince Brescia  27:08 I did have a lot of fun. Thank you so much for having me. This was great.   Dan Seguin  27:13 Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the thinkenergy podcast. And don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review wherever you're listening. And to find out more about today's guests, or previous episodes, visit thinkenergypodcast.com. I hope you'll join us again next time as we spark even more conversations about the energy of tomorrow.

In our last episode, we spoke with Loren McDonald about the shift in social perception when it comes to adopting EVs across Canada. However, it'll take more than just a social shift for this adoption to happen. This week we're revisiting our conversation with Cara Clairman, President and CEO at Plug'nDrive—and a prominent leader in the EV space, who shared her unique perspective on Canada's readiness to adopt EVs, barriers the country is facing, whether Canadian businesses and municipalities have a role to play in EVolution, and more.    Related links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cara-clairman-84967318/ Cost of Ownership Tool: https://ev.plugndrive.ca/ Book a Test Drive: https://www.plugndrive.ca/electric-vehicle-discovery-centre/ Used EV rebate program: https://www.plugndrive.ca/used-electric-vehicles/ ZEVIP (NRCan funding program for infrastructure): https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/energy-efficiency/transportation-alternative-fuels/zero-emission-vehicle-infrastructure-program/21876 Federal EV incentive program: https://tc.canada.ca/en/road-transportation/innovative-technologies/zero-emission-vehicles   --- To subscribe using Apple Podcasts:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thinkenergy/id1465129405   To subscribe using Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7wFz7rdR8Gq3f2WOafjxpl   To subscribe on Libsyn: http://thinkenergy.libsyn.com/ --- Subscribe so you don't miss a video: YouTube   Check out our cool pics on Instagram   More to Learn on Facebook   Keep up with the Tweets at Twitter   Transcript      Dan Seguin  00:06 This is thinkenergy. The podcast that helps you better understand the fast changing world of energy through conversations with game changers, industry leaders, and influencers. So join me, Dan Seguin, and my co host Rebecca Schwartz, as we explore both traditional and unconventional facets of the energy industry. Hey everyone, welcome to the summer rewind edition of the thinkenergy podcast. While we recharge our batteries during these lazy hazy days of summer, we're bringing back some blasts from our podcast past. We'll be reintroducing some of our most popular interviews that garnered a lot of attention and interest. There's been a lot of talk about the future electrification of energy on the path to net zero. The episodes we've selected are very future focused with themes around Green Innovation, renewable energy, and our impact on the environment. So I hope you enjoy the summer rewind edition of today's episode. In the meantime, have a happy summer. And we'll be back on August 15. To kick off another exciting season. Cheers. Hey, everyone, I'm Dan Seguin.   Rebecca Schwartz  01:30 And I'm Rebecca Schwartz, both from Hydro Ottawa.   Dan Seguin  01:33 And we'll be hosting the thinkenergy podcast. So are you looking to better understand the fast changing world of energy? Every two weeks, Rebecca and I will be taking you on a tour and discuss some of the coolest trends, emerging technologies and latest innovations within the energy sector.   Rebecca Schwartz  01:52 We'll be engaging in great conversations with game changers, thought leaders and industry leaders who welcomed the opportunity to share their expertise and views with you, our listeners.   Dan Seguin  02:03 So stay tuned as we explore some traditional and some coffee facets of this industry.   Rebecca Schwartz  02:09 This is the thinkenergy podcast.   Dan Seguin  02:12 Hey, everyone, welcome back. This is the thinkenergy podcast. And on today's episode, we'll tackle EV-lution of transportation. I'm Dan Seguin.   Rebecca Schwartz  02:28 And I'm Rebecca Schwartz. Hey, Dan, you have an electric vehicle,right?   Dan Seguin  02:32 I sure do.   Rebecca Schwartz  02:33 I'm curious. What's your experience been? Like? Would you recommend an EV for your one and only favorite co host?   Dan Seguin  02:39 Mm hmm. I would 100% Recommend one. I love my little EV. I've actually owned two. And now my wife has just ordered her very own. I have no regrets.   Rebecca Schwartz  02:54 That's good to know. Now, if I could just get a solid pay raise, I'll be able to afford one hint hint nudge nudge.   Dan Seguin  03:01 Hmm. I have some great news about that Rebecca. First. Both the Feds and some provinces have great incentive programs. With these rebates EVs are really much more affordable. In fact, as part of Canada's goal to help fight climate change, there are plans to make owning a zero emission vehicle more accessible than ever before, through addressing affordability and adequate infrastructure. Today's guests will have lots more to say about that.   Rebecca Schwartz  03:35 Oh, visions of having my very own EV are getting a little bit more clear. You have my attention go on.   Dan Seguin  03:41 In fact, the pressures on; the Government of Canada has mandated 100% of car and passenger truck Sales be zero emission by 2035. All kinds of measures will be required to support this transportation evolution. Everything from incentives for zero emission vehicles, to investments in infrastructure to partnerships with auto manufacturers are being pursued.   Rebecca Schwartz  04:06 Wow, that seems so soon. But that's exciting. There are so many more things I'd like to know when asked. So here's today's big questions. Are Canadians ready to embrace this relatively quick transition over to EVs? What are the barriers and do Canadian businesses and municipalities have a role to play in the EV evolution?   Dan Seguin  04:26 Joining us today we have Cara Clairman, CEO and President at Plug'n Drive and a prominent leader in the EV space. She's here today to provide us with all of the answers. Cara, welcome to the show. Maybe you could start by telling us a bit about your organization and its mandate.   Cara Clairman  04:52 Well, thanks so much, Dan, for for inviting me to do this. Plug'n Drive is a not for profit. So we're out there trying to educate consumers on the environmental and economic benefits of switching to an electric car. And so most of our work revolves revolves around that outreach and education to help people make the switch.   Rebecca Schwartz  05:12 The Government of Canada has set what some might call an aggressive mandate for 100% of new light duty vehicle sales to be zero emissions by 2035. Why has Canada set this mandate? And how does it play into the larger picture of net zero by 2050.   Cara Clairman  05:27 So I'm sure a lot of your listeners will know that transportation is actually one of the largest emitting sectors not just here in Canada, but pretty much everywhere around the world. And in fact, in many provinces of Canada, transportation is the number one largest emitter larger than industry larger than buildings. And so we really can't achieve our climate goals if we don't tackle transportation. So of course, tackling transportation is a few, a few different things, not just EVs. But EV is a ready technology that's here that would really, really help in terms of reducing emissions from consumer vehicles, as well as now some medium and even heavy duty. And this opportunity is huge. Because if you just take Ontario, for example, you know, our number one emission source is transportation, and our electricity grid is already extremely clean. We're about 95% emission reduction if we switch to EVs, because our electricity grid here is already about 90 plus percent free of greenhouse gas emissions. And that's true in many provinces of Canada. So if you look at our electricity grid across the country, you have, you know, a number of provinces that are hydro only. So it's, you know, BC, Quebec, Manitoba. And so if you look across the country, we're already about 80% GHG, free pretty much. And so it's just such a perfect match with the with improving the emissions from transportation across Canada, we have an extremely clean energy grid. And if you think about our electricity, here in Ontario, it's mostly nuclear and hydro, a little bit of, of solar and wind, very small amount of natural gas. So we're already about only 5%, five to 8% fossil fuel on the grid. So plugging into our cars into that grid offers a huge emission reduction at about 90 to 95%. So as a long way of saying, you know, requiring new EV sales is a relatively easy way for the government to start making the transition for the transportation personal vehicle fleet, and would allow Canada actually to achieve the net zero by 2050, which it really can't do if it doesn't tackle transportation.   Dan Seguin  08:00 Now, Cara, are you able to expand on how Canada's zero emission vehicle mandates compare globally? Are we on par with other countries?   Cara Clairman  08:10 Well, I'll answer that question sort of in two parts. How we are now compared to the globe and other countries and how we will be right now I'd say we're a bit behind. Because we don't have an aggressive enough, EV set of EV policies, and we have quite a patchwork across the country in terms of provincial policies. And so our adoption rates are actually on the low side relative to a lot of other countries. I'd say we stand around 10th Right now, you know, in comparison to other countries that have, you know, better policies than we have. However, the policy of zero emission new sales, right, that's just new sales, we'll still have gas cars around for quite a while. zero emission, new sales by 2035. Is, is quite progressive. And I would say it's not the most aggressive policy, there are a few countries ahead of us, like Norway has, you know, a mandate for 2025. And there are a number of European countries that have set 2030. But 2035 is definitely in the pack, I would say in terms of of leadership in the top, you know, 10 or 15 countries. What we really need to do though, is make this a law. You know, right now, we just have a sort of a vague commitment to it and until it's legislated, it really doesn't have a lot of meaning.   