Climate Confident

Send me a messageWhat if upgrading your home to be climate-friendly was as simple as scanning it with your phone?In this week’s episode of the Climate Confident Podcast, I talk with Grant Gunnison, founder and CEO of Zero Homes - a former NASA and MIT engineer who’s now tackling one of climate tech’s toughest challenges: decarbonising existing homes. His company uses smartphone scans and digital twins to design fully-scoped, permit-ready electrification plans - no site visit, no clipboard, no chaos.You’ll hear how Grant’s team is cutting out the “truck rolls” that make home upgrades expensive and slow, saving homeowners money while helping contractors stay profitable. We dig into why electrifying 60 million U.S. homes is both an engineering nightmare and a golden opportunity, and how technology, not policy alone, can finally make it scale.We also unpack the human side: what really motivates homeowners to switch to heat pumps, why induction cooking is a secret health win, and how removing the awkwardness of having strangers poke around your home can actually accelerate climate action.🎙️ Listen now to hear how Zero Homes is reshaping the future of home electrification - making sustainable living smarter, faster, and far more comfortable.Podcast supportersI'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing subscribers: Cecilia Skarupa Ben Gross Jerry Sweeney Andreas Werner Stephen Carroll Roger Arnold And remember you too can Subscribe to the Podcast - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent Climate Confident episodes like this one, as well as give you access to the entire back catalog of Climate Confident episodes.ContactIf you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - get in touch via direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn. If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show. CreditsMusic credits - Intro by Joseph McDade, and Outro music for this podcast was composed, played, and produced by my daughter Luna Juniper

Send me a messageIn this week’s episode of Climate Confident, I sat down with Johanna Wolfson, co-founder and general partner at Azolla Ventures, to talk about how we can rethink climate-tech investing - not as a game of chasing returns, but as a mission to fund what truly matters.Johanna’s firm takes a bold approach using catalytic capital, money that embraces higher risk to bring breakthrough technologies from lab to market. We explored why that matters right now, as parts of the venture community hesitate just when the planet has, as she put it, “negative time to spare.”We dug into the uncomfortable truth: the pull of the “returns-first” mindset is still powerful, even in climate investing. But Johanna makes a compelling case for impact-first capital that can back ideas others won’t touch, from gigaton-scale carbon removal to early-stage innovations in shipping, geothermal, and bioplastics.She also flagged two blind spots investors urgently need to address: methane and nitrous oxide, gases far more potent than CO₂ yet largely ignored - and the coming wave of adaptation and resilience tech as climate impacts intensify.This conversation will make you think differently about where climate capital flows, who it serves, and what true impact investing looks like in a world that can’t afford to wait.🎧 Listen now to hear how Azolla Ventures is rewriting the rules of climate finance, and why the next frontier may be investing in resilience itself.Keywords: climate tech investing, catalytic capital, climate finance, venture capital, methane reduction, resilience technology, impact investing, Azolla Ventures, gigaton-scale emissions reduction, Climate Confident podcastPodcast supportersI'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing subscribers: Cecilia Skarupa Ben Gross Jerry Sweeney Andreas Werner Stephen Carroll Roger Arnold And remember you too can Subscribe to the Podcast - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent Climate Confident episodes like this one, as well as give you access to the entire back catalog of Climate Confident episodes.ContactIf you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - get in touch via direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn. If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show. CreditsMusic credits - Intro by Joseph McDade, and Outro music for this podcast was composed, played, and produced by my daughter Luna Juniper

Send me a messageIn this week’s episode of Climate Confident, I sat down with Christopher Carrick, founder and CTO of Lignin Industries, to explore a game-changing innovation in the fight against plastic pollution, turning waste from the paper industry into carbon-negative bioplastics.Christopher’s story starts in his kitchen, where curiosity (and a Star Wars ice-cube tray) led to a breakthrough: modifying lignin, the brown polymer in wood, so it can be melted, shaped, and blended into everyday plastics like polypropylene, polyethylene, and ABS. The result? Materials that can replace up to 40 percent of fossil plastics, perform just as well, and even smell faintly of forest.We unpacked how this process works, why recyclability and stability are critical, and how Lignin’s bioplastics outperform many “green” alternatives by avoiding thermal degradation during recycling. Christopher also explains why regulation — not technology — is now the biggest bottleneck in decarbonising the plastics sector.What struck me most is the scale of impact possible here. Plastics are one of the hardest sectors to clean up, yet Lignin’s approach shows that circularity, chemistry, and creativity can combine to make fossil-free materials commercially viable.We also touched on scalability, partnerships, and the hope Christopher finds in consumers — the moment someone holds one of their wood-scented bags and realises that sustainability can feel good too.🎧 Listen in to hear how lignin could transform the global plastics market — and why the future might just smell like trees.👉 Available now on climateconfidentpodcast.com and all major podcast platforms.Keywords: bioplastics, lignin, sustainable materials, circular economy, plastic recycling, decarbonisation, climate innovation, fossil-free plasticsPodcast supportersI'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing subscribers: Cecilia Skarupa Ben Gross Jerry Sweeney Andreas Werner Stephen Carroll Roger Arnold And remember you too can Subscribe to the Podcast - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent Climate Confident episodes like this one, as well as give you access to the entire back catalog of Climate Confident episodes.ContactIf you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - get in touch via direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn. If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show. CreditsMusic credits - Intro by Joseph McDade, and Outro music for this podcast was composed, played, and produced by my daughter Luna Juniper

Send me a messageIn this week’s episode of Climate Confident, I’m joined by Sherie Nelson, Senior Director of Responsibility & Wellness at Elior North America, a food service company serving millions of meals daily across schools, hospitals, universities, and businesses. Sherie sits at the fascinating intersection of nutrition, sustainability, and systems change - proving that what’s good for people is, quite literally, good for the planet.We discuss how Elior has cut food waste by 64% since 2022, rolled out data-driven carbon tracking across thousands of kitchens, and committed to making 50% of all new menus meatless by 2025. Sherie explains how her team is re-engineering menus to be both craveable and climate-friendly, and why naming and presentation matter just as much as emissions data when driving behaviour change.From plant-forward menu design and sustainable packaging to the hard truths of scalability and regulation, Sherie offers a masterclass in how large-scale food operations can reduce emissions without compromising on flavour or health.If you’ve ever wondered how the global food service industry can help deliver on climate goals, or how data and diet can work together to cut emissions at scale, this episode is a must-listen.Listen now to learn why the future of sustainable dining starts with the choices we make, and the stories we tell, on every plate.#Sustainability #ClimateAction #FoodSystems #NetZero #PlantBased #CircularEconomy #ClimateConfidentPodcast supportersI'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing subscribers: Cecilia Skarupa Ben Gross Jerry Sweeney Andreas Werner Stephen Carroll Roger Arnold And remember you too can Subscribe to the Podcast - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent Climate Confident episodes like this one, as well as give you access to the entire back catalog of Climate Confident episodes.ContactIf you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - get in touch via direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn. If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show. CreditsMusic credits - Intro by Joseph McDade, and Outro music for this podcast was composed, played, and produced by my daughter Luna Juniper