Episódios
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Joan Collell is CEO and co-founder of FlexiDAO. FlexiDAO is harnessing the revolution in blockchain technology to enhance transparency, a much-needed prerequisite for a successful low carbon transition. The innovation has been well received, with Collell’s fledgling company already partnered with global giants like Microsoft and Vodafone. The current system of green energy traceability relies on certificates which do not reflect the physical reality of the grid hour by hour. With the intermittency of renewable sources this is becoming a significant problem for those trying to set credible net zero targets, making FlexiDao an increasingly attractive prospect.
Join us as Joan offers a fantastically simple explanation of the technology, which effectively matches business consumption with renewable energy output statistics to determine whether supposedly ‘green’ energy can actually be termed so. There is huge scope for a scale-up of FlexiDao’s solution, with the company looking at once to cover entire value chains for the organisations it is already involved in, while also expanding its reach to new players. Like GHGSat (Episode 13), this is one of those rare single solutions that could genuinely move the needle on global decarbonisation. Watch this space!
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Georgia Stewart is CEO and co-founder of Tumelo, a revolutionary platform for shareholder engagement. In this episode, Georgia shares with us her vision of a financial system where shareholders are more connected to the companies they invest in, giving them greater control over the impact of their money. She also offers a fascinating insight into current trends and appetites within the shareholder engagement space. Tumelo has experienced rapid growth since its inception in 2018, and it is inspiring to hear about the like-minded partners that have jumped on board with the company (of which we are proud to be one!)
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As the adage goes, what gets measured gets managed. Whether or not Peter Drucker actually uttered these famous words, nowhere do they ring truer than in the realm of greenhouse gas emissions. Efforts to curb their production have regularly been hampered by a failure of measurement, particularly through initiatives in the financial sector. Indeed, our guest Stephane Germain notes that emissions are currently measured by teams of consultants travelling from site to site with expensive cameras, costing incumbents an obstructive amount. “We are bringing a unique set of data to the world at a time when they really need it.”
Happily, Germain has a solution. Climate change is riddled with moon-shot ideas, but this is one of the few that has real backing and real, expansive, potential. His idea, which combined a fascination with space and a love for the physical environment was catalysed by rapid progress in the miniaturisation of technology in the early 2000s. It turns out to be remarkably simple, to fit a small satellite with a gas spectrometer. This spectrometer detects light absorbed by greenhouse gases, thus verifying their presence. In 2011, Germaine founded GHGSat Inc on this idea, and his satellites now orbit the planet 15 times a day, funded by clients such as Shell, Chevron and Total. “The world needs to know how much methane is emitted, and needs to act on it now”
Germain’s idea has come at the perfect time. COP26 saw significant action on methane emissions and disclosure, with the UK and US two of the major countries working to implement mandatory climate related disclosure. He speaks candidly on the potential of his product, seeing potential clients from government, through industry, agriculture and power generation, to the financial services sector. Indeed he can already count many in these sectors as clients. In terms of climate change, Germain believes that methane is a low hanging fruit. Contrary to popular discourse, he argues, a large proportion of methane emissions occur in scenarios where there are well known, and often affordable, or even profitable, mitigation options. Could all this signal a step change in climate change mitigation? We see no reason why not.
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Deborah Fuhr is Managing Partner and Founder of ETFGI, the dominant independent research and consulting house offering insights on the entire global industry of ETFs, ETPs and service providers. Tune in for a fascinating insight into the history and merits of ETFs. Debbie was one of the first to see the potential of these transparent, tax efficient, liquid and fundamentally democratic financial tools. The growth in the sector over the last few years has been particularly notable, with Debbie highlighting some fascinating drivers of this trend, including the Covid-19 pandemic. Our chat ends with some inspiring insights into the role of women in the financial sector.
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Philip Berntsen is the co-founder of the Swiss company Frigg, which uses blockchain to allows investors to invest in sustainable projects at the asset level at minimal cost. Here, he talks to Gaby and Shaila about how Frigg adds liquidity to existing sustainability projects and the possibilities of cryptocurrency and sustainability.
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Maya Philipson is the co-founder and COO of San Francisco-based firm Adasina Social Capital, which aims to make systemic change through investments in public markets. Here, she talks to Gaby and Shaila about the company's ETF, Adasina Social Justice All Cap Global ETF (JSCTC) and its methodology, the firm's work with the Poor People's Campaign, and what she believes the next ten years in financial activism will look like.
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Christophe Williams is CEO and co-founder of Naked Energy. Naked Energy produce the world’s highest energy density solar powered heating technology. Heat is responsible for over half of all energy demand globally and is widely supplied by natural gas, a source whose impact has been thrust into stark relief by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Naked’s solution is, therefore, potentially revolutionary. Here, Christophe offers a fascinating insight into his experience as an entrepreneur and the wider landscape of renewable energy.
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Steve LeVine is the editor of The Electric, a newsletter focused on batteries and electric vehicles, and is the author of The Powerhouse: America, China, and the Great Battery War, Putin's Labyrinth, and The Oil and the Glory. He's also a regular contributor to the New York Times and Washington Post and joins Gaby and Shaila on this episode to talk about the likelihood of reaching a reliable battery supply chain, and how much demand he thinks there will really be for stationary and electric vehicle batteries as we head toward into the 2030s.
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Marcela Navarro is the founder and CEO of Project X, a WWF-funded corporate accelerator that helps organizations adopt sustainable innovations in their supply chains. Listen as Navarro tells Gaby and Shaila how project X works and how it plans to radically reduce the environmental impacts caused by industry by 2030.
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Climate Talk is dipping into the fashion world this episode, with Gaby and Shaila speaking to Stacey Chang, CEO of the sustainable vegan shoe brand, Veerah. Listen as Chang, who makes her sought-after collection from apple skin, describes the challenges she faced in launching her line and how she tackled them, and the increasing global demand for sustainable and cruelty-free fashion.
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After years of feeling disillusioned working in the advertising industry, Philippa White founded The International Exchange (TIE), which combines the expertise of communications professionals in the private sector with the needs of NGOs to create sustainable change. Listen as she talks to Gaby and Shaila about new projects and the remarkable family member who inspired her to start TIE.
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Megan Greene, a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a Global Chief Economist at the Kroll Institute, joins Gaby and Shaila to discuss the cost of the transition to de-carbonization and the potential possibilities and difficulties ahead for greener more sustainable economies and job growth.
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Julian Poulter, partner at Energy Transition Advisors, joins Gaby and Shaila to discuss the inevitability of the transition from fossil fuels toward cleaner and more sustainable sources of energy, and whether that transition can be an orderly one. He also discusses ETA's "Inevitable Policy Response Project," their report for the financial sector and investors modelling how policy and technology can drive the climate transition, as well as the forecast models of what they see, how they see the transition evolving and what the implications are.
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Bill Nussey founded Freeing Energy in 2016 after he learned that the cost of solar and wind-generated energy was now competitive with fossil fuels. In his new book, Freeing Energy, Nussey interviews hundreds of experts and pioneers who are disrupting the grid system to create clean, local energy for all. Listen as Bill talks to Gaby and Shaila about the massive opportunity in climate technology, especially local-scale solar and batteries, to revolutionize energy and slow global warming.
