In this episode of Climate Positive, Guy Van Syckle and Gil Jenkins sit down with Caroline Spears, Executive Director of Climate Cabinet, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting clean energy and climate policy leaders at state and local levels. These often-forgotten races are sometimes decided by a couple hundred votes and can also decide the fate of billions of dollars of decarbonization investment. Caroline explains how Climate Cabinet strategically identifies target candidates through data science and political expertise, aiming to elect climate champions with the highest potential ability to shape positive change. Through real-world examples, she demonstrates the organization's effectiveness in close political races and the tangible difference their support can make.

In this episode of Climate Positive, Gil Jenkins and Kenny Gayles speak with Heikki Pöntynen, CEO of Norsepower, about how rotor sails are helping the maritime industry cut fuel use and emissions. By harnessing the Magnus effect with spinning cylinders mounted on cargo ships, Norsepower is delivering 5–25% fuel savings today—sometimes even more. Heikki discusses the company’s rapid growh, including a new factory in China to scale production, the evolving policy landscape at the IMO and EU, and why ship owners are increasingly open to wind propulsion.

In this episode of Climate Positive, hosts Guy Van Syckle and Gil Jenkins are joined by Matt Traldi, co-founder and CEO of Greenlight America, to discuss how local dynamics are driving—or delaying—clean energy progress in the United States. Drawing on Matt’s background in grassroots advocacy and his transition to targeted climate action, the conversation explores how data-driven insights, strategic engagement, and community partnerships can accelerate renewable energy deployment. Matt shares practical examples of how Greenlight America is mapping local decisions, empowering advocates, and reducing friction in the permitting process.

In this episode of Climate Positive, host Hilary Langer speaks with Aadith Moorthy, founder and CEO of Boomitra, a global soil carbon marketplace that pays farmers for adopting regenerative agriculture. Boomitra’s AI-powered platform uses satellite data to measure and verify carbon sequestration, turning healthier soil into long-term income for farmers. Aadith shares how attending a farmer’s funeral in India sparked the idea for Boomitra, how their marketplace is already increasing farm revenues, and when they expect to reach gigaton-scale carbon removal. A winner of the Earthshot Prize and a Time100 Next inductee, Aadith is helping redefine how we fight climate change—from the soil to the sky.

In this episode of Climate Positive, host Gil Jenkins sits down with Mike Berners-Lee—author, professor, and leading expert on sustainability—to explore the central message of his latest book, "A Climate of Truth." In a world spiraling deeper into climate, ecological, and social crises, Mike argues that the most powerful lever we have isn’t new technology—it’s honesty. The conversation unpacks why truth in politics, media, and business is essential to breaking the deadlock on climate action and building a livable future.

In this episode, host Gil Jenkins speaks with Marshall Cox, co-founder and CEO of Kelvin, a national leader in intelligent HVAC solutions for legacy buildings in major cities. Marshall shares the origin story of Kelvin (formerly Radiator Labs) and discusses the company’s flagship product—the Cozy—an insulated radiator cover that maximizes efficiency and eliminates waste in steam-heated buildings. He also outlines Kelvin’s growth plans and explains how New York’s Local Law 97 is accelerating the push for building efficiency and decarbonization. The conversation explores Kelvin’s hybrid electrification strategy and its broader implications for cost-effective, resource-efficient building decarbonization. Additional topics include market expansion, Kelvin’s innovative financing model, and the importance of partnerships with HVAC contractors and other key stakeholders.

The automotive industry is undergoing a major transformation, with electric vehicles poised to dominate the future of transport. But this transition requires more than just building great EVs; it demands a comprehensive approach to ensure our electric grid can reliably support the demand from millions of new EVs . In this episode of Climate Positive, host Guy Van Syckle speaks with Apoorv Bhargava, CEO of WeaveGrid, a company at the forefront of electric vehicle deployment and grid reliability. WeaveGrid helps utilities integrate EVs into our grid at scale, with a focus on elevating the EV driver experience and keeping charging affordable. Their platform also enables better charging alignment with renewable energy availability and broader decarbonization. Guy and Apoorv explore how WeaveGrid has built an AI software platform to transform EVs from a grid liability into a valuable grid asset, developing key partnerships with both automakers and utilities.

