Carbon is everywhere, not just in the air around us, but also in the materials we use everyday. We talk a lot about reducing the overall amount of carbon in the atmosphere through approaches like avoided emissions or removal. But, what do we do in a world where GHG avoidance and removals are not at the scale required to tackle all of the emissions …

One in ten American families own a Recreational Vehicle, and yet, the RV industry hasn’t seen meaningful innovation in decades, due in part to extreme consolidation and lack of competition. Despite this, 300-500,000 RVs are sold in the US every year, 90% of which are towable. Towing an RV can seriously affect the fuel economy of your car. Drivers c…

Even if all emissions stopped tomorrow, the excess carbon currently in the atmosphere would take thousands of years to naturally dissipate through processes like photosynthesis, oceanic absorption, or mineralization. In addition to forests, soils, and the ocean, naturally occurring minerals are one of our planet’s most important carbon sinks. Over …

According to the World Economic Forum, if we want to reach a carbon-neutral future, the world will depend on emerging markets to build energy systems that rely on clean energy instead of fossil fuels. However, only one fifth of global clean energy investments are being channeled into emerging markets. Financing the development of distributed renewa…

Residential energy use accounts for about 20% of greenhouse emissions in the U.S., making it one of the most important sectors to decarbonize. As the world electrifies and consumers become more climate-conscious, energy will become one of the next consumer engagement frontiers. The WattBuy platform connects clean energy providers with residential c…

Some experts are calling 2024 the “make or break year” for the voluntary and compliance carbon markets, which were rocked by a shaky 2023. To usher in a new era of effective and impactful carbon markets, the verification process needs a major tech update, and a serious credibility boost. Marion Verles founded SustainCERT to be the first fully digit…

On November 17th, 2023 the average global temperature was temporarily 2 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrialization, an event with ominous climate implications. To slow global climate change, we need to find ways to supercharge natural carbon removal processes like ocean alkalization, and do it in a way that is good for the planet. That’s exa…

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we need to return Earth’s atmosphere to 280 parts per million of CO2 for the health of human existence and that of the planet. To achieve that goal, industry experts believe we’ll need to be removing 10-20 billion tons of carbon per year by 2050. Removing carbon is exactly what this month’…

According to researchers around the world, fusion could be a nearly waste-free, carbon-free, and all-geography answer to creating enough dispatchable power to get us through the energy transition. To achieve this, all components of a fusion power plant need to be built so that when fusion energy becomes a reality, we have the industry, infrastructu…

Climate change-fuelled natural disasters and vulnerable transmission infrastructure have defined some of the worst natural disasters of the past decade, including the 2020 wildfires in California. It’s clearer than ever that in high-risk areas, above-ground transmission lines need to be dug underground to protect communities from fires and to ensur…

From induction cooktops and heat pumps to the rooftop solar needed to power it all and the batteries to store excess energy for use during blackouts, we’ve had incredible success building the tools we need to decarbonize our homes. But to the regular consumer, the universe of electrified solutions can be overwhelming. What we need is a home battery…

If the world is going to make the switch from fossil fuels to clean energy, we’re going to need lots of energy storage, and a lot of lithium. The global transition to clean energy is expected to trigger a 40-fold increase in the demand for lithium by 2040. Lithium is in high demand, but current methods for lithium extraction make it difficult and e…

As we speak, there are 600 million people in Africa who lack access to even basic electricity. That’s driven in part by low levels of domestic and foreign investment into electricity infrastructure across the continent: over the last decade, just 3% of capital invested into energy infrastructure worldwide went to Africa. To enable universal energy …

Concrete is the second most-used material in the world, right behind water. It’s everywhere – in our bridges, our buildings, our homes, our roads. It’s the literal foundation for much of our lives. And cement is a key ingredient in that foundation. It acts as the glue that binds together the water and aggregate to make concrete. Globally, we produc…

The U.S. is on track to deploy 550 gigawatts of new renewables on the grid by 2030. That's a massive amount of solar, wind, and other renewables powering buildings, EVs, appliances, and industrial processes in our increasingly electrified world. Last year electric vehicles (EVs) hit a massive milestone by making up 5% of all new car sales in the U.…

Forests make up a third of all land on Earth, and they're one of our major defenses against a warming world. 45% of the carbon stored in land exists in forests. Today, our forests are struggling to adapt to human activity and a rapidly changing climate. Deforestation and wildfires continue to ravage habitats like the Amazon. In the U.S.destructive …

Industrial processes are one of the hardest sectors of the economy to decarbonize. Fossil fuels have been the go-to way of powering the facilities that make paper, plastics, food, beverages, and chemicals. Slashing greenhouse gas emissions from industry means changing the way companies produce their raw materials. The problem: sometimes the hardest…

