Equity and Everyday Life in the Energy Transition
Description
This talk traces Tobias's journey as an anthropologist navigating the world of cleantech. The voyage began ten years ago when, as a manual laborer, Tobias began installing solar on the scorching rooftops of big suburban homes in Southern California. The disparity between the workers driving the energy transition and those who benefit most immediately has remained a constant point of reference in Tobias's subsequent roles in solar panel manufacturing, electric vehicle battery repurposing, and managing multi-million-dollar government grants. How do we ensure that the clean energy transition is fair—especially for those who struggle hardest to keep the lights on?
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Speaker Bio
Tobias Hecht is Director of Policy and Grants at ReJoule, a clean tech start-up. The author of books ranging from "At Home in the Street" (an ethnography of homeless children in Brazil that won the Margaret Mead Prize) to the novel "After Life," his research and writing has been supported by awards from the National Science Foundation, the H.F. Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for Humanities. Ten years ago, he began working in the field of renewable energy.