Watt It Takes Emily Kirsch

Toby Kraus is the Co-Founder and CEO of Lightship, an electric vehicle company looking to revolutionize the recreational vehicle space with all-electric offerings, enabling zero-emission road trips so that we can explore nature while preserving it for generations to come. Emily spoke with Toby live during Powerhouse’s SF Climate Week event to talk about his journey from growing up in Boulder, Colorado, to joining Tesla and later Proterra, to meeting his Lightship co-founder and embarking on the road trip of a lifetime, to revolutionizing the RV industry with Lightship.

Emily Kirsch sits down with Heirloom Co-Founder and CEO Shashank Samala to discuss his journey from growing up in Southeast India and experiencing the impacts of climate change firsthand, to attending high school in Maine, to founding his first startup Tempo, to finally pursuing his passion for climate by founding Heirloom, which has established the first DAC facility in the US and has sold more than 400,000 tons of forward-purchase carbon removal credits.

According to the World Economic Forum, emerging markets are the key to reaching a carbon-neutral future as most GHG emission growth will come from developing economies.. And yet, these markets only capture one fifth of clean energy investments. Emily McAteer is the Co-founder and CEO of Odyssey Energy Solutions. Their platform connects financiers, equipment providers, and project developers to accelerate the flow of capital to distributed renewable energy projects in emerging markets.

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 customers, helps consumers save money on their energy bills, and helps companies engage customers with insights and provide enhanced offerings and services.

In this episode, Emily Kirsch sits down with WattBuy Co-Founder & CEO Naman Trivedi to learn more about founding the company, WattBuy’s mission to decarbonize the grid, and building a platform that has generated 20 gigawatt hours of renewable energy for homeowners and renters, and helped them save upwards of $4M on their energy bills.

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 digital carbon project verification platform and Scope 3 emissions verification solution.

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 exactly what this month’s Watt It Takes Guest, Ben Tarbell, Co-Founder and CEO of Ebb Carbon, is doing. The team at Ebb is approaching carbon removal in a way that is both novel and as ancient as the ocean itself; integrating with existing facilities that process seawater, they use electrochemistry to remove acidity, and return the alkaline seawater to the ocean where it can then absorb more carbon.