Electric Ladies Podcast

"W hat I knew about Carbon Credits having watched them for many years is that they're not always what they seem...So, Calyx Global was founded in 2021 to help companies navigate the space, to really understand….(i)t's a promise that somebody has reduced methane in that landfill or planted some trees thousands of miles away. So that's what Calyx Global is, we're a Carbon Credit Ratings Agency. But...

" Number one reason that people get denied and they didn't read the eligibility criteria. So yeah, very, very important …If you don't have the qualifications or something for something, you partner with somebody who does and you guys go after it together.… If you don't know something, that gives you a reason to call the vendor and start that conversation and get that personal relationship with the...

" Healthcare Without Harm is more of an advocacy organization that works with clinicians and other healthcare workers to reduce the environmental impact of healthcare and pollution as well as climate impacts. And then Practice Greenhealth advises hospitals on how to get there and they do this awards process…(which is) about having people aware of all these different metrics that impact your operat...

"I've been in this industry for 40 years and we have never been at a moment like we are today. …About 10 years ago, a little bit more than that, the narrative at that time was we were closing down plants…. Now the narrative today is, Hey, you know what? Some of those plants you shut down, we've changed our mind. How hard would it be to restart that?... All of these hyperscalers (Google, Amazon, e....

" We, the people we can definitely keep the pressure on, not only on our lawmakers, our governors, our mayors, our senators, our Congress people. We have to keep reminding them that we care about these issues…There's a real key also to the future reimagining, asking companies to reimagine themselves as energy companies, not oil companies or gas companies, but energy companies. So all of these pres...

" I believe in the power of people wishing to volunteer for initiatives rather than assignment of duties and responsibilities and having people feel as though it's a chore… (They) serve as champions in their areas to educate their fellow peers on what it means to be sustainable, what they can do that's in their power to contribute to the outcomes….And then as we started to become more mature…we fo...

How Utilities Are Changing While Keeping The Lights On – Nicole Pearson & Brad Johnson of Bentley Systems   " The really great thing about electric utilities is that they maintain a singular focus almost regardless of what's going on around them. It's safety, reliability, resilience. So they'll adapt and flex…They're not going to take a risk that sacrifices safety, that sacrifices your light comin...

Using Software, AI To Reduce CO2 & Increase Resilience – Lydia Walpole & Chris Bradshaw of Bentley Systems   "F or example, if we have a concrete pile, we can change the parameters and use AI to suggest actually a more optimal design with regards to how much concrete is going to be used. So we quite often, as engineers, we are risk averse. So sometimes you can over design to make sure consequences...

" There is value in being able to articulate the qualitative value of sustainability…And yes, obviously revenues can be attached to that, but obviously just the opportunity to open up new markets more broadly and innovate…There's the risk and compliance component, which tend to be more easy to actually quantify. And then there's the brand reputation…So you can make the case qualitatively in any of...

"What is a microgrid?...There's a lot of challenges that folks are dealing with around the grid infrastructure, with weather related challenges and load growth and other elements. And so what a microgrid does is help those customers become not only consumers of energy, but also producers of energy. So we like to call that a prosumer….So a microgrid helps to create that bridge between the building...

"W e have to begin our conversations with what really matters to the person or people we're speaking with. And if we don't know what that is, we have to get to know them and build a relationship and then start the conversation where they're at…The second common misconception I see is that we have to load up our wheelbarrow with the biggest load of scary facts we can possibly find and just dump it...

"Critical minerals and materials…are essential for key economic and national security technologies that help to fuel great sectors in the United States and around the world…We're at a very interesting point in the United States for critical minerals and materials because the US Geological Survey… just released their draft version of their newly updated critical minerals list…(But) they're very dif...

"People care about the diversity because diversity makes teams stronger. And, and this is research based. And so they can say what they want, but those who know that there is strength in diversity, they'll continue on in spite of the, you know, the outcry on the other end….There's research that shows that when the lives of billions of women are improved, here's what happens. Number one, there's be...

"1% for the planet…the way it works is that we have businesses who are our members, and they're actually supporting environmental partners at the level of 1% of revenues….You invest in the things that matter and the planet matters.…(to) drive impact at scale. And so, in terms of that scale, last year we certified US$100million of support going from these companies to environmental partners….When a...

"(B)efore we're even thinking about AI, it's actually thinking about how are we using our technology effectively and is it part of our processes? Does it complicate things or does it simplify things? And the advice that I always give them is like, before you start bringing in new technology and new processes and having to train people and doing their job in a different way and adding complication...

" One of the other important things about tech humanism to me is that the three-way relationship between business humans and tech is primarily about the relationship between business objectives and human outcomes and using technological capability to amplify that alignment, as opposed to using technology to amplify only the business objective side of that relationship. So really trying to think ab...

  The World Bank reports that, "today, more than half of the world's population – over 4 billion people – lives in cities." It also estimates that this shift is going to continue, in fact to DOUBLE to nearly 70% – or 7 out of every 10 people will live in cities by 2050. That's only 25 years away. At the same time, extreme weather events are increasingly devastating cities – we have all witnesses h...

  " Your job isn't to know the answer. Your job is to ask all the right questions of where the business is going and…Don't be afraid…(Align) with people who could see the possibility of (your) experience…Take that stretch job and just remember you're in the room to ask different questions, and that's perfectly fine. So, take the stretch and then lean into your experience that allows you to have a...

"(C limate modelling)…it's being used in things like insurance companies. It's being used by companies for their ESG assessments. So, when you get your insurance premium at the end of the year, there is some kind of climate model that has said something about the risk of your house to flood. It has said something about your risk to fire. And so that might be driving up your insurance premium…And s...

" Regardless of what's happening with kind of the ESG backlash conversation here, especially in the US, our other jurisdictions are coming hard and fast on regulatory…It doesn't matter what's happening in the broader ESG backlash …The other piece is, our corporate customers that have their own set of goals and expectations have absolutely not led up on us on wanting to see us continue to progress...

"An estimated  $124tn is expected to change hands (globally) under the so-called 'great wealth transfer', with women set to inherit nearly 70% of that amount. Combined with rising educational attainment, stronger diversity and inclusion efforts, and ongoing progress in closing the gender pay gap, this moment signals a transformative rise in global female affluence… What does it mean to be wealthy...

"We were the first to lightweight our bottles. So, if you think about a typical bottle of soda, it's about 27 grams of plastic. Our bottles, this year, I think they're coming in at 6.6 grams. So it's incredibly lightweight. I always say, you know, it's a Niagara bottle if it crinkles…We've created label-less bottles so they're easier to recycle. …And, we're now running lines that are in entirely r...

" What we're seeing is, as the new carbon economy moves forward – and this is critical to businesses to operate in the future, in the next five, 10 years – it's colliding with the digital transformation and financial transformation. And so, I think one of the essential things our customers are asking is. 'how do we bring together the Chief Sustainability Officer, the CIO and the CFO and the new ma...

" Essentially what carbon accounting is doing is it's using a mathematical equation to come up with a standardized unit of measure that we call a carbon dioxide equivalent of how you can, um, measure and track all of the different greenhouse gases that your business emits through various activities. There's actually seven distinct greenhouse gases that are included…So what carbon accounting is doi...

" We did do a study where we shared the story of the careful thought that went into products that were better for people and the planet … Then we administered the standard guest satisfaction survey, and what we found, Joan, was 150% increase in satisfaction, loyalty numbers… Why?...They equated it to service. They said, a hotel that goes out of its way to choose products that are better for me and...