Host Drew Bacchus welcomes Dustin Mason of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) to open the front door to green buildings and sustainable design. Dustin shares the core mission of the USGBC and discusses the business case for sustainability, emphasizing the triple bottom line (people, profit, planet) and the financial ROI of energy-efficient buildings.

The conversation highlights best-in-class Georgia LEED projects, including the Mercedes-Benz Stadium (LEED Platinum and True Zero Waste certified) and the net-zero Kendeda Building at Georgia Tech.

We dive deep into the future of green building standards, exploring the priorities of the new LEED v5, which focuses 50% of its points on decarbonization and introduces a new emphasis on ecological conservation and quality of life. The discussion also tackles the critical challenge of embodied carbon and the need for circularity in the built environment, particularly with existing buildings.

Finally, learn about opportunities for cleantech innovation in Georgia through the "Atlanta Way" of public-private partnerships, the importance of resiliency in the South, and the best ways for individuals and companies to get involved locally with the USGBC through volunteerism, membership, and free education.

In this episode of the Tag Sustainability Talk Podcast, host Drew Bacchus is joined by Amol Naik and Rick Wrenn for a compelling discussion on the often-polarized intersection of energy and politics.

Amol Naik, former Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Atlanta, shares his journey from law and public policy at Google to successfully pushing for the city’s 100% clean energy plan. As the founder of Resurgent Strategies, he discusses his efforts to depoliticize sustainability by focusing on shared human condition and economic realities.

The conversation explores:

• Bridging the Divide: How to overcome the deep urban-rural separation and foster authentic community engagement when deploying major infrastructure, such as data centers or EV charging stations, ensuring these improvements don't lead to gentrification.

• The Economics of Renewables: Why affordability is the key to widespread adoption, noting that solar energy is now cheaper than coal, and why capital discipline and an "all-of-the-above" approach (including nuclear and leveraging oil/gas expertise for things like geothermal) are necessary.

• Policy and Capital: The crucial role of government support for nascent technology, and the danger that political uncertainty poses to infrastructure investment, which is often funded by entities like teachers' pension funds.

• National Security: Why clean energy is fundamentally a national security issue, reducing reliance on petro states.

Finally, Amol shares tips for having bipartisan conversations and introduces his Substack, "Power, Politics and Pavement," where he aims to moderate discussions on these topics without shouting.

The clean energy market in Georgia is soaring, growing five times faster than the entire state economy in 2025. To achieve the ambitious goal of making Atlanta the number one global cleantech hub, our expert panel dissects the infrastructure challenges and solutions moving the industry forward. Tune in for:

• The "Era of Storage": Why energy storage was the critical theme of 2025, and how coupling solar, wind, and geothermal is solving the grid's intermittency challenge.
• EV Reality Check: A tough look at EV infrastructure, including the alarming statistic that one in three charging sessions currently fails on the first try.
• The Investment Landscape: A deep dive into dislocation in demand, supply chain resilience, advanced manufacturing, and the future of autonomous mobility.

Join host Andy Marshall and experts Cynthia Curry, Ben Damiani, Gabrielle Pierre, Alex Pistner, and Jones Thomas for a conversation shaping a sustainable future.