Flanigan's Eco-Logic

Ted Flanigan
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Flanigan’s Eco-Logic is a sustainability and clean energy podcast hosted by Ted Flanigan, exploring practical solutions for a more sustainable future. Ted talks with leading practitioners and policy makers about solar, energy storage, microgrids, energy efficiency, electrification, energy resilience, climate action, and emerging clean energy technologies. The conversation also extends beyond energy to water, food systems, sustainable business, natural resources, and everyday choices. Grounded in decades of environmental experience, Eco-Logic brings a solutions-oriented perspective and pragmatic optimism to one essential question: What can we do today to create meaningful, lasting change?

  1. 6h ago

    Zach Woogen - The Emerging Benefits of Bi-directional EV Charging Look Promising

    Zach Woogen is the Executive Director of the Vehicle-Grid Integration Council. He is a self-described "policy and market-design nerd on a mission to equitably decarbonize energy systems." He explains Vehicle Grid Integration (VGI)... an umbrella term that covers managed and smart charging of EVs... shifting when and where charging occurs so that drivers pay less and utilities are not only least impacted, but even supported during peak power periods. Thanks to the rise of bi-directional EV charging, EVs will not only draw power from the grid, but will be able to discharge power to the homes and businesses to provide back-up power, and can discharge to the grid to support local utilities while providing drivers with a new source of income. After all, there is 40 GW of energy storage in parking lots, fleet depots, driveways, garages, and curbsides across North America. A recent California Energy Commission study finds that there is more battery capacity in California's EVs (18.5 GW) than all other forms of utility energy storage in the state (14 GW). Yes, that's the "gross technical potential," Zach explains. Cars sit idle 95% of the time. While only a fraction of that will be available to utilities as EVs' number one priority is to provide mobility to their owners, often EVs have excess capacity on board and they are rapidly growing in number. Zach explains that the promise of bidirectional charging is great.Tapping this new opportunity is not a technical challenge as much as it is a policy challenge. Ford, General Motors, Kia, Polestar,Tesla, and others all are developing the technology to unlock consumer and utility benefits. Virtually every electric bus now is equipped with the technology. Given increased electric demands due to decarbonization -- for heat pumps, air conditioning, EVs, and data centers -- many utilities are in need of additional capacity. Ted asks Zach about whether VGI might void warranties for batteries. Are concerns about additional cycling of batteries valid? This is certainly an important question. Zach notes that there is considerable research about this and that warranties are an issue. But batteries are "fickle," he explains. Some new studies suggest that light-duty cycling (8 - 11 kW) of EV batteries for VGI might actually be good for batteries' health and longevity, certainly less impactful than deep charging at rates up to 350 kW. The conversation ends with the role of the Vehicle Grid Integration Council that he leads. VGIC is a member-based trade association focused on the variety of use cases... chief among them being household resilience for EV drivers. Forums managed by VGIC explore solar and storage-paired VGI, fleet management, and the role of aggregators in this growing market. VGIC is engaged with auto makers, utilities, and their regulators... all keen in developing this new capability.

    Zach Woogen - The Emerging Benefits of Bi-directional EV Charging Look Promising

  2. Sep 14

    Jules Kortenhorst - Global Coalition at ETC Is Now Committed to Net-Zero Emissions

