The Five Thousand Pound Life: The Energy Issue
Recorded May 10, 2014
The Five Thousand Pound Life: The Energy Issue was a symposium on energy and architecture organized by The Architectural League and the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP) in May 2014.
The Energy Entrepreneurship panel focused on two start-ups, The Megawatt Hour and Radiator Labs, and their innovation in the energy sector. The founders of these companies are in conversation with Jeremy Leggett, Kate Gordon, and Rosalie Genevro, participants from earlier in the day, as well as Mark Wigley, former Dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation.
In this segment, Deirdre Lord, Co-founder of The Megawatt Hour, details how a subscription service brings transparency to utility bills for consumers of electricity and natural gas. By making data on these deregulated markets accessible and actionable, The Megawatt Hour helps to align business goals with energy decisions. While applauding this transparency, the panel also debates the potential merits of communicating a cultural or social impact — “who died to put the oil in your car” — when considering transparency in energy markets.
Prior to starting The Megawatt Hour, Lord was a co-founder of Juice Energy and was on the management team at Constellation New Energy.
The Five Thousand Pound Life (5KL) is an initiative of The Architectural League on new ways of thinking, talking, and acting on architecture, climate change, and our economic future.
The Energy Issue is a GSAPP initiative to make energy a cultural issue, launched in partnership with Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope®. Follow the initiative @theenergyissue.
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