The Energy Transition: Not if, but When
An Interview with Susan Hunt Stevens
Before We Begin, A Quick Request from Your Friendly Neighborhood Hosts
Our coming book One Size Fits None: Time for an Entrepreneurial Revolution challenges us to make it normal, when facing entrenched problems and broken systems, to launch experiments to address them – no matter who we are or where we live.
To learn more about the book and how you can get involved in its project, click the button below.
Supporters can choose signed copies, participate in book launch events, or bring dynamic “what if instead?” discussions to their schools, companies, or communities.
And now for potent insights from the brilliant Susan Hunt Stevens, investor and entrepreneur, about where we’re heading and what we need to do to get there.
"This transition is not an if, it’s a when. And it’s also better…. Burning dinosaurs to move around is a bad idea. We should just stop doing it." – Susan Hunt Stevens
What If Instead … We Transformed Now, with Empathy for What Gets Replaced
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 Yet innovation still trips over short-term incentives and outdated models built for a world that no longer exists.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 Hunt Stevens, serial entrepreneur, climate investor and founder of Spark Global, the answer is to build better—smarter, yes, but also with care.
Old Systems, New Problems
Climate tech doesn’t scale like software. It takes time, regulation, and patience investors rarely have.
Agricultural subsidies misfire. "$700 billion a year is going towards the wrong things," Susan warns.
Our disaster response system? Designed for “a storm every 50 years,” not 100 per year.
Still Susan bets on bold solutions—regenerative agriculture, biochar, disaster recovery tech – and the messy, system-level work it takes to scale them responsibly.
Scaling, but Thoughtfully
"How do we prove it works? How do we manage the side effects of transformation, and thereby reduce resistance to it?
Susan is an advisor, investor, and founder. She backs companies that help farmers transition sustainably, like CIBO Technologies and others that vaccinate trees instead of torching orchards. These innovations matter, but Susan says success depends on “matching incentives, expertise, and measurement. Then scale.”
Care for the People Left Behind
"We have been very bad at hospice care when old systems die."
Whether the stakeholder is coal miners, gas station clerks, or displaced manufacturing workers, Susan says entrepreneurs must take responsibility for second-order effects. The human toll of innovation, if ignored, breeds resentment, backlash and broken communities.
“If we don't take care of these people,” she warns, “that's going to be another group who doesn't want this transition—for obvious reasons.”
The Opportunity Ahead
This isn’t just about emissions or economics. These couldn’t be more important—and precisely for that reason must be accompanied by leadership and responsibility. Susan makes the case clearly in this 1-minute clip:
"This is going to happen. There’s too much money to be made for it not to. But whoever figures out and leans in most—that’s the country that leads in the future. Right now, that’s not us. And that’s what makes me mad about it." – Susan Hunt Stevens
Suggested Resources
CIBO Technologies – Scaling regenerative incentives
XPRIZE (for Carbon Removal) – Innovation through competition
Spark Global – Climate innovation with a systems lens
