Speaker: Matt Traldi, Founder and CEO, Greenlight America
Matt Traldi: One of the things that's so satisfying about this work is how tangible it is. In green light's couple of years of history, we've advanced almost 13 gigawatts of clean energy to the grid, which is going to avoid approximately 7.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution every year as a result.
How (and why) are you taking action on climate change solutions in, for, and with your community?
Matt Traldi: Hi, my name is Matt Trdi, founder and CEO of Green Light, a nonprofit that helps people and groups find the key local permitting decisions in their own communities that will make or break clean energy deployment, advocate effectively and win. I'm excited and honored to be part of the GrisT 50. A few years ago, my wife and I decided to become parents. Our daughter Avery is now almost 2. It's a cliche, but for me, that changed my time horizon. I found myself thinking about what life would be like for her in 50 years. Climate, particularly cutting emissions, is at the top of that list. So I started learning as much as I could about how to do just that, and I learned that in the next decade, 80% of pollution cuts come from the power sector, mainly from building large clean energy projects and taking fossil fuels off the grid. I also learned that the biggest obstacle to those projects is local permitting. Opponents show up, supporters don't, and clean energy loses by forfeit. I'm an organizer and a campaigner, so I immediately knew that I needed to help solve that problem.
Describe a moment when you felt the real-world impact of your work in climate solutions.
Matt Traldi: One of the things that's so satisfying about this work is how tangible it is. In green light's couple of years of history, we've advanced almost 13 gigawatts of clean energy to the grid, which is going to avoid approximately 7.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution every year as a result. We also have wins and losses every week, so I have a new favorite example every week of a community where we've helped advocates make a difference. What I'm proud of is Champaign County, Illinois. Uh, we help volunteers win approval for a 270 megawatt solar and storage project. Thanks in part to our organizing with these local partner groups, 18 supporters showed up to the Key County commission hearing. And uh as a result, that bipartisan board unanimously approved the project. I love this example because the volunteer group was small, and yet they made a huge difference. Each person we helped to mobilize was responsible individually for emissions reduction equal to planning about 170,000 trees, a lot more than you could plant in an afternoon. It goes to show that this work not only transforms communities in the climate, but it empowers everyday people.
Who or what inspires/inspired you to care about climate change and climate solutions?
Matt Traldi: There are a lot of people who've inspired me to care about climate and to work on this. I'm just gonna share a few. First, my daughter Avery, uh, she loves playing outside and watching her outside. I, I think a lot about the world we're gonna be leaving her and other kids, and that really makes me keep going when the work is tough. I also wanted to say that I'm inspired by the whole Green light team. We have an amazing and growing team of folks who care really deeply, uh, who throw themselves into this work, who are creative, you know, and that makes me want to do my job better too. Finally, Green Light is part of a growing ecosystem of nonprofit organizations that also works with clean energy developers, the companies building these projects to get more clean energy built across the US. And uh that constantly inspires me and challenges me and uh makes me want to do our job so well for that community to be part of the solutions we all need.
