Episode 5: Water, Data Centers, and Carbon Accounting with Wren CEO Landon Brand

How big is AI’s climate tab, really?

This week on AI Playbook, Martin Anquetil, Christian Yeghnazar, and Colin McDonnell sit down with Landon Brand, co-founder and CEO of Wren, to talk about where AI and climate actually collide: carbon accounting, data center emissions, and the often-ignored water bill.

Chapters
00:00 Intro
01:18 Who Wren is and what it actually does
04:12 Carbon accounting basics (what gets counted, what gets missed)
08:05 The hidden water bill behind AI and data centers
12:10 Where data center emissions really come from
16:45 What “clean energy mandates” could look like in practice
21:30 How AI can speed up renewable project development
27:05 Funding vetted climate projects, trust, and verification
32:40 Ethical data sourcing and accountability
38:15 Job displacement, new roles, and what “responsible AI” means here
43:50 Non-negotiables for data centers going forward
48:05 Rapid-fire: practical steps for teams and individuals
50:10 Wrap

Guest: Landon Brand (Wren)
Hosts: Martin Anquetil, Christian Yeghnazar, Colin McDonnell