Everybody in the Pool

Home batteries are having a moment, but for years, getting one meant cobbling together a solar panel from one company, an inverter from another, a smart panel from a third, and hoping they'd all play nice. This week on Everybody in the Pool, Molly takes a field trip to Mountain View, California, to visit Lunar Energy, where founder and CEO Kunal Girotra has built the fully integrated solar-plus-battery ecosystem he always wished existed.Plus: a tour of Lunar's working showroom, where we flip a breaker, watch the app react in real time, and find out what happens when you leave the oven on during a power outage.We talk about:Why Kunal left Tesla Energy to build a fully integrated home energy ecosystemHow Lunar's modular, stackable battery blocks work (think Lego bricks for your garage wall)The real math on savings: how a solar and battery system can cut your bill by $2,000/year, and Lunar's AI adds another $500 on topHow "virtual power plants" are actually very real, and why Lunar wants to rename them "distributed power plants"Why Northeastern states are leading on VPP policy, and what utilities in other regions need to change to keep upLinks:Lunar Energy: https://www.lunarenergy.com/Sunrun (Lunar's leading VPP partner): https://www.sunrun.com/Green Mountain Power: https://greenmountainpower.com/All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Join our Discord! https://discord.gg/2EsDhwQC2zSubscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member for the ad-free version of the show (and support future field trips): https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Washington and the COP conferences get all the headlines, but some of the most creative and effective climate action in the world is emerging from city halls — and Denver's Office of Climate Action is one of the best examples of what's possible.This week, Molly zooms in on the Mile High City as she talks with Chelsea Warren, Marketing and Communications Manager for Denver’s Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency. Chelsea has spent years building one of the country's most effective city-level climate communications programs, making the case that local government is where climate action gets real.We talk about:Why local government is the frontline of climate action, and why local action matters more than everHow Denver used the rollback of federal climate policies to motivate voters to fund local climate initiatives like solar, e-bike rebates, heat pump programs, and moreUsing the science of behavioral change to effectively promote climate actionGoodwill pop-ups, ice cream collaborations, and other non-traditional ways Denver activated around a climate campaign, and delivered 128 million impressions in the processWhy financial incentives and positive social comparison beat education every time when it comes to motivating climate actionThe perception gap: most people wildly underestimate how many of their neighbors care about climate actionHow effective, human-centered storytelling can combat pessimism and inactionThe co-benefits frame: reaching people through health, savings, and quality of life, not just the environmentLinks:Denver's Office of Climate Action, Sustainability, and Resiliency: https://www.denvergov.org/Government/Agencies-Departments-Offices/Agencies-Departments-Offices-Directory/Climate-Action-Sustainability-and-ResiliencyThe Denver Climate Project: https://www.denvergov.org/Community/Denver-Climate-ProjectAll episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Join our Discord! https://discord.gg/2EsDhwQC2zSubscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member for the ad-free version of the show: https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trillions of dollars worth of goods move around the planet every year, and a shocking amount is lost, spoiled, or discarded. That wasted food, medicine, and equipment isn’t just a business problem; it’s a massive, underappreciated climate problem.This week on Everybody in the Pool, Molly talks with Krenar Komoni, CEO and founder of Tive, a supply chain visibility company that helps businesses track and monitor shipments in real time. What started as a GPS tracker for his father-in-law's trucking company has grown into one of the fastest-growing companies in supply chain tech. Tive’s small-but-mighty trackers don’t just follow a shipment’s location — they also monitor temperature, light, and shock along the way, helping businesses intervene before a load of strawberries (or a shipment of vaccines) becomes a very expensive, very wasteful problem.We talk about:Why real-time shipment visibility is a key ingredient in creating a greener supply chainHow temperature monitoring can save hundreds of thousands of dollars of food and medicine from going to wasteWhat "permanent disruption" and climate change means for global supply chainsHow route data is helping companies find faster, more fuel-efficient paths they didn't know existedTive's commitment to sustainability in its own products, including lithium-free trackers and a tracker recycling programWhy AI agents will be hungry for real-time supply chain data, and what that could unlock for global efficiencyKrenar's 10-year vision: tracking 5-10% of all global shipments (and why that would be a very big deal)Links:Tive: https://www.tive.com/All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Join our Discord! https://discord.gg/2EsDhwQC2zSubscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member for the ad-free version of the show: https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Data