What If Instead? Podcast
The Energy Transition: Not if, but When | Susan Hunt Stevens
Episode Summary
In this episode of What if Instead?, our hosts had an in-depth conversation with Susan Hunt Stevens, serial entrepreneur, climate investor and founder of Spark Global. The conversation quickly focused on why solving climate means taking care of people, not just emissions. We’re not in a moment of polite evolution—we’re in a full-on messy transition. The climate crisis is here. Yet innovation still trips over short-term incentives and outdated models built for a world that no longer exists. So what do we do? For Susan, the answer is to build better—smarter, yes, but also with care.
Episode Notes
Key Takeaways/Calls to Action:
- For Individuals: Actively experiment in your career to find genuine fulfillment. Consciously manage your "personal overhead" to maximize your agility and options. Consider how your time, talent, and resources can be directed toward solving pressing global challenges.
- For Innovators & Entrepreneurs: Beyond celebrating disruption, take full accountability for the "second-order effects" and broader societal impacts of your innovations.
- For Society & Policy Leaders: Proactively implement "hospice care" strategies to support individuals and communities affected by systemic transitions. Structure incentives and "bounties" to accelerate vital innovations, outcompeting entrenched, inferior old systems. Critically, understand that the energy transition is an inevitable "when," and global leadership will fall to those who embrace and invest in this future now.
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