Climate CEOs

Recent Episodes

1. The Ocean's Billion-Ton Carbon Removal Opportunity | Gigablue

   Aug 4, 2026

   Ori Shashua, co-founder of Gigablue, discusses MCFS (Microalgae Carbon Fixation and Sinking), a marine carbon removal methodology that harnesses phytoplankton and plant-based carbon carrier pods to capture and sequester carbon in ocean sediment. Gigablue recently raised a $20M Series A and has begun operating in the open ocean with verified methodology from Puro.earth, securing six-figure offtake agreements with major emitting sectors including aviation, financial services, and energy.

2. From OpenAI to $500M in Project Finance for Forests | Living Carbon

   Jul 29, 2026

   Maddie Hall, co-founder and CEO of Living Carbon, discusses how the company has raised $76 million in corporate equity and unlocked $500 million in project finance by combining reforestation, biomass, and long-term infrastructure thinking on degraded U.S. land. The conversation covers Living Carbon's dual business model—carbon credits and biomass production—site selection strategy, species selection, and the capital structure required to move from balance sheet equity funding to project finance. Hall shares leadership lessons on navigating hype cycles, building resilience, and the importance of long-term strategic focus over market trends.

3. Why Smart Climate Founders Still Make Bad Decisions

   Jul 24, 2026

   Chris Wedding, CEO coach, investor, founder, and Duke University Strategy professor, discusses why climate tech founders make poor decisions despite good intentions. He introduces the Double Diamond framework—a product strategy methodology that separates problem discovery from solution design, helping founders balance expansive thinking with capital efficiency and avoid building expensive hardware nobody wants.

4. The $230M Bet on Turning Homes Into Power Plants | Lunar Energy

   Jul 21, 2026

   Kunal Girotra, founder and CEO of Lunar Energy, discusses how the company is building integrated home energy systems combining solar, batteries, load controls, and AI-powered software to turn homes into distributed power plants. Lunar's GridShare software manages 650+ megawatts across 150,000 homes, enabling customers to save 30-60% on electricity bills, achieve 24/7 backup power, and earn money through virtual power plant programs—all with zero upfront cost through lease financing. Girotra shares lessons from his time leading Tesla Energy and advises on fundraising strategy, team resilience, and habits for sustainable entrepreneurship.

5. The Climate Tech Leadership Trap: Staying In Founder Mode Too Long

   Jul 17, 2026

   Chris Wedding, CEO coach, investor, founder, and professor, delivers a minisode on a critical leadership challenge in climate tech: the tension between founder mode and manager mode. Drawing from a debate at the EFI climate CEO peer group gathering in Seattle, Wedding explores how switching between speed-focused founder mode and scale-focused manager mode creates friction, misalignment, and decision paralysis. He provides a framework for CEOs to explicitly name their operating mode, clarify decision authority, and define processes to prevent organizational confusion.

6. The Robot Crew Building Solar Farms Faster Than Humans | Luminous

   Jul 14, 2026

   Jay Wong, founder and CEO of Luminous, discusses how AI-powered robotic fleets are reshaping solar construction by automating module installation and logistics. Luminous deploys 4,000-pound tracked robots on active solar sites to increase labor efficiency by 4X while improving safety (0 injuries to date), reducing panel defects by 15-20%, and locking in labor costs on a per-watt basis as hardware prices continue to fall. Wong emphasizes that the company's competitive advantage lies not in engineering sophistication alone, but in designing for customer adoption through a heterogeneous fleet architecture that creates a 'virtual conveyor belt' for continuous installation.

7. 15 Climate Startups To Watch: Out of 105

   Jul 10, 2026

   Chris Wedding hosts a minisode covering three climate tech topics: a curated watchlist of 15 early-stage climate startups selected by Trellis from 105 candidates across data center solutions, climate adaptation, and materials innovation; the mindset balance between extreme patience and extreme decisiveness in climate tech entrepreneurship; and four pieces of wisdom from BIPOC climate CEOs on leveraging pattern matching, operational excellence, community integration, and authentic diverse leadership.

8. Data > Hardware: 190% Net Revenue Retention for the Operating System for the Power Grid | Texture

   Jul 7, 2026

   Sanjeev Sangavi, co-founder and CEO of Texture, discusses building an operating system for the power grid that integrates fragmented utility software, meter data, and distributed energy resources into unified workflows. Texture targets underserved municipal utilities and cooperatives, achieving 190% net revenue retention through a $1-per-meter pricing model and rapid customer expansion driven by measurable operational payback. Sangavi shares lessons from founding ClassPass and working at Arcadia, emphasizing consultative sales approaches that reduced sales cycles from 9 months to 3 months.

9. Climate Urgency Is Distorting CEO Decision-Making

   Jul 3, 2026

   Chris Wedding, CEO coach, investor, founder, and professor, delivers a minisode on how urgency is distorting climate CEO decision-making and strategy execution. The episode explores trade-offs between urgency and strategy, accessibility and authority, and presence and perspective, arguing that constant reactivity prevents strategic leadership. Wedding offers three concrete actions: Total Focus Tuesdays, Future Back Fridays, and bottleneck audits to help climate tech leaders reclaim strategic clarity.

10. I Answer Four Important Questions | Advice, Habits, Books

    Jun 30, 2026

    Chris Wedding, CEO coach, investor, founder, and professor, answers four key questions typically posed to podcast guests: advice for younger self, health/wellness habits, recommended books, and influential people. Wedding shares insights on avoiding red ocean competition through skill stacking, building lifestyle businesses, the bottom 5% differentiation strategy, internal entrepreneurship, relationship compounding, radical ownership, identity diversification, and believing in the impossible. He discusses daily practices including sleep, meditation, rucking, sauna, and journaling, and recommends eight books spanning systems thinking, focus, perspective, and leverage. He concludes by reflecting on three mentors who shaped his leadership: Dr. Sam McFarlane, Doug Crawford Brown, and Thich Nhat Hanh.