Podcast
Climate Positive
Hosted by HASI · EN
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping a more sustainable future. Hosted by Gil Jenkins, Guy Van Syckle, Hilary Langer, and Kenny Gayles. Produced by HASI, a U.S.-based sustainable infrastructure investor.
25episodes
Episodes
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Renewable water and a >$1 trillion investment need | Guillaume Clairet, COO of H2O Innovation
2w ago00:43:34Tap to summarizeWater is something most of us take for granted. We turn on the tap, and it's just there. But behind that tap is an increasingly strained system that is quietly becoming one of the defining infrastructure challenges of our time. Just in the US, McKinsey estimates we are underinvesting in water assets by about $100 billion annually, with the cost only compounding as more investment is delayed. The effects are already being seen with over 20% of treated water lost through leaks in pipes that are sometimes 70 years old, generating no revenue for cash-strapped utilities. The record data center and industrial development buoying our economy is now facing major opposition, often due to local water demands. In addition, there are growing concerns and regulations regarding the forever chemicals, known as PFAS, which are showing up in more of our water supply. Today, I'm joined by Guillaume Clairet of H20 Innovation, who has helped build the company into a water treatment powerhouse over the past 25 years. From massive municipal reuse projects to distributed systems serving the critical industrial facilities, H2O is leading the water infrastructure buildout and offers a hopeful outlook on how we can start addressing our water needs. Let's dive in. Links: H20 Innovation Website Guillaume Clairet’s LinkedIn Email your feedback to Gil, Guy, Hilary, and Kenny at climatepositive@hasi.com.
Transcribe →Investing in nature’s most powerful ecosystems | Tripp Wall, CEO of Pantheon Regeneration
Apr 900:51:06Tap to summarizeIn this episode of Climate Positive, Guy Van Syckle connects with Tripp Wall, CEO of Pantheon Regeneration, to explore how his team is turning degraded peatland ecosystems into high-impact stores of carbon with a wealth of additional benefits for biodiversity and resiliency. We dive deep into an unsung hero of carbon sequestration—peatlands—which cover just 3% of the earth's surface but store twice as much carbon as all the world's forests combined. Tripp explains the hydrological engineering and cutting-edge tech helping to restore and monitor these ancient ecosystems. We discuss the evolving Voluntary Carbon Market, the supply-demand mismatch approaching, and how nature-based solutions offer a highly scalable alternative to engineered carbon capture. Additionally, Guy and Tripp explore how high-quality removal credits with biodiversity co-benefits are attracting major corporate offtakes, and the opportunities for traditional infrastructure investors to invest in natural capital to secure differentiated returns. Links: Pantheon Regeneration Website Tripp Wall LinkedIn Email your feedback to Gil, Guy, Hilary, and Kenny at climatepositive@hasi.com.
Transcribe →Rethinking nuclear: from bespoke plants to mass manufacturing reactors | Matt Loszak, CEO of Aalo Atomics
Mar 2500:38:12Tap to summarizeIn this Climate Positive episode (our 100th!), Chad and Guy talk with Matt Loszak, CEO and co-founder of Aalo Atomics, about their innovative approach to building factory-made advanced micro reactors to power the AI-driven energy demand surge. Matt shares his unconventional journey from nuclear engineering student to software entrepreneur to nuclear startup founder, explaining why he believes we're entering a "second atomic age" for clean energy. Matt discusses Aalo's strategy of vertical integration and mass manufacturing, inspired by SpaceX and Tesla, to deliver compact, liquid metal-cooled nuclear reactors that can be deployed rapidly for data centers and other applications. He explains how the regulatory environment has evolved with recent executive orders streamlining pathways to criticality, the company's ambitious timeline to achieve zero power criticality by July 2026, and their vision for 3-cent-per-kilowatt-hour nuclear energy at scale. Matt also addresses public safety perceptions, the advantages of particular reactor technologies, and how their 50-megawatt "Aalo Pod" architecture provides the redundancy and incremental buildout that hyperscalers need. Links: Aalo Atomics Website Matt Loszak on LinkedIn Email your feedback to Gil, Guy, Hilary, and Kenny at climatepositive@hasi.com.
Transcribe →Turning homes into grid powerhouses | Vinnie Campo, CEO of Haven Energy
Mar 1600:32:19Tap to summarizeIn this episode of Climate Positive, Kenny Gayles talks with Vinnie Campo, CEO and co-founder of Haven Energy, about their unique batteries-as-a-service approach that reduces barriers to affordable, reliable backup power by integrating home storage into virtual power plants (VPPs) to support the electric grid. Vinnie shares Haven’s journey as a rapidly growing operator of distributed energy assets. He discusses the effects of California’s policy impacts on battery adoption, the influence of electrification and AI-driven demand on utilities, and why batteries are vital for grid resilience. He also discusses regulatory and market trends transforming residential energy, and what it takes to scale integrated energy infrastructure solutions. Links: Haven Website Vinnie Campo on LinkedIn Haven Blog: “Raising New Funds to Speed Distributed Power” LADWP Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) Email your feedback to Gil, Guy, Hilary, and Kenny at climatepositive@hasi.com.
