An Interview With Wanda Malhotra
Inclusivity. If access to clean energy is seen as something reserved for the privileged, then our work has failed before it begins. That is the PosiGen story. Our contribution is Solar for All, making solar affordable for homeowners in underserved communities and that work continues.
As we face an unprecedented environmental crisis, the need for sustainable solutions has never been more urgent. This series seeks to spotlight the innovative minds and passionate advocates who are leading the charge in environmental conservation and sustainable practices. We aim to explore the most effective strategies, breakthrough technologies, and transformative policies that are shaping a more sustainable future for our planet. As a part of this series, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Ben Healey.
Ben Healey joined PosiGen in 2019, after seven years at the Connecticut Green Bank and its spin-out national specialty financing company, Inclusive Prosperity Capital, which he helped to launch. While at the Green Bank, Ben developed innovative clean energy financing solutions, including building the country’s leading Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy program, structuring first-in-the-nation strategies to secure solar investment for non-investment grade properties and arranging investment partnerships with traditional financial institutions as well as emerging players such as foundations and crowdsourcing platforms. Ben holds degrees from Yale’s School of Management and School of forestry & Environmental Studies and Yale College.
Thank you so much for joining us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’?
I like to say I joined PosiGen with both my head and my heart. Before coming on board, I worked as an investor for the Connecticut Green Bank, a quasi-public entity working to advance clean energy deployment using limited public funds to mobilize sustainable private capital investment into renewable energy projects. When I met the PosiGen team, I knew this was a special company — focused on making solar accessible for all and recognizing that unless we could break down financial hurdles to accessing clean energy, we wouldn’t be able to achieve our broader goals, not just in terms of fighting climate change, but also with respect to community development, good job creation, and a more equitable future. So, it was a match made in heaven for me, since I have been able to leverage my financial background to make solar simple and accessible for PosiGen’s customers and enable us to do well by doing good.
Can you share with us the most interesting story from your career? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?
PosiGen is absolutely the most interesting story from my career, and it is still being written! But I’d say the most fun part of this position is what I like to call the “Ah ha!” moment from those learning about the company for the first time. When our partners come to understand that we actually make a real difference in the lives of our customers, things start to become clearer. A particular example — we have a customer who went solar with us and then came into the office a few months later to deliver a message in person, “I used to pray over that utility bill every month.” That is, she budgeted for everything in her life but never knew what her electric bill was going to be, and that one bill was going to determine how much she had left over for groceries and school supplies and everything else. With PosiGen, she now had certainty. She had peace of mind.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Resiliency is number one. It’s not easy to change the world, and that’s what PosiGen wants to do. Number two is humility. There’s so much we don’t know. I tell my team that the three most powerful words I know outside of “I love you” (never to be underestimated!) are “I don’t know.” These words show honesty and vulnerability and a willingness to learn, as well as a confidence that learning and growth is possible. Number three is passion. If you don’t care, deep down in your bones, you’re not going to inspire others to do the hard things. Authenticity can’t be faked. But people will follow you through fire if they know you’re laying it all on the line for something you believe in, every time.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that might help people?
Always. We’re working to make battery storage more accessible to our customers by adding a resiliency benefit in addition to their savings. We’re looking into partnerships focused on home electrification (thanks to the support of the Inflation Reduction Act) to help further increase savings for those we serve, while also making their homes healthier and more comfortable. And most importantly, we’re looking to grow across the country, to make the benefits of clean energy available to as many communities as possible.
Ok, thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of our interview. What pivotal moment led you to dedicate your career to sustainability, and how has that shaped your approach to environmental challenges?
I did a brief stint serving as a staffer in the Massachusetts legislature about 15+ years ago. Everyone was excited about the passage of the Global Warming Solutions Act, which set emissions reductions targets for the Commonwealth. But side-by-side with that bill, was a Green Jobs Act. What I realized then was that environmental sustainability is all about people. Unless we could bring a much broader swath of the population along with us, to understand not just the unsustainable practices that were leading us down a bad path, but also give people hope that we could build a brighter future together, we weren’t going to make a difference at the scale needed. It’s why PosiGen means so much to me… we are creating value for our customers every day, while also contributing to the broader solutions required of us all, with a fundamental focus on inclusion.
Could you describe a groundbreaking project or initiative you’ve been involved in that significantly contributed to sustainability?
PosiGen was honored to contribute key insights into shaping the provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act focused on equitable access to clean energy. It is a momentous piece of legislation, and the commitment shown to environmental and energy justice in the law is not just groundbreaking but also immediately making a difference in helping deploy clean energy projects in previously excluded communities.