centers don't exactly have a reputation for being climate heroes… but what if they could be? This week on Everybody in the Pool, Molly sits down with Jasper de Vries, co-founder and CEO of Lucend, to talk about the surprisingly wild world of data center optimization — and why the industry has been leaving billions of dollars and millions of megawatt hours on the table.In this conversation, Jasper explains how Lucend’s platform uses machine learning and sensor data to make data centers dramatically more efficient. He also lays out a vision for the industry’s future; one where data centers generate their own renewable power, store it in batteries, and feed flexibility back to the grid on demand.We talk about:Why data centers are sitting on a goldmine of untapped efficiency, and why they haven't captured it until nowHow Lucend uses 280 billion sensor readings to open up the "black box" of data center operations, saving customers an average of 25% on energy and 30% on waterWhy it’s so hard to make even the smallest changes in how a data center operatesHow "transparent AI" builds operator trust by showing every step of the recommendation processThe water vs. energy trade-off in cooling, and why it's more complicated than headlines suggestWhy Scope 3 emissions from hardware are the dirty secret behind Big Tech's broken climate pledgesThe vision for data centers as flexible grid assets, and what’s needed to get them thereLinks:Lucend: https://www.getlucend.com/All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Join our Discord! https://discord.gg/2EsDhwQC2zSubscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member for the ad-free version of the show: https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Less than 2% of all philanthropic giving goes to climate, and a big reason why is something Greg Rock calls "donor paralysis." People care, but the landscape is so complex that many well-meaning donors don’t take action.This week on Everybody in the Pool, Molly sits down with Greg Rock, Executive Director of 1.5°Climate, a free national donor collaborative that's borrowing the energy of VC pitch competitions to make climate philanthropy more accessible, more exciting, and more impactful. With 600+ members and $35 million moved to over 100 organizations, 1.5°Climate is proving that you don’t have to be a billionaire, or an expert in climate tech, to make a real difference.We talk about:Why less than 2% of philanthropic giving goes to climate, and what we can do to change thatHow 1.5°Climate's Shark Tank-style virtual pitch events connect donors directly with vetted climate organizationsThe three criteria that define a high-impact climate investment: catalytic potential, leverage, and gap-fillingWhy 1.5°Climate funds nonprofits that aren’t exclusively climate organizations like cattle trade associations and agricultural projectsHow the team shifted from federal to state and local climate action after the 2024 electionThe innovations Greg and 1.5°Climate are most excited about right now: next-gen geothermal, agrivoltaics, and moreLinks:1.5°Climate: https://onepointfiveclimate.org/All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Join our Discord! https://discord.gg/2EsDhwQC2zSubscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member for the ad-free version of the show: https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There’s no shortage of stats to demonstrate the sheer magnitude of our food waste problem: A whopping 40% of food grown for human consumption goes to waste; $400 billion worth of food gets thrown away every year in the U.S — roughly 1.5% of GDP; Food waste is responsible for 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Must we go on?That’s why, after building the Nest Thermostat, Harry Tannenbaum and Matt Rogers turned their attention to our kitchens. They created Mill, a sleek appliance that quietly turns your food scraps into an odorless, coffee-ground-like material, and in the process, began changing the way people think about what they buy and throw away.And Mill isn’t stopping at our kitchen counters. This week on Everybody in the Pool, Harry returns to the show to talk about how Mill is turning their attention to the places where food waste really piles up: grocery stores, restaurants, stadiums, and beyond.We talk about:Why food waste is a $400 billion problem hiding in plain sight, and why nobody’s actually measuring itHow the data Mill collects is already changing consumer behavior, and what that means at commercial scaleWhat Mill Commercial looks like: a modular, dishwasher-sized unit that processes hundreds of pounds of food per dayThe Whole Foods partnership: deploying Mill infrastructure across all locations by 2027, backed by Amazon's Climate Pledge fundWhy dehydrated food waste going directly to chickens is a tighter, more valuable loop than compostingThe vision for residential distribution: bundled with waste services or utilities, the way Nest thermostats scaled through utilitiesLinks:Mill: https://mill.com/All episodes: https://everybodyinthepool.com/Join our Discord! https://discord.gg/2EsDhwQC2zSubscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member for the ad-free version of the show: https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The grid is getting smarter, cleaner, and infinitely more complicated all at once. Enter Gridmatic, a company using artificial intelligence to do what old-school grid modeling can’t: predict when the wind will blow, when prices will spike, and exactly when to charge or discharge a battery.This week on Everybody in the