Supercool

As mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees helped launch a billion-pound public-private partnership to decarbonize his city, one of the most ambitious deals of its kind anywhere in the world.This wasn’t just about climate targets. It was about results: cutting emissions, cutting energy bills, creating jobs, and improving housing — all while building a long-term investment model that gave private partners confidence and gave residents real benefits they could feel.When Marvin started, the city had no budget, limited staff, and a local government still reeling from years of austerity. So he got creative. He turned Bristol’s public assets into a platform for investment and built the capacity to get a 20-year deal signed, funded, and delivered.Now, Marvin is helping cities around the world do the same through a new global commission to mobilize climate finance for urban action; the SDSN Global Commission for Urban SDG Finance.Supercool is collaborating with the Commission’s Secretariat, hosted at the University of Pennsylvania, to conduct a series of episodes with global mayors at the forefront of this movement. Show NotesGuest: Marvin ReesOrganization: Member of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom, former Mayor of Bristol, and Distinguished Visiting Fellow (2024–2025 Academic Year, Perry Ward House at University of Pennsylvania)For more Supercool climate solutions that cut carbon, improve modern life, and shape the new low carbon economy, subscribe to the podcast plus our:* Youtube Channel* Weekly Newsletter* Supercool on Instagram and Linkedin 

Rare earth magnets power the modern world and the clean energy transition. They’re inside every electric vehicle motor, wind turbine, MRI machine, and computer hard drive in a data center. But the world throws most of them away. Less than 1% are ever recycled. And today, China controls nearly 90% of the global supply.That’s the crisis Cyclic Materials was built to solve — by turning circularity into industrial reality.In this episode, co-founder and CEO Ahmad Ghahreman explains how his team figured out what the industry long thought impossible: separating rare earth magnets from steel before they’re lost forever. We explore the engineering that makes rare earth recycling commercially viable, the spoke-and-hub logistics model to power urban mining where end-of-life products are abundant, and why companies like Microsoft, Amazon, BMW, and Jaguar are already lining up to work with Cyclic Materials.If the clean economy is going to scale, it needs rare earths. Cyclic Materials found a way to recover them — not from a mine, but from the discarded machines all around us.Show Notes: Guest: Ahmad Ghahreman - CEO, President, and co-founderCompany: Cyclic MaterialsFor more Supercool climate solutions that cut carbon, improve modern life, and shape the new low carbon economy, subscribe to the podcast plus our:* Youtube Channel* Weekly Newsletter* Supercool on Instagram and Linkedin 

It took over a century to build today’s power grid. Now we need to triple its capacity by 2050. Why? Because demand is surging, and a net-zero future depends on a bigger, smarter, and cleaner grid. Electrification is transforming how we power transportation, buildings, industry, and data. Renewables are decentralized and intermittent. And the current grid, built for centralized fossil fuel power, wasn’t designed for what comes next.Grid infrastructure is now one of the most urgent industrial and climate challenges of our time. Siemens Energy is at the forefront of solving it. Already, one-sixth of the electricity generated worldwide is based on its technologies. Today, it’s focused on upgrading, expanding, and digitizing the transmission backbone that the clean energy economy depends on. backbone that the clean energy economy depends on.At the center of that transformation is Tim Holt. A member of Siemens Energy’s Executive Board, he leads its global Grid Technologies business and oversees operations across the Americas. In this episode, Tim describes what it takes to rewire the world’s power grids—and how Siemens Energy is moving fast to build the grid the clean energy future demands.Show NotesGuest: Tim Holt, Member of the Executive Board and Labor Director at Siemens EnergyCompany: Siemens EnergyFor more Supercool climate solutions that cut carbon, improve modern life, and shape the new low-carbon economy, subscribe to the podcast plus our:* YouTube Channel* Weekly Newsletter* Supercool on Instagram and LinkedIn 

Rondo Energy is building a renewable energy battery using bricks and toaster wire. But it’s not for your home—it’s for the factories that run the world. Industrial heat drives 10% of global carbon emissions. It’s essential for making steel, cement, chemicals, food, paper, and fuel. And it’s one of the hardest challenges in climate—expensive to electrify, risky to retrofit, and central to the global economy.That’s what makes Rondo’s approach so powerful. In this episode, John O’Donnell, co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer, explains how Rondo stores excess wind and solar energy as clean, high-temperature heat and delivers it into existing industrial systems without combustion, redesigns, or rare materials.Its low-cost approach is underway across the U.S., Europe, and Asia. John shares how decades of experience building global energy projects—and navigating the realities of infrastructure finance—shaped Rondo’s strategy for rapid scale and deployment, and why the low-carbon future is being built with bricks.Show NotesGuest: John O'Donnell, Chief Innovation OfficerCompany: Rondo EnergyFor more Supercool climate solutions that cut carbon, increase profits, and enhance modern life, subscribe to the podcast plus our:* Weekly Newsletter* Youtube Channel* Supercool on Instagram and LinkedIn 

Fifteen years ago, smart thermostats promised to save you money and learn your habits. Today, they—and other grid-connected devices and appliances—are forming the backbone of the most sustainable power plant on the grid.Jeff Gleeson, Chief Product Officer of Renew Home, joins Josh to unpack how his team is transforming everyday home tech into a distributed, intelligent, always-on energy layer—one that cuts carbon, boosts grid resilience, and earns households money, all without asking homeowners to think much about it.Jeff explains why the industry’s go-to term—“virtual power plant”—doesn’t resonate with consumers and how Renew Home is finding language that actually lands. He shares how the company is scaling a sophisticated, AI-powered home energy platform, why utilities—once hesitant—are now eager to partner, and why the most important power plants in a low-carbon economy may be the ones that never need to be built at all.Show NotesGuest: Jeff Gleeson, Chief Product OfficerCompany: Renew HomeFor more Supercool climate solutions that cut carbon, improve modern life, and shape the new low carbon economy, subscribe to the podcast plus our:* Youtube Channel* Weekly Newsletter* Supercool on Instagram and Linkedin 