Rebecca Schwartz  09:42 What are some of the main barriers to zero emission vehicle adoption?   Cara Clairman  09:47 Okay, well, there's lots of barriers still remaining, although we're making lots of good progress. We did a survey about four years ago, and I think the results probably would hold true today as well. While asking people about about what was preventing them from choosing an electric vehicle, and actually the number one barrier was price, which surprised us, we expected people to say range or lack of public infrastructure or something like that. But three to one, they actually said, they thought EVs were too expensive. And so we know that the upfront sticker price is is a problem for people, it is still a bit more expensive than the equivalent gas car. What people don't really know is that the total cost of ownership of an EV, even at today's prices is less. But it's always a challenge to help people understand you're going to pay more now and save later. And we have to help people see the advantage of doing that. So I would say you know, cost and then also education because you have to help people understand that total cost of ownership over time. And actually, to help consumers on that specific point, we've, we've put a really great new tool on our website called Find your EV match, which really helps you see the total cost of ownership for for electric vehicles income, and you can even compare an EV to your existing gas car that you currently drive and see your monthly savings. And so this is a really, really important point. I would also say, of course, you know, we do need more infrastructure, and they're still in some range hesitancy concern, but I really believe that the range issue is going away as an issue as the battery technology improves. And of course, as public infrastructure improves.   Dan Seguin  11:40 Okay, Cara. How is your organization working to build consumer awareness and education to help remove consumer concerns around EVs?   Cara Clairman  11:50 Well, I mean, Dan, this is what we're doing every single day. You know, we've built our whole program around helping the consumer get over their concerns. And so we're quite accustomed to every single concern and question people have. And basically we do it in a couple of ways. We have our EV Discovery Center in Toronto, which is you know, a bricks and mortar facility, people can come learn all about EVs, no pressure to buy anything, and test drive the latest make some models. And we have found through our research that test drive is key to helping people get over their concerns. And that's been a bit of a challenge during COVID, although we are back to doing test drive. And then secondly, we have our mobile EV Discovery Center or our meet, which we take to smaller cities and towns all over to sort of bring the EV Discovery Center concept to them. And so that's a great opportunity for people to learn again, and a no pressure environment is fun. And then we have our roadshow, which you know, where we go out to even farther afield locations for a day or two days to give people that chance where they may not have any, for example, and EV dealers in their community. So we're really trying to reach everyone. And so that so those are the main things that we do. And I would just add the the other program that we have that we find is really helping consumers is our used TV program, which has a rebate attached to it and we're doing this online through webinars, but it's to help people understand who who had that idea. Oh, you know, I love TV, but I think it's just too expensive for me to help them understand that use these are a great opportunity affordable and available and in the webinar we run through a you know sort of everything you need to know to choose the used EV that's right for you. And then Plug'n Drive is offering $1,000 rebate to anyone who lives in Ontario. If you buy a used EV.   Dan Seguin  13:53 Wondering if you can tell us about Plug'n Drive's Electric Vehicle Discovery Center and what goes on there?   Cara Clairman  13:59 So the Discovery Center is as I said, at bricks and mortar facilities, a sort of imagined Science Center meets cars showroom, you want to see some photos of it, you could just check it out on plugndrive.ca. And the great thing there is it's you know, interactive fun, like I said, like a science center. People come just for fun to learn. And of course, we aren't selling cars. So people don't have that pressure that they feel they sometimes have when they go to a dealership. And then we have all the makes and models sitting right there for people to test drive. And that test drive is so key to helping someone get over their concerns. Because a lot of the times people have a preconceived notion about what an EV might be like, and they don't realize like how fun it is to drive and that these are really fantastic vehicles with great pickup. And it kinda just reminds people of the quality and the fun. And then we can run through with them how much money they're going to save and the emission reductions and our stats tell the story about 35% of the people after visiting the center, within six months have bought an electric car.   Rebecca Schwartz  15:07 How can Canadian businesses support the transition to electric vehicles? And how can they acquire access to the proper funding?   Cara Clairman  15:14 Yeah, we've started doing a lot of work with businesses. And what we find is, you know, number one, what they can do is look at workplace charging, we know that the home is the number one place, people want to charge about 80% of us plug in our cars at home at night, take advantage of low time of use prices. It's where it's convenient, all those reasons. But the second place people want to charge is that work. And actually, studies at UC California have shown that if someone sees a charger at work, and then talks to a colleague who has an EV at work, they're six times more likely to adopt an electric car. So one of the great things that a business can do is put in some workplace charging, and then also do some education around using that charging and help their employees get on board. And some businesses are even offering an incentive to their employees to consider an EV, especially companies that are looking at their own GHG reduction targets. And transportation might be one of the main emitters of their of their organization. So they can use those chargers for their own fleet. They can electrify their own fleet that way, and they can help their employees. So those are a couple of ways. Businesses can help support the transition. And then you've asked about access to funding there, there is some funding through enter can the program is called ZEVIP Zed E VIP where businesses can apply to get some funding for workplace type charging systems.   Dan Seguin  16:51 It would seem that municipalities across Canada have a large part to play to support the government's mandate and to make charging stations more accessible. In your experience. Has this been the case? What's your view on the role municipalities play in the electrification of transit?   Cara Clairman  17:09 Yeah, municipalities do have an important role to play. And I think they are starting to recognize it more and more. So for example, one role that municipalities are playing and it's proving really important is in terms of standards for multi unit buildings. So for example, a municipality can require a certain green standard for condos or multi unit buildings being built in their in their territory, and that will ensure that the you know, rough in is there for the plugs in future and that new buildings will get built with you know, with the ability or sort of EV ready to help their citizens because let's face it, especially in the Greater Toronto Area, a lot of people live in multi unit. And we need to make it possible for these people to plug in. There's other roles they can play, for example, we're seeing a lot of municipalities set up you know, their own EV policies for their, you know, for public parking, for example, street parking for for different, making certain municipal lots available for charging, there's there's lots of ways that municipalities can help. And there are, you know, through the associations, there's sharing, I know of EV policies across municipalities that don't have to reinvent the wheel.   Rebecca Schwartz  18:32 All right, Cara, can you talk to us about Canada's electric highway? Can we actually drive our EVs coast to coast?   Cara Clairman  18:40 Yes, you can. It's still not that easy, I have to say. But the thing I always want to remind is that this is not a trip that many people are doing. You know, maybe some of us have done it once in our life, or, you know, it's the thing that happens very rarely. So it's not as critical. It's more of again, it's a nice to do. It's sort of a psychological thing. People think, oh, it's great if you can, it's still a challenge, but doable and getting easier. You know, it's something that I would say, no, it's not a trip I'm ever going to do and I mean, I drive my car just more locally. So I wouldn't want people to hesitate getting an EV because this isn't the easiest trip to make.   Dan Seguin  19:28 It seems that national sales of EVs are closing in on 4%. What are your recommendations to accelerate the deployment of electric vehicles in Canada?   