Reducing The Government’s Carbon Footprint – Anna Siefken, Federal Energy Management Program
Release Date: 06/24/2024
Learning From Canada’s Energy Policies – Claire Seaborn, former Chief of Staff to Canada’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“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 ...
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Financial Opportunities For Climate, Energy – Heather Boushey, White House Council of Economic Advisors & Chief Economist of Invest in America Cabinet
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“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...
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Project 2025 & Climate – Rachel Frazin, The Hill Energy & Environment Reporter
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“I think some of the biggest themes throughout (Project 2025) are a sort of reorganization or dismantling of some of our environment agencies. They literally use the word ‘dismantled’ for what they would like to do to NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The others are a little bit more subtle, but they talk about shifting senior career staffers out of the EPAs office of water. So, it's all sorts of, you know, reorganizing and rearranging these agencies and doing so in a way that might make them, or that is going to make them, less protective of the climate.”...
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New Research, Buildings Reinvented – Erin McLaughlin, The Conference Board
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“I think we are really at an inflection point for a couple different reasons, the first being climate change and the fact that buildings are the cause of so much carbon emissions…(T)he second one, as you sort of referred to is the pandemic, and our intersection with how we use our residential and commercial buildings is different…(and) we also have to acknowledge the expense and the financing costs around some of the changes that we are seeing underway and what that may mean.” Erin McLaughlin on Electric Ladies Podcast Multiple forces are transforming our buildings at once: how and...
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Performing Our Femininity & Values – Joan Michelson Speaks At Parlay House DC
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“Sustainable fashion has … given us more permission to wear our values, to choose what reflects our personalities and our values…We have a lot more choices. We have a lot more agency, we have a lot more resources and authority and influence…We can choose to make our impressions the way that we want to…Think about it, because you're sending a message. You're reflecting who you are with how you put yourself together that day….We make a statement with what we wear. So what statement do you want to make?” Joan Michelson at Parlay House DC Delia Ephron, sister and collaborator...
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Ensuring Electricity With Long Duration Storage – Julia Souder, Long Duration Energy Storage Council
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“We look at how long sharing storage can really fill in the gaps when you don't have wind and solar 24 /7. ….(There are) four families of long sharing storage.….different ways you can store for multiple hours, days, and seasons. This diversity is really important, because whether you're an island nation, and you maybe have floating solar or offshore wind and you want to bring it in and hold it for when you (need it), every week you want to repurpose it for your ports or your infrastructure, your urban centers.” Julia Souder on Electric Ladies Podcast The waves of extreme heat,...
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Reducing The Government’s Carbon Footprint – Anna Siefken, Federal Energy Management Program
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“We work with this entire portfolio of buildings of the federal government, as you mentioned, about 350,000 buildings, also including 600,000 cars and trucks in the fleet, all of them looking towards decarbonization…We do it through policy and planning. So, we analyze the management mandates, the energy management mandates that come out, and we help agencies understand what they need to do to meet those legislative goals. We do analysis and strategy, so we help work alongside the agencies to identify the short and long-term opportunities and how they can…save money and to meet these...
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Unusual Career Advice – Powerful Insights From 5 Renowned Electric Ladies Guests
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“Women often have far more skills than their resumes translate into. And actually we're going into a good period now where I think employers and organizations are looking for the skillset that you have more than the job titles that you have. And that's good for women because we have a lot of skills that we will have acquired in different arenas. Bring in your all… It's tough out there. It requires resilience, but just remember that you have a tremendous amount to offer and, um, you know it, and sooner or later somebody's going to figure that out too.” on Electric Ladies podcast...
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Making A Difference Where You Are – Laur Hesse Fisher, MIT’s Environmental Solutions Initiative
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“There are those individual actions that we can take. But if I can work with my community or work inside of my company, or if I can work inside of my house of worship and we can build some community and some action that way, it will have a much bigger impact than anything that I can do as an individual… The communities that they're already a part of, whether they're residential, like in their neighborhoods, or it's the nonprofits that they're a part of, or the places where they have other kinds of communities like religious communities, and start conversations there. What could we do as a...
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Accessing Inflation Reduction Act Tax Credits – Rachel McLeery, Senior Advisor, Dept. of Treasury
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“We like to break (the tax credits) down by industries and audiences...On the industry side, we have energy efficiency, energy generation, manufacturing, vehicles, fuels, and carbon capture. Now, overlaying all of those are a handful of cross crosscutting bonuses and requirements that can greatly affect, in many cases, increase the amount of the underlying tax credit within those industry driven tax credits. And then we have the audiences who are applicable to these tax credits. Now, the beauty of the IRA is that it is so wide sweeping that almost everybody is eligible for some type of tax...
info_outline“We work with this entire portfolio of buildings of the federal government, as you mentioned, about 350,000 buildings, also including 600,000 cars and trucks in the fleet, all of them looking towards decarbonization…We do it through policy and planning. So, we analyze the management mandates, the energy management mandates that come out, and we help agencies understand what they need to do to meet those legislative goals. We do analysis and strategy, so we help work alongside the agencies to identify the short and long-term opportunities and how they can…save money and to meet these higher goals. We do it through execution and funding.” Anna Siefken on Electric Ladies Podcast
The federal government has 350,000 buildings across the country and internationally, which are all looking to decarbonize, just as the government suggests we all do. How do you reduce the carbon footprint of such a massive and varied collection of buildings?
Listen to Anna Siefken, Deputy Director at the Federal Energy Management Program at the U.S. Department of Energy, explain how they do and maybe discover some opportunities for your company to help them, as well as some insightful career advice, in this fascinating discussion with Electric Ladies host Joan Michelson.
You’ll hear about:
- What exactly the Federal Energy Management Program does and how they do it.
- The impact of these buildings and initiatives on their local economies – including how and when they use subcontractors, including women-owned businesses and helping disadvantaged communities.
- How FEMP trains leaders across the government to make decisions that reduce their energy and water use, and CO2 emissions, as well as tools they provide to help.
- Plus, insightful career advice, such as…
“There are spaces for everyone in this clean energy transition…A way for a person to get more involved is, I've got to say DOE website has a lot of postings….(Or) Find someone (on LinkedIn) who's in a position that is exactly what you think you want to be doing. And then first map your own skills to what that person is saying they're doing… Or you can also do this with like open positions, you go and you look for open positions that you think you might qualify for and then back in your skills…Figure out how your skills map to either what that person is doing or what that position is asking for, because you'll find that the similarities are there.” Anna Siefken on Electric Ladies Podcast
Read Joan’s Forbes articles here.
You'll also like:
- Rachel McCleery, Senior Advisor, Treasury Dept. Inflation Reduction Act Program, on how exactly to leverage the IRA to reduce a building or business’s carbon footprint and save money.
- 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.
- Polly Trottenberg, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Transportation, on the transportation revolution taking place.
- Judith Pryor, Vice Chair & First Vice President, Export Import Bank of the U.S., on leveraging exporting and trade for energy, climate and sustainability, as well as economic development.
- 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.
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