Transcribe →What’s at stake for U.S. hydropower | Malcolm Woolf, CEO of NHA
Feb 1800:44:29Tap to summarizeIn this episode of Climate Positive, Gil Jenkins speaks with Malcolm Woolf, President and CEO of the National Hydropower Association (NHA). They discuss the current state of the U.S. hydropower industry, its role in providing carbon-free electricity, and the challenges and opportunities facing the sector. A central focus of the conversation is the hydropower relicensing process -- how it works, where projects can stall, and how lengthy reviews can delay investment, upgrades, and in some cases lead facilities to shut down.Malcolm shares real-world examples to illustrate what’s at stake, while also exploring the potential to add generation to non-powered dams, the role of pumped storage in supporting grid reliability, and emerging marine energy technologies.Links:NHA WebsiteMalcom Woolf LinkedInNHA on LinkedInPress Release: The Hydropower Foundation and NHA Align to Strengthen Workforce Development EffortsArticle: US hydropower is at a make-or-break momentArticle: Google to buy up to 3 GW of hydro power from BrookfieldVideo: Whooshh Innovations' "Salmon Cannon" Gives Fish A Boost Over Dams Email your feedback to Gil, Guy, Hilary, and Kenny at climatepositive@hasi.com.
Transcribe →EV semi-trucks are here — how EV Realty is scaling the charging | Patrick Sullivan
Jan 1500:47:36Tap to summarizeThe trucking industry operates on razor-thin margins and highly optimized schedules. Think free delivery from click to your door in 4 hours. Decarbonizing that kind of industry requires more than green intentions—it requires a highly reliable solution that drives real economic value. In the push to electrify large trucks, we often focus on the vehicles. But this rollout requires industrial-scale access to electricity in the context of an often-challenged distribution grid.My guest today is Patrick Sullivan, CEO of EV Realty. Building on decades of renewable energy development experience, navigating electricity grid constraints, Patrick and team are enabling the EV semi-truck rollout today.We discuss the coming wave of EV trucks, the realities of the freight supply chain, and how EV Realty is building a network that works for the bottom line, local communities, and the broader climate.Links:EV Realty WebsitePatrick Sullivan – CEO of EV RealtyEpisode recorded Email your feedback to Gil, Guy, Hilary, and Kenny at climatepositive@hasi.com.
Transcribe →Investing in transition to healthier more profitable farms | Brandon Welch, CEO of MadCapital
Dec 1800:40:34Tap to summarizeIn this episode, Guy Van Syckle connects with the CEO of Mad Capital Brandon Welch who is proving that financing regenerative agriculture can scale—and it can do so profitably. Brandon reviews the significant challenges posed by current agricultural practices and how Mad Capital is helping farmers and ranchers build a more sustainable food system through innovative financing. He shares insights on farmers economic incentives, the steps involved in transitioning farming practices, and his company's growing impact as a leading investor in regenerative agriculture. Most importantly he shares the stories of how farmers economic outlooks are being improved through these investments.Links:MadCapital WebsiteBrandon Welch - CEO of Mad CapitalEpisode recorded November 12, 2025 Email your feedback to Gil, Guy, Hilary, and Kenny at climatepositive@hasi.com.
