Zoë Gamble Hanes Of CleanChoice Energy On How They Are Breaking the Cycle of Non-Renewable Consumption

An Interview With Monica Sanders

Everything important in life gets done because every person on the team is capable but cannot act alone. Find the team of people who are the most capable and committed to making things happen.

As a part of our series about how companies are becoming more sustainable, we had the pleasure of interviewing Zoë Gamble Hanes.

Zoë Gamble Hanes is President of CleanChoice Energy, where she is responsible for matching customers’ energy needs with clean generation. She is passionate about clean energy and has 15 years of experience across all aspects of project development, finance and asset management. Zoë has raised over $2 billion in project finance and $475 million in corporate capital and launched several organizations including FLS Energy and Pine Gate Renewables where she was the Chief Executive Officer. Zoë has been active in shaping state and federal energy policy through numerous organizations and lobbying efforts and was the founding chairwoman of the Yadkin Riverkeeper. She lives in Charlotte, NC with her husband, their five children and a crazy German wirehaired pointer.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?

I grew up in Texas in a family of very strong women, so a lot of my family’s philosophies are rooted in their experiences, especially my grandmother and mother. My grandmother, a school teacher and mother of three, was widowed in the 1970s. When her husband died, she didn’t have enough credit to get a car loan on her own. Stemming from that incident, she carried forward an important lesson for herself and her family — no matter how lucky and in love you are, life can deliver unexpected events. Similarly to my grandmother, my own mother was widowed when I was nine years old. She owned a bicycle shop, and I saw her overcome struggles to navigate the economic challenges of the 1980s. It was instilled in me from a young age that I needed to ensure my own economic security to live an independent life in the face of potential adversity. That is what feminism has always been about for me — women having the financial and societal independence to not only fall back on, but to thrive in.

I don’t think I fully appreciated the lessons of independence and confidence passed down by my mother and grandmother until later in life when I began advancing in my career. For example, in times when I found myself as the only woman in a boardroom, I never hesitated to speak up and share my ideas. It was also important to me to work at a company that supports its female employees — it’s part of why I was attracted to CleanChoice Energy, where 50% of senior executives are women. CleanChoice creates an environment where all employees are supported and a culture that aims to bridge the divide for women advancing their careers.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I’ve been fortunate to have many people who have helped me along the way. The first person who comes to mind is my chemistry teacher from sophomore year of high school. It was clear to her that I was struggling to find my footing, but she recognized my potential and pulled me aside to explain that no two people’s paths are the same. She encouraged me to skip the rest of high school and fast track to community college, and so I did. I got my GED, finished community college and then transferred to a four-year institution and graduated by the time I was 20 years old. This path was pretty outside of the box at the time, but I am so thankful that she pushed me to pursue something that was right for me and has gotten me to where I am now.

Upon graduating college, I landed in NYC, searching for my purpose. I had lunch one day with a dear friend of mine, and, as we discussed my journey to identify my purpose, he told me something that has stuck with me: “God is not going to rain purpose down on you.” It became clear that if there was something I was passionate about, the only thing in my way was my willingness to pursue it. My passion for the environment was — and still is — a driving force for me, so we spent the rest of lunch talking about the options. There was a law school in Vermont that specialized in environmental law that piqued my interest. This school planted the seed for me that I could make a difference in the world by pursuing environmental law. The belief that my life could matter in some way that was going to leave the world in a better place than I found it is what has led me on this path.

What is the mission of your company? What problems are you aiming to solve? What is your “why”?

CleanChoice’s mission is to make it easy for everyone, everywhere to choose clean energy and to create a world free of catastrophic climate change. This aligns with my personal mission — to leave people and the world better than I found them. Early on in my career, it became clear to me that the defining issue of our time would be climate change and that the way to impact change in that area is incredibly complex. You need the ability to encourage people to take action, make choices and move the needle. That’s a big part of what CleanChoice is doing — empowering people to make choices that support renewable energy and a cleaner future. I set out 15 years ago working to make renewable energy accessible and transformative, and that’s what I continue to do to this day.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?

For me, what’s most interesting is really tied to the story of why I decided CleanChoice was the right company for me.

My decision to join came at a time when I had a pretty successful consulting practice and wasn’t sure I was ready to fully commit myself to a single organization or enterprise. In the process of interviewing with CleanChoice, I learned that Tom Matzzie, our CEO, had been working to add a division that would give CleanChoice the opportunity to vertically integrate by owning and operating its own solar energy facilities. Operating its own solar farms would give the business the ability to better serve customers and increase control over solar projects to ensure they are the highest quality. This was a tremendous opportunity to move the company in a direction that it had not yet envisioned for itself.

In life, we’re often presented with choices. Learning how to discern our own individual highest and best use is not always obvious. Even though success was far from certain, it became clear that joining CleanChoice was the right fit for my passions and my skill set. The company was on the cusp of something different for how renewable energy operates in the United States, and it’s incredibly exciting to be a part of something that’s never been done before.

Do you have a favorite life lesson quote? Can you tell us how that was relevant to you in your own life?