Cara Clairman  19:38 Well, there's just a whole bunch of things we need to do. So for example, right now in British Columbia, we're hovering around 10% of new sales, Quebec, close to 8%. Ontario, we're down at 2%. And so you can see that the variability in the different policies are leading to very different results. And so there's a couple of things, we need to make some consistency across Canada because what happens when you have certain provinces with really aggressive policies and certain policies, provinces without it, the vehicle supply goes to those provinces with the more aggressive policies. And then it's really hard for people, for example, in Ontario, to get vehicles, and so that ZEV mandate, or ZEV standard that the federal government is talking about is really important for making, you know, some more consistency across the whole country. So I'm very supportive of that. I'd also like to see some consistent building codes across the country, it seems ridiculous that in 2021, where we still have condos and apartment buildings being built with no potential for EV charging in the future, and it's so much more expensive to do a retrofit than to do it when you're building a building. So the building codes need to be updated, to make sure that the buildings are required to at least rough in for evey charging in the future. So that's another really, really important one. And then, you know, we, you know, I'd like to say that the time of needing incentives is over, it isn't over. We still do need incentives for the next couple of years. I think we're going to hit price parity in a few years time, and then we won't need them anymore. But but for now, I think we do. And because the environmental benefit is so large, I think it makes sense that governments continue to support it.   Dan Seguin  21:32 What about charging stations, is charging infrastructure rolling out at the pace to support the transition to 100%, zero emission vehicle sales by 2035.   Cara Clairman  21:44 Well, we do still have more work to do in the area of public charging, but again, I'm one of those people who doesn't think this is as critical to the rollout as some other things. You know, as an EV, driver, and Dan, you said, you're also an EV driver, we are charging at home, most of us are charging at home. And we are very occasionally using public charging. I only use public charging a few times a year. And I think I'm pretty typical on a road trip or work trip. And so you do need more infrastructure, we can't have single chargers out there. You know, we need to multiply those we need them to be in strategic locations. We need them to be in places where you can grab a bite to eat and use facilities and all that. So there's work to do, but I am not of the view that this is a primary barrier to evey adoption. Really, the infrastructure you need is at home and it's ready right now.   Rebecca Schwartz  22:44 Cara, can you tell us a bit about the sentiment among automotive manufacturers? Are they embracing the transition to EVs at all?   Cara Clairman  22:51 Well, we're certainly I mean, you really can't turn on your news or open your your apps, which is how most of us probably get our news these days without seeing a new announcements. So we certainly are seeing the commitment to EVs. In the future, where there's a bit of a struggle, I would say it's sort of right now. Right now in Canada supply is extremely low. It's quite difficult to get vehicles, all the manufacturers are ramping up. But that doesn't happen overnight. And so, you know, we need to do a bit more to get the vehicles in here right now. The exciting thing is, you know, here in Ontario, we're going to be making EVs in the next couple of years. And so the supply challenge will get fixed. And and then we're going to see, I think, you know, just massive changes, but for now the next year to two years, we definitely have a struggle to to bring in the vehicles. And we have to show to the automakers that Canada is a good place for evey adoption, because of course they send the vehicles where they think the best opportunity is to sell them.   Dan Seguin  23:55 Cara, just wondering what should consumers know about zero emissions vehicles today? How has technology evolved over the past few years? And are there funding opportunities for consumers looking to purchase one?   Cara Clairman  24:09 Well, of course, I want people to know that EVs are a fantastic option right now, what I hear from a lot of consumers, which which is helpful, is you know, yes EVs are the future, I'm sure that we're all going to be driving EVs. But what I think a lot of people don't realize is that they're totally ready for primetime right now. Fantastic quality, good range, everything you really need is already there. And of course, the fun and the super great pickup and all those things too. And so I think, you know, people shouldn't hesitate, that that when they're ready for a new car, this should be good. In terms of funding opportunities. I would say, you know, of course the federal government still has its $5,000 rebate available. And as we you know, in the election, we basically got the same government and they have committed to continue that. So we know that will continue. Some provinces have a provincial incentive that layers on top of that, unfortunately, we don't have that in Ontario right now, which is makes us a little bit of a laggard. Compared to other provinces, there are now six provinces with rebates, which makes it hard for Ontario to attract vehicle. So when people go looking for a vehicle, they're challenged to find one. What I would tell consumers that are looking for one and don't want to have to get on a waiting list is to look at the US market. There's a lot of great options in the US market right now. And of course, as I said, Plug'n Drive has $1,000 incentive to buy a used EV, and an extra $1,000 If you scrap an old gas car and buy a used EV so that's a great option. If you can't find the new vehicle that you're looking for.   Rebecca Schwartz  25:54 In your view, Cara, what does the future of Canada look like when it comes to zero emission vehicles?   Cara Clairman  26:00 Well, I think I think pretty much everyone has realized even the most Die Hard sort of auto analyst who really really hesitated on EVs. In terms of their reporting. I think even they have realized like this is coming, there's no stopping it. It's, it's the question mark is like how fast and I think groups like mine and other other EV sort of advocacy type groups are really it's all about how can we get this transition to happen faster, because if you agree that climate change is a crisis, we really can't wait for sort of a slow market transition, we need to do everything we can to speed it up. So that includes incentives, that includes building codes, that includes ZEV mandate policies, that includes all sorts of local initiatives to try to encourage people to speed it up. But I do feel very optimistic that you know, we are going to see a huge swing in the direction of EVs even by 2030.   Dan Seguin  27:03 Okay, Cara, how about we close off with some rapid fire questions?   Cara Clairman  27:08 Okay, skip the skip the favorite word. I really didn't have one.   Dan Seguin  27:12 What is the one thing you can't live without?   Cara Clairman  27:16 Coffee!   Dan Seguin  27:17 What is something that challenges you?   Cara Clairman  27:19 Something that challenges me? Well, I mean, I guess the reality is in a nonprofit setting, you're always you're always having to raise money. And so that's always a challenge for anybody in the NGO sector. That's that's probably our biggest challenge.   Dan Seguin  27:35 If you could have one superpower, what would it be?   Cara Clairman  27:40 Well, I think I would love the teleportation oh my gosh, you know, I love EVs. But let's face it, there's still cars. And, you know, they still contribute to gridlock and traffic and all that. And it would just be so awesome to be able to just teleport to some other location.   Dan Seguin  27:58 Now, Cara, if you could turn back time and talk to your 18 year old self? What would you tell her?   Cara Clairman  28:05 I would tell her to do more public speaking. Who knew I would end up doing so much public speaking in my career, I really didn't get started in that till I was much older. And I feel like it's a useful skill for any job just to feel confident talking in front of other people, whether that's five people or 500 people. So I would definitely say get yourself in front of an audience and practice public speaking.   Dan Seguin  28:32 And lastly, what do you currently find most interesting in your sector?   Cara Clairman  28:38 Oh, my gosh, my sector is so fascinating. You know, it's funny because I come from the electricity sector as you do. And I think there's a lot of people with this idea. That's kind of an old, stodgy, boring sector. And so I find it so exciting that there's so many opportunities for innovation. And it's not just EV, it's storage, and renewables and there's just there's just so much of interest happening in the electricity sector. I hope young people are really looking at it for future career options.   Rebecca Schwartz  29:09 All right, Cara. We've reached the end of another episode of The thinkenergy podcast. Thanks so much for joining us today. We hope you had fun.   Cara Clairman  29:16 I did. Thank you so much for having me.   Dan Seguin  29:18 Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the thinkenergy podcast. And don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review wherever you're listening. And to find out more about today's guests, or previous episodes, visit thinkenergypodcast.com. I hope you'll join us again next time as we spark even more conversations about the energy of tomorrow.

Interoperability holds the key to the future of the healthcare system. In short, the possibility for a device to speak to and with a larger system, moreover it refers to smaller healthcare systems talking to each other – for example: how are your general practitioner speaking with your dentist who speaks with your chiropractor. Interoperability is absolutely key when talking about the healthcare sector of the future, we're talking about current barriers of interoperability, data privacy, and how to improve public and private collaboration. Enjoy!---- The Sustainable Healthcare Podcast is a podcast hosted and sponsored by Green Innovation Group, a Danish consulting firm with one mission: Reaching drawdown and making the world more sustainable through innovation, rethinking the status quo, and action. This video series is our take on how to make the biggest impact and it is a great way to get everyone on board the green wave. We wish to make our knowledge accessible to everyone who wishes to put green innovation on the agenda. Download our latest research report: https://www.greeninnovationgroup.com/#Downloads Follow us on LinkedIn to stay updated: https://www.linkedin.com/company/greeninnovationgroup/ Connect and discuss innovation with us: Frederik: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frederikvandeurs/ Joachim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joachim-espeland-almdal-017a6973/ web: https://greeninnovationgroup.com

Scientists create innovation. Is this because they are paid to do it, or because they care about the outcome? Tim Besley tells Tim Phillips how motivated science drives down the cost of innovation and may accelerate the green transition.

In the final episode of our fourth season, I was delighted to co-create a conversation filled with pragmatism, hope and energy for tackling the major problems that exist in our world today. I was introduced to James McGregor by our very first BWL guest, Paul Dunn, on the basis of our shared passion and believe in systemic transformation.James has been involved in the commercialisation of sustainable innovation and technologies for over 15 years and has a wealth of knowledge on how to identify the crux of a systemic problem, converge stakeholders to address the issue and how to align novel approaches to commercial outcomes.In this conversation we map much of the terrain of James' life which will be familiar to regular listeners – what called him to doing this kind of work (after an early career in the military), how systemic work begins with individuals and organisations figuring out what's most important, and what particular capabilities they can bring to apply to creating a better world. This approach led James into the unanticipated chair of TV show producer, an unintended role which was, as James puts it, simply the right solution to the right problem.James and I look forward to hearing from you via the links below if there's anything you would like to discuss or share in response to this conversation.Here's a review of the key messages from this episode;Purpose- Get really clear on why you're doing what you're doing & what's important to your organisation- People think visions are enough. It's not.- I could see all the problems in the world, but didn't see the ideas that can help solve them getting out into the world- Being afraid isn't a bad thing. Fear has a job to do. It's job is to tell you to bring courage to the tableProblems- Look to solve problems at scale - e.g. how do we transform a region to a net zero economy?- Businesses are well placed to be the change-agents that fix these problems- We didn't set out to create a TV show - it ended up as the right solution to the right problem- Build into the storyline is a lot of social science about how you communicate sustainability so it resonates with consumersSustainable business- Doing good can be good for business- People look at sustainability as a cost item instead of a value creator across the business- Sustainability can be a revenue generator, increase profit by reducing operating costs, reduce risk making you more resilient to changes in the business environment & add assets to your balance sheet- Focus on how sustainability can solve problems for key stakeholders within your ecosystem- The sustainability outcome is a consequence of solving the right problem in your business or marketplace- Discovery process: 1 - understand your why, 2 - map ecosystem of business, 3 - gain stakeholder buy-inFollow James via the links below;http://www.bluetribe.co/https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesmcgregor73/Watch the TV show James produces – Renovate or Rebuild hereOnline courses on developing and growing sustainable businesses (new courses coming soon) https://bluetribe.thinkific.com/Follow Tim and join the Better World Leaders community via the links below:linkedin.com/in/timcollingslinkedin.com/company/better-world-leadersinstagram.com/timcollingslifedownsouthtimcollings-betterworldleaders.medium.comLink to article reflecting on this episode on Medium here -youtube @timcollings – click here for channelEpisode Pages for this episode and all previous Better World Leaders conversations available here;4ileadership.com/category/better-world-leadersAs always, great thanks and appreciation to the team who contributed to bringing Better World Leaders to you;To Brendan Ward for mastering, final production, composition and performance of original music throughout each episode.To Cooper, Pat and the team at RadioHub studios for audio editing, technical support and creative guidance during the episodes that are recorded face-to-face. You can find out about Radio Hub's services here - https://www.radiohub.com.au/To NokNok Studios for website design, hosting and advice. Find out about NokNok's awesome services here - https://www.facebook.com/NOKNOKstudios/To Cirasa Design for logo and site graphics – Find our about Cirasa's inspiring work hereThis is the Better World Leaders, brought to you by 4iLeadership

