How companies can actually build and buy clean energy with Ever.green's Michael Leggett

Climate Papa

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How companies can actually build and buy clean energy with Ever.green's Michael Leggett

Ben Shwab Eidelson

and

Michael Leggett

May 20, 2025

Transcript

Listen here, on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen to podcasts by searching for ‘Climate Papa.’

I sis down with Michael Leggett—former Google and Facebook design leader turned climate entrepreneur—to explore the invisible but essential machinery behind the clean energy economy. Michael is the co-founder and Head of Product at Ever.green, a startup working to democratize access to high-impact renewable energy deals.

Michael and I go deep into the world of renewable energy credits (RECs), power purchase agreements (PPAs), and the shifting landscape of carbon accounting. Why is it that only ~1,000 companies today participate in the kind of long-term clean energy contracts that actually help bring new solar and wind projects online? What happens when companies buy cheap, after-the-fact RECs and claim 100% clean energy? And how might emerging standards like 24/7 carbon-free energy reshape what counts as climate impact—for better or worse?

Along the way, Michael shares his own journey from Big Tech to climate, how becoming a parent shaped his urgency, and why he remains (cautiously) optimistic that Team Earth can get it right—if we keep the focus on real-world outcomes and the systems and incentives that guide those outcomes.

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