Going Green sits down with Rudy Roy, CEO of HST, to discuss his experience building technologies that improve lives.
What is your occupation? Where do you work?
CEO of HST, a cloud software provider in the sustainability space.
Tell us a little bit about you and your background:
I’m an entrepreneur and an investor with a single vision: to bring the world technologies that improve lives at scale. In addition to running HST, a digital clean energy platform provider with 600 GW of projects on the network, I have been fortunate to invest in and help entrepreneurs scale world-changing startups.
Some of them include a startup that is bringing a more transparent government and a startup that is accelerating when we’ll see gender equity in the workforce. I worked for Bill Gross’ Idealab at the WEF Technology Pioneer eSolar, helping scale PPAs for the clean energy developer. Prior to that, I helped develop the early clean energy strategy for Nokia’s BlueRun Ventures, I hold a B.S. from Caltech where I focused on Business, Engineering, and the commercialization of technology.
What is a fun fact about you?
I’ve been very fortunate to have traveled to all 7 continents, giving me a perspective of the ties that bind us.
What was your motivation to get into this industry?
I’ve always felt that fossil fuel has had an unfair advantage in the energy industry, and I wanted to build a meaningful company that gave clean energy the advantage it deserved. I graduated from college right when “An Inconvenient Truth” was becoming more popular, and that was a particular motivation to do this work.
Why do you think climate change and sustainability is such an important topic today?
Climate change adaptation strategies and decarbonization strategies represent a huge job creation opportunity in a time where COVID has really hurt the global economy. There are few times when the world economy gets hits by something as large as the COVID effect, one of the last being World War II. Sustainability represents a strategy for the private and public sectors that can revitalize economies, making it a very salient topic.
What do you envision your industry looking like 10 years from now?
The industry will be far more digitized, decarbonized, and decentralized 10 years from now, with the biggest shift being towards the first two. Tech giants will become larger and larger players in the energy industry, and vehicle and mobility companies will be aligning their value chains more with electricity companies and they become electrified and automated.
What can the average person do to make a difference?
Focus on shifting to 1-2 days a week for plant-based diets to reduce the demand for the carbon-heavy parts of our food system, and approach their cities and local communities about going 100% decarbonized (electric buses, cars, scooters etc all powered by 100% clean energy).
What positive changes are you seeing?
2020 saw both the appointment of a former Secretary of State to a Climate Czar position in the incoming Administration and a huge growth in renewable energy development. Those are both encouraging changes for a clean energy future–one that is more equitable and economically and environmentally sustainable.
Going Green wants to thank Rudy for sharing his passion about building technologies that improve lives.
Going Green, hosted by Dylan Welch, interviews leading experts in cleantech, sustainability, media, finance, and real estate on the Going Green podcast. Tune in and subscribe to the podcast on Apple or Spotify to listen to interviews with leading cleantech and sustainable experts. If you are interested in being featured on Going Green, click HERE.