［ゲスト］坂野晶さん（一般社団法人ゼロ・ウェイスト・ジャパン代表理事、一般社団法人Green innovation共同代表） ［パーソナリティ］相馬素美（IDEAS FOR GOOD編集部） 第35回のゲストは、廃棄物削減の政策提言や次世代イノベーターの育成など、サステナビリティの分野で幅広く活躍されている坂野晶さんです！ 最近、家庭で出るプラスチック廃棄物に関する修士論文を提出されたという坂野さん。前半は、その地道な実態調査の裏話や、そこから見えてきた意外な事実について教えていただきました。数十家庭に協力してもらって集めたプラスチックごみや、お買い物の記録から見えてきたこととは…？「意識の高さは意外と関係ない」「オプションが増えれば廃棄物は削減できる」など、新たな発見が満載です。 そして後半では、2021年10月に開校し、今まさに進行中のグリーンイノベーターを育てるプログラム「Green Innovator Academy」について語っていただきました。脱炭素社会を実現するために必要なのは、イノベーションを起こすこと。でも、一体どうやって？Green innovationが、”世代縦断、分野横断”のプログラムを作るワケとは？プログラムの詳細からイノベーションに必要なマインドセットまで、熱く語っていただきました。 「2050年、自分たちがどんな社会で暮らしたいかまず考えてみる」「私たちの生活を起点に、自分ごととして考える」「世代や分野を超えて、仲間になっていくことが大事」「こうしたいと思うなら、その変化自体に自分がなる」──など、これからの社会を切り開くためのキーワードが盛りだくさんの27分です！ --------------------------------------------------------- ゲストプロフィール：坂野晶（さかの・あきら）さん 日本初の「ゼロ・ウェイスト宣言」を行った徳島県上勝町のNPO法人ゼロ・ウェイストアカデミーに理事長として参画し、地域の廃棄物削減や国内外のゼロ・ウェイスト普及に貢献。2019年世界経済フォーラム年次総会（通称ダボス会議）では共同議長を務め、2020年より一般社団法人ゼロ・ウェイスト・ジャパン代表理事として、循環型社会のモデル形成や展開に取り組む。2021年からは一般社団法人Green innovation理事として、次世代イノベーターの育成も行う。2022年2月現在、京都大学大学院 地球環境学舎 修士課程に在籍し、廃棄物に関する研究を行う。 [Twitter] Akira Sakano / 坂野晶 【関連記事】Z世代と考える、原子力発電と日本のエネルギー問題【Green Innovator Academy 福島原発フィールドワークレポート】 【関連動画】Z世代が訪れる福島第一原発と帰還困難区域のイマ。彼らが描く未来とは？ 【関連記事】プラスチック資源循環促進法、何が変わる？わかりやすく解説 【関連サイト】一般社団法人ゼロ・ウェイスト・ジャパン 【関連サイト】一般社団法人Green innovation

Speakers: Ashley Esarey, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Alberta Joanna Lewis, Distinguished Associate Professor of Energy and Environment and Director of the Science, Technology and International Affairs Program (STIA),Georgetown University Mary Alice Haddad, John E. Andrus Professor of Government, Chair and Professor of East Asian Studies, and Professor of Environmental Studies, Wesleyan University Stevan Harrell, Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology and School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington Moderator: Ling Zhang, Boston College Ashley Esarey is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta. He received his PhD in Political Science from Columbia University and was An Wang Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University. His research concerns political communication in China, elite politics, renewable energy policy, and Taiwanese politics. He was co-author (with Lu Hsiu-lien) of My Fight for a New Taiwan: One Woman's Journey from Prison to Power. His co-edited books include Taiwan in Dynamic Transition: Nation Building and Democratization and Greening East Asia: The Rise of the Eco-Developmental State, both published by the University of Washington Press in 2020. Joanna Lewis is Provost's Distinguished Associate Professor of Energy and Environment and Director of the Science, Technology and International Affairs Program (STIA) at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. Her research examines political and technical determinants of energy and climate policy, particularly in China. She is the author of the award-winning book Green Innovation in China, and was a Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Fifth Assessment Report. Mary Alice Haddad is the John E. Andrus Professor of Government, Chair and Professor of East Asian Studies, and Professor of Environmental Studies at Wesleyan University. A Fulbright and Harvard Academy scholar, she is the author of Effective Advocacy: Lessons from East Asia's Environmentalists (MIT press, forthcoming 2021), Building Democracy in Japan (Cambridge, 2012) and Politics and Volunteering in Japan (Cambridge, 2007), and she co-edits the new Elements in Politics and Society in East Asia series from Cambridge University Press. Her current work concerns environmental politics in East Asia, as well as how urban diplomacy is connecting and transforming policy around the world. Stevan Harrell retired in 2017 from the Department of Anthropology and the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences at the University of Washington. A special issue of Human Ecology on Social-Ecological System Resilience in China, co-edited with Denise M. Glover and Jack Patrick Hayes, will appear in February. He is writing an ecological history of modern China, provisionally entitled either Intensification and its Discontents or The Great Un-Buffering. He also edits the University of Washington Press series, Studies on Ethnic Groups in China. This event is part of the Environment in Asia public lecture series at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University, organized by Professor Ling Zhang.

