About this episode
How do we electrify 60 million American homes without armies of contractors driving hours for in-home visits?This week on Green Giants: Titans of Renewable Energy, host Wes Ashworth sits down with Grant Gunnison, founder and CEO of Zero Homes, a climate tech startup reshaping how homeowners upgrade their homes for a cleaner future.Grant’s career spans designing satellite laser communication systems for NASA and MIT, running his family’s contracting business, and now leading Zero Homes. That rare blend of high-tech engineering and boots-on-the-ground construction gave him a front-row seat to the chaos, cost, and inefficiencies that plague traditional home retrofits.With Zero Homes, he’s removing the industry’s biggest friction point: the in-person site visit. Instead, Zero’s digital platform transforms a homeowner’s smartphone into a powerful planning tool. It generates permit-ready designs for heat pumps, electrical upgrades, water heaters, EV chargers, and more, all without contractors stepping inside the house.In this episode, Wes and Grant unpack:Why America’s home energy upgrades remain time-consuming, costly, and confusing, and how Zero Homes aims to change thatThe staggering workforce challenge in decarbonizing millions of homes, and how software can bridge the gapHow Zero Homes delivers virtual, collaborative design sessions that educate homeowners while providing precise, personalized recommendationsThe unique technical complexities of heat pump sizing and why a physics-based, digital approach mattersHow Zero Homes partners with contractors and utilities like Exelon to accelerate electrification without relying on massive subsidiesGrant’s vision for Zero Homes as the nationwide “front door” to home electrification, and why he believes digital trust-building is key to scaling impactWhether you’re in clean tech, utilities, construction, or simply a homeowner curious about electrification, this conversation reveals the future of how we’ll transform our homes and the grid.Listen now and discover how the next wave of home energy innovation might start right from your smartphone.Links:Grant on LinkedInZero Homes' WebsiteZero Homes Joins Exelon's 2025 2c2i CohortWes Ashworth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weslgs/ Email: wes@leegroupsearch.com https://leegroupsearch.com/green-giants-podcast/ https://leegroupsearch.com/