Pool, Molly is joined by David Miller, Chief Commercial Officer at Gridmatic, to nerd out about why managing a grid full of renewables is so much harder than managing one full of coal and gas, and what it actually takes to make renewable energy reliable at scale.We talk about:Why forecasting renewable output is so much harder than forecasting demandHow Gridmatic uses AI to predict real-time price spikes a full day ahead and position batteries accordinglyWhy Texas's grid interconnection queue has ballooned to 230 gigawatts when the state only uses 90 on its hottest dayWhat "Controllable Load Resources" are, and why they might be the key to unlocking faster grid interconnection for data centersThe crucial missing link between the vision of virtual power plants and actual grid reliability, and how software finally closes that loopLinks:Gridmatic: https://www.gridmatic.com/All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Join our Discord! https://discord.gg/2EsDhwQC2zSubscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member for the ad-free version of the show: https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Let's be honest: the climate conversation is having a bit of a PR crisis. The word ‘climate’ itself has become politically charged, federal funding is under threat, and media coverage has gone quiet. But the technologies are still working, the solutions are still scaling, and the people building them haven't gone anywhere. So how do you keep telling that story?This week on Everybody in the Pool, Molly sits down with Josh Garrett, CEO and co-founder of Redwood Climate Communications, a specialty PR and strategic communications firm that works exclusively with climate tech companies and climate-focused nonprofits. Josh has been communicating about climate for 14 years, and right now, his expertise has never been more needed.We talk about:How to craft compelling stories about climate tech and policyWhy silence is not a strategy — and how to keep talking about climate even when the political winds have shiftedSimple word swaps that works across the aisle, like saying "pollution" instead of "greenhouse gases"How the fossil fuel industry built a century-long messaging machine — including the origin story of "now we're cooking with gas"Why climate advocates over-explain when they should be keeping it simple and repeatableThe power of leading with co-benefits: affordability, public health, energy freedomHow to be a “Climate YIMBY,” and why showing up to your local zoning meeting might be the highest-impact thing you can do right nowBalancing fear and hope: why disasters are our current reality, yet progress is inevitableLinks:Redwood Climate Communications: https://www.redwoodclimatecomms.com/Yale Center for Climate Change Communication: https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/Potential Energy Coalition: https://potentialenergycoalition.org/Emily Atkin’s Heated Newsletter: https://heated.world/Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/merchants-of-doubt-9781608193943/Greenlight America: https://www.greenlightamerica.org/All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member for the ad-free version of the show: https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if solar panels on your roof, a home battery in your garage, and the EV in your driveway could together make you money — while simultaneously solving the grid capacity crisis?This week on Everybody in the Pool, Molly sits down with Marco Krapels, SVP and Chief Marketing Officer of Enphase Energy, to discuss what surging data center energy demand means for the future of residential clean energy — and why Enphase thinks the answer is turning millions of American homes into a distributed, AI-optimized virtual power plant.We talk about:Why the AI energy crisis might be the thing that finally scales residential solar and batteriesHow Enphase's software turns rooftop solar, home batteries, and EV chargers into smart, dispatchable grid assetsThe virtual power plant model, and why utilities are finally on boardHow Green Mountain Power in Vermont and Octopus Energy in the UK have already proven this works at scaleWhy adding solar and a 10 kWh battery to less than 10 million homes could solve the U.S. capacity crunchThe bi-directional EV charger that's coming later this year and why it's a 7x multiplier on home battery capacityWhat a future where homeowners get paid by hyperscalers and utilities — instead of paying for their electricity — could actually look likeWhy clean, distributed energy is the fastest path to winning the AI raceLinks:Enphase: https://enphase.com/All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member for the ad-free version of the show: https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

