Here’s a question: how many corporations do you know that have made a public commitment to cut their carbon emissions?

Probably a lot. About 40% of the world’s largest companies have set full net-zero targets across Scopes 1, 2, and 3, according to Accenture’s Destination Net Zero 2025 report, with target-setting rising for the fourth consecutive year.

But how many actually know how to achieve those goals?

Only about 16% are on track to reach net zero in their operations by 2050. That gap between pledge and execution is what today’s guest has spent the last twenty years working on.

Dan Kalafatas grew up in a family shaped by his grandparents’ advocacy for working people and came of age questioning the role of business. That changed after a lunch talk on renewable energy at Stanford Business School.

Today, Dan is the Co-Founder and Chairman of 3Degrees, a global company helping organizations deliver on their energy and emissions commitments — from sourcing clean energy and structuring power purchase agreements to navigating carbon markets. What began with renewable energy credits has grown into a platform supporting Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions work across more than 67 countries, with partners including Microsoft, Mars, Cargill, Etsy, and Rivian. The company has supported over 20,000 decarbonization projects, worked with more than 80 Fortune 500 companies, and helped bring more than 12 gigawatts of clean energy online.

From wind farms in Oklahoma to forest conservation on California’s redwood coast to power purchase agreements worldwide, 3Degrees focuses on implementation.

In our conversation, Dan walks through that journey — from growing up in a working-class mill town in Massachusetts to finding his direction at Stanford, to driving through California rice fields blasting Eminem to land his first customer, to surviving the 2008 financial crisis with just days of runway, and ultimately building a company that now generates over a billion dollars in annual revenue.

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3Degrees Co-Founder and Chairman Dan Kalafatas

Watt It Takes

3Degrees Co-Founder and Chairman Dan Kalafatas