WCS Talks Unplugged

Women in Cleantech and Sustainability
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WCS Talks Unplugged is the podcast where climate leadership gets real. Produced by Women in Cleantech and Sustainability, this show features honest, human conversations with the women shaping the future of clean energy, climate innovation, sustainability, and impact-driven business. Each episode goes beyond headlines and hype to explore real stories and real solutions, from career journeys and hard-earned lessons to the technologies, policies, and community-led approaches actually driving change. We spotlight the voices of women leaders, builders, and thinkers who are tackling today’s most pressing climate challenges with courage, creativity, and purpose. WCS Talks Unplugged offers thoughtful conversations, actionable takeaways, and moments of hope in a rapidly changing world. Tune in for: Candid conversations with women climate leadersPractical insights you can apply to your work and careerStories of innovation, resilience, and community impactA values-driven lens on the clean economy and equitable transition WCS Talks Unplugged — Real Stories. Real Solutions. For the Mind and the Planet.

  1. 4d ago

    One Mile at a Time: Savitha Sridharan’s Journey to Expand Clean Energy Opportunity

    What if creating meaningful change looks less like a sprint and more like an ultramarathon? Savitha Sridharan began her career designing computer chips, but eventually found herself asking a bigger question: How could technology be used not only to solve technical problems, but also to improve people’s lives? That question led her to found Orora Global, a clean-energy social enterprise working with rural communities in India. What began with distributing solar lanterns to communities without reliable electricity evolved after a devastating flood washed away homes and much of the organization’s early impact. Savitha and her partners responded by helping residents build more flood-resilient, solar-powered homes. In this episode, host Marieke McArthur, Founder of AeroZona, speaks with Savitha about the pivots that transformed Orora Global, the relationship between clean energy and economic opportunity, and the lessons she has carried from ultramarathon running into more than a decade of social entrepreneurship. About Savitha Sridharan Savitha Sridharan is the Founder and CEO of Orora Global. An electrical and computer engineer by training, she spent a decade in the semiconductor industry before applying her technical expertise to clean energy and social impact. In addition to leading Orora Global, she works in corporate sustainability across sectors including data centers, AI infrastructure, semiconductors, and retail. About the Host and Producer Marieke McArthur brings a background in local community radio and a passion for storytelling rooted in community impact. Her work spans water advocacy, food resilience, and women’s climate leadership through projects including the Water Alliance of La Paz County, AeroZona, and Women in Cleantech and Sustainability. About WCS Talks Unplugged WCS Talks Unplugged is a podcast from Women in Cleantech and Sustainability, a global community advancing women’s leadership in climate and clean energy. Each episode brings you real stories and real solutions from the innovators, founders, policymakers, and leaders shaping the future of the clean economy. If you enjoyed this episode: ✔ Subscribe to WCS Talks Unplugged ✔ Leave a review to help more people discover the show ✔ Share this episode with someone working in climate, technology, or sustainability Learn more about Women in Cleantech and Sustainability at: womencleantechsustainability.org

    One Mile at a Time: Savitha Sridharan’s Journey to Expand Clean Energy Opportunity

  2. Aug 26

    Turning the Tide: Kristi Shaw’s Mission to Transform Toxic Seaweed into Solutions