American businesses waste 25-35% of the energy they use. So why aren’t more business owners doing something about it? For most, the problem is too complex and too expensive — there’s no single fix, there are 30 or 40, and calculating the ROI on all of them is no easy task.That’s where Budderfly comes in. Budderfly is an energy-as-a-service company with a beautifully simple premise: they take over a business’s energy bill entirely — funding all the upgrades at their own risk, and pocketing a margin on the savings. It’s a win-win-win situation for the company, the grid, and the planet.On this episode of Everybody in the Pool, Molly sits down with Budderfly’s founder and CEO Al Subbloie to get a behind-the-scenes look into this unique business model.We talk about:Why Budderfly targets franchise businesses, and how their "copy-paste" model unlocks financing and scaleThe four pillars of commercial energy waste: HVAC, lighting, refrigeration, and intelligent energy managementHow Budderfly can lower a companies’ utility bill and upgrade their equipment with zero upfront cost to the customerWhy Al intentionally aligned cost savings with carbon reduction — so customers get climate impact whether it's their priority or notWhat a virtual power plant actually is, and why focusing on small “behind-the-meter” energy adjustments actually matters for the gridHow Budderfly is building one of the largest distributed demand-response networks in the US — and why that's increasingly valuable in an era of AI data center demandTheir vision for working directly with hyperscalers and utilities as grid pressure intensifiesLinks:Budderfly: https://www.budderfly.com/All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member for the ad-free version of the show: https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

99% of registered fleets belong to small and mid-size businesses — but the EV industry wasn't built for them. High upfront costs, years-long waits for grid access, and charging solutions designed for large operators have left the backbone of the American economy behind.This week on Everybody in the Pool, we meet a founder who’s changing that. Galina Russell, co-founder of Mitra EV, built a turnkey solution that bundles electric trucks and vans with charging infrastructure, so plumbers, electricians, and delivery companies can electrify their fleets without the logistical headache.We talk about:Why small commercial fleets are the most overlooked (and impactful) EV opportunityThe barriers to EV adoption for small and mid-size business ownersMitra’s "laptop and charger" model: leasing vehicles and installing charging together, from day oneHow Mitra works within existing grid capacity instead of waiting years for new powerBattery storage, peak shaving, and the vision for 50 megawatts of distributed backup powerWhy cost savings — not climate ideology — is the killer pitch to small business ownersLinks:Mitra EV: https://www.mitra-ev.com/Galina’s book recommendation, The Grid by Gretchen Bakke: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/grid-9781632865687/All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member for the ad-free version of the show: https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Three million homes are damaged by natural disasters in the US every year — and with a billion-dollar storm hitting roughly every ten days, that number is only growing. But the system for repairing affected homes is stuck in the past, with mountains of paperwork, fragmented funding, and rampant fraud leaving vulnerable homeowners stranded.This week on Everybody in the Pool, Molly sits down with Susan Hunt Stevens, the founder and CEO of Tessi, a platform working to fix what she calls the “broken post-disaster home repair system.” Tessi brings homeowners, vetted contractors, insurers, government programs, and other funders onto a single platform that uses AI-driven damage assessments to quickly evaluate a home in the wake of a disaster.We talk about:How Tessi uses AI and aerial imagery to generate damage assessments within 24 hoursHow the surge in natural disasters has made homeowners increasingly vulnerable to contractor fraudWhy only 4% of homeowners affected by flooding and hurricanes are actually covered by insuranceHow homeowners can use disaster repair as an opportunity to implement climate-adaptive upgradesTessi’s role in a complicated ecosystem where any repair might be funded by a patchwork of insurance, personal savings, home equity loans, government aid, and even GoFundMeHow Tessi is partnering with volunteer disaster relief organizations to serve socially vulnerable homeowners who fall outside the paid systemTessi’s goal of serving 1 million homes within 5 yearsLinks:Tessi: https://tessi.ai/All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member for the ad-free version of the show: https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The impacts of climate change are hitting the world everywhere, all at once — making climate adaptation more urgent than ever before.This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re flipping the script on climate adaption; no longer viewing it as a funding gap, but as an investment opportunity that could bring lots of types of finance to the table for returns and impact. Niall Murphy, co-founder and managing partner of Morphosis, sits down with Molly to discuss how the world can scale solutions for an already-changing climate, and why the private sector needs to get involved in the new “adaptation economy.”We talk about:What living beyond 1.5 degrees means for adaptationHow 90% of adaptation funding is currently public money, and why that can’t scale to meet the demandThe case for viewing climate impacts as emerging markets and investment opportunitiesWhy insurers’ panic is actually the tipping point we’ve been waiting forReal examples of commercially viable adaptation solutions, from solar-filtering polymers to micro-scale desalinationThe policy gaps that are holding back deploymentHow Morphosis aggregates capital to deploy solutions where they're needed mostLinks:Morphosis: https://www.morphosis.solutions/All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member for the ad-free version of the show: https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Everybody in the Pool, another sexy gadget that doubles as a grid asset! We take a field trip to the Berkeley headquarters of