New Research, Buildings Reinvented – Erin McLaughlin, The Conference Board
Release Date: 07/22/2024
Japan Embraces Climate & Sustainability – Yvonne Burton, Expert On Doing Business In Japan, at Osaka Expo 2025
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“The theme of the expo is ‘designing society for future lives.’ And it is just that from the foundations, from the buildings to the exhibits, each country showcasing what they're doing for our future, in technology, healthcare, sustainable, living energy…The Japan pavilion's exhibit…is about the circular economy and…the theme is between life and life. So the pavilion, and its circular structure, is about life and how everything is connected and flows, again, the circular economy.” Yvonne Burton on Electric Ladies Podcast Japan is one of the countries most vulnerable to the...
info_outline
Artificial Intelligence (A.I) And The Climate - Stephanie Hare, Ph.D., Researcher, Broadcaster and Author of “Technology Is Not Neutral”
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“(A.I.) is so energy intensive as a technology, and that's the thing that we have to get, the infrastructure of AI… Right now we do not have an electricity grid that is, that is built for this purpose. There's the water requirements of it as well. And we also need to just think about the energy, the actual fuel that's being used to fire up and power the electricity grid.” Dr. Stephanie Hare on Electric Ladies Podcast Artificial intelligence (AI) is ubiquitous today and advancing faster than we can imagine. It’s being used in many ways to mitigate and adapt to climate change, too, and...
info_outline
Energy Efficiency Saves Money & CO2 – Paula Glover, CEO of the Alliance To Save Energy
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“Energy efficiency…is doing more, using less. The megawatt not used is the cheapest megawatt and there's so many things, either by using technology, old technology like insulation or digitalization, that allows us to really stretch what we can get out every single megawat, a kilowatt electron that we use. And so that's what we're talking about. If we had the kind of massive adoption that we need, we could get to a big 40% reduction.” Paula Glover on Electric Ladies Podcast With the Energy Star program and other energy efficiency programs under attack and misunderstood, we decided to...
info_outline
Career Advice From 5 Women Trailblazers – Hilary Doe, Cong. Chrissy Houlahan, Zara Summers, Tensie Whelan, & Claire Seaborn
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“For anyone, women especially who are interested in the energy and climate space, I would say that you shouldn't feel that you need to choose between the public sector, the private sector, and the nonprofit sector. I've been able to continue to build my expertise in the energy and climate space, but from multiple different perspectives. My advice would be to just not feel that you need to pick one of those lanes and, and to take the risk to bounce between those different segments of our economy.” Claire Seaborn on Electric Ladies Podcast Summer is a good time to think about your next...
info_outline
Using Captured Carbon To Make Energy – Bjork Kristjansdottir, Carbon Recycling International
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“Carbon Recycling International…is converting CO2 into sustainable methanol…(W)e have technology, which takes CO2 as a waste, and it takes hydrogen and turns it into methanol…and it is used today both like into chemicals. So, the chemical sector is a big consumer of methanol, which is a very large known product in the world today. …(and into) a sustainable fuel...playing a pretty big role in the energy transition.” Bjork Kristjansdottir on Electric Ladies Podcast As the Trump administration sends mixed signals on carbon capture technologies – keeping the tax credits for them...
info_outline
You Can Make 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...
info_outline
Recycled Steel Goes Mainstream - Tabitha Stine, General Manager, Energy Solutions, Nucor Corporation
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“Our job is to recycle so that we can recover all of that scrap and goods that you and I are recycling in our garbage bins every week or recycling as we get new cars. And our job is to recover that because we make steel in a very clean and efficient process through what's called an electric arc furnace. So, we take all of that scrap, we melt it down, and we make new steel. It does not degrade. It has a continuous reusable life.…Depending on the different products of steel, that actually determines the recycled content that goes into them for the finishes and the quality of the steel that's...
info_outline
Unlocking Capital For Women And Climate Solutions – Women Leaders In Finance And Investment, The Earth Day Women’s Summit
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“If you cannot change the system, change the frigging system… Women, when we have our money, are more likely to start an impact fund business or something. So, we have really got to get out of our way and just take the risk. " Tracy Gray at The Earth Day Women’s Summit 2025 Innovative financing models are urgently needed to tackle the climate crisis, but significant gaps persist. Research shows that women and people of color deliver stronger returns yet continue to be underrepresented. Meanwhile, the insurance industry must confront the mounting risks of climate...
info_outline
Climate Is A Security Emergency – From A Top Climate Scientist & A Geopolitical Expert
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
"The climate crisis has roots in fossil fuels, but at the same time, fossil fuels fund this Russian invasion to Ukraine. So it means this is a fossil fuel war. If we will actually fight against our overall actually dependency on fossil fuels in the same way we will fight against climate change." Svitlana Krakovska on Electric Ladies Podcast The climate emergency is a security threat, and a “threat multiplier,” as former Defense Undersecretary Sherri Goodman has written. Looking at security in the same way as it has been is no longer working. The old view leaves us very vulnerable....
info_outline
Food, Fashion & Ag vs. Climate Change – Voices From The Earth Day Women’s Summit
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“Food systems have to do with everything from production to processing, distribution, and the utilization. Then of course, end of life for food systems which includes food waste. In the United States, 40% of the food that we produce goes to waste. This means with distribution challenges that not everybody has equitable access to the kinds of foods that they need and want, at the times that they need them." Robin Currey on Electric Ladies Podcast Climate change is disrupting our food and agriculture systems, including the critical supply chains that feed and clothe us. Yet,...
info_outline“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 where we work, climate change, reporting and financing structures, and even the materials we use to build those homes and commercial buildings. So, where are we?
Listen to Erin McLaughlin, Senior Economist at The Conference Board, explain the trends from their recent research in this fascinating discussion with Electric Ladies host Joan Michelson. She also shares insightful career advice.
You’ll hear about:
- The inflection point that our buildings and homes face today, and why it’s unique in history.
- What is changing as a result of these dynamics, in every aspect of buildings, from materials, to processes, to financing, to who uses them and how.
- The key role that mitigating climate change plays in where we live, play and work.
- Plus, insightful career advice, such as…
“Careers don't always go up, right? You shouldn't necessarily think of your career as, oh, I got promoted to the next position up and now I manage more people, or I manage a bigger budget. You should think of them like climbing a, a rock wall. Like sometimes you have to go sideways in order to go up… and to deepen your skillset and, also watch the trends and watch the policies and…thinking about how they'll impact your career.” Erin McLaughlin on Electric Ladies Podcast
Read Joan’s Forbes articles here.
You'll also like:
- Katie McGinty, Chief Sustainability Officer, Johnson Controls, on the power of building.
- Anna Siefken, Deputy Director, Federal Energy Management Program, Dept. of Energy, on how the federal government reduces the energy use and carbon footprint of its 350,000 buildings.
- Rachel McCleery, Senior Advisor, Treasury Dept. Inflation Reduction Act Program, on how to leverage the IRA to save money reducing a building or business’s energy use and carbon footprint.
- Rachel Frazin, Environment & Energy Reporter at The Hill, on Project 2025 and climate change.
- Laura Busse Dolan, CEO, Applied Imagination, which designs and builds miniature buildings from plants and botanicals.
Subscribe to our newsletter to receive our podcasts, blog, events and special coaching offers..
Thanks for subscribing on Apple Podcasts or iHeartRadio and leaving us a review!
Follow us on Twitter @joanmichelson