    Massive influxes of sargassum are washing ashore across the Caribbean and beyond, creating far more than an unsightly nuisance. As the seaweed decomposes, it releases toxic gases that threaten human health, damage infrastructure, disrupt tourism, and place additional pressure on island communities. In this episode, host Marieke McArthur speaks with Kristi Shaw, founder and CEO of Mermaid Energy, about her mission to intercept sargassum before it reaches shore and transform it into renewable fuel and other valuable products. Kristi shares how her background in biological oceanography, environmental epidemiology, public health, and renewable natural gas prepared her to recognize both the urgency of the problem and the opportunity hidden within it. Kristi also takes us inside her transition from scientist to entrepreneur, where clearly defined hypotheses gave way to risk, uncertainty, and the need to pivot. She reflects candidly on the emotional highs and lows of building a company, the importance of staying connected to your purpose, and why even the biggest wins require space to recover. About Kristi Shaw Kristi Shaw is the founder and CEO of Mermaid Energy. Drawing on her experience in biological oceanography, environmental epidemiology, public health, and renewable natural gas development, she is working to turn harmful sargassum influxes into scalable solutions that support healthier, more resilient island communities. About the Host and Producer Marieke McArthur brings a background in local community radio and a passion for storytelling rooted in community impact. Her work spans water advocacy, food resilience, and women’s climate leadership through projects including the Water Alliance of La Paz County, AeroZona, and Women in Cleantech and Sustainability. About WCS Talks Unplugged WCS Talks Unplugged is a podcast from Women in Cleantech and Sustainability, a global community advancing women’s leadership in climate and clean energy. Each episode brings you real stories and real solutions from the innovators, founders, policymakers, and leaders shaping the future of the clean economy. If you enjoyed this episode: ✔ Subscribe to WCS Talks Unplugged ✔ Leave a review to help more people discover the show ✔ Share this episode with someone working in climate, technology, or sustainability Learn more about Women in Cleantech and Sustainability at: womencleantechsustainability.org

    Turning the Tide: Kristi Shaw’s Mission to Transform Toxic Seaweed into Solutions

  3. Aug 19

    Change the Container, Change the System: Alison Cove’s Reuse Revolution

    What if changing the takeout container could help change the entire system around it? In this episode of WCS Talks Unplugged, host Trish Pinella speaks with Alison Cove, Founder and CEO of USEFULL, about building a technology-enabled, plastic-free alternative to disposable takeout packaging. The idea began when Alison found herself ordering takeout throughout her workday while the resulting waste accumulated around her desk. She created her first pitch deck in 2013, tested the concept with 200 reusable coffee cups in 2018, and entered 2020 with an app, ten participating Boston cafés, and her first employee. Then COVID pulled the rug out from under the business. Alison shares how she responded by leaving the café model behind and rebuilding USEFULL for college campuses, where institutions urgently needed alternatives to an explosion of disposable takeout packaging. Today, the company pairs reusable stainless-steel containers with technology that allows students to check them out using their campus cards much like borrowing a library book. The conversation also explores Alison’s conviction that the reuse industry cannot solve the plastic problem with more plastic. She discusses the environmental and health concerns driving USEFULL’s material choices, the risks of prioritizing low costs over long-term impact, and why the emerging circular economy must earn consumer trust by building better systems from the beginning. About the HostTrish Pinnella is a former board member and Marketing Chair at Women in Cleantech and Sustainability. She drives community growth and amplifies women leading climate solutions. Her climate work began in green building and renewable energy and now focuses on connecting technology, policy, community, and storytelling to accelerate climate impact. About WCS Talks UnpluggedWCS Talks Unplugged is a podcast from Women in Cleantech and Sustainability, a global community advancing women’s leadership in climate and clean energy. Each episode brings you real stories and real solutions from the innovators, founders, policymakers, and leaders shaping the future of the clean economy. Produced by Marieke McArthur for Women in Cleantech and Sustainability. Marieke brings a background in local community radio and a passion for storytelling rooted in community impact. Her work spans water advocacy, food resilience, and women’s climate leadership through projects including the Water Alliance of La Paz County, AeroZona, and Women in Cleantech and Sustainability. If you enjoyed this episode: ✔ Subscribe to WCS Talks Unplugged ✔ Leave a review to help more people discover the show ✔ Share this episode with someone working in climate, technology, or sustainability Learn more about Women in Cleantech and Sustainability at: womencleantechsustainability.org