In this episode of Climate Positive, hosts Gil Jenkins and Daniela Shapiro sit down with Tom Hunt, CEO, and Bret Labadie, CFO, of Pivot Energy—a Colorado-based renewable energy provider and IPP that develops, finances, builds, owns, and manages solar and energy storage projects. As an ECP portfolio company and Certified B Corporation, Pivot Energy seeks to leverage its renewable expertise to deliver innovative solutions that help businesses and communities achieve meaningful decarbonization. Tom and Bret discuss Pivot Energy’s growth, the rapidly evolving community solar market, innovative financing strategies, and the power of corporate partnerships. They also explore the expanding role of distributed solar in the clean energy transition and what lies ahead for the industry.

In this episode of Climate Positive, hosts Gil Jenkins and Guy Van Syckle chat with Zeyneb Magavi, Executive Director of HEET, a Massachusetts-based non-profit focused on designing a strategic evolution of aging gas systems into bidirectional ambient thermal grids, with the aim of driving rapid and equitable decarbonization of heating and cooling in urban areas. The enlivening conversation centers around the networked geothermal, a novel technology gaining traction nationwide that utilizes underground thermal energy systems to provide efficient and sustainable heating and cooling. Magavi breaks down how this innovative neighborhood-scale decarbonization solution works, highlights the business case, policy drivers, the benefits for communities, utilities, workers, and more.

Growing demand requires growing supply. With more and more data centers and industrial facilities coming online, the United States will likely need 40 GW of incremental peak power generation – requiring hundreds of billions of dollars of related investment – just over the next few years. As large corporate buyers of power seek to meet their climate goals, they are increasingly looking at nuclear power as a scalable and cost-effective option. In this episode, Chad Reed chats with Brandon Oyer, Head of Americas Power and Water at Amazon Web Services (AWS). They discuss Amazon’s recent efforts to contract with existing large-scale and new small modular nuclear reactors, the benefits and risks associated with nuclear power, growing bipartisan support for nuclear development and much more.

With rising investor demand and regulatory pressure in certain jurisdictions, company disclosure of their exposure to climate risks and their environmental impact has emerged as an expectation with tangible economic benefits. Increasingly, companies can improve their access to lower-cost capital by disclosing their exposure to climate risks and opportunities. Indeed currently over 23,000 companies now report through CDP, underscoring growing investor and customer demand for environmental data. In this episode, CDP CEO Sherry Madera joins hosts Chad Reed and Al Jacobs from the biodiversity-focused COP16 in Colombia, to explore the competitive advantages climate disclosures provide companies who proactively measure and manage their environmental impact and the role CDP plays in driving better carbon accounting practices.

Critical minerals are absolutely vital for the energy transition. Without nickel, copper, lithium, cobalt and other rare earth elements, we simply cannot produce the solar modules, wind turbines, batteries and other technologies necessary to decarbonize the global economy. It’s no surprise then that demand for these critical minerals is expected to almost triple by 2030. But mining, processing and incorporating these critical minerals into manufacturing processes can itself result in far too many emissions. In addition, the concentration of related supply chains in just a few – sometimes authoritarian – countries exposes the United States in particular to unacceptable geopolitical risks. In this episode, Guy Van Syckle and Chad Reed chat with Coleman Adams, CFO of Nth Cycle – an industry leader in critical metal refining. Coleman discusses the climate and supply chain benefits of Nth Cycle’s first-of-a-kind (FOAK) Oyster facility in Fairfield, Ohio, which produces from recycled materials a critical input needed to manufacture batteries.

In this this episode of Climate Positive, hosts Gil Jenkins and Conor Fryer sit down with Tim McDonnell, Climate & Energy Editor at Semafor and the author of Semafor’s Net Zero newsletter, to delve into the current state of climate journalism, real-time energy crises, and the forces driving the energy transition. Tim reflects on how far climate reporting has come, moving past basic awareness to explore intricate, interwoven stories at the heart of sustainability and energy. They also discuss Semafor’s mission to bridge divided audiences with “common facts” and Tim’s take on the energy demands of AI, and the high-stakes landscape of climate policy ahead of the 2024 U.S. election.

In this episode, Dr. Tallamy and Hilary Langer tap into the world of caterpillars, birds, and native flora to illuminate how individuals can be agents of change and address urgent issues of species loss and ecosystem collapse. From publishing research on insects to reviving his own property that was overrun by non-native plants, Dr. Tallamy's journey has been a fascinating exploration of the intricate web of life that begins from the ground up. He offers a fresh perspective on the symbiotic relationship between native plants, insects, and the ecosystems they support, and emphasizes the urgency of education and personal responsibility to protect species in the face of a changing climate.

