Climate Positive

As the accelerating deployment of variable wind and solar resources pushes us ever closer to Net Zero – or the state whereby we’re not emitting any more greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere than we are simultaneously removing – we increasingly need to deploy both battery storage as well as dispatchable renewable baseload generation. But despite its ability to serve as dispatchable renewabl...

We started the Climate Positive podcast just over three years ago at HASI, seeing an opportunity to contribute our unique perspective to the climate and clean energy podcast scene. As a pure play climate investment firm, we aimed to cultivate a forum for mission-driven leaders, innovators, and changemakers to engage in conversations about the challenges and opportunities on the path to a climate-p...

For over a century, the U.S. government has provided subsidies – often in the form of tax credits – to support domestic energy production. For renewable energy sources, these tax credits have traditionally subsidized investment (i.e., a project’s capital expenditure) and production (i.e., the amount of energy produced by a project). But the Inflation Reduction Act altered these tax credits in a nu...

Barbara Humpton, President and CEO of Siemens USA, sits down with Gil Jenkins and Susan Nickey to discuss Siemens' pivotal role in advancing sustainability across industry, infrastructure, and transportation sectors. The conversation dives into Siemens' approach to decarbonization as an engine for growth and spotlights how innovation at the grid edge will be key to delivering a more sustainable fu...

Just as not every battery is created equal, neither is every renewable energy credit (REC). Even though RECs today are commodified financial products companies purchase to reduce their carbon footprint, the actual avoided emissions impact of an individual REC can vary dramatically based on the time and place it is generated. As our carbon accounting frameworks seek to become more precise and impac...

In this episode, Hilary Langer met with Dr. Antonius Gagern, the Executive Director of the Carbon to Sea Initiative, for a lively conservation about a hot topic: the promises and sensitivities of tinkering with the ocean’s chemistry to enable it to store more carbon dioxide. Initial research on ocean alkalinity enhancement supports its potential as a significant means of capturing carbon. Carbon t...

In this episode, Gil Jenkins sits down with Bill Weir, Chief Climate Correspondent at CNN, for a rich, engaging, and meaningful conversation about his new book, “Life As We Know It (Can Be): Stories of People, Climate, and Hope in a Changing World.” While reporting from every state and every continent, Bill Weir has spent decades telling the stories of unique people, places, cultures, and creature...

Steel is the world’s most used metal, and enables the construction of everything from buildings to wind turbines. Unfortunately, steel manufacturing is incredibly carbon intensive, contributing to approximately 8% of global green house gas emissions. As CEO of InventWood, Josh Cable envisions a future where the demand for steel can be satisfied with a renewable resouce: fast growing woods like Pop...

Disclosure. Disclosure. Disclosure. In early March, the SEC issued final climate-related disclosure rules for U.S. public companies. Designed to enhance standardization and in response to increasing investor demand, the new rules mandate companies disclose material climate risks they face and greenhouse gas emissions they generate as well as other material climate-related information. While not as...

In this episode, Gil Jenkins sits down with Akshat Rathi, a senior climate reporter at Bloomberg News and the host of Bloomberg Green's Zero podcast, to discuss his new book, "Climate Capitalism: Winning the Global Race to Zero Emissions and Solving the Crisis of our Age," which was released on March 12 in the U.S.  "Climate Capitalism" takes readers across five continents, tracking the unlikely h...

The Sustainable Energy in America Factbook serves as a key reference for the state of renewables in the United States. To mark the release of the 12th edition, Gil Jenkins and Hilary Langer talked to the people behind the annual report: Lisa Jacobson, President of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy and Tom Rowlands-Rees, Head of Research for North America at BloombergNEF. Despite signific...

As the energy density of batteries continues to increase even as costs keep declining, the stationary energy storage market is booming, with investment growing by over 7x over the last few years – from $5 billion in 2020 to over $35 billion in 2023 – and with battery installations tripling just last year alone.  While an influx of storage is certainly needed to integrate the vast amount of renewab...