    Jules Kortenhorst is the co-chair of the Energy Transition Commission (ETC), a group of 50+ "wickedly smart people" dedicated to effective analysis and insights to drive down CO2 emissions and to accelerating the transition to carbon-free energy. The former chief executive officer of Rocky Mountain Institute who grew RMI from a staff of 50 to 600, Jules is passionate about the ETC's critical work to battle the rise in greenhouse gases that are threatening the planet and humanity.  The ETC has just released a report, "Energy Transition Monitor 2026," that presents good and bad news. The bad news is profoundly disturbing: Rising CO2 emissions are likely to eclipse the Conference of Parties' 2015 Paris Agreement to maintain the average, global temperature to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The good news is that there has been remarkable progress in stemming the emission of gases responsible for global warming. Ted and Jules discuss the ETC, its genesis and mission, and its new report. Jules calls its findings a paradox: One one hand the rise of renewables and clean energy technologies worldwide is far outpacing all expectations and projections. Renewables are coming on faster and cheaper than anyone had expected. Clean energy supplied 99% of new power growth last year. China has more solar installed than coal, it has more solar and wind capacity than the rest of the world combined. Solar and wind and batteries and EVs are rising worldwide... and their costs are dropping dramatically. China is producing and deploying electric trucks that no one thought could replace internal combustion engine trucks. That's the good news. The bad news, the sobering part of the paradox, is that emissions are not falling. In fact, they are at best "plateauing," and in many cases rising. Climate outcomes are "off track." A United Nations Environmental Program report, also just released in August, echoes this finding. It states that an "overshoot" is occurring, overshooting the 1.5 degree ceiling... and at best 1.8 degrees by mid century. At best, the report finds, we are on track to hit 2.6 - 2.8 degrees without policy changes. Jules is concerned about this overshoot. It will require us to work hard to bring emissions back to the 1.5 degree threshold before we can get to the critical work dropping emissions. The conversation shifts to CO2 abatement policies in tough sectors. First and foremost, notes ETC, is phasing out coal. Unlike most countries that dispatch power resources based on marginal cost pricing which favors carbon free and low cost solar and wind, China continues to burn coal due to an antiquated policy that prioritizes coal contracts, even curtailing solar and wind at times. Curtailing methane emissions must also be a focal point, as a single methane molecule is 86 times as potent as a CO2 molecule. Methane must be captured in the oil and gas industry and in coal beds that seep the toxic gas. Cows produce methane at alarming rates and we all have an opportunity to eat less meat to cut methane emissions. Stemming deforestation is key... as is its cure... reforestation. Jules notes that the best way to safely capture emissions is to plant trees. Ted wraps the episode with a question about what listeners can to. On top of it all, emphasizes Jules, is voting. We simply must get out to vote and elect officials that will take climate change and the need to reverse the rise in emissions seriously. Vote for those that share your views, that have the guts to take on vested interests. And finally, notes Jules, we all must follow what our former boss Amory Lovins, has so aptly framed as "applied hope." This is not to be naive, and simply hopeful, but to apply our smarts — new technologies and policies and programs that are cost and climate effective — to stem rising emissions, to urgently reverse rising emissions, for the benefit of all.

    Jules Kortenhorst - Global Coalition at ETC Is Now Committed to Net-Zero Emissions

  3. Sep 7

    Kevin J. Patel - Young Activists Are Taking On The World Climate Crisis

    Kevin J. Patel is a voice for young people, channeling their stories and solutions to address and turn the course on climate change. Born to parents who were climate refugees from India, Kevin took charge in his local South Central LA community, developing community gardens to address the gross inequities of food. He noted that his community had an abundance of fast food, but nothing healthy. This is racial inequality, what he calls an injustice. Food activism was his starting point. Kevin suffered from air pollution at a young age, hospitalizing him and galvanizing his commitment to take action, then tackling the injustice of the fossil fuel industry that was extracting locally, but putting nothing back into his community that is plagued with so many injustices... a lack of trees, a plethora of highways and roads, what he calls "sacrifice zones." Los Angeles Councilman Paul Koretz gave him a voice; at age 15 he was on the podium telling his story. That led to an idling ban for vehicles. In high school, he formed the world's first environmental justice club. What a trajectory. His activism drew the attention of then Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti who formed the Mayor's Youth Council for Action, the world's first. That led to Garcetti appointing him to a similar role within the C40. Kevin became the founding member of the C40's Youth Hub. Then thanks to Gary Gero, LA County's Sustainability Officer, Kevin was appointed to the County's Youth Climate Commission. He also became a member of the US EPA's Youth Advisory Council. And when Greta Thunberg came to LA to support the LA Climate Strike, Kevin hosted her and they shared inspiration for voice and change. The conversation ends with a focus on solutions. Kevin is clear. we have the solutions. Now is the time for implementation, turning our voices to action, becoming what he calls "solutionists." He says that this is not the time for despair, but instead a time of declaration. Having completed college, he has transitioned to an intergenerational model. He recently formed Earth Era Institute... to resource activism with two new funds and to convene action with concerned citizens and experts across cultures and generations.  Flanigan's Eco-Logic Podcast Episode 287, 9/7/2026 🖥️ Watch: https://ecomotion.us/flanigans-eco-logic-podcast/2026-episodes/kevin-j-patel-young-activists-are-taking-on-the-world-climate-crisis/ ★ All episodes: https://ecomotion.us/flanigans-eco-logic-podcast  © 2026 EcoMotion, Inc.

