Electric Ladies Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

“One of the big differences between Canada and the United States on climate policy spending broadly is that unlike the United States, Canada has a national carbon pricing system. So, we have a carbon pricing system that sets a national minimum standard. There's a retail price for retail fuels, including gasoline for cars. And there's also an industrial price that applies directly to industry. In some provinces, Quebec has its own cap and trade system that's actually linked with California’s, and that is a system that meets Canada's minimum standard for carbon pricing.” Claire Seaborn on Electric Ladies Podcast

Canada has been ahead of the U.S. on some climate and energy policies, including having a price on carbon, which many U.S. politicians have resisted for years. What can we learn from Canada’s experience? A lot.

Listen to Claire Seaborn, who until a few months ago was the Chief of Staff to Canada’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, explain Canada’s energy and climate policies and what the U.S. – and other countries – can learn from their experience, in this fascinating discussion with Electric Ladies host Joan Michelson. She also shares insightful career advice.

You’ll hear about:

• What exactly Canadian energy and climate policies are and how they are working.
• How Canada developed its carbon pricing policies and how difference provinces are implementing them.
• The critical role of minerals in the energy transition and climate solutions, and how to manage this complex geopolitical issue.
• Plus, insightful career advice, such as…

“For anyone, women especially who are interested in the energy and climate space, I would say that you shouldn't feel that you need to choose between the public sector, the private sector, and the nonprofit sector…. If you want to, and I've done it, you can just bounce between them. And that seems to be increasingly more acceptable and it's also really, really useful…. I've been able to continue to build my expertise in the energy and climate space, but from multiple different perspectives.…So my advice would be to just not feel that you need to pick one of those lanes and, and to take the risk to bounce between those different segments of our economy.” Claire Seaborn on Electric Ladies Podcast

Read Joan’s Forbes articles here.

You'll also like:

• Anna Siefken, Deputy Director, Federal Energy Management Program, Dept. of Energy, on how the federal government reduces the energy use and carbon footprint of its 350,000 buildings.
• Rachel McCleery, Senior Advisor, Treasury Dept. Inflation Reduction Act Program, on how to leverage the IRA to save money reducing a building or business’s energy use and carbon footprint.
• Vanessa Chan, Ph.D., Chief Commercialization Officer of the Department of Energy and Director of the Office of Technology Transitions, on the Inflation Reduction Act and the transition to clean energy.
• Julia Souder, CEO, Long Duration Energy Storage Council, on how to leverage storage to transition to and manage a clean energy economy
• Lisa Jacobson of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy & Tara Narayanan, of Bloomberg NEF on their new Energy Factbook 2024, including the Inflation Reduction Act opportunities.
• Inna Braverman, CEO & Founder, Eco Wave Power, on how they are bringing wave power to scale – and her powerful personal story.

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“Much of our infrastructure isn't built to withstand certain kinds of flooding or certain levels of heat. And yet, as the climate changes, so many of the things… that we did know in a world with a stable climate, those are now being upended. And all of that affects costs fundamentally… So, we need to transition to net zero…The three pieces of (federal) legislation are all about investing in America and making sure that from the innovation to commercialization pipeline, we are helping those goods get to market at scale, at prices consumers can afford.” Heather Boushey on Electric Ladies Podcast

New research finds that 52% of voters in this 2024 election want "historic investments in 21st century sustainable infrastructure projects," according to Data For Progress, presented at the Democratic National Convention this week.  The Biden-Harris administration has made historic investments already and homeowners, communities and businesses can seize them to increase their resilience to climate change and reduce their energy costs. How?

Listen to Heather Boushey, Member of the White House Council of Economic Advisors and Chief Economist of the Invest in America Cabinet, in this exclusive and rare interview by Joan Michelson on Electric Ladies Podcast explain how we can economically do this transition and how this federal funding reduces our risks and costs to do, while also expediting this transition to help avert even far worse effects of climate change. (This episode aired originally in September 2023.)

 

You’ll hear:

• How climate change affects the economy, and key sectors specifically.
• Resources in the Inflation Reduction  Act, Infrastructure Investment Act & CHIPS & Science Act to help homeowners, businesses and investors make these changes at reduced risks and lower costs.
• Where the opportunities – and jobs – are in this transition, including for women.
• The impact on women specifically and resources available
• Plus, insightful career advice, such as…

“For me, the key to my career was being clear on what my mission is….I feel so enormously fortunate that I found a president to be able to work for who shares that goal….So I think the lesson in that is either be the leader that you want to believe in, or find that leader and attach yourself to them and see what amazing things you can do together. But, for me, it's been about being clear on what it is that I wanted to achieve.” Heather Boushey on Electric Ladies Podcast

Read Joan’s Forbes articles here too.