In this week's episode, Gil Jenkins sits down with Steve Raeder, the founder and CEO of Summit Ridge Energy. As a leading player in the community solar market, Summit Ridge Energy (SRE) has made significant strides since its inception in 2017, deploying over $1.6 billion into clean energy assets. With a robust development pipeline of more than 2 GW, SRE will have more than 400 MW of solar PV onlin...

At the end of 2022, 200 countries signed the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework – what some have called the “Paris Agreement for Nature”. It calls on signatories to work together to enhance the resilience of natural ecosystems and to turn the tide on species extinction rates through the setting of national targets, the establishment of disclosure regimes and the creation of innovative...

America’s dramatic shift towards renewable energy generation in remote areas will require a substantial transmission build-out in the years ahead, potentially doubling or tripling the current grid. In other words, there is no transition without transmission. While it's crucial that we expedite the construction of large power lines at a much faster clip, there's another technology solution that dem...

In our final episode of 2023, we sit down with Dan Shugar, founder and CEO of Nextracker, Inc. (NASDAQ: NXT), a leading provider of intelligent, integrated solar tracker and software solutions used in utility-scale and distributed generation solar projects globally. With over 30 years of experience in the field, Dan has been a driving force in advancing climate tech solutions in the U.S. and aroun...

The private sector has been a critical driver of increasing clean energy on the grid. Since 2008, corporate renewable purchases have helped bring online nearly 150 GW of new renewable energy capacity globally — more than the total power-generating capacity of France. Despite these purchase commitments, overall global emissions from the power sector have remained flat at a time when we need to see...

In this week's episode, Gil speaks with Matt Rogers, the founder and CEO of Mill, a startup revolutionizing how we tackle food waste. They delve into the inspiration behind Mill, discussing how the idea came about and the parallels to Matt's previous work as the co-founder of Nest, the company behind the iconic learning thermostat and other smart home products. Matt discusses the functionality of...

According to the International Energy Agency, the world is expected to build more renewable projects in the next five years as we have in the past 20. But this rapid and massive growth in the renewable energy space has proven increasingly challenging for insurers of these assets, who are struggling to deal with mounting losses from natural disasters (which themselves are often driven by climate ch...

With the recent proliferation of sometimes conflicting standards around sustainability and impact reporting, companies across the globe are seeking trusted partners to help them determine and measure sustainability metrics that are truly material to the business and its stakeholders and also generate real value. To this end, Workiva – a global software-as-a-service company – has developed a suite...

We all depend on the cold chain to keep our foods, vaccines, and medical equipment safely chilled from production to use. This energy intensive process requires constant monitoring. As CEO of Therma, Manik Suri deploys small mobile sensors that monitor conditions to optimize energy efficiency and quality along the cold chain. His work is infused with his family’s legacy of service to others, and h...

At this point, the science is very clear. If we want to limit global warming to 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels, we must not only reduce existing emissions, we must also at some point become net negative – meaning that we are removing more carbon from the atmosphere than we are putting into it.  In this episode, Chad Reed sits down with Climeworks CFO Andreas Aepli to discuss the promise of...

In this episode, Chad Reed speaks with Calvert Impact's President and CEO, Jennifer "Jenn" Pryce, and Beth Bafford, Calvert Impact's Vice President of Syndications and Strategy. Calvert Impact is a global nonprofit investment firm that helps investors and financial professionals invest in solutions that people and the planet need. During its 28-year history, Calvert Impact has mobilized approximat...

In this week’s episode, we explore the world of cement.  Concrete is the second most consumed material on earth behind water and is essential to the infrastructure that will enable the transition to renewable energy. But producing cement, which is the material that glues concrete together, is incredibly carbon intensive. As CEO of Fortera, Dr. Ryan Gilliam looks to nature and how coral and shells...

In this week's episode, we're stepping into the world of sustainable footwear with Kirsten Blackburn, Director of The KEEN Effect — the social impact division for hybrid footwear brand KEEN. Since its founding in 2003, KEEN has evolved into a leading global footwear company renowned for innovation, originality, and a strong emphasis on sustainability.   Throughout the conversation with Gil, Kirste...