Over the last few years, the United States has led the world in the fight against climate change by passing some of the most impactful and largest investments in infrastructure and related regulatory reforms ever. Together, the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law seek to deploy nearly $1 trillion in climate positive infrastructure investment over the next decade. At the same time, however, the U.S. Supreme Court has issued a series of decisions that together significantly curtail the authority of executive agencies charged with implementing and defending legislation passed by Congress and signed by the President. In its most recent term, the Court issued four such decisions including Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which overturns a 40-year precedent and ensures the courts will have a commanding voice over climate policy and regulation for the foreseeable future. In this episode, Chad Reed unpacks the details and implications of Loper Bright and related Court decisions with Kevin Poloncarz, a partner with Covington & Burling and one of the top climate change attorneys in the United States.

For the world to meet its growing need for low-cost clean energy and achieve ambitious decarbonization targets, land-based onshore wind energy must be an increasingly large part of the electricity generation mix—potentially as much as 20-41% by 2050, according to BloombergNEF and the International Energy Agency (IEA). But there is a challenge: the most efficient and cost-effective wind turbines, currently applied only in offshore wind farms, have enormous blades—some longer than a football field. That makes them extremely difficult, if not impossible, to deliver and deploy, as bridges, tunnels, and road curves literally get in the way. To explore how the onshore wind industry can overcome these obstacles and drive further growth for the sector, Gil Jenkins spoke with Mark Lundstrom, Founder and CEO of Radia. Mark is a serial cross-industry entrepreneur and MIT aerospace engineer who has co-founded companies over the course of his career that seek to bring aerospace solutions to new sectors, including biotech, telecommunications, and materials science. With Radia, Mark is focused on applying these technologies to the low-carbon energy transition. Radia is in the process of building the world’s largest aircraft, which will enable the deployment of the industry's biggest and best wind turbines to locations they could never reach before—creating more clean power at a lower cost.

The maritime industry transports over 80% of goods worldwide and is essential to the deployment of climate technologies. At present, the industry contributes approximately 2 to 3% of global emissions, but this figure is projected to grow without major changes to the industry and its ancillary services. However, decarbonizing the maritime industry is unusually challenging. As the president of Marine and executive vice president at Wärtsilä, Roger Holm’s team helps power one out of every three ships worldwide. In light of new EU regulations and the International Maritime Organization’s goal of net neutral carbon emissions by 2050, Wärtsilä is now focused on solving the decarbonization riddle for clients that operate ships that can last for decades and need to be able to adapt to a wide range of infrastructure and fuels in ports. In this episode, Roger Holm chats with Hilary Langer and shares why Wärtsilä approaches maritime decarbonization at the systems level, why clients are increasingly focused on sustainability, and where he sees the greatest potential for carbon and cost savings.

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 renewable baseload, geothermal energy today accounts for less than 1% of the world's primary energy supply. In this episode, Chad Reed chats with Jeanine Vany, co-founder and executive vice president of corporate affairs at Eavor, a next generation geothermal energy company based in Calgary, Canada. Jeanine adeptly explains how Eavor’s Closed-Loop solution is different and better than traditional geothermal, discusses how Eavor plans to scale its initial projects, details the numerous environmental benefits next generation geothermal can provide and much more.

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-positive future. Our inaugural episode of Climate Positive featured our trailblazing former CEO and current Board Executive Chair, Jeff Eckel. Now, looking back on over 75 episodes since launch, we wanted to take a moment to reflect and celebrate this journey and share more about the people leading HASI today in this special episode. Join Chad, Gil, and Hilary in this insightful conversation with three of HASI's most senior leaders - CEO Jeff Lipson, CFO Marc Pangburn, and Chief Client Officer Susan Nickey.

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 number of ways: it significantly extended their life, massively expanded the technologies eligible for them and made them more easily transferable so that project developers can sell them directly to a wide array of third parties for cash. The transferability provision alone has already supercharged the growth of this market and, as a result, has helped to drive low cost capital to project developers attempting to accelerate the energy transition. In this episode, Chad Reed and Guy Van Syckle sit down with Alfred Johnson, co-founder and CEO of Crux – a new platform created for developers, tax credit buyers, banks and advisors to manage and transfer tax credits. While an inherently complex and at times eye glazing topic, Alfred dynamically details how his platform works, provides the puts and takes on recent market developments and conveys some sage advice – including lessons from U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen.