Leaving Big Oil to Build Self-Sufficient Homes: Rob Avis

Aaron talks with Rob Avis, an engineer and permaculture designer who walked away from a career in the fossil fuel industry to found 5thWorld. Rob and his team design food, water, and energy-autonomous homes, acreages, and farms.If you’ve ever wondered if you could sustain yourself on even a small plot of land, today’s episode is for you.Listen to this episode here, or on:YouTubeApple PodcastsSpotifyConnect with Rob on LinkedIn here.This Week In Solar is always brought to you by Exact Solar, your locally owned, twenty-year-old solar installer for Pennsylvania and New Jersey. And starting today, we have a special bonus for This Week In Solar Listeners.For a limited time (July 1st–August 31st, 2026), we’ll pay you $1000 if you refer a friend to us and they go solar.(We only install in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, so please do not refer anyone outside those states).All you have to do is:Click the “Refer a Friend and Earn $1000” button below.Fill in your information (we need your address to mail you a check if your friend goes solar).Select Aaron Nichols as the sales representative.Add your friend’s name, address, and contact information.Get a $1000 check mailed to you if your friend goes solar with us!Refer a Friend and Earn $1000Expect to learn:Why Rob pulled a 180 and left his fossil fuel career for good.How anyone can build food, water, and energy resilience on as little as a third of an acre (and the $2 book that’ll teach you everything you need to know).What we can do with “waste” heat from data centers. Quote from the episode:“We’ve over-educated in the white-collar system and under-educated in the blue-collar system. We’re all really good at working with the bits, but there aren’t enough of us anymore who know how to work with the atoms.”— Rob Avis