    Change the Container, Change the System: Alison Cove’s Reuse Revolution

  4. Aug 14

    Built to Last: Juliet Shavit on Grit, Growth, and the Power to Evolve

    Building a company is one challenge. Continuing to grow, adapt, and remain relevant for more than two decades is another. In this episode of WCS Talks Unplugged, WCS Board Secretary Farah Saeed speaks with Juliet Shavit, President and CEO of SmartMark Communications, about her unexpected path into the energy industry and the persistence it has taken to build a lasting business in a rapidly changing sector. Juliet reflects on launching her company, navigating entrepreneurship alongside motherhood, and learning to trust the value of her own expertise. She shares how SmartMark has evolved with the energy industry, why successful innovation must solve real problems, and what she has learned about resilience, reinvention, and knowing when to keep going. The conversation also explores confidence, mentorship, and the importance of women creating opportunities for one another. Juliet’s journey is a candid reminder that lasting success rarely follows a straight line. It is built through grit, relationships, adaptability, and the courage to keep evolving. About the HostFarah Saeed is the Board Secretary of Women in Cleantech and Sustainability and Industry Director at Frost & Sullivan, where she works on strategy and innovation across the energy and sustainability sectors. About WCS Talks UnpluggedWCS Talks Unplugged is a podcast from Women in Cleantech and Sustainability, a global community advancing women’s leadership in climate and clean energy. Each episode brings you real stories and real solutions from the innovators, founders, policymakers, and leaders shaping the future of the clean economy. Produced by Marieke McArthur for Women in Cleantech and Sustainability. Marieke brings a background in local community radio and a passion for storytelling rooted in community impact. Her work spans water advocacy, food resilience, and women’s climate leadership through projects including the Water Alliance of La Paz County, AeroZona, and Women in Cleantech and Sustainability. If you enjoyed this episode: ✔ Subscribe to WCS Talks Unplugged ✔ Leave a review to help more people discover the show ✔ Share this episode with someone working in climate, technology, or sustainability Learn more about Women in Cleantech and Sustainability at: womencleantechsustainability.org

    Built to Last: Juliet Shavit on Grit, Growth, and the Power to Evolve

  5. Aug 5

    Growing More Than Food: Quandra Gray’s Vision for Community Resilience

    What if growing food could also grow trust, connection, and community power? In this episode of WCS Talks Unplugged, host Marieke McArthur speaks with Quandra Gray, founder of What the Sprout, about her journey from architecture to urban agriculture and her vision for a community-led food system rooted in accessibility, education, and collective action. Quandra shares how an idea she carried for years became a growing movement in Baltimore. What began with microgreens has evolved into a much broader mission: helping everyday people understand that they can play an active role in feeding their families and strengthening their neighborhoods. Their conversation explores the realities of building before you feel fully ready, earning trust within a community, and creating solutions that respond to what people actually need. Quandra also discusses her ambitious vision for neighborhood-scale food production and why resilient communities must be built with residents, not simply for them. This is a conversation about ownership, healing, confidence, and what becomes possible when people stop waiting for permission and start where they are. About Quandra GrayQuandra Gray is the founder of What the Sprout, a Baltimore-based initiative working to expand access to locally grown food while helping communities develop the knowledge, confidence, and resources to grow for themselves. Through education, food production, and community engagement, she is reimagining what a more accessible and resilient local food system can look like. You can also find Quandra on her podcast, Sow Dirty. About the Host and ProducerMarieke McArthur brings a background in local community radio and a passion for storytelling rooted in community impact. Her work spans water advocacy, food resilience, and women’s climate leadership through projects including the Water Alliance of La Paz County, AeroZona, and Women in Cleantech and Sustainability. About WCS Talks UnpluggedWCS Talks Unplugged is a podcast from Women in Cleantech and Sustainability, a global community advancing women’s leadership in climate and clean energy. Each episode brings you real stories and real solutions from the innovators, founders, policymakers, and leaders shaping the future of the clean economy. If you enjoyed this episode: ✔ Subscribe to WCS Talks Unplugged ✔ Leave a review to help more people discover the show ✔ Share this episode with someone working in climate, technology, or sustainability Learn more about Women in Cleantech and Sustainability at: womencleantechsustainability.org