Mike Martin helped launch the first climate change concert tour with Dave Matthews. He’s worked with Billie Eilish to flip venues vegan and wrote the green touring playbook years ago that artists still follow today.But after decades trying to make recycling and compostables work at live events, Mike hit a wall. Zero-waste wasn’t working. Then he remembered what he saw on tour with U2 during the Joshua Tree run—European stadiums using reusable cups.That moment sparked r.World, the reuse company now transforming how concerts, stadiums, and venues across the country are ditching single-use and building a circular economy. From Red Rocks to Coachella to Alaska Airlines, Mike shares what it takes to scale reuse—and why it all starts with a cup no one wants to take home.Show NotesGuest: Michael Martin, Founder & CEO Company: r.WorldFor more Supercool climate solutions that cut carbon, improve modern life, and shape the new low carbon economy, subscribe to the podcast plus our:* Youtube Channel* Weekly Newsletter* Supercool on Instagram and Linkedin 

Johnson Controls helped invent modern air conditioning. Now, it’s reengineering how buildings cut carbon — using AI and automation to make infrastructure smarter, cleaner, and more efficient.Reuben Petty, Principal Digital Sales Engineer, works with business leaders, facility teams, and city officials to connect legacy systems to the digital tools of tomorrow. His focus is OpenBlue — the company’s platform that brings data and intelligence to the heart of building operations.In this episode, we explore how a 140-year-old company is reinventing itself for a low-carbon future — and what it means for commercial real estate, city infrastructure, and climate action at scale.Show NotesGuest: Reuben Petty, Principal Digital Sales Engineer Company: Johnson ControlsOpen Blue at World Cup 2022 - QatarFor more Supercool climate solutions that cut carbon, improve modern life, and shape the new low carbon economy, subscribe to the podcast plus our:* Youtube Channel* Weekly Newsletter* Supercool on Instagram and Linkedin 

E-bikes are booming—nearly as many were sold in the U.S. last year as electric cars. But while EVs get the attention, e-bikes are quietly reshaping how people move, cutting emissions, making urban life easier, and recreation more fun.The catch? Buying an e-bike is easy. Reselling one isn’t.That’s where Upway comes in. They’re building the Carvana for e-bikes—a seamless resale marketplace with accessible pricing, warranties, home delivery, and easy returns. And the industry is taking notice.This week, Max Renson, U.S. General Manager at Upway, joins us to talk about why resale is the missing piece of e-bike adoption, how Upway is powering returns for brands like Aventon and Rad Power Bikes, and what it takes to turn secondhand e-bikes into a mainstream, trusted option.E-bikes are taking off. Upway is making sure nothing slows them down.Show NotesGuest: Maxime Renson Company: UpwayFor more Supercool climate solutions that cut carbon, improve modern life, and shape the new low carbon economy, subscribe to the podcast plus our:* Youtube Channel* Weekly Newsletter* Supercool on Instagram and Linkedin 

How do you make solar adoption irresistible? By not selling solar.This week on Supercool, we’re joined by Mary Powell, CEO of Sunrun, and Jessica Bergman, a marketing strategist who’s spent her career figuring out why clean energy adoption stalls—and how to fix it.Under Mary’s leadership, Sunrun stopped being just a solar company and became something much bigger: a storage-first, customer-obsessed clean energy lifestyle brand. And it’s working—60%+ of customers now add batteries, turning their homes into mini power plants that keep the lights on when the grid goes down.What’s the secret? Productization. Jessica argues that the industry has been selling kilowatt hours when it should be selling comfort, convenience, and control. Sunrun is proving that when you remove friction, make financing a no-brainer, and give customers a “Pizza Tracker” for their solar installations, adoption skyrockets.In this episode, we dig into why clean energy isn’t scaling fast enough, what the industry gets wrong, and how Sunrun is changing the game. If you want to know how to move clean energy from “maybe someday” to “why didn’t I do this sooner?”—this one’s for you.Show NotesGuests: Mary Powell, CEOJessica Bergman, Senior StrategistCompanies:SunrunID Lab GlobalFor more Supercool climate solutions that cut carbon, boost the bottom line, and improve modern life right now, subscribe to the podcast plus our:* Weekly Newsletter * Youtube Channel* Supercool on Linkedin and  Instagram

Supercool regularly speaks with innovators working at the intersection of business, technology, and climate—AI giving buildings brains, pneumatic tubes hauling away trash, and electric school buses optimizing routes. With so much climate momentum underway, how do we properly assess this moment?Molly Wood has been tracking it from multiple angles. A veteran journalist (Wired, CNET, The New York Times, NPR’s Marketplace), she left media to invest in climate tech—then returned with Everybody in the Pool, a podcast and newsletter focused on climate solutions and the entrepreneurs, businesses, and products solving the climate crisis.Today, she shares her perspective on what’s working, what’s next, where the biggest opportunities lie and the importance of powerful narratives and storytelling that drive investment, innovation, and action.SHOW NOTESGuest: Molly Wood, Award-winning journalist and podcaster, climate tech investor, startup advisor, and consultant.Companies: Molly Wood Media and Amasia Show: Everybody in the Pool For more Supercool climate solutions that cut carbon, improve modern life, and shape the new low carbon economy, subscribe to the podcast plus our:* Youtube Channel* Weekly Newsletter* Supercool on Instagram and Linkedin