Transcribe →The rise of solar and hope for the future | Bill McKibben
Nov 2000:32:51Tap to summarizeIn this episode of Climate Positive, Gil Jenkins speaks with Bill McKibben: author, educator, and one of the most acclaimed environmental voices of our time. His latest book, Here Comes the Sun, traces the rise of abundant, inexpensive solar power and argues that if we keep accelerating, we have a real chance not only to limit climate damage, but also to reorder the world on saner and more humane grounds. We dig into the data, the politics, and the people driving the global shift to solar, and Bill also opens up about the role of faith in his work and how he views the environmental movement’s trajectory today.Links:Bill McKibben WebsitePurchase Bill’s Book - Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for CivilizationBook Excerpt: 4.6 Billion Years On, the Sun Is Having a Moment – The New Yorker, July 9, 2025Substack: The Crucial Years - Bill’s ongoing essays on climate, energy, and activismSun Day WebsiteThird Act WebsiteArticle: Sunday Was Also Sun Day - The New York Times, Sept. 20, 2025Episode recorded on October 20, 2025 About Bill:Bill McKibben is founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 for action on climate and justice. His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has appeared in 24 languages. He’s gone on to write 20 books, and his work appears regularly in periodicals from the New Yorker to Rolling Stone. He serves as the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he has won the Gandhi Peace Prize as well as honorary degrees from 20 colleges and universities. He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes called the alternative Nobel, in the Swedish Parliament. Foreign Policy named him to its inaugural list of the world’s 100 most important global thinkers. McKibben helped found 350.org, the first global grassroots climate campaign, which has organized protests on every continent, including Antarctica, for climate action. He played a leading role in launching the opposition to big oil pipeline projects like Keystone XL, and the fossil fuel divestment campaign, which has become the biggest anti-corporate campaign in history, with endowments worth more than $40 trillion stepping back from oil, gas and coal. He stepped down as board chair of 350 in 2015, and left the board and stepped down from his volunteer role as senior adviser in 2020, accepting emeritus status. He lives in the mountains above Lake Champlain with his wife, the writer Sue Halpern, where he spends as much time as possible outdoors. In 2014, biologists credited his career by naming a new species of woodland gnat—Megophthalmidia mckibbeni–in his honor.Book Blurb:From the acclaimed environmentalist, a call to harness the power of the sun and rewrite our scientific, economic, and political future. Our climate, and our democracy, are melting down. But Bill McKibben, one of the first to sound the alarm about the climate crisis, insists the moment is also full of possibility. Energy from the sun and wind is suddenly the cheapest power on the planet and growing faster than any energy source in history—if we can keep accelerating the pace, we have a chance. Here Comes the Sun tells the story of the sudden spike in power from the sun and wind—and the desperate fight of the fossil fuel industry and their politicians to hold this new power at bay. From the everyday citizens who installed solar panels equal to a third of Pakistan’s electric grid in a year to the world’s sixth-largest economy—California—nearly halving its use of natural gas in the last two years, Bill McKibben traces the arrival of plentiful, inexpensive solar energy. And he shows how solar power is more than just a path out of the climate crisis: it is a chance to reorder the world on saner and more humane grounds. You can’t hoard solar energy or hold it in reserves—it’s available to all.There’s no guarantee we can make this change in time, but there is a hope—in McKibben’s eyes, our best hope for a new civilization: one that looks up to the sun, every day, as the star that fuels our world. Email your feedback to Gil, Guy, Hilary, and Kenny at climatepositive@hasi.com.
Transcribe →Electing clean energy champions where it matters most | Caroline Spears, Climate Cabinet
Oct 2900:40:27Tap to summarizeIn this episode of Climate Positive, Guy Van Syckle and Gil Jenkins sit down with Caroline Spears, Executive Director of Climate Cabinet, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting clean energy and climate policy leaders at state and local levels. These often-forgotten races are sometimes decided by a couple hundred votes and can also decide the fate of billions of dollars of decarbonization investment. Caroline explains how Climate Cabinet strategically identifies target candidates through data science and political expertise, aiming to elect climate champions with the highest potential ability to shape positive change. Through real-world examples, she demonstrates the organization's effectiveness in close political races and the tangible difference their support can make.LinksClimate Cabinet Website Sign up for a monthly donation to help Climate Cabinet find and elect the highest ROI clean energy champions in state and local elections across the U.S. Caroline Spears on LinkedInEpisode recorded on October 2, 2025 Email your feedback to Gil, Guy, Hilary, and Kenny at climatepositive@hasi.com.
Transcribe →A new age of wind propulsion for cargo ships | Heikki Pöntynen, CEO of Norsepower
Sep 2200:22:36Tap to summarizeIn this episode of Climate Positive, Gil Jenkins and Kenny Gayles speak with Heikki Pöntynen, CEO of Norsepower, about how rotor sails are helping the maritime industry cut fuel use and emissions. By harnessing the Magnus effect with spinning cylinders mounted on cargo ships, Norsepower is delivering 5–25% fuel savings today—sometimes even more. Heikki discusses the company’s rapid growh, including a new factory in China to scale production, the evolving policy landscape at the IMO and EU, and why ship owners are increasingly open to wind propulsion. LinksNorsepower WebsiteNorsepower on LinkedInVideo: How do Norsepower Rotor Sails work?Press Release: COSCO Shipping partners with Norsepower to enable a step change in the global rotor sail marketArticle: How wind tech could help decarbonize cargo shipping | MIT Tech Review |January 2, 2025Article: These 150-foot-high sails could help solve shipping’s climate problem | The Washington Post | April 22, 2024Episode recorded on September 3, 2025 Email your feedback to Gil, Guy, Hilary, and Kenny at climatepositive@hasi.com.
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