    Growing More Than Food: Quandra Gray’s Vision for Community Resilience

  6. Jul 29

    From the Dorm Room to the Utility Grid: The Evardi Energy Story

    What begins as a conversation between two college friends can sometimes grow into a solution with global potential. Diva Shah and Aarya Borele met as freshmen at UC Berkeley, but the idea for Evardi Energy emerged during a study-abroad program in Portugal. After a phone call about a blackout in Kenya sparked a conversation about similar experiences in India, they realized they shared both a personal connection to unreliable electricity and a desire to help solve it. In this episode of WCS Talks Unplugged, host Farah Saeed speaks with the co-founders of Evardi Energy about their journey from college students to clean energy entrepreneurs and how they are using AI to improve the way utilities plan and manage outages. Diva Shah is the CEO and Co-Founder of Evardi Energy, where she leads company strategy, partnerships, and market deployment. Her understanding of the problem Evardi addresses is grounded in firsthand experience. While working as a grid operations analyst in Kenya Power’s operations room, she watched operators make real-time decisions under uncertainty and with incomplete data. Aarya Borele is the CTO and Co-Founder of Evardi Energy, where she leads product development and engineering. A repeat climate-tech founder, Aarya previously built Dhanaj Biofuels and EcoWind, securing industry letters of intent and recognition as a patent-award finalist. Her engineering experience includes process systems and energy infrastructure work at Weatherford and ONGC. Evardi Energy is developing AI-supported technology for planned outage management. Its platform is designed to help utilities make faster, more informed planning decisions as they maintain aging infrastructure, add new assets, and prepare for growing electricity demand. Farah Saeed is the Board Secretary of Women in Cleantech and Sustainability and Industry Director at Frost & Sullivan, where she works on strategy and innovation across the energy and sustainability sectors. WCS Talks Unplugged is a podcast from Women in Cleantech and Sustainability, a global community advancing women’s leadership in climate and clean energy. Each episode brings you real stories and real solutions from the innovators, founders, policymakers, and leaders shaping the future of the clean economy. Produced by Marieke McArthur for Women in Cleantech and Sustainability. Marieke brings a background in local community radio and a passion for storytelling rooted in community impact. Her work spans water advocacy, food resilience, and women’s climate leadership through projects including the Water Alliance of La Paz County, AeroZona, and Women in Cleantech and Sustainability. If you enjoyed this episode: ✔ Subscribe to WCS Talks Unplugged ✔ Leave a review to help more people discover the show ✔ Share this episode with someone working in climate, technology, or sustainability Learn more about Women in Cleantech and Sustainability at: womencleantechsustainability.org

    From the Dorm Room to the Utility Grid: The Evardi Energy Story

  7. Jul 25

    Power in Motion: Caroline Tiglao’s Return to Engineering

    What happens when a longtime dream leads you back to the field you once left behind? In this episode of WCS Talks Unplugged, host Sara Fuentes speaks with Caroline Tiglao, Co-Founder and CMO of NEUUF, about her unconventional path from structural engineering to global customer experience leadership and ultimately back to technology as a clean mobility founder. Caroline shares how NEUUF is developing non-invasive energy-harvesting technology designed to capture kinetic energy generated by a vehicle’s movement and return that power to its battery. Rather than asking manufacturers or drivers to completely change existing products and behaviors, NEUUF aims to work within current vehicle systems as an additional, largely invisible layer. The conversation also explores the human side of entrepreneurship: stepping outside your comfort zone, rebuilding confidence, learning to admit when you are wrong, and finding the courage to keep showing up. Caroline reflects on why leadership is not about having every answer, but about staying open to learning, sharing both failures and wins, and creating a ripple effect that helps others grow. About the HostSara Fuentes is the Chairwoman of Women in Cleantech and Sustainability and Founder and President of Smart Waste, a company helping businesses reduce waste and lower costs through smarter resource management. About WCS Talks UnpluggedWCS Talks Unplugged is a podcast from Women in Cleantech and Sustainability, a global community advancing women’s leadership in climate and clean energy. Each episode brings you real stories and real solutions from the innovators, founders, policymakers, and leaders shaping the future of the clean economy. Produced by Marieke McArthur for Women in Cleantech and Sustainability. Marieke brings a background in local community radio and a passion for storytelling rooted in community impact. Her work spans water advocacy, food resilience, and women’s climate leadership through projects including the Water Alliance of La Paz County, AeroZona, and Women in Cleantech and Sustainability. If you enjoyed this episode: ✔ Subscribe to WCS Talks Unplugged ✔ Leave a review to help more people discover the show ✔ Share this episode with someone working in climate, technology, or sustainability Learn more about Women in Cleantech and Sustainability at: womencleantechsustainability.org