When doing some work with a public speaking coach, I was given sage advice that I took with me as a life lesson: “People are more afraid of you than you are of them. Stop being worried about what other people are thinking about you and start getting interested in how you can put others at ease and help create a sense of belonging.” That shift in perspective has opened a lot of doors for me. When you are your true self, you give other people permission to be themselves.

Let’s now shift to the main part of our interview. Can you tell our readers about the initiatives that you or your company are taking to help break the cycle of non-renewable consumption? What specific problems related to non-renewable consumption are you aiming to solve?

CleanChoice provides 100% clean, renewable energy to our customers, and I lead the development and management of our solar farms.

I helped start the Yadkin Riverkeeper, so let me give you a metaphor from that part of my life that explains the importance of adding new clean energy to our electrical grid. If you think about our electrical grid, there are tributaries and there’s a river. If one of those tributaries contributing to a river is polluted, the way to clean up the river is by adding more and more clean tributaries. As you fill up the electrical grid with cleaner renewable energy, you’re displacing dirtier forms of energy. The more clean energy we can bring online, the cleaner the world gets. This is what we’re aiming to do at CleanChoice by empowering everyday people to switch to clean energy.

CleanChoice is unique in that we’re matching our solar energy generation with our customers. We are creating a farm-to-table clean energy solution.

Can you give a few examples of what you are implementing to help address those issues?

We’re working to grow our customer base. Every person that we bring on as a customer is another buyer of clean energy, thus creating more demand for cleaning up our electrical grid. Each customer can prevent two tons of pollution a year, but we’re able to really move the needle when a collective effort is made.

How do you measure the impact of your company’s sustainability initiatives, both in terms of environmental benefits and business growth? Can you share any key metrics or success stories?

The metrics most valuable to the business and our customers are the direct environmental benefits of clean energy usage. Since our founding in 2012, CleanChoice has provided 8.1 billion kWh of clean energy to customers. This has prevented over 5.2 billion pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. That is the carbon equivalent of getting 1.2 million cars off the road or preserving 7 million acres of U.S. forests per year.

What challenges have you faced while implementing sustainable practices in your company, and how did you overcome them? Can you share a specific example?

One of the obstacles we face is identifying where to develop solar farms and build new generating assets. To aid in our location search, we have leveraged our data analytics team to build an algorithm with predictive capabilities that can direct us to the most useful and highest-value options for us to build future projects. While the data analytics team has historically been focused on customer acquisition analysis, we have been able to repurpose that skillset to help determine the most opportune locations for solar farms.

How would you articulate how a business can become more profitable by being more sustainable and more environmentally conscious? Can you share a story or example?

People want clean energy and are willing to patronize companies that are sustainable and doing the right thing for the world. By acting in the best interest of your people and the world, you become a more attractive and successful company.

This is the signature question we ask in most of our interviews. What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started promoting sustainability and climate justice” and why?

1. When I embarked on this journey early in my career, I believed that we could stop the worst effects of climate change from happening. I’ve had to accept that there is no avoiding the impacts — they are happening now all around us. However, it makes the work no less important or valuable. It took me more than a few despairing hours and self-reflection to come to terms with this, but as a matter of personal integrity and dedication to the earth and its people, there is no choice other than to continue this work. Anything less would be a misalignment of my personal purpose.
2. I had no idea how complicated this work truly is. We have a single set of policies that governs the nation’s telecommunications industry, but that’s not true for electricity. There are federal rules, rules at the state level and then regional regulations to manage. There are local permitting requirements and major geopolitical matters to consider in terms of tariffs and trade. I would have advised myself to come in with eyes wide open about the complexity and volatility.
3. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. It’s like building a cathedral. There are things we’re setting in motion that we may not see the results of until long after we’ve left this world.
4. Everything important in life gets done because every person on the team is capable but cannot act alone. Find the team of people who are the most capable and committed to making things happen.
5. Work isn’t everything. There’s a whole life and whole person that is engaging in this work that needs sustaining. Don’t ignore the other pieces of you in the name of work.

You are a person of great influence and doing some great things for the world! If you could inspire a movement that would bring the greatest amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

If I could open everybody’s heart to loving our world and the people in it, I think so many of the issues we face would be a lot easier to address. So, get outside and love the world!

What is the best way for our readers to continue to follow your work online?

You can learn more about CleanChoice Energy by visiting our company website or following us on LinkedIn.

This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!

About the Interviewer: Monica Sanders JD, LL.M, is the founder of “The Undivide Project”, an organization dedicated to creating climate resilience in underserved communities using good tech and the power of the Internet. She holds faculty roles at the Georgetown University Law Center and the Tulane University Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy. Professor Sanders also serves on several UN agency working groups. As an attorney, Monica has held senior roles in all three branches of government, private industry, and nonprofits. In her previous life, she was a journalist for seven years and the recipient of several awards, including an Emmy. Now the New Orleans native spends her time in solidarity with and championing change for those on the frontlines of climate change and digital divestment. Learn more about how to join her at: www.theundivideproject.org.