    Kevin J. Patel - Young Activists Are Taking On The World Climate Crisis

  4. Aug 31

    Octopus Makes it Easy and Affordable to Buy Clean Power

    Natasha Crowe is the Vice President for Marketing and Communications for Octopus Energy North America. She's been working for Octopus CEO and Founder, Greg Jackson, for 20 years. His vision is to make energy affordable for all, and to make it clean, helping to decarbonize the power sector and stem climate change.  Octopus was founded in the United Kingdom in 2015. Thanks to clever branding and exceptional customer service, it is now the UK's most popular power provider. And it has spread... to Germany, Spain, Italy, France, New Zealand, and the United States. The company is using "brilliant branding," from its name to bright pink logo. Customer service is another key tenet of Octopus's operations: When customers call and put on a brief hold, the top song is played for when you were 14 years old, drawing out a nostalgic sense. Unlike traditional power companies that sell kilowatt-hours, Octopus is an energy tech company that leverages the whole household. The company seeks to use energy more intelligently, selling 100% green power and managing customer loads to keep costs low while supporting grid operations. This is done through whole house electrification and making sure that every appliance -- heat pumps, solar, batteries, and even electric vehicles -- are managed for the mutual benefit of customers, the grid, and the Earth. The company sells and installs heat pumps, with no money down, financed, and payments wrapped in to the Octopus bill. A new product in the UK is the Zero Bill House where Octopus partners with builders to "kit out" the homes with electric appliances, and the homeowners are guaranteed to have no energy bills... because the homes are aggregated and become part of the company's virtual power plant model. The homes become utility assets that can be managed for utility benefit.   Power Store is another program, a zero-cost battery option. Another program in Europe is an EV charging platform so that Ev drivers have access to 90% of all charge points, removing "charge anxiety." Octopus is working to roll this out in America.. what Natasha calls "the land of the road trip!" The Octopus Fan Club developed to counter the NIMBY aspect of wind farms. In the U.K., when the wind is blowing, and you live with a vicinity, you get reduced rates, even more reduced rates when the wind is blowing harder. The idea is to make wind farms more appealing, to change mind sets about wind farms, and recognizing that going green is a luxury for many. With innovative programs and smart tariffs, Octopus is showing that green power can be more affordable. Flanigan's Eco-Logic Podcast Episode 286, 8/31/2026 🖥️ Watch: https://ecomotion.us/flanigans-eco-logic-podcast/2026-episodes/octopus-makes-it-easy-and-affordable-to-buy-clean-power/ ★ All episodes: https://ecomotion.us/flanigans-eco-logic-podcast © 2026 EcoMotion, Inc.