    Power in Motion: Caroline Tiglao’s Return to Engineering

  8. Jul 15

    No Magic Formula: The Real Life of a Climate Tech Founder with Nili Persits and Darlene Crane

    What does it really take to build a climate tech company while raising a family, navigating fundraising, assembling a team, and learning to lead through uncertainty? In this episode of WCS Talks Unplugged, host Darlene Barrientos Crane speaks with Dr. Nili Persits, founder and CEO of Dottir Labs, about the realities behind the founder journey and why there is no magic formula for making it all work. Nili shares how she moved from a long career in defense engineering to earning her PhD in electrical engineering at MIT and launching a company that brings advanced optical sensing out of the laboratory and into real-world water monitoring. She also reflects on the support she received through the Activate Fellowship, which helped her translate a research background into the skills required to build a business. Their conversation explores the less visible parts of entrepreneurship: accepting difficult feedback, finding trusted advisors, hiring for an early-stage hard-tech company, balancing leadership with family responsibilities, and knowing when to set ego aside in service of the larger mission. Together, Nili and Darlene challenge the mythology of the brilliant solo founder. Meaningful innovation, they argue, is rarely the work of one person. It is built through collaboration, honest communication, different perspectives, and the willingness to keep stretching beyond what feels comfortable. Dr. Nili Persits is the founder and CEO of Dottir Labs, a climate technology company bringing advanced optical sensing into real-world water monitoring, including applications that can support aquaculture and more sustainable food production. Before founding Dottir Labs, Nili spent nearly 15 years working in the defense industry. She later earned her PhD in electrical engineering from MIT, where she focused on developing optical systems designed for practical deployment outside controlled laboratory environments. Nili is a former Activate Fellow, an Equalize competition winner, and a 2025 Ocean Exchange finalist. Her work reflects a commitment to translating complex science into practical tools that address environmental challenges. Darlene Barrientos Crane is the president of The CraneWorks, where she advises owners and organization leaders on growth, product development, readiness for funding, performance and scaling. WCS Talks Unplugged is a podcast from Women in Cleantech and Sustainability, a global community advancing women’s leadership in climate and clean energy. Produced by Marieke McArthur for Women in Cleantech and Sustainability. If you enjoyed this episode: ✔ Subscribe to WCS Talks Unplugged ✔ Leave a review to help more people discover the show ✔ Share this episode with someone working in climate, technology, or sustainability Learn more about Women in Cleantech and Sustainability at: womencleantechsustainability.org

    No Magic Formula: The Real Life of a Climate Tech Founder with Nili Persits and Darlene Crane
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About

WCS Talks Unplugged is the podcast where climate leadership gets real. Produced by Women in Cleantech and Sustainability, this show features honest, human conversations with the women shaping the future of clean energy, climate innovation, sustainability, and impact-driven business. Each episode goes beyond headlines and hype to explore real stories and real solutions, from career journeys and hard-earned lessons to the technologies, policies, and community-led approaches actually driving change. We spotlight the voices of women leaders, builders, and thinkers who are tackling today’s most pressing climate challenges with courage, creativity, and purpose. WCS Talks Unplugged offers thoughtful conversations, actionable takeaways, and moments of hope in a rapidly changing world. Tune in for: Candid conversations with women climate leadersPractical insights you can apply to your work and careerStories of innovation, resilience, and community impactA values-driven lens on the clean economy and equitable transition WCS Talks Unplugged — Real Stories. Real Solutions. For the Mind and the Planet.

Information

  • Creator
    Women in Cleantech and Sustainability
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    19
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Women in Cleantech and Sustainability
  • Show Website
    WCS Talks Unplugged