Co-Founder & CEO of Rewiring America :A Conversation with Ari Matusiak

Ari Matusiak is the CEO of Rewiring America. He is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Purpose Venture Group, a social impact incubator building ventures to address climate and economic inequality.
He served in the Obama White House as Special Assistant to the President and Director of Private Sector Engagement, where he focused on economic policy related to jobs and competitiveness and oversaw the Administration’s relationship with the private sector. Ari was Chief Strategy Officer at Renovate America, which was the largest residential renewable energy and financing platform in the U.S., financing $3.5 billion of improvements across 150,000 homes. He is Co-Founder of Young Invincibles, a nonprofit delivering economic opportunity to young adults.
In our conversation today, Ari describes encouraging market trendlines and the work Rewiring America is doing to increase awareness and education.
Show Notes:
[1:42] - Ari shares the founding story of Rewiring America and the inspiration he has found to focus his work on climate.
[3:49] - 42% of emissions are tied to decisions people make around their kitchen tables.
[5:57] - Ari describes some of the early conversations when determining the mission and vision of Rewiring America.
[7:55] - It is complicated for people to figure out what to do and the steps to take in their homes.
[9:59] - Aggregating demand in the local market is an important part of shifting the market.
[11:36] - What successful strategies have they employed to aggregate demand in local markets?
[13:44] - Rewiring America has been training Electric Coaches to guide people through what they can do in their homes.
[16:23] - The cost of solar has declined significantly, but the United States has the most expensive solar energy.
[17:40] - The market trend lines are encouraging but in order to keep up with what we need to do from a climate perspective, it's not fast enough.
[20:14] - We need to take the policies we currently have and lean into them.
[21:47] - How will the upcoming election impact current policies and the trendline?
[24:22] - The better we are at getting the benefits out to people, the better we will be at addressing the climate crisis.