Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
If sport can book the US Open venue for 2049, why can’t we plan credible climate roadmaps to 2040?
The built environment is one of the biggest emissions engines on Earth and we keep treating it like a side quest.
In this episode of the Climate Confident Podcast, I’m joined by Tommy Linstroth, Founder of Green Badger, a climate tech platform helping the design and construction industry streamline and automate sustainable building delivery, from documentation to decision-making.
We dig into the uncomfortable truth: most people in construction want to build sustainably, they just don’t want to become material scientists overnight. And as standards evolve (including LEED v5), the requirements keep stacking: waste, transparency documents, embodied carbon, carbon disclosure, verification. It’s not just hard, it’s moving faster than most job sites can realistically track.
You’ll hear why carbon is now the dominant driver in LEED v5, how embodied carbon is becoming impossible to ignore, and why third-party verification matters if we want to stop sustainability claims sliding into nonsense the minute budgets get tight. We also talk about the elephant in the room: it’s not just new buildings. It’s the millions of existing buildings that leak energy (and money) every day and are brutally hard to retrofit.
This is a practical conversation about the energy transition in the real world: complexity, regulation, incentives, data, and how climate tech can make the low-carbon choice the easy choice.
What’s your take? Let me know below 👇
CTAs & Links
🎙️ Podcast website: climateconfidentpodcast.com
✅ Follow/Subscribe for weekly episodes on climate tech, decarbonisation, and the energy transition (and for calling out nonsense when it shows up).
⏱️ Timestamps: (see below)
Guest & Credits
Guest: Tommy Linstroth, Founder, Green Badger
Website: getgreenbadger.com
LinkedIn: Green Badger
Kismet: LEED now updates on a predictable cycle (every five years). Climate policy makers could steal that idea and stop pretending “one big target” counts as a plan.
⸻
2️⃣ 💡 Chapters / Timestamps (from your .srt)
00:00 – The US Open 2049 vs our 2040 climate “plan”
00:22 – Welcome + Tommy Linstroth joins me
00:36 – What is Green Badger and what problem it solves
00:59 – Why start Green Badger (and the “Badger State” origin story)
02:11 – “It’s too complicated”: why sustainability stalls in construction
04:03 – Who Green Badger serves (builders, contractors, architects)
06:21 – The construction sector’s biggest challenge: complexity + constant change
09:04 – Who actually drives demand for sustainable buildings
11:23 – Do LEED Platinum buildings stay Platinum forever? (No)
12:33 – LEED v5: what changed, and why carbon dominates
14:02 – Embodied carbon: decisions that lock in a century of impact
18:21 – Bureaucracy vs credibility: why third-party verification matters
21:05 – 2030 goals: paralysis, benchmarking, and “perfect is the enemy of good”
23:05 – Where real momentum is happening (and what needs to change)
25:44 – What it takes to hit LEED v5 (especially Platinum)
29:36 – What’s next: data, AI, and making low-carbon decisions easy
31:34 – The promise and cost of AI (including data centre impacts)
33:09 – First meaningful steps people can take right now
34:22 – The underrated lever: prefabrication + modular construction
35:01 – Wild card: Klopp, sustainability ambassador
36:05 – Wrap-up + where to find Green Badger
If sport can book the US Open venue for 2049, why can’t we plan credible climate roadmaps to 2040?
The built environment is one of the biggest emissions engines on Earth and we keep treating it like a side quest.
In this episode of the Climate Confident Podcast, I’m joined by Tommy Linstroth, Founder of Green Badger, a climate tech platform helping the design and construction industry streamline and automate sustainable building delivery, from documentation to decision-making.
We dig into the uncomfortable truth: most people in construction want to build sustainably, they just don’t want to become material scientists overnight. And as standards evolve (including LEED v5), the requirements keep stacking: waste, transparency documents, embodied carbon, carbon disclosure, verification. It’s not just hard, it’s moving faster than most job sites can realistically track.
You’ll hear why carbon is now the dominant driver in LEED v5, how embodied carbon is becoming impossible to ignore, and why third-party verification matters if we want to stop sustainability claims sliding into nonsense the minute budgets get tight. We also talk about the elephant in the room: it’s not just new buildings. It’s the millions of existing buildings that leak energy (and money) every day and are brutally hard to retrofit.
This is a practical conversation about the energy transition in the real world: complexity, regulation, incentives, data, and how climate tech can make the low-carbon choice the easy choice.
What’s your take? Let me know below 👇
CTAs & Links
🎙️ Podcast website: climateconfidentpodcast.com
✅ Follow/Subscribe for weekly episodes on climate tech, decarbonisation, and the energy transition (and for calling out nonsense when it shows up).
⏱️ Timestamps: (see below)
Guest & Credits
Guest: Tommy Linstroth, Founder, Green Badger
Website: getgreenbadger.com
LinkedIn: Green Badger
Kismet: LEED now updates on a predictable cycle (every five years). Climate policy makers could steal that idea and stop pretending “one big target” counts as a plan.
⸻
2️⃣ 💡 Chapters / Timestamps (from your .srt)
00:00 – The US Open 2049 vs our 2040 climate “plan”
00:22 – Welcome + Tommy Linstroth joins me
00:36 – What is Green Badger and what problem it solves
00:59 – Why start Green Badger (and the “Badger State” origin story)
02:11 – “It’s too complicated”: why sustainability stalls in construction
04:03 – Who Green Badger serves (builders, contractors, architects)
06:21 – The construction sector’s biggest challenge: complexity + constant change
09:04 – Who actually drives demand for sustainable buildings
11:23 – Do LEED Platinum buildings stay Platinum forever? (No)
12:33 – LEED v5: what changed, and why carbon dominates
14:02 – Embodied carbon: decisions that lock in a century of impact
18:21 – Bureaucracy vs credibility: why third-party verification matters
21:05 – 2030 goals: paralysis, benchmarking, and “perfect is the enemy of good”
23:05 – Where real momentum is happening (and what needs to change)
25:44 – What it takes to hit LEED v5 (especially Platinum)
29:36 – What’s next: data, AI, and making low-carbon decisions easy
31:34 – The promise and cost of AI (including data centre impacts)
33:09 – First meaningful steps people can take right now
34:22 – The underrated lever: prefabrication + modular construction
35:01 – Wild card: Klopp, sustainability ambassador
36:05 – Wrap-up + where to find Green Badger