Following last week's conversations on climate change we wanted to talk about the real, tangible ways that we can create this better, greener future through public initiatives. The race to 2030 is on - and the finish line is closer than we might think! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Keith Howard, Marketing Director NEDRA; Don Garlits, Big Daddy; Steve Huff, Huff Motorsports, First to 200Mph on Electric. Hosted by Jeff Hammond from SiriusXM ch 90, Late Shift. Presented by ARP, Inc.

In this special episode we are joined by Bodhi, Eve and Lilly from the Green Innovation Awards team who have a very special announcement for the entire Pottsville Community.

In the latest episode of the On The Edge podcast I had a great conversation with Hege Barnes who finally answered the question - what’s the best thing since sliced bread? Hege is Director at Innovation Norway, a government entity for building trade and industries of the future. She is based in New York and building the industries of the future between Norway, USA, Canada, and Brazil. She sits on the board of Nordic Innovation House-New York and the Norwegian American Chamber of Commerce. Also she spearheaded the hugely successful global marketing campaign for Disney’s Frozen, doubling the awareness and visitor growth for Norway from the American market. I connected with her recently and was interested to speak with her bilateral innovation and explore which is the greenest innovation nation? We talked about what the US can learn from Norway in terms of innovation and vice versa. We also explore how to design the transition towards a net-zero future. Lastly, we explore the need for collaboration as a small and ambitious country in an increasingly connected world. So I started out by asking her, how are the US and Norway different when it comes to innovation? Enjoy. https://www.linkedin.com/in/hegevbarnes/ https://www.innovasjonnorge.no/en/ This podcast is brought to you by Liminal - the collective intelligence community. IT's produced with the support of all of our patrons, clients, and members so many thanks to all of you for your support. To find out more please visit https://www.weareliminal.co/ Lastly, please do like, rate, comment and/or subscribe to the podcast, and share it with others who might enjoy it as well.  Until next time, please keep on connecting people and ideas. If you do, you never know what might happen. Thank you.

Sustainable Living Podcast găzduieşte în format audio evenimentele platformei de educaţie ecologică Guerrilla Verde. De ce antreprenoriatul şi acţiunile de mediu merg mână în mână, ce înseamnă energie sustenabilă, dar şi cum se reflectă green innovation în procesul de gestionare a deşeurilor – acestea sunt subiectele de discuţie alături de Frauke Muth, Director Program, Business Programmes Bulgaria and Romania, EEA and Norway Grants Inger E. Strand Karni, Director Program, Energy Programme Romania, EEA and Norway Grants Cristian Pocol, Preşedinte Asociaţia RespoDEEE

Enterprise Ireland marked St. Patrick’s Day this year with an international Green Innovation campaign and over 50 virtual events across the world. The campaign will outline how Irish companies will prioritise sustainability and innovations that help tackle environmental challenges. Kevin Ryan, Director for ASEAN at Enterprise Ireland shares which sectors are looking to tap into and create opportunities here in Asia. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Norrbotten in Sweden is blessed with natural resources but more recently has been turning heads because of its growing roster of innovative start-ups. We bear witness to the region's effort to change heavy industries into clean businesses.

Norrbotten in Sweden is blessed with natural resources but more recently has been turning heads because of its growing roster of innovative start-ups. We bear witness to the region's effort to change heavy industries into clean businesses.

Norrbotten in Sweden is blessed with natural resources but more recently has been turning heads because of its growing roster of innovative start-ups. We bear witness to the region's effort to change heavy industries into clean businesses.

Norrbotten in Sweden is blessed with natural resources but more recently has been turning heads because of its growing roster of innovative start-ups. We bear witness to the region's effort to change heavy industries into clean businesses.