Copper, which is reimagining the humble stove as a powerful tool for decarbonization. Their flagship product, Charlie, is a 30-inch induction range with a built-in battery that allows for plug-and-play installation, precise cooking, and the potential to support grid stability.We talk about: How a battery in a stove can reduce the need for electrical infrastructure upgradesThe magic of induction cooking - safety, precision, and efficiencyIncentive programs making electrification more accessibleThe potential for appliances to become grid interactive assetsCopper’s vision for scaling electrification across housingBonus: their in-house chef loves it, too.Links:Copper: https://www.copper.com/ All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/ Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/ Become a member for the ad-free version of the show: https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Heat pumps are having a moment. Last year, the U.S. passed China to become the world's number one market for heat pumps—and they're not slowing down. But while heat pumps are efficient and effective on paper, they haven't always been objects of desire. Until now.This week, Molly talks to Paul Lambert, CEO and co-founder of Quilt, about building a heat pump company that's equal parts climate solution and consumer product. Paul explains how his team is reimagining the mini-split heat pump—not just as an HVAC system, but as a piece of technology you're proud to have on your wall.We dive into:How heat pumps work: Why an AC is basically "a half-broken heat pump" that only runs in one directionThe two types of heat pumps: Ducted systems vs. ductless mini-splits, and why room-by-room control is a game-changerDesign as climate strategy: How Quilt spent half their initial capital on a domain name and invested heavily in industrial design to create pull, not just policy pushThe installer advantage: Why partnering with contractors (instead of doing it all in-house) unlocked national scaleSmart grid integration: How Quilt's internet-connected system enables demand response without sacrificing comfort—curtailing load in empty rooms while keeping occupied spaces perfectThe data center opportunity: How replacing electric resistance heating with heat pumps near data centers can free up 75% of the energy load—without building new generation capacityWhy incentives help but aren't required: 60% of America is primarily cooling-driven, and heat pumps are just better air conditionersPricing reality: Quilt is competitive with high-end Japanese mini-splits, not luxury-priced like early Nest thermostats or TeslasThe personal mission: How Paul's Alberta roots in the fossil fuel industry and his commitment to his kids' future drove him to climate techKey insight: Space heating and cooling represent half of all home energy use and 70% of fossil fuel consumption in homes—making HVAC the single biggest lever for decarbonizing buildings.Links:Quilt: https://quilt.comFind a Quilt installer: https://quilt.com (click "Find an Installer")All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member for the ad-free version of the show: https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Buildings account for a third of America's greenhouse gas emissions, yet until recently, we've been flatlined on progress. That's changing—fast. This week, Molly talks to Panama Bartholomy, founder of the Building Decarbonization Coalition, about how an unlikely alliance of utilities, manufacturers, installers, and nonprofits is transforming the way we heat, cool, and power our homes.Panama explains how finding 80% common ground among competitors created unstoppable momentum—and how the U.S. just became the global leader in heat pump sales for the fourth year running.We dive into:The coalition model: How businesses, government, and nonprofits work together through "shuttle diplomacy"Why buildings matter: They represent ~33% of U.S. emissions and are the largest source of air pollution in California's worst air basinsThe heat pump revolution: How the U.S. went from third place to global leader in just five years—heat pumps now outsell furnacesThe gas infrastructure trap: Why we're spending $50 billion annually on aging pipes while gas bills rise twice as fast as electric ratesNeighborhood-scale solutions: How utilities are offering $35,000 checks to electrify entire neighborhoods instead of replacing gas pipelines"Stove Gate" as a paradigm shift: How controversy over gas stove safety created "sticky facts" that changed public perceptionWhat "pollution" means: Why language matters—moving from "decarbonization" to a term everyone understandsThe path forward: Why installers are the real heroes, and what political will looks like in actionKey stat: Space heating and water heating represent 90% of building emissions—and heat pumps can do both jobs 2-4x more efficiently than gas?Links:Building Decarbonization Coalition: https://www.buildingdecarb.org/BDC's 2025 Wrapped Report: https://buildingdecarb.org/2025-wrapped-decarb-editionAll episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member for the ad-free version of the show: https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/Visit our sponsor, Climatize, and get $50 in investment credits when you create a profile! