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Beyond Barriers: Unlocking Home Electrification for Everyone with Inclusive Utility Investment
Location:
218 West 18th Street, 10th Floor, New York, NY
Date:
Monday, September 22, 2025
Time:
3:00pm to 4:30pm
- Speaker & Facilitator: Melissa Hoffer, Massachusetts Climate Chief
- Speaker: Michael Reiner, Deputy Director for Building Decarbonization, Clean Energy Works
- Speaker & Facilitator: Ashley Muspratt, President & CEO, CET
- Speaker & Facilitator: Franz Hochstrasser, Managing Director, S2 Strategies
- Speaker & Facilitator: Amanda Sachs, Northeast Policy Manager, Rewiring America
Melissa Hoffer, Moderator
Massachusetts Climate Chief
Melissa Hoffer, Massachusetts’ first-ever Climate Chief, ensures that Massachusetts sits on the Governor’s Cabinet and that the climate remains a top priority for the state. Melissa joined the Biden Administration as a Day-1 political appointee, serving as the Acting General Counsel and Principal Deputy General Counsel of the Environmental Protection Agency. She led the EPA’s Office of General Counsel through the transition until November 2021, and continued to serve as Principal Deputy General Counsel. She received a JD from Northeastern University School of Law, a Certificate in Environmental Management from Tufts University, an MEd from the University of Massachusetts, and a BA from Hampshire College. In her spare time, she raises a small herd of Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats at her farm in Barre, Massachusetts.
Kai Palmer-dunning
Senior Associate, Building Decarbonization at Clean Energy Works
Kai Palmer-Dunning is the Senior Associate of Building Decarbonization at Clean Energy Works. He has experience working on topics related to building energy codes, building decarbonization policy, and environmental justice. Prior to Clean Energy Works, he was the Director of Equitable Building Transition at the Home Energy Efficiency Team (HEET), where he helped guide programs related to improving access to weatherization and building retrofits in environmental justice communities. He also helped expand awareness of networked geothermal as a gas transition pathway. In addition to his work at HEET, Kai served as a review board member for Boston’s building performance standard, BERDO. He is completing his B.S. in Environmental Science and Data Analytics at Southern New Hampshire University and plans to pursue a Masters of Architecture in Sustainable Design.
Ashley Muspratt
President & CEO of CET
Leading CET’s rapid growth and expansion of climate solutions during this decisive decade for action, Ashley Muspratt‘s leadership in testing Inclusive Utility Investments in Massachusetts has successfully demonstrated the feasibility and significant benefits of this financing model for residential decarbonization. She is a career innovator who has consistently brought market-edge ideas from conception to implementation, from the urban sanitation sector in sub-Saharan Africa to the climate sector in the US. Ashley holds an MS in Environmental Engineering and a PhD in Energy & Resources from UC Berkeley. She resides in Western Massachusetts.
Amanda Sachs
Northeast Policy Manager at Rewiring America
Amanda Sachs is Rewiring America’s Northeast Policy Manager, focused on advancing equitable pathways to building decarbonization. She leads state-level initiatives in Massachusetts and supports community-centered electrification efforts across the Northeast. Amanda began her career in environmental justice research and climate policy advocacy in New York, where she helped lead a successful ballot initiative securing the constitutional right to clean air and water, and a statewide campaign to democratize New York’s Climate Law Scoping Plan. Today, she champions policies that make decarbonization equitable and scalable, including inclusive utility investment, heat pump–friendly electricity rates, and streamlined clean energy permitting to reduce soft costs.
Franz Hochstrasser
Managing Director of Finance at S2 Strategies
Franz Hochstrasser is the Managing Director of Finance of S2 Strategies, a firm working with governments, businesses, and nonprofits to build a thriving clean energy economy. Prior to this role, he was the CEO and Co-Founder, and the Chair of the Board and Chief Compliance Officer of Raise Green, the largest and most inclusive climate investment community in the US. Raise Green is the climate investment platform that lets accredited and non-accredited investors invest in climate solutions like green bonds, clean energy project finance, and climate tech companies through securities offerings. He also serves as CEO and Co-Founder of New Haven Community Solar, a solar development company that developed two solar projects on the rooftop of a non-profit providing housing and homeless services, selling deeply discounted electricity for formerly homeless tenants. Prior to Raise Green, he worked for eight years for President Obama on the White House Council on Environmental Quality to launch the President’s Climate Action Plan, helped negotiate the Paris Agreement at the US State Department, and implemented the Recovery Act and Farm Bill at the USDA. Franz holds a Master’s in Environmental Management from the Yale School of Environment with a focus on clean energy project finance, climate policy, and sustainable finance.