    Octopus Makes it Easy and Affordable to Buy Clean Power

  5. Aug 24

    Dr Tyler Evans - The Need for Better Health Equity as Climate Change Pumps Up Infectious Diseases

    Dr. Tyler Evans is a physician, academician, and author who focuses on infectious diseases and how to curb them. The conversation begins with a basic question: What is health equity? It's not equality. Instead, it is about access to health care. Dr. Evans has seen the lack of equity first hand, working in countries including Mexico and South Africa. Health equity provides the basics... care, medicine, and vaccines.  Domestically, he explains that half of the country cannot engage in effective health care. He discusses the plight of the colonias, substandard housing developments along the Texas-Mexico border, a forgotten population of two million people living on ranches without access to health care, even refrigeration. He worked with Native Americans on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming where the average lifespan is only 53 years. He worked in Harlem and the South Bronx with brown and black populations. He worked for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and served as the first Chief Medical Officer for New York City during Covid 19. In 2021 he co-founded the Wellness Equity Alliance to provide attention and resources to marginalized populations. He is based in Santa Cruz, California. Dr. Evans' academic career is impressive... beginning in earnest after earning his GED at age 17 and going to community college. He then went to University of Southern California, New York University, Columbia University, Tel Aviv University, SUNY Buffalo, and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In the late 1990s he worked in South Africa where he witnessed the ravages of HIV and the social injustice of populations without access to health care. He was influenced by Doctors without Borders... leading to his works in Nepal, Haiti, Brazil, India, and other countries. He worked in war zones. In Uganda he was the only physician for 29,000 refugees. His recent book, "Pandemics, Poverty, and Politics" presents the common threads at the root of health care inequities. These threads are like the trunk of a tree with branches manifesting different symptoms. Climate change is exacerbating the emergence of infection diseases that result from outbreaks of five types of bugs:  bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, and worms. We have to live in a balance with them. The more we impact climate, "bugs get irritated" and communicable diseases emerge. Extreme heat and warming water in building cooling systems accelerates bacterial growth, notably, Legionella, a bacteria which vaporizes in AC systems. Flooding increases contamination of agricultural products with pathogens like cyclospora. Aging water and sanitation infrastructure cause higher rates of asthma and chronic disease. While a sobering conversation indeed, Dr. Evans makes clear that he is a hard-wired optimistic. The pendulum will swing back: Inequities and poor leadership will wane. History demonstrates that civilizations will swing back in more favorable directions. We will find opportunities to work more effective with one another. And we need to: Climate change and diseases have no borders. We are all connected. Dr. Evans hopes that we come together, learn from unprecedented outbreaks to make a healthier and stronger Earth.

    Dr Tyler Evans - The Need for Better Health Equity as Climate Change Pumps Up Infectious Diseases

  6. Aug 17

    Joel Makower - Networking Opportunities and Support for Businesses in the Sustainability Sector

    Joel Makower is the CEO and Chairman of the Trellis Group, formerly Green Bizz. A nationally syndicated journalist and author of more than a dozen books, he has been a strong voice and champion of sustainability for 35 years, aggregating content and convening major conferences to spur action. Green Bizz is "the" annual conference for 2,000+ sustainability professionals, a time for them to connect, swap notes, learn, and inspire. Joel is hardly slowing down. He jokes that if he retired all he would do is write, speak, advocate green solutions, and mentor... just what he is doing now! He remains excited about Trellis's three activities: convening conferences, managing its business network, and producing media. He is excited about his podcast, "Two Steps Forward: Where Sustainability Meet Business Reality." He and Ted discuss the upcoming Green Bizz '27 conference that will be in San Diego in February of 2027.  Joel describes the Trellis Network that is made up of a cohort of more than 1,000 sustainability professionals in 160+ big businesses with a combined market cap of $19 trillion. These billion dollar plus companies value the Network and its sub-networks of "sustainability communities:"  Decarbonization, Circularity, Finance and ESG, Nature, Strategy - Americas, Strategy - Europe, Supply Chain, Sustainability Communicators, and Social Impact. Members share their expertise and learn from each other, helping to propel effective action. Members pay an annual fee of $20,000 to be part of the Network. "Yes," says Joel, there is lots to be optimistic about, but he cautions, "Let's not sugar-coat" today's realities. There has been a roll-back of aggressive decarbonization goals given the current U.S. political arena. While there is lots to celebrate... the unstoppable rise of renewable technologies and the adoption of EVs worldwide... Joel is clear that there is not enough progress at the "scale, scope, and speed needed." As such, he is a self-described pragmatic optimist. he asks, what is it going to take? And how bad do climate-related catastrophes have to get, before there is sufficient collective action? Toward the end of the conversation, Ted asks Joel if he is a musician. "Yes, I am," he noted... a piano player and singer, playing rock and roll and jazz. They discuss his oral history book on the Woodstock Festival in 1969, that Rolling Stone called the definitive history of the mega-concert that defined a generation. In addition to Trellis, Joel is the Strategic Director for Musicians Sustainability Alliance, a big-tent association whose mission is to increase the positive impacts of live music, while driving down the negative impacts. For major venues, he reports, the key sustainability issues to be addressed are fans' travel to and from the events, and food. FSA has an annual conference in Los Angeles, a webinar series, and working groups to share challenges, experiences, and successes.