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if the solution to our energy challenges isn't building more—but applying new thinking to the grid we’ve already got? This week, Molly talks to Quinn Nakayama, the senior director at PG&E’s Grid Research Innovation and Development, also known as GRID, division. (Clever, right?)After years of controversy over wildfires that led to the utility’s eventual bankruptcy, PG&E is moving forward with dedicated R&D, pitch competitions, and monetary investment to figure out how to use new technologies to meet growing demand without compromising California’s clean energy goals.We cover:The massive energy demands from data centers and electrificationInnovative strategies to manage load growth without building massive infrastructureHow electric vehicles and smart charging can actually reduce electricity ratesCalifornia's unique challenge of meeting net-zero goals while supporting economic growthCreative solutions like using data center backup generators as temporary grid supportIn upcoming episodes, we’ll talk with some of the startups PG&E has identified as particularly promising reinvention partners!Links:PG&E’s GRID initiative: https://www.pge.com/en/about/pge-systems/research-and-development.html?vnt=innovationAll episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member for the ad-free version of the show:https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/Visit our sponsor, Climatize, and get $50 in investment credits when you create a profile! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Everybody in the Pool, we're diving into the world of protein production — in reverse. Recently, the USDA released a new food pyramid that controversially places red meat and dairy at the top. That, combined with the global and particularly American obsession with protein, make it a great time to talk to Ross Milne, CEO of Leaft Foods. Leaft is developing a groundbreaking technology that extracts protein directly from alfalfa leaves, potentially reducing emissions by 97% compared to traditional animal agriculture.Leaft Foods isn't just creating a protein alternative - they're reimagining the entire food production system. By isolating RuBisCO, the most abundant protein on the planet, they've developed a nutritional powerhouse that outperforms eggs, whey, and beef in amino acid profile. Their first product, LeafBlade, packs 18 grams of protein and 58% of daily iron intake into a tiny 100ml pouch.We talk about:How extracting protein directly from leaves could transform agricultureThe nutritional superiority of RuBisCO proteinWhy efficiency matters in solving the climate crisisHow this technology could improve both human nutrition and animal farmingThe potential for scaling a more sustainable protein production methodLinks:Leaft Foods: https://www.leaftfoods.com/All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member for the ad-free version of the show:https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/Visit our sponsor, Climatize, and get $50 in investment credits when you create a profile! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here’s a bonus episode for you to kick off 2026. Back in episode 97, we interviewed Kate Danaher of S2G Investments about investing in the ocean economy. S2G are actually investors in a few of the companies we’ve had on Everybody in the Pool, including Matter, Moleaer, and Sofar Ocean. So this week, we’re featuring one of their interviews as they prepare to launch their new season.The S2G Podcast is hosted by the team at S2G Investments, and looks at what it will take to scale the food and agriculture, oceans and energy transitions. Episodes launch every two weeks with a range of guests, including company leaders, innovators, investors, and policy experts. Season 3 starts on January 15 and you can find the S2G Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.S2G Episodes: https://www.s2ginvestments.com/insights/podcastSubscribe to the S2G Podcast: https://www.s2ginvestments.com/podcastAll episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member for the ad-free version of the show:https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Everybody in the Pool, we’re starting the year with an audacious question: what if we reinvented one of the most basic materials in the world?Decarbonizing the built environment means tackling the stuff we use everywhere — wood, concrete, and steel — at the same time we’re trying to build millions of new homes, strengthen supply chains, and reduce our exposure to geopolitical and climate risk. That’s a tall order. But it’s also unavoidable.My guest is Nathan Silvernail, co-founder and CEO of Plantd, a company building a tree-free, carbon-negative alternative to engineered wood. Designed as a drop-in replacement for OSB (oriented strand board), Plantd’s material looks and behaves like conventional wood — but without cutting down trees. And they’re not stopping at the material itself: Plantd is building the machines, manufacturing process, and agricultural supply chain needed to produce it at scale.We talk about:Why “sustainable wood” isn’t always as sustainable as it soundsWhy trees can’t scale fast enough to meet demand and climate goalsWhat it takes to replace a commodity material without asking builders to change how they buildThe co-benefits: turning waste into biochar and high-purity carbon for adjacent industrial marketsThe hard realities of scaling hardware, agriculture, and manufacturing at the same timeLINKS:Plantd: https://www.plantdmaterials.com/All episodes: https://www.everybodyinthepool.com/Subscribe to the Everybody in the Pool newsletter: https://www.mollywood.co/Become a member for the ad-free version of the show:https://everybodyinthepool.supercast.com/Visit our sponsor, Climatize, and get $50 in investment credits when you create a profile! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.