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Podcast

#034: From Rock n Roll to Renewable Fintech - Phillip Bruner of Enian

6/2/2019

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Phillip Bruner is the CEO of Enian, a platform that makes investment in renewable energy projects easy for investors large and small. In a fascinating podcast with Adam Woodhall (left-side in the show picture), Phil shares both his journey and the challenges and opportunities that renewables is facing. In addition, he gives insightful advice on how to get involved in renewable energy. ​


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#033: Why Some Clean Technologies Fail While Others Succeed - Clive Hall of Rushlight Events

24/1/2019

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Clive Hall, founder of Rushlight Events and London Cleantech Cluster, chairman London Community Resource Network, and a Fellow of the RSA discusses the keys to building successful sustainability solutions and clean technologies start-ups, why he is inspired by the circular economy and the evolution of the Rushlight events. He talks passionately about why he has carried the torch for the cleantech sector as different buzzwords come and go.


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#032: Cleantech + #ClimateAction motivations, frustrations, challenges and opportunities – Hugh Parnell of Cambridge Cleantech

17/12/2018

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​The passionate brainchild behind Cambridge Cleantech, Hugh Parnell gives a broad and deep insight into this critical industry as it is today including; the market failings it faces and how to overcome them, the relevance of his own acronym, EECO, the three S’s for start-up success, why we need inspiration from successful cleantech heroes and the collective approach needed to resolve global environmental issues.  


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#031: Game Changers squared: mainstreaming 1000 sustainability solutions

4/12/2018

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​The Solar Impulse Foundation both celebrates and promotes game changing solutions and is a game changing organisation itself.  In Adam Woodhall’s Inspiring Sustainability interview with Willem van Hasselt we learn where they are on this exciting, and necessