Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 38:22 — 52.7MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Email | RSS

Technology is constantly changing, especially in the climate space, and the innovations that look good today may be outpaced. No one can tell the future, but how can we make good hypotheses about which technologies will succeed?

In this episode of Future in Bloom, Steph sits down with Nat Bullard, Co-Founder of Halcyon, an AI-driven energy market intelligence platform. Together, they talk about how to think about the potential long-term impact of current technology, decipher information through the noise, and build a lasting career in the energy industry.

​📧 Subscribe to Our Substack: https://substack.com/@futureinbloom
—
Future in Bloom bridges climate tech and human nature. Hosted by clean energy entrepreneur Steph Speirs, Future in Bloom brings together innovators, scientists, and investors working on the world’s most promising planetary solutions.

Adapted from the Yale School of Management course “Climate Tech Innovation and Commercialization,” learners discover next generation technologies through data-driven lectures, deep dive studio interviews, and vivid short documentaries. Future in Bloom is here to show that a thriving future is within reach.
—
About Steph Speirs:
Steph Speirs is a clean energy entrepreneur, strategic advisor, and teacher. She founded Future in Bloom, a media studio about intelligent solutions for a thriving world. Steph teaches climate entrepreneurship at Yale School of Management and is a Resident Fellow at the Center for Business and the Environment. She keynotes and advises philanthropists, investors, and companies on the future of climate tech and clean energy.

She serves on the Board of Directors of the Sierra Club Foundation, Vote Solar, and on the Credit Committee of the Community Investment Guarantee Pool. Steph most recently cofounded and was CEO of Solstice, an enterprise dedicated to radically expanding the number of American households that can take advantage of clean energy using community-shared solar farms (acquired by MyPower/Mitsui). Steph previously worked at the White House National Security Council and in clean energy companies in India and Pakistan.
—
#cleanenergy #greenenergy #podcast #futureinbloom

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 13:13 — 12.1MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Email | RSS

What can a close encounter with a nine-foot shark teach us about business, community, and the future?

At Grist’s recent 10th anniversary event of their 50 Fixers list, Steph explores what becomes possible when we choose collaboration over competition, build unlikely coalitions, and share value with the communities we serve. The same shift in perspective can change how we think about climate solutions, infrastructure, and even the stories we tell about the natural world.

Because the goal isn’t simply to survive. It’s to create a future where we can thrive together — by caring for one another, being good neighbors, and, instead of swimming away from each other, swimming toward each other.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 45:59 — 63.1MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Email | RSS

Right now, humanity puts billions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. This has real, negative impacts on environmental and human health. Clean energy and the updated infrastructure that it demands are steps towards a healthier future. If that’s well known, why aren’t we building more?

In this episode of Future in Bloom, Steph sits down with Jackie Wong, Senior Vice President of Climate and Energy at the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the largest environmental advocacy groups in the country. Together, they talk about why imperfect climate solutions are needed and how policymakers, businesses, and communities can all evaluate the trade-offs that come with them.
—
📧 Subscribe to Our Substack: https://substack.com/@futureinbloom
—

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:01:57 — 85.1MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Email | RSS

In the past 50 years, the cost of generating solar power has dropped by 99%. That’s largely due to economics: when more solar generators get made, the cheaper it is to make more. This isn’t unique to solar power; in the right circumstances and with enough time, these economics play out with many new technologies. But the climate crisis is here, now, so how much longer can we wait?

In this episode of Future in Bloom, Steph sits down with Eric Rubenstein, co-founder of New Climate Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in new climate technologies. He answers questions about what founders and investors should know about each other, how venture capital can accelerate the energy transition, and how data centers might be a bigger force for good than you imagine.
—
📧 Subscribe to Our Substack: https://substack.com/@futureinbloom

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:15:29 — 70.6MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Email | RSS

Most Americans support solar. Most are interested in it. But most people can’t afford it because of cost. And 63% of renters say the only reason they don’t have it is that they’d have to go through their landlord. Balcony solar, also called plug-in solar, is solving both of those problems.

In this episode of Future in Bloom, Steph sits down with Cora Stryker, co-founder of Bright Saver, a non-profit organization seeking to expand access to clean energy by paving the way for a low-cost, renter-friendly, plug-in solar energy solution. She answers questions about how to reduce the cost of solar options in the US, where balcony solar is expanding, and why she wants members, not just customers.
—
📧 Subscribe to Our Substack: https://substack.com/@futureinbloom

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 50:05 — 30.7MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Email | RSS

Supply chains are made up of thousands of interconnected pieces, each with their own customers, suppliers, and responsibilities. In a global economy, how can any one company, let alone one person, understand where a product is really coming from?

In this episode of Future in Bloom, Steph sits down with Peter Swartz, co-founder and Chief Science Officer of Altana, an AI-powered platform that provides governments and companies with visibility deep into their supply chains, for a conversation about the ever-complex trade system, the disruptions it’s experienced, and how generative AI is making an impact.
—
📧 Subscribe to Our Substack: https://substack.com/@futureinbloom

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:02:49 — 86.3MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Email | RSS

Most climate solutions don’t fail because the science is wrong. They fail because the market around them doesn’t get built. So, who is building more markets, and how?

In this episode of Future in Bloom, Steph sits down with Brandon Middaugh, General Manager of Microsoft’s Sustainable Markets and Climate Innovation Fund, for a conversation about climate investing and community-first AI. From measuring blades of grass in a marsh to leading one of the largest climate finance initiatives in the world, Brandon talks about the importance of data-driven decision-making in every aspect of her career. She answers questions about how and when to invest, how to work meaningfully with communities, and how to support the organizations who are building solutions for the future.

📧 Subscribe to Our Substack: https://substack.com/@futureinbloom

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:27 — 43.5MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Email | RSS

7 out of 10 Americans don’t want a data center in their backyard, and it’s hard to blame them. But we’re also seeing backlash increase against clean energy infrastructure, which is definitely hurting our ability to transition off of fossil fuels.

Columbia’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law found 498 contested renewable energy projects in 2025, a 32% increase from the prior year. They also found a 16% increase in local laws restricting renewable energy development.

Resistance has been at the heart of every environmental movement. You look at the history, you understand the harm, and you fight to make sure it doesn’t repeat.

But building the clean energy we desperately need takes something resistance alone can’t deliver. It takes openness to the still-imperfect solutions that represent a huge improvement over the status quo for planetary health.

Building climate tech means understanding multiple truths. No development should harm. But no development at all means we fail to address climate change urgently.

My guest today, Dawn Lippert, has protected the environment for decades and understands industrial tradeoffs. Now she’s calling for an environmentalism which centers on innovating and building faster.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 42:58 — 39.3MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Email | RSS

Jeff Coleman woke up one morning and realized he was running a different kind of company than he started. What began as a software platform to help homeowners access clean energy incentives became a product with a much harder problem to tackle: a fintech company speeding up the rebate turnaround between utilities, governments, and contractors.

In this conversation, Eli’s founder shares the truth about scaling a company rooted in clean energy through a political reversal, why the path to energy upgrades is paved with paperwork for contractors, and why he believes leaning into the “boring” parts of climate tech is crucial to expanding clean energy access.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 42:22 — 38.8MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Email | RSS

On this episode of Future in Bloom, Steph Speirs speaks with Etosha Cave, co-founder and Chief Science Advisor at Twelve. Twelve is discovering new ways to recycle CO2 and transform it into the things we use in our everyday lives. Etosha discusses her journey from grad school, realizing nature doesn’t treat CO2 as waste, so why should we? She dives deep into the story of how she helped build a company that mimics photosynthesis to turn captured carbon and water into fuels and everyday products.

Along the way, they discuss why CO₂ is such a “stubborn molecule,” how Twelve chose what to make from sixteen possible options, the role the Inflation Reduction Act played in their pivot to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), and why the company can now produce jet fuel almost anywhere in the world. It’s a conversation about science, commercialization, and the belief that waste and pollution are design choices we can make differently.