We’ve all heard of the new electric vehicles that Tesla and other manufacturers are producing, but when you look at electric vehicles from a broader fleet perspective, the possibilities for reducing carbon emissions long-term are exciting! The Smart Energy Decisions team believes this issue of fleet and public transportation conversion to be a key component in moving the energy transition forward, so this conversation was especially interesting to us.   Our guests on this episode are Catherine Kummer, Climate Advisor for the American Cities Climate Challenge to the City of Charlotte, NC, and Michael Luhrs, Vice President of Market Strategy and Solutions for Duke Energy. Speaking from their unique positions, each of them provides a wonderful perspective on the issues driving the move toward fleet and public transportation electrification, how it’s being accomplished on the ground, how the issue impacts corporations, and what role utilities like Duke are playing in making the transition possible. It’s exciting to hear what’s happening and what is projected to happen in the years to come. Don’t miss this enlightening and encouraging conversation.   You will want to hear this episode if you are interested in...   Catherine Kummer’s background in renewable energy and transportation [1:44] Michael Luhrs’ work with clean energy and energy efficiency at Duke Energy [2:39] What is driving interest in electric vehicle pilot programs in cities? [3:42] The key drivers of corporate initiatives to create electrified fleets [11:06] Why utilities are embracing the move toward electrification of vehicles [13:47] Reasons cities and businesses believe electrification of vehicles is essential [17:57] Why the total cost of ownership makes the Electric Vehicle (EV) transition a total win [22:28] The role utilities need to play in the EV transition [33:21] Barriers to making the EV switch and how to overcome them [43:55] Looking 3 to 5 years into the future when it comes to vehicle electrification [49:50]   Charlotte, NC is leading the charge in electrifying its fleets   When asked what is fueling the drive behind the electrification of municipality fleets and public transportation, Catherine says that, quite honestly, it’s the cities themselves. As the Climate Advisor for the City of Charlotte, NC she has a front-row seat to the initiatives that the City Hall and City Council are taking in this important step toward the smart energy transition.    The city of Charlotte has implemented an aggressive public education campaign surrounding its clean energy goals, which include community outreach and engagement via many platforms. The city has also put into place two new policies that support electrification goals. These come directly from their Strategic Energy Action plan and aim to entirely electrify the city's fleet by 2030. Currently, as part of that plan, they are working toward the addition of 27 electric vehicles to their light-duty fleet, at an investment of over $740,000, which would make 42 total electric vehicles for the city. The city is also ensuring that the charging infrastructure required is part of that expansion. It’s cities like Charlotte that are leading the way nationwide.   Corporate & utility drivers toward electrification of vehicles   When it comes to why corporations are moving toward the electrification of their vehicles, Michael puts it best when he says it's about sustainability and efficiency — or being clean and cost-effective. Duke Energy has recognized that its constituents are taking on the mantle of the renewable energy transition. With that, corporations are adapting to provide the value to their customers that they want and need. A significant benefit can also be derived from the cost savings involved when implementing electric vehicles. Maintenance, fuel expenditures, noise and emissions pollution, and more go into these savings.    Utilities see the fundamental shift occurring globally in the form of mandates from many cities around the globe that ban emission-producing vehicles by specific dates. Utility companies like Duke can look across the value chain to both produce and deliver the resources needed. The initial load increase for utilities will only be 2% to 4% in most cases, but long term, that demand will grow. The ability to put the infrastructure needed in place is the strength of the value proposition utilities provide.    The total cost of ownership enables the cost of EVs to make sense   Much of the debate about the cost of electrifying municipal or corporate fleets and public transportation has to do with the initial outlay of cash required to get started. While it is a significant upfront investment, that should not be allowed to be the deciding factor. Why? Simply put, it’s an extremely short-sighted approach.   Both Catherine and Michael speak persuasively about the long-term benefits that come from fleet electrification in terms of cost reduction, emissions reduction, and other infrequently considered benefits. Because of this issue, Catherine has developed her own “Total Cost of Ownership” calculations to show exactly how and when cost reductions will occur in the implementation of the Charlotte plan so that all stakeholders can see the black and white of the issue and make informed decisions that benefit the big picture.     Connect With Our Guests   Catherine Kummer - Climate Advisor American Cities Climate Challenge    Catherine Kummer serves as a Climate Advisor for the City of Charlotte as part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies American Cities Climate Challenge—and in partnership with NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council)—which works to accelerate climate action in 25 cities throughout the United States. Catherine joined the Climate Challenge advising the City of Charlotte after spending the last eight years as the Senior Director of Green Innovation for the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing, NASCAR.  A native of Raeford, North Carolina, Catherine holds a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an M.A. in Sustainability from Wake Forest University and Executive Education for Sustainability Leadership from Harvard University.   Follow Catherine Kummer on LinkedIn   Michael Luhrs - VP Market Strategy & Solutions   Michael Luhrs serves as Vice President of Market Strategy and Solutions for Duke Energy. In this role, he is responsible for bringing integrated solutions across the digital and physical energy infrastructure to provide unique value and solutions nationally. Michael’s strong focus on innovation, transformation and growth of customer solutions has proven successful with improving and accelerating departments through disciplined innovation, strategy alignment, revenue growth, regulatory adaptation and driving cost efficiencies.   The teams aligned under Michael’s purview are: Home & Business Services, Market Strategy, Connected Communities, Solutions Development, Solutions Partner, Transportation Electrification, and Portfolio Structuring. Collectively, the Market Strategy and Solution team generate approximately $500M in EBIT each year. The functions of these departments lead the evolution of the business from strategy to solutions development to execution across all customer segments. They cover a broad range of solutions from demand response, non-regulated products (such as behind the meter energy protection and insurance/risk mitigation services), digital infrastructure services, small cell and macro wireless, outdoor lighting, and electrification of transportation. Michael offers more than 20 years of experience in the energy industry. Known for his excellence in business strategy and operations, Michael is a creative thinker and problem solver. He has a knack for developing client-centered solutions and generating a positive impact to the bottom line.   Before assuming his current position, Michael served as General Manager of Business Excellence for Duke Energy. Prior to the merger with Progress Energy in 2012, Michael served as General Manager of Energy Supply Finance for Progress Energy. He has held several other leadership roles including Resource Planning Manager, Audit Manager, as well as roles in Generation Operations. Born in Colorado, Michael holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering, as well as Bachelor of Arts degrees in both Management Finance and Economics, from North Carolina State University. He was also distinguished with Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa honors.   Follow Michael Luhrs on LinkedIn   Connect With Smart Energy Decisions   https://www.smartenergydecisions.com/ Follow them on Facebook Follow them on Twitter Follow them on LinkedIn

In the fourth episode of our series on science, policy and a green recovery, our host Dr Rob Doubleday is joined by University of Cambridge political scientist Dr Cristina Peñasco and Columbia University's Adjunct Professor International and Public Affairs Christian Deseglise, who is also HSBC's Head of Sustainable Finance. They discuss topics including financing sustainable infrastructure, how covid-19 has changed the sustainable finance sector, the role of international institutions and global cooperation in getting to net zero, investment in green R&D, and the role of local government procurement in a green transition. This series is produced in partnership with Cambridge Zero. -- CSaP: The Science & Policy Podcast is hosted by CSaP Executive Director Dr Rob Doubleday, and is edited and produced by CSaP Communications Coordinator Kate McNeil. If you have questions you would like us to address in a future week, please email enquiries@csap.cam.ac.uk. Music and sound effects used in this season of CSaP: The Science & Policy Podcast are courtesy of FreeSound.org. This episode features sound effects from PannChie and smacks999.

On this special episode of the Experts Only podcast, CleanCapital CEO Thomas Byrne hosts a conversation at the 2019 NYSERDA Green Innovation Showcase (New York City, 11/6/19). Our guest is John Santoleri, partner and board member at Clean Energy Venture Group and Innovation Advisor for the NYSERDA Investor Advisory Board. Hear John's insights on the state of cleantech investing and why NYSERDA is “the largest cleantech investor you never heard of”.

This week, we’re bringing you more of the City of Edmonton Change for Climate Talks. On October 3rd, Terra Informers Elizabeth Dowdell and Sonak Patel attended that event. On this episode, we bring you talks by Shannon LeBlanc talking about the sharing economy, Andrew Bell talking about the adoption of electric vehicles, and Connie Stacy talking about green innovation.

This year's theme was "Less Carbon, Less Waste‧Green Innovation". The expo features the Green Transportation zone to showcase the latest green transportation products and solutions. The expo’s Startup zone is showcasing inspiring products and technologies from start-ups to global buyers, showcasing Hong Kong’s creative force.