Large swaths of the global economy are very hard to decarbonize with renewables and batteries alone. Steel, cement, aviation – these industries are run on the high heat and explosive force of burning fossil fuels. Together, these activities make up the industrial basement of society; the often overlooked and essential sectors of the economy that ca…

Over the last decade, solar growth has exploded. Just last year, the U.S. added a record 13 gigawatts of utility-scale solar to the grid. And despite supply chain disruptions and inflation, the average solar panel cost still dropped by 11%. New solar plants are now cheaper to build than new gas or coal-fired power plants. But according to the Depar…

To deploy enough solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles, and lithium-ion batteries needed to decarbonize the grid, we'll need more of the critical minerals that make these technologies possible. Growing demand for clean technology means an even bigger need for lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper, manganese, and other minerals. Right now the wor…

The energy we use in our homes remains one of the largest sources of emissions in the country. About 20 percent of our energy-related GHG emissions comes from the fossil fuels used to power gas furnaces, stoves, water heaters, and AC units. With the U.S. predicted to add more than 62 million new homes by 2050, getting fossil fuels out of our houses…

Earlier this year, solar reached a historic milestone: 1 terawatt of capacity around the world. One trillion watts is a huge achievement. But solar still only makes up 3 percent of the world's electricity. To deploy dozens of terrawatts in the coming years, we'll need to do something about the bottlenecks holding back the planning, design, and cons…

Our homes account for 20 percent of America’s greenhouse gas emissions. The fastest way to cut those emissions is to electrify the systems that heat, cool, and power our homes with heat pumps, solar, batteries, and EVs. These technologies are the pillars of residential electrification. But, as more and more homeowners seek to electrify, they’re dis…

Heavy industries like manufacturing, food processing, mining, and construction require a staggering amount of energy, often in the form of heat. But until recently, there hasn’t been a good way to generate that amount of heat using electricity. As a result, we burn fossil fuels to make these essential materials and products. About a quarter of gree…

Tens of millions of delivery vans and semi trucks move around the clock to keep supply chains humming. These medium- and heavy-duty vehicles make up more than 25 percent of transportation emissions in the US — even though they only make up 10 percent of all vehicles on the road. We need to electrify medium and heavy-duty vehicles to meet our climat…

Normally, we’d be bringing you an episode featuring an entrepreneur who’s making our climate-positive future a reality. But behind every founder with a big idea are scientists, engineers and policymakers working hard to turn those big ideas into reality. And right now, a lot of them are tackling one of the biggest contributors to the climate crisis…

With 93 Fortune 500 companies committing to net-zero targets, and with the SEC preparing to require public companies to disclose climate risks, corporations are beginning to think deeply about how to track and manage their emissions. That’s why Watershed Co-Founder and CEO Taylor Francis and his team built a platform to simplify the process — and h…

We’re running a contest! Through April 19, each review on Apple podcasts or share on social media (using #WattItTakes) will enter you to win a limited-edition Watt It Takes crewneck — and enable more people to hear inspiring stories about entrepreneurs making our climate-positive future a reality. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions quickly, we need…

We’re running a contest! Through March 15th, each review on Apple podcasts or share on social media (using #WattItTakes) will enter you to win a limited-edition Watt It Takes crewneck — and enable more people to hear inspiring stories about entrepreneurs making our climate-positive future a reality. Heavy industry is one of the hardest parts of the…

There are 46,000 public EV charging stations across the United States. But with 32% of charging stations down at any given time, maintaining them is a big challenge for the industry. Minimizing charger downtime isn’t easy – differences in manufacturers, network providers, and utilities can mean wide variation in hardware or software between station…

Electrifying cars and trucks is an essential part of decarbonizing mobility. But there's another vital piece in the race to zero-emissions transportation: public transit. Transit tech is emerging as one of the most exciting areas in the climate space. It's made up of companies using technology to get people out of their cars and onto shared vehicle…

Starting in the 1960s, the United States became a world leader in building large-scale geothermal power plants. That changed in the mid-2000s with the fracking boom. Drillers turned their attention to oil and gas. And as wind, solar and batteries got cheaper, bankers and developers put their money into those resources. Today, geothermal development…

There are a lot of nuances to the way people perceive our warming planet. But media coverage of the issue is often catastrophic, scientifically dense, or framed exclusively around politics. So how do we talk about climate in a way that resonates across diverse groups of people? That's what our guest, Alex Blumberg, kept asking himself. Alex is an a…