You’ll also like (some may have been recorded under our previous name, Green Connections Radio):

• Erin McLaughlin, The Conference Board on new economic research on buildings, energy and climate and the federal and state incentives
• Anna Siefken, Deputy Director, Federal Energy Management Program, Dept. of Energy, on how the federal government reduces the energy use and carbon footprint of its 350,000 buildings.
• Rachel McCleery, Senior Advisor, Treasury Dept. Inflation Reduction Act Program, on how to leverage the IRA to save money reducing a building or business’s energy use and carbon footprint.
• Rachel Frazin, Environment & Energy Reporter at The Hill, on Project 2025 and climate change.
• Anne Kelly, VP of Government Relations, Ceres, on business supporting the Inflation Reduction Act

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“The economic information on clean energy is amazing…We're decades deep in it now, where you're seeing the cost competitiveness of renewable technologies on an unsubsidized basis…We can do this. We can grow the economy and we can use more clean energy.”

Lisa Jacobson on Electric Ladies Podcast

The facts in the new Sustainable Energy 2024 Factbook, by the Business Council for Sustainable Energy and Bloomberg New Energy Finance, show that the transition to a clean energy economy is well underway, and resilient, despite “headwinds” like covid, high interest rates, supply chain issues and political pressures. How?

Listen to Lisa Jacobson, President of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy and Tara Narayanan, Lead Analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, explain where we are in this transition in this fascinating discussion with Electric Ladies host Joan Michelson. 

You’ll hear about:

• Where we’re at in the energy transition and what the trends are
• The impact of the new trifecta of federal legislation – the Inflation Reduction Act, the Infrastructure Investment Act and the CHIPS and Science Act.
• The energy mix we need, including renewables, to power our complex economy
• Dispelling myths about the energy transition and energy sources
• Plus, insightful career advice, such as…

“Think about your career as a business…Try to always have a mindset of kind of what I want first…What organizations do I want to work with? Where, what kind of responsibilities do I want to have? And maybe I do it through a traditional employer employee relationship, or maybe I just branch out on my own and just do it right? And I feel like women should feel empowered to do that and to be that kind of proactive thinking. And don't be afraid.”

Lisa Jacobson on Electric Ladies Podcast

Read Joan’s Forbes article about this new report here and more of her articles here too.

You'll also like:

• Inna Braverman, Founder/CEO of Eco Wave Power, on how wave power works and her powerful personal story that reflects today’s geopolitical dynamics.
• Melissa Lott, Ph.D., Director of Research at the Center for Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, and the lead scientists in the PBS/NOVA documentary “Chasing Carbon Zero.”
• Vanessa Chan, Ph.D., Chief Commercialization Officer of the Department of Energy and Director of the Office of Technology Transitions, on the Inflation Reduction Act and the transition to clean energy.
• Halla Hrund Logadottir, Director-General, Iceland’s National Energy Authority, on how the country has become 85% renewable energy.
• Sarah Golden, VP of Energy, Greenbiz, on geothermal, how it works and why it’s growing exponentially

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“Today there's about 87,000 wind turbines installed onshore and they are generating, 122,000 megawats of power. So, and as you said, that's about 10 to 12% of the total use in the U.S. …A 1.5 megawat turbine is one of the more common ones in the United States, and that will give you enough energy for about 350 homes in the United States. So then if you take that and scale it up to a 10 megawat, that's going to be about 3000..about 10 times as many homes.”

Meredyth Crichton on Electric Ladies Podcast

 As we move into spring, we also move into hurricane season in many parts of the country, and that means potential loss of power from those hurricanes again. What can we do about that, especially as hurricanes become more frequent and severe as a result of climate change?

Listen to Meredyth Crichton of Clemson University’s Energy Innovation Unit, and an expert in energy technologies (especially wind power) explain how the grid distributes power and more in this enlightening interview with Electric Ladies host Joan Michelson. (Electric Ladies was formerly known as Green Connections Radio.)

You’ll hear:

• How the electric grid works – and about a grid simulator.
• How wind turbines work and how much power they really deliver.
• What developments are in process for storage to help the economy transition to clean power.
• Plus, insightful career advice.

And much more!

“I purposely went and tried to build my support structure, which was a group of mostly women that were in a similar area for their career. Now this was while I was working in industry. So I relied very heavily on a group of about five to eight women, where we would talk regularly at least once a month. And we would support each other, whether that meant we would support each other in a meeting to make sure that our voice was heard…. I would have some that were higher than me in the organization, and when a career opportunity comes open, we would purposely think of each other and say, ‘is there someone from this group that I could mention that might be a good fit for this job?’"

Meredyth Crichton on Electric Ladies podcast

Read Joan’s Forbes articles here.

You’ll also want to listen to (some of these are under the name Green Connections Radio):

• Jennifer Gerbi, Ph.D., Deputy Director and Acting Director, ARPA-E, the innovation arm of the Department of Energy 
• Michele Wucker, thought leaders and author of “You Are What You Risk: The New Art & Science to Navigating an Uncertain World.”
• Kathryn Pavlovsky, Deloitte Energy, Resources & Industrials, on the energy transformation and ESG
• Kristen Sullivan, Deloitte Sustainability & Supply Chain practice, on companies “doing” ESG, and the supply chain.
• Roberta Rincon, Society of Women Engineers, Director of Research, on the status and careers of women in various types of engineering roles.

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Green Consumer Products & Cosmetics - Boma Brown-West, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) “When we talk about products, there's waste in terms of products too. Like what happens when… we're done using it, when it fails, when it's broken. Certainly there are things that consumer can do in terms of being more mindful of the types of products that they're purchasing… But at the end of the day, I think the two main issues…sustainable packaging and …sustainable products……many of the decisions about the functionality of the product and the packaging… those are business decisions.”

Boma Brown-West on Electric Ladies Podcast

 

More and more consumers are demanding sustainable consumer products, from packaging to ingredients to the manufacturing process, including cosmetics. More and more companies are issuing corporate responsibility reports, and many have sustainable supplier agreements. Yet, all of this is still voluntary, so the data cannot be independently verified or compared properly, and companies can still hide the bad and the ugly. So, how can we tell what’s really in these products and how can we hold them accountable?  

 

Listen to Boma Brown-West, head of Consumer Health at EDF+ Business, part of the famed Environmental Defense Fund, who is working with companies who genuinely want to reduce the carbon footprint of their supply chain in this enlightening interview with Electric Ladies host Joan Michelson. (Electric Ladies was formerly known as Green Connections Radio.)

You’ll hear:

• What companies are really doing in their manufacturing processes.
• Why cosmetics for women of color can be especially toxic.
• How the EDF is working with the FDA, Consumer Products Safety Commission, and other government agencies to hold companies accountable for reducing the impact of their products and packaging.
• What us consumers can do to use our purchasing power to inspire or even force companies to take more responsibility for doing the right thing.
• Plus, insightful career advice.

And much more!

“, I would say that especially for mid-career women to go back to those key questions around what is the future that you want to see? And what role or roles, plural, do you think that you can play in it?...I think especially in this space, there are a number of places that we can and make a difference. It could be inside a company, it could be in an advocacy organization, it could be working on policy. There are many different ways to go about it.“

Boma Brown-West on Electric Ladies podcast

 

Read Joan’s Forbes articles here.

You’ll also want to listen to (some of these are under the name Green Connections Radio):

• Kate Gaertner, Triple Win Advisory on Sustainable Business Processes
• Lara Ramdin, Chief Innovation Officer, Dole Sunshine Company
• Cindi Bigelow, CEO, Bigelow Tea, on converting a 75-year old tea company to combat climate change
• Haley Lowry, Dow Chemical’s Sustainability Director on reducing the carbon footprint of food packaging.

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Transportation is one of the top carbon emitters and much of it is caused by shipping stuff to us and air travel. So, to reduce global warming, we need to transform these sectors. How?

Listen to this fascinating panel from the UN COP26 conference in November with the heads of sustainability/ESG (environment, social, governance) from Ikea, Jet Blue, Amazon & others, moderated by the Aspen Institute.

You'll hear:

• What these companies are doing to reduce their shipping footprints.
• What alternative fuels work in airplanes today and what's coming soon.
• How you can make choices that reduce shipping energy use and emissions.
• What these companies need from regulators to reduce their emissions.

You'll also like:

• Neha Palmer, CEO, TeraWatt Infrastructure, on charging electric trucks and buses.
• Maureen Kline, Pirelli Tires, Sustainability head
• Katie Sloan, Southern California Edison, eMobility
• Jackie Birdsall, Toyota, Senior Engineer, Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles

• Margaret Lewis, New Flyer electric buses

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“I think what's really interesting and intriguing to me is the collaboration from the DOT and the DOE. there certainly is an overlap when you think about electrification, it's a transportation question, but it's also an energy question and both of those things have to be really coordinated to have success here…. They have to be developed in tandem and coordinated is something that really hasn't been, on their radar before.” Neha Palmer on Electric Ladies Podcast

As the new infrastructure bill’s investments roll out across the country, one key area that will be front and center is electric vehicle charging, which is right at the intersection of the Department of Energy and the Department of Transportation. And it’s not just passenger cars. It’s also fleet vehicles and trucks. Those medium and heavy duty trucks that transport the goods we buy to stores near us, and even the delivery trucks that bring it to our doorsteps, or even city buses.  These vehicles have unique needs because they run nearly or literally 24/7. How will this work?

Listen to Neha Palmer, CEO and cofounder of TeraWatt Infrastructure explain it to host Joan Michelson on Electric Ladies podcast.  

You’ll hear:

• What kind of infrastructure we need to keep electric fleet vehicles moving stuff to us.
• How the DOE & DOT can and should coordinate every step of the way.
• Where the power comes from to power these trucks and the tricky process to get it to them wherever they are when they need it.
• How they feed energy back to the grid, as well as take power from it.
• Plus, insightful career advice ….

“I think that people should feel comfortable being scared….You’ve got to leave before you're ready to leave. Embrace challenge and go before you’re a hundred percent feel confident about that next step. It will allow I think, an acceleration of your career, but also your ability to make impact.” Neha Palmer on Electric Ladies podcast

You’ll also want to listen to:

• Maureen Kline, Pirelli Tires, Sustainability head
• Katie Sloan, Southern California Edison, eMobility
• Jackie Birdsall, Toyota, Senior Engineer, Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles

• Margaret Lewis, New Flyer electric buses

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Thanks for subscribing on Apple Podcasts or iHeartRadio and leaving us a review!

Follow us on Twitter @joanmichelson

“To me it's an exciting industry, the auto industry, so I wondered ‘why aren’t more women, particularly young women interested in the automotive industry?’…So this is why I conducted a quantitative-qualitative correlational study looking at relationships between all these things the experts say you should do…. I wanted to know, ‘is that really true?’ … And if it IS accurate, then why don’t we have more women at least in middle management?”

Lisa Brown on Electric Ladies Podcast

Electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles, hydrogen vehicles. Ride-sharing. The automotive sector is being transformed. Car companies are even calling themselves “mobility” companies now. Yet, they are still largely dominated by men, and white men at that. They say they have diversity programs, and career planning and mentorship programs and other strategies to support women’s advancement in the industry. And yet…the numbers don’t change. Why?

Listen to Lisa Brown, Ph.D. explain her findings in her ground-breaking new quantitative and qualitative research on this issue in this enlightening interview by Electric Ladies host Joan Michelson. (Electric Ladies was formerly known as Green Connections Radio.)

You’ll hear:

• What she studied and why she chose it.
• Whether she found that diversity programs actually work – and why or why not.
• What she discovered about career planning programs in corporates and where they succeed and fail.
• What you should ask for to get what you need from these programs
• Plus, insightful career advice for your own career, no matter what sector you’re in.

And much more!

“Have a plan. I think sometimes, we have ideas, but we don’t take the time to plan….Get out of your comfort zone. If you’re an introvert, take that step to get to know folks. If you’re an extrovert, sometimes take that time to be quiet and to listen, to be that fly on the wall. And I would also say, invest in yourself. A lot of times, self-care is something that we don’t do. But invest in yourself, take the time, whether it’s just a self-help book, or taking a course to improve certain skill sets…. And last, but not least. Offer yourself some grace. Don’t be so hard on yourself.“

Lisa Brown on Electric Ladies podcast

Read Joan’s Forbes articles here.

You’ll also want to listen to:

Bonnie Gwin, Vice Chair, Heidrick & Struggles, on the new type of CEO companies are hiring.

Michele Wucker, thought leaders and author of “You Are What You Risk: The New Art & Science to Navigating an Uncertain World.”

Roberta Rincon, Society of Women Engineers, Director of Research, on the status and careers of women in various types of engineering roles.

Barbara Whye, Chief Diversity Officer of Apple, and former VP of Human Resources and Chief Diversity Officer of Intel.

Telle Whitney, Former CEO of Anita Borg Institute for Women and Cofounder of the Grace Hopper Conference

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Follow us on Twitter @joanmichelson   and @electricgalspod

 

“I think the biggest issue is there are no quote unquote ‘incentives’ at the national level to require companies of any size, whether they're private or public to do this hard work, right. And corporate sustainability really is hard work, especially when you're talking about reducing carbon emissions within their supply chains……. (Europe has mandatory ESG reporting, but not the U.S.)  So, it's only those companies that really believe in it, leaders who really care and understand that it can build resiliency, that it can also provide long-term longevity to their business models, if they embrace sustainability.”

Kate Gaertner, on Electric Ladies Podcast

Companies are under increasing pressure to report their environmental impact, carbon emissions and diversity statistics, and accurately, including from employees, consumers and investors. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says it’s working on mandatory reporting requirements, but hasn’t released them yet. So, it’s still only “voluntary” in the U.S.  Many companies made bold commitments at the big UN Climate Conference known as COP26 and now they have to figure out how to meet them.

How will they do it and what impact will doing so have on company operations, suppliers, employees, and profits as they have to pivot to meet what’s called ESG criteria (or environment, social and governance)?

Listen to Kate Gaertner, CEO of Triple Win Advisory, a sustainability consulting firm, explain it all in conversation with Electric Ladies host Joan Michelson in this important and engaging interview.

You’ll hear about:

• How companies can assess their ESG status and develop a plan to improve it
• What’s really at stake in this transition and transparency – challenges and risks – and opportunities.
• The need for government incentives to nudge companies to be more aggressive.
• How to engage employees in the effort, and leverage “purpose” authentically
• Plus, insightful career advice ….

“What kind of impact do you want to have, in your life and your family's life and your community, and of course, on the planet. Everyone says, well, ‘what are the career options in sustainability and corporate sustainability?’ They're endless because every industry, every sector, every company is going to have to embrace this and soon… Figure out where you want to play, and specifically where that focus is going to be in sustainability and just start to it, because there's so much need, and there's not enough people yet that are dipping their toe into sustainability.” Kate Gaertner on the Electric Ladies podcast

 Read Joan’s Forbes article with insights from this interview here too.

You’ll also want to listen to:

• Kathryn Pavlovsky, Deloitte Energy, Resources & Industrials, on the energy transformation and ESG
• Kristen Sullivan, Deloitte Sustainability & Supply Chain practice, on companies “doing” ESG, and the supply chain.

• Cindi Bigelow, CEO, Bigelow Tea, on converting a 75-year old tea company to combat climate change.
• Anne Kelly, VP of Government Relations at nonprofit Ceres, which helps businesses and policy come together for the planet and people, as well as the economy

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As the new year begins, listen to this recording of one of the most remarkable panels at the recent United Nations climate conference  known as COP26, with some of the world's top CEOs.

The heads of Volvo, Rocky Mountain Institute, Club of Rome (group of heads of state, CEOs), and "the" top venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, along with the former CEO of the UN Sustainable Energy for All programme, share their thoughts on leveraging solving the climate crisis into an economic opportunity for all.

Electric Ladies host Joan Michelson recorded this session (starting a bit after the session began) in person and asks an important question at the end of the panel discussion which prompted another vibrant 20-minute discussion. So, this one is a bit longer than most of our episodes, but well worth it.

Read Joan’s related Forbes articles here too.

You’ll also want to listen to:

• Sandrine Dixson, Co-President, The Club of Rome, from COP26, about the need for transformational public-private partnerships to get to net zero.
• Gillian Tett, Financial Times, from COP26, about what the new financial alliance means for a net zero economy.
• Twila Moon, Ph.D, climate and glacier scientist at University of Colorado at Boulder, National Institute of Snow and Ice Data, from COP26
• Michele Wucker, thought leaders and author of “You Are What You Risk: The New Art & Science to Navigating an Uncertain World.”

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