President Biden is set to announce new federal measures today aimed at addressing the climate crisis amid record heatwaves across the country and the globe. Chris Gray, Chief Technology Officer at RENU Communities joined Cheddar News to discuss the urgency of the climate crisis and what his company is doing to help.

Opening Bell

Biden To Announce New Executive Measures on Climate Change

President biden said to announce this afternoon new federal measures aimed at addressing the climate crisis amid those record. He waves that we see across the country and across the globe. And so I do want to bring back chris gray chief technology officer at red new communities chris So good to have you back here. So we were discussing the climate crisis and how your company plays a part in this. Talk to me about some of the exciting new technologies in the green tech space that your company is working on. Yeah, thanks for having me back Kristin. So think about what's going on right now where we have these extreme temperatures, we have extreme heat and extreme loading on the electric grid. And now we're talking about adding electric vehicles that is gonna continue to drive that electricity, electricity usage. So we have to focus on technologies that address all of the factors at the same time, the building energy consumption, the transportation, energy consumption in the buildings at the same time. So right across the river from where President biden is going to be speaking today in fall river massachusetts, we have a project where we're implementing a full decarbonization and energy efficiency retrofits strategy utilizing insulation, weatherization technologies, air sealing, window door upgrades solar on every rooftop and new heat pumps that are designed for the cold climate here in the boston area. Um, so these technologies allow you to heat at very low ambient conditions and really go to support the biden administration's cold climate heat pump challenge under the D. O. E. That's focused on developing technologies for these specific climates. Well, certainly we know in boston where you join us from chris and it sounds like where you're based as certainly extreme weather, something that you do have to grapple with their, what's the demand that you've seen from your clientele? It seems like you focus mostly in commercial spaces, are companies getting on board with this. So our company in particular sees this as a pivotal, pivotal point in our future. So we're it's gonna be a requirement of us as real estate owners to focus on clean energy to ensure that our buildings are not obsolete in the future because of their energy consumption to ensure that they are part of the um solution for the climate challenge because buildings represent a little over a third of the greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. So we're taking our active role and we hope that the rest of the industry will follow along for anyone who is on their own right. They don't own a business, they're not necessarily perhaps working in a commercial space right now, but they want to do their part as well with your keen insight here chris what would you tell them? Especially as we see temperatures continue to rise here in the US, you know, I would say if you're doing it by yourself do it a little bit at a time, right? If it's your own home or your own apartment that you're living in, take those little changes that can make a difference. Focus on on how much water you use every single day, Focus on your thermostat set point. You can adapt to a more comfortable temperature in the summer time. If you slowly increase your temperature day by day, um or over a long period of time, you can get used to that higher temperature, you look for opportunities to add insulation to your home. Um that's a relatively easy, low cost way to reduce your energy bill. Um look at leaving windows and doors open. You know, it's a lot of those simple things that go to reduce the overall energy consumption, increase the comfort of a home that then allow you to make those long term investments later on for the deep energy retrofit like my company does. Here's a question for you. Um I know obviously you're in the business world, not necessarily the political world chris but obviously biden campaign, one of his four key pillars was to combat the climate crisis. Midterms are approaching this year in november questions as to whether or not republicans will overtake the House, which democrats currently control. How do you plan long term, knowing that perhaps there might not be the support out of Washington down the road after biden's four year term. You know, I don't want to speculate what's gonna happen at midterms, but I hope the extreme temperatures that we're seeing in the focus on the climate crisis really drives that bipartisan support and and drives everyone regardless of your political affiliation. To understand that it is a challenge that we have to address. And I hope that everyone, like I said before, does their part to reduce energy consumption and to be a part of the solution that energy transition. Um I think the biden administration is taking efforts through the um their weather. Is this weatherization assistance program through the Defense Production Act, through focus on these high efficiency and electric technologies. To really make it the the simple choice make it the choice that everyone just defaults to, especially around electric vehicles. We've seen the number of releases of new electric vehicle um options through all the different vendors and I think we're gonna see that the climate friendly option is the default option. It is the easy option going forward. Alright, chris great Chief technology officer at Red New communities. We covered a lot here, chris of course, ahead of the biden administration's announcement this afternoon on combating the climate crisis. Thank you