Campus Energy and Sustainability Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Electrifying vehicle fleets is no longer a distant goal—it’s happening now in school districts, cities, and campuses across the country. In this episode, we explore what it takes to transition large fleets to all-electric, from financing to infrastructure and community impact. Our guest shares lessons the K-12 perspectives, highlighting challenges and opportunities. Listeners will gain practical insights into how electrification can reduce emissions, improve health outcomes, and reshape the future of community transportation.

Energy public-private partnerships (P3s) have moved beyond the pilot phase. They’re now a serious, scalable strategy for institutions facing aging infrastructure, decarbonization targets, and budget constraints. But a maturing market also brings complexity — in procurement models, financing tools, and internal alignment. In this episode, we talk with three experienced voices from across the P3 deal table about what’s working, what’s changing, and what institutions need to understand before jumping in.

In this episode we will talk with journalist, author, and energy consultant Peter Kelly-Detwiler. Our topic: Cutting Edge Campus Climate Tech.

Our mission: help campus decision makers and stakeholders understand "cutting edge" campus decarbonization / reliability / resilience technologies. How can they take advantage of new and emerging technologies while avoid wasting time on ideas that are either empty hype or operationally irrelevant for their campus context?

In this episode, we talk with with Dr. Katrina Kelly-Pitou, Energy Systems Strategist at SmithGroup. The discussion focuses on what higher education can expect from federal, state and local governments in the near term, but also a broader discussion about the politics and business model of higher ed. itself.  She both challenges conventional ideas and paints a compelling vision for a sustainable future for higher education and the communities in which they operate.

In this episode, we talk with Kenny Seeton, central plant and energy manager at California State University Dominguez Hills. The wide-ranging conversation spans everything from LED retrofits to solar powered golf carts. Kenny talks about how to safely take risks and how to connect systems seeking continuous improvement. He offers up sound advice for energy managers on metering, sensors, occupancy controls, valves, dampers, trend analysis and even phase change materials. This engaging episode is perfect for anyone looking for creative energy solutions for their campus, whether this is your first introduction to energy management or, like Dave and Kenny, you geek out over topics energy efficiency, storage, and more.

In this special episode of the podcast, we present a recording of Podcasting for Sustainability in Higher Education from AASHE’s 2020 Global Conference on Sustainability in Higher Education. Dave Karlsgodt, Katie Boyle and Brian Campbell talk about what it’s like to run a podcast and how they utilize their shows to further the conversation on energy and sustainability. All three delve into the missions behind their podcasts, as well as how and why they pick topics to cover. In this episode that explores podcasting as a tool for sustainability in higher education, our hosts aim to aid participants and listeners in learning how to frame their sustainability efforts in stories, making them compelling to a variety of audiences, from students to senior leaders, academics to alumni.

What can a higher education institution learn from an international bank? In this episode, we talk to Brailsford & Dunlavey’s own Ron Herbst, whose long and varied career in energy eventually led him to work with Deutsche Bank establishing and managing their Eco Performance Management Office (PMO.) An EcoPMO is a team that coordinates all of the functions needed to achieve an organization’s sustainability goals.

As the son of a blue-collar inventor, Ron felt drawn to the energy and sustainability world from a young age and wanted to be what he calls a “building energy efficiency doctor.”

Ron discusses his time at Deutsche with Dave how he applies what he learned about balancing institutional needs with sustainability goals to colleges and universities. In addition, we also discuss how to balance the needs of various institution stakeholders in order to reach those goals.

Co-executive directors of the Home Energy Efficiency Team (HEET), Zeyneb Magavi and Audrey Schulman both entered the climate change fight as mothers concerned for the futures of their children. In this episode, they share the history of their work on fixing super-emitting natural gas leaks in their neighborhood and across the state of Massachusetts. They tell the story of building relationships with natural gas utility executives to make a meaningful reduction in GHG emissions which led to the next major challenge: What is the future of a natural gas systemin a world that needs to eliminate the use of fossil fuels? We discuss HEET’s role in developing the geo micro district, a neighborhood-scale renewable energy network for heating and cooling buildings. They explain the technology but also how its alternative business model offers a cost-effective path forward for our utility companies and their workers as we replace our aging natural gas infrastructure.

In this episode, Kaia talks with Abena Sackey Ojetayo, chief resilience officer and director for the City of Tallahassee, Florida. We talked about her childhood in Ghana and her sustainability projects in Florida. We also discussed code-switching and the ways that age, race and gender can place pressure on people in the workforce.