This week’s episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the NY Green Innovation Showcase, hosted by New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). Jon Powers sits down with Alicia Barton, President and CEO of NYSERDA, to talk about New York’s current and future roadmap in the energy transition. This conversation features insights from Alicia on the state of clean energy technology, storage and innovation; the US and global energy systems transition and market growth; and the role of companies, regulators, investors, governments, and utilities in building a clean energy economy. Alicia brings a wealth of experience and knowledge on the industry to share with you. Experts Only is made possible by CleanCapital. Find more episodes: http://www.cleancapital.com/expert-only Follow on Twitter: @CleanCapital_ The NY Green Innovation Showcase attracted leading cleantech investors and strategic partners from around the globe to help drive deal flows and help improve the environment for co-investment and syndication. For those who don’t know NYSERDA, they are leading the way in the US energy transition and setting the standard for many other states to follow. NYSERDA, promotes energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources. Since 1975, NYSERDA has worked with stakeholders throughout New York including residents, business owners, developers, community leaders, local government officials, university researchers, utility representatives, investors, and entrepreneurs to develop, invest, and foster the conditions that expand the state’s clean energy economy. Learn more about NYSERDA: https://www.nyserda.ny.gov/About

As Senior Director of Green Innovation at NASCAR, Catherine directs development, adoption, and implementation of sustainability strategies across the number one spectator sport in the United States.  She integrates ESG initiatives across the industry with a program that in just under a decade has grown into one of the most visible sustainability programs in all of sports. Working with partners from the business sector, government and non-profit organizations, she also develops and coordinates programs with NASCAR sponsors and industry that advance sustainability objectives including food donation, recycling, clean water protection and the offsetting of carbon emissions for all of NASCAR's national series racing, employee air travel and quarterly partner summits. The Green Innovation platform provides both societal and business value, but also operates as a brand enhancing business. Catherine Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: Sustainability in professional sports NASCAR's commitment to GHG, energy and waste reduction Advice and recommendations for sustainability leaders Catherine's Final Five Question Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? ​I would say be bold. That's commonly said, but I think it's important in sustainability. Be passionate, but be aware. And what I mean by being aware is ensure that you know who you're speaking to when you're speaking to them. Know your audience. When you're going in to pitch these ideas, know what drives them, what's going to result in them making an operational change or a culture change or whatever that may be. Just make sure that you're aware and you're humble in that approach. That is huge. I would also say that keeping the big picture in mind, always, has proven to be really helpful for me and taking one bite at a time. Do that well. Take that one bite. Make sure that you are crushing that one bite. Own it. Do your best to not spread yourself too thin because there's so much to be done, but identify where you can make the most impact and do it. ​What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? ​Materials innovation, biomimicry, that all interests me a tremendously. More specifically though, how it can be advanced through sport. I'm excited to see how that rolls out. I'm excited to see how sport can be the catalyst for these new innovations, for these new technologies or these new mindsets, quite frankly. The opportunity to use sport to drive all of it. I think it's fascinating and I really feel like we're on the cusp of something so tremendous. The leagues are beginning to rally together. I worked directly with Omar Mitchell at the NHL and with Paul Hamlin at MLB, and those programs, they are doing amazing work as well. Coming together to look at how we can drive this impact, and we're so much more powerful if we all row in the same direction. I am probably most excited about how those relationships will continue to develop over time and what that will mean from an impact standpoint across the board when we look at these issues, whether it be social issues or environmental issues, economic issues, whatever that may be. That's really compelling and that's what gets me excited when I walk into this office everyday. What is one book you would recommend sustainability leaders read? I've thought about that one and actually spent probably more time than I should have looking at my bookcase. You can take it back to Silent Spring to know the foundation of why we're here. I think that is really, really important. Natural Capitalism, Hunter Lovins, and Amory's Reinventing Fire. I mean those are staples as well, but I gotta be honest. I find myself being more of a podcast person these days. So Greenbiz 350, How I Built This, not necessarily a sustainability podcast, but one that I just think from a business perspective is crazy inspiring for me. And then the Rachel Hollis podcast is one that I also listened to. As a female in the sports world, I think it's super important to continue to push yourself and inspire yourself and to surround yourself by other individuals like minded females specifically that are also doing the same thing. So yeah, this is probably the hardest question that you've asked me. I just have so many thoughts on things that folks should read and dive into. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in the work that you do? I've been fortunate to have a network of individuals that are just crazy knowledgeable in this space. I mentioned Allen Hershkowitz who has been a mentor for me for quite some time now. Joel Makower and the Greenbiz Executive Network, we are members of that organization. The Green Sports Alliance is doing tremendous work. Sport and Sustainability International is just kind of the global version of the Green Sports Alliance. Again, the networks that you have and learning from others that are also doing and have done this work for years and years and years. I find those to be the most valuable resources out there, and just taking the opportunity to stop and to listen and to learn and to be willing to take criticism and advice and suggestions, and raising your hand when you don't know because those networks are there to lift you up. That's been just a really amazing tool for me personally. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the work that you're leading at NASCAR? ​So my LinkedIn page has a plethora of different information on the program and work that I personally am doing outside of the organization that kind of tie back to overall sustainability efforts. You could also check out a NASCAR.comgreen, which is the website for all things NASCAR green. And then follow us on the Twitter at NASCAR Green or feel free to give me a follow up at Catherine Kummer. I definitely do my best and fore warn you that you'll probably get pictures of my kids too.

The countdown to Christmas has begun, and this week edie brings you a cracker of a podcast episode, featuring exclusive interviews with car sharing service Zipcar, advisory firm the Carbon Trust and green innovation group Climate-KIC.

Devan Bennion, a student at Brigham Young University, started an innovative company called Invoroment, that may have created a way to biodegrade plastic in a couple of years, rather than 500 - 1000 years.

This week's Hype To Habit is all about bringing everyone up to speed on space-age technology:LA & NASA: Radical Collaboration for Green InnovationBio-Plastics as the New Fool's GoldArctic Ice Almost ExtinctFor more about Hype To Habit, go to http://causecast.org/hypetohabit

This week's Hype To Habit is all about bringing everyone up to speed on space-age technology:LA & NASA: Radical Collaboration for Green InnovationBio-Plastics as the New Fool's GoldArctic Ice Almost ExtinctFor more about Hype To Habit, go to http://causecast.org/hypetohabit

By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues Last week, I sat down with Pulitzer Prize winner, Tom Friedman, just before he delivered a lecture to an expectant Foothill College Celebrity Forum audience at the Flint Center in Silicon Valley.  We discussed his bestselling book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded and why he thinks it’s imperative that the U.S. […]

By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues   Judy Estrin is an influential tech entrepreneur, CEO of JLabs, and author of Closing the Innovation Gap. I caught up with her at SD Forum’s 12th annual Visionary Awards in Atherton, where she was one of four recipients. We talked about whether clean energy solutions can save the planet; […]

There is a great deal of innovation in the areas of green enterprise and clean technology in Oxford and the greater Oxford-London-Cambridge region, presenting an infrastructural advantage supported by world-class universities and businesses. The Oxford Business and Environment Network, with the support of Saïd Business School, the Institute for Science, Innovation and Society, the Oxford Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, is organising the 2009 Conference: "Beyond Kyoto - Green Innovation and Enterprise for the 21st Century". The aim of the conference is to highlight the broader issues and opportunities for green innovation and technology, and to support the development of a supportive local ecosystem for entrepreneurship in this area. This opening address was delivered by Michael Liebreich, Chairman and CEO, New Energy Finance.

Andrew Winston, founder of Winston Eco-Strategies and coauthor of "Green to Gold."