    Joel Makower - Networking Opportunities and Support for Businesses in the Sustainability Sector

  7. Aug 10

    Travis Baumgardner -- Acai the Brazilian Superfood Now in a Store Near You

    Travis Baumgardner is the Co-Founder and Chief Customer Officer for Sambazon, a company that produces Acai products in Brazil and imports them to America. Acai is a fruit which grows high atop the acai palm trees in the Amazon River Delta where the palms live with the tides every day. Long a staple of the "river people's" diet, acai is loaded with antioxidants. It cuts cholesterol, lowers the risk of heart attacks, and improves brain health. Today, Sambazon is selling its acai products in Costco, Walmart, Target, Whole Foods, Sprouts, and ~30,000 supermarkets throughout the United States. Travis talks about how this all came about. He first went to Brazil with the intent to visit for three weeks. But he stayed for 12 years. He fell in love with the acai bowls that were just beginning to be served in Rio de Janeiro. Acai was clearly exploding in popularity in Brazil, and Travis quickly realized its export potential. He flew north to visit the eastern part of Brazil where acai grows in bio-diverse agroforestry, not in plantations or monocultures. So he started Sambazon with his U.S.-based colleague Ryan Black, with a commitment to sustainability and regenerative production. Travis is proud of Sambazon and how it has adhered to it sustainability principles. Its products are Fair Trade and organic. Later in the podcast he talks about the new ROC certification, Regenerative Organic Certification, and how ROC gives credits for the extent to which Sambazon honors the rainforest communities in which it harvests acai. ROC builds on the USDA's organic certification with parameters including soil health, animal welfare, and social fairness. Not only is Sambazon paying fair wages, but Sambazon is funding new schools and hospitals in the region where it sustainably harvests acai. Workers in the jungle climb trees as high as 80 feet tall to harvest "brooms" of acai berries. The fruits, which look like berries, are actually 90% seed. And making matters more complex, the fruit - like milk - has to be refrigerated within 24 hours. Today, Sambazon is harvesting 70 million pounds of acai each year, 59 million pounds of which are seeds that they now sell to local industries in the Amazon as a feedstock for boilers.  In Brazil, indigenous people have been eating acai for centuries. After softening the berries and sieving off the skin and seeds, they soak the acai, ultimately making it into an unsweetened puree that they eat as porridge or savory side dish. Ted and Travis talk about acai bowls served routinely in the United States. While acai has no sugar, for the American pallet, sweeteners are added, and bowls are often topped with fruits and granola. In addition to selling to major food retailers in the United States, Sambazon also has stores in 14 U.S. airports. Flanigan's Eco-Logic PodcastEpisode 2838/10/2026 🖥️ Full video and backstory: https://ecomotion.us/flanigans-eco-logic-podcast/2026-episodes/naturopathic-medicines-now-found-to-help-improve-poor-body-health/ ★ All episodes: https://ecomotion.us/flanigans-eco-logic-podcast

    Travis Baumgardner -- Acai the Brazilian Superfood Now in a Store Near You

  8. Aug 3

    Jay Potter -- Ecor Global's Chemical Free Building Materials are Made from Unwanted Waste