How do you navigate the balance between economic growth and environmental preservation in your sustainability strategies?
For PosiGen, there is no tradeoff. We are helping create a more sustainable future with every household we serve, every kilowatt of solar we deploy, and every job we create. We need to continue breaking down the barriers to universal access to clean energy, and that is PosiGen’s mandate and mission.
What emerging technologies or innovations do you believe hold the most promise for advancing sustainability and why?
In terms of greening the electric grid, it is now all about storage. How do we take the intermittent wind and solar resources we now have, which are already economic winners, and enable them to be “dispatchable” and truly displace fossil fuels in our electricity mix? We are getting there, and quickly, but for PosiGen the focus will be on making those technologies available to everyone, just as we’ve done with solar.
Based on your research or experience, can you please share your “5 Top Strategies for a Cleaner Planet”?
- Inclusivity. If access to clean energy is seen as something reserved for the privileged, then our work has failed before it begins. That is the PosiGen story. Our contribution is Solar for All, making solar affordable for homeowners in underserved communities and that work continues.
- One size doesn’t fit all. Each country, state, utility territory and community are different. We need flexible solutions with a regulatory underpinning that drives us all forward together. For PosiGen, serving a house with an electric baseboard system in New Orleans requires a different tailored solution than a one in Connecticut still using oil heat. We need comprehensive programs that can nonetheless be responsive to local conditions and needs.
- Ecosystem thinking. Solutions don’t work in a silo. In the PosiGen world, we need to consider the needs of the homeowner and the community and the electric grid, while creating good and sustainable jobs. Frictions abound, and sustainability leaders should be focused on lining up the dominoes so that when we push one, they all fall down and lead to meaningful positive outcomes. Otherwise, we can spend a ton of time designing our perfect solution in the lab, only to find out we didn’t consider the intersection of every other real-world factor that makes change difficult.
- Education matters. For PosiGen, our goal is for our customers to save real dollars every month when they go solar with us. But what we’ve learned is that utility bills are complicated, and if our customers don’t understand how much they’re saving by going solar, all the good we’re doing doesn’t matter. So taking the complicated and making it digestible, creating tools that help people understand the value of clean energy solutions, and helping them share those little (or sometimes big!) wins, those are the keys to creating momentum that can’t be stopped.
- Lead with hope, but don’t pretend it’s all perfect. We are trying to change massive systems here. We will make mistakes. Admit them, both so we can learn from them, and so we can build trust with those we serve and the broader world. Those of us working to advance a clean energy future are sometimes going to get things wrong — policies, development strategies, technology decisions. We need to work to make them right, one at a time, case-by-case, and through those learnings build a stronger and more scalable platform for the future we are working to realize.
In your view, what are the key steps individuals, communities, and governments need to take to achieve a more sustainable future?
There is no one answer, of course. But it starts with hope. We have the technology available now to transition to a more sustainable future. For individuals, my recommendation is that we should adopt the new as soon as we can, to show that it works (solar, batteries, EVs, etc.). For communities, break down barriers that create friction and slow adoption (zoning regulations, HOA rules, etc.). For governments, be ambitious, lay out targets, create pathways for the market to succeed, and remember to invest in the people who helped build the old infrastructure, since they are key to enabling the new.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I’d focus on greening every school in the country and giving those school systems a chunk of ownership in the projects to create long-term value for them and alignment around a clean energy future. And I’d dedicate a portion of that retained value to climate education and mobilization, since young people will be the best messengers and advocates for the change we need to deliver.
What is the best way for our readers to continue to follow your work online?
The best way to follow my work is via the PosiGen social channels. All of our major initiatives and announcements are posted there. You can also follow me at linkedin.com/in/benjaminghealey
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent on this. We wish you continued success.
About the Interviewer: Wanda Malhotra is a wellness entrepreneur, lifestyle journalist, and the CEO of Crunchy Mama Box, a mission-driven platform promoting conscious living. CMB empowers individuals with educational resources and vetted products to help them make informed choices. Passionate about social causes like environmental preservation and animal welfare, Wanda writes about clean beauty, wellness, nutrition, social impact and sustainability, simplifying wellness with curated resources. Join Wanda and the Crunchy Mama Box community in embracing a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle at CrunchyMamaBox.com .
The Future Is Green: Ben Healey Of PosiGen On Their Top Strategies for a Cleaner Planet was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.