Co-Executive Director
HEET
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Zeyneb is co-executive director of HEET, a nonprofit climate solutions incubator committed to emissions reduction through systems change. In 2017 she designed and helped to launch the GasToGeo initiative to drive rapid, efficient, and equitable decarbonization of heating and cooling through deployment of ambient temperature geothermal networks. Today more than 14 gas utilities are engaged in this utility-scale decarbonization pathway, and at least 21 states have a feasibility study, demonstration project, or legislation moving forward.
Zeyneb has convened an independent research team, Learning from the Ground Up (LeGUp), to study and learn from these first transitions. Together with a team from UCBerkeley, LBNL, NREL, MIT, Boston University, and BuroHappold, Zeyneb hopes to create open source models, launch a standard data set and database, and learn how best to design, install, and scale the technology to maximize equity, affordability, safety, emissions reduction, resilience, and electric grid benefits.
Before entering the sustainability world, Zeyneb led the development of several technological solutions to global health challenges in the developing world, including in South Africa, Senegal, Thailand, Brazil, and Botswana. She has been part of launching two start-ups and has worked at BBN Technologies and Harvard University. Zeyneb studied physics at Brown University and global health and sustainability at Harvard University. She is committed to using every tool she has to create and drive forward compassionate, multi-disciplinary and innovative solutions to the urgent challenge of climate change. Doing so within a large network of stakeholders leads to the kind of multi-disciplinary problem solving, co-creation, and innovation that gives her hope for the world her children will inherit.
QuickTalk: Redefining Utilities: Harnessing Geothermal Energy Through Pipelines
Tuesday, February 13, 2024
2:10 PM – 2:35 PM ET