    Jay Potter is the co-founder and CEO of Ecor Global, a company focused on repurposing agricultural and urban wastes into bio-based building materials. He is a champion of the circular economy, manufacturing wastes into value. Ecor produces dense particle boards for construction, materials that are organic, without chemical binding agents, and which are fully recyclable. What's he working on this week? Simple: seeking investors. He jokes that Ecor is a classic 15-year overnight success story! To bring a new innovation to market, he explains that you have to prove every point... the technology, the product, the material, process, the timing, and then there is extensive customer testing prior to widespread acceptance. Ecor uses organic wastes, most of which are agricultural products that grow 200 times faster than trees. This gives the Ecor building product a huge advantage. Furthermore, the company uses whatever agricultural and urban wastes are local... for instance wheat and soy straw in Poland, and silicone-coated paper used in the bottling industry, where the label and glue adhere to the bottle, and the paper heretofore is waste. Using green chemistry, Ecor is taking wastes, and without a petrochemical or plant-based resin binder -- Ecor is creating sustainable building materials. Jay notes that any alternative product has to be cheaper and better than the incumbent. Possible? Yes, trees are expensive, labor and energy costs are higher for traditional particular board manufacture... as is the cost of petrochemicals required. Jay stresses the need for a broader calculus, the need to value carbon and to avoid the societal cost of carbon in manufacturing. Jay notes that his product is so green that you can eat it! Ultimately, he envisions Ecor facilities in every major metropolitan area in the world. Co-founder Robert Noble developed the first Ecor manufacturing plant in late 80s in Long Beach, California. Noble wanted to build three-dimensional materials. Jay Potter shifted the approach by making a drop-in replacement for sheathing that is routinely used in construction today. Together, they licensed the technology to the Dutch government in 2019, taking millions of tons of grass clippings from the Schipol Airport for a test facility that produced materials for ongoing airport construction. For some years they licensed the technology to manufacturers in the Netherlands, and domestically. Today there is a production plant in Serbia and Ecor is building a facility in Bakersfield. Jay's career was influenced by two men he met in an Atlanta rainstorm in 1999... Bill McDonough, the architect and author of "Cradle to Cradle" who coined the term "circular economy," and Ray Anderson of Interface. These two icons were early inspirations that caused him to study waste streams, municipal solid waste and agricultural wastes. He then built a gasification plant with pyrolysis technology. He built a high-volume electrolysis operation to create hydrogen. Then he developed a high-volume disinfectant.  But again and again, he found that the barrier to adoption of beneficial technologies was money. Seeing that the timing was right, he created Envision Solar, a novel parking lot application of solar. But simple economics stymied adoption and he knew that he needed to change the measurement of their value... not just cost per watt of solar power generated, but additional values like parking lot security, shade, advertising, branding, EV charging, and the value of renewable energy on location need to be taken into consideration. Ted notes that it must be frustrating trying to bring new products to market, despite their clear value. To this Jay responded quickly with a sparkle in his eye. "It's all about how to solve the rubik. That's what makes the game." Bringing any new product to market is about education, repetitive performance, demonstrations, and building an army of advocates. The Ecor logic drives him: Rather than exporting cash from our communities to bring in building materials from thousands of miles away, why not use materials in the neighborhood that will create healthier economics and ecosystem benefits?

    Jay Potter -- Ecor Global's Chemical Free Building Materials are Made from Unwanted Waste
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About

Flanigan’s Eco-Logic is a sustainability and clean energy podcast hosted by Ted Flanigan, exploring practical solutions for a more sustainable future. Ted talks with leading practitioners and policy makers about solar, energy storage, microgrids, energy efficiency, electrification, energy resilience, climate action, and emerging clean energy technologies. The conversation also extends beyond energy to water, food systems, sustainable business, natural resources, and everyday choices. Grounded in decades of environmental experience, Eco-Logic brings a solutions-oriented perspective and pragmatic optimism to one essential question: What can we do today to create meaningful, lasting change?

Information

  • Creator
    Ted Flanigan
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    289
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Flanigan's Eco-Logic
  • Show Website
    Flanigan's Eco-Logic