The United States recently surpassed 100 gigawatts of installed solar capacity, enough to power nearly 20 million homes. But to decarbonize the power grid by 2035 and meet growing demand, the Department of Energy estimates that we'll need 1,000 gigawatts of solar capacity, providing 40% of the nation's electricity in just 15 years. That means, on a…

Ninety percent of Americans want to see more renewable energy on the grid. But two-thirds of them can't directly access wind and solar — because they don't own their rooftop, can't afford the upfront cost, or can't get it from their monopoly utility. That’s where our guest, Arcadia Founder & CEO Kiran Bhatraju, comes in. “We started Arcadia to give…

When it comes to climate tech companies, there's only one name that's known around the world: Tesla. Tesla has arguably been the defining climate tech success story of the 21st century, driving demand for electric vehicles and becoming one of the world's most valuable companies. When people think of the person behind Tesla, they think of Elon Musk.…

There's a race going on to build the next generation of energy storage technologies using gravity, chemicals, or heat to store clean electricity for long periods of time. And that's where our guest, Ramya Swaminathan, comes in. Ramya is the CEO of a company called Malta. Malta is building an electro-chemical battery that converts renewable electric…

Over the past four years, we’ve interviewed 40 incredible founders and CEOs on Watt It Takes. Our guests have inspired emerging and established leaders across the industry. And each one of these conversations has helped Emily on her own founder journey. With that in mind, in this episode of Watt It Takes, we’re turning the mic around to tell Emily’…

Andy Karsner is a highly influential entrepreneur, investor, diplomat, and strategist working to transform the world’s energy systems. In June, he was voted onto ExxonMobil’s board by activist shareholders as a way to hold the oil giant accountable on climate change. Back in the 90s, Andy was developing large gas and diesel power plants. But then h…

Africa is becoming a dynamic market for clean, distributed energy. All across the continent, solar, batteries, generators, and microgrids are giving people energy cheaply — and providing greater reliability in a region where many central grids remain unreliable. But that dynamism can come at a cost. Systems are often complex. They lack standards. A…

Power plants are massive, complicated pieces of machinery. Gears. Pipes. Boilers. Generators. Instruments. But a new kind of model is taking shape: one that combines smartphones, software, and smart devices in homes. It’s called a virtual power plant. And it’s what our guest, Matt Duesterberg, is working to build every day. Matt is the co-founder o…

This episode was originally released on November 15, 2018 In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Lynn Jurich, the co-founder and CEO of Sunrun. Sunrun was a pioneer in the early days of residential solar. Today, it’s the biggest installer of home solar systems in America -- and one of the industry’s biggest success stories. Sunrun also partners…

This episode was originally published on September 4, 2020 In this episode: Emily’s conversation with CNN host and green-jobs pioneer Van Jones. Van may be best known for “The Van Jones Show” and “The Redemption Project,” which both air on CNN. He is also the author of three best-selling books, including “The Green Collar Economy.” But long before …

This episode was originally released on January 15, 2021. In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Donnel Baird, the founder and CEO of BlocPower. BlocPower is a Brooklyn, New York startup electrifying and weatherizing buildings in underserved communities — slashing pollution and saving money. This includes housing units, churches, community cent…

This episode was originally published on August 2, 2019 In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Matt Rogers, the co-founder of Nest. Nest is best known for its elegant learning thermostat, the first major breakout hit in the smart home space. Google later acquired the company for $3.2 billion. Matt is a former Apple engineer who applied design p…

This episode was originally released on October 23, 2020. In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Steph Speirs, the CEO of Solstice. Solstice is a community-solar company with a mission to bring clean electricity to underserved communities. Steph Speirs grew up as one of three kids, a first generation immigrant, in Hawaii. She knows what poverty…

This episode was first aired on February 25, 2021. In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Stephen Lacey, the founder of Post Script Audio. Stephen has been the creative force behind many of the top podcasts about climate change and clean energy. And, he also happens to be our executive producer. He’s been making podcasts about the energy transi…

This episode was originally published on December 2, 2020. In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Cathy Zoi, the CEO of EVgo — one of the country’s largest electric vehicle charging networks. Cathy has seen it all. She’s studied and worked in oil, gas and clean energy since the Reagan Era. Now at the helm of EVgo, she’s convinced the future of …

This episode was first released on September 22, 2020. In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Michael Liebreich, the founder of Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Michael had been many things, from entry-level analyst to Olympic skier to a crestfallen dot-com entrepreneur. And then in the mid-2000s, he found his home in the clean energy economy. Une…

This episode originally aired August 16, 2021. In this episode: Emily’s conversation with Dan Yates, the co-founder and former CEO of Opower. Opower was based on a simple premise: send paper mailers to utility customers comparing their electricity use to their neighbors. And if people saw they were doing poorly, they’d make changes. It worked. Over…