“I'm not pro-development, I'm not anti-development, but if development is coming, how do we leverage it to the best of our ability to have that legacy impact? If you can find the pieces of the puzzle that are common to everyone, you're going to have more constructive conversations than trying to say to someone you have to host renewable energy transmission lines because it's good for the environment. That's quite a hard sell.”

Agtech - So What? · Alternative Proteins · November 2026

Context

Asked where climate fits into the conversation, she says she does not lead with climate when talking to neighbours who may disagree about it; she starts from shared practical benefits.

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Transcript

Agtech - So What? Around 37:21 into the episode

Tracey Lefroy

…And I've just been really fortunate in that the Energy Charter have provided that framework and the architecture for me to be able to provide these services to landowners. And the proponents that I've worked with have all kind of gone, huh? Well, that's a really cool idea and have embraced it. I'm

Sarah Nolet

…One of the reasons for renewable energy is both energy sovereignty, but also from an emissions perspective. Are there ecological benefits? Do you guys, as the landowner hosting a project, get any kind of either environmental benefits or tell me about where does climate in this conversation?

Tracey Lefroy

Yeah, really good question. And it's one I pushed pretty hard on and didn't get very far trying to figure out if there was some way that the landowner hosting renewable energy infrastructure or renewable energy production could get some green credits or some AQs or something. But they all go with the electrons. I mean, there is the opportunity to do some offset work. But I feel like, again, this is one of those pieces of the puzzle that needs a little bit more investigation. So I would really like to see if there is the opportunity to, and I don't have a proper word for it, but to share those green benefits, because there is obviously an impost on your business. And yes, you are being paid a rent or a construction fee or an operation fee, but you are hosting renewable energy production. So how can you get some green license out of that, I guess? And does it come from potentially opportunities for other economic? diversification so as we spoke about with the production of nitrogenous fertilizers or does it power i don't know a biodiesel plant um other thing that i think is quite important to note is i've always when having conversations with landowners or communities or neighbors is i'm not pro-development…

Sarah Nolet

when you cast your eyes forward it seems like the energy conversation isn't going anywhere the renewable conversation hopefully isn't going anywhere for australia i mean data centers and more energy requirements i'm curious what are some of the five 10 15 20 years out what's on your mind as…

Tracey Lefroy

so i think data centers are in the press a lot at the moment particularly with the federal government opening their office for ai but with regard to that i think it's again a space that's moving really quickly so when we first started talking about data centers two years ago their requirement for…

Sarah Nolet

huge thanks to tracy for so generously diving into the details about her experiences setting up renewable energy projects on farms the first thing that piqued my interest about tracy story was her instinctive response to bring neighboring landowners together to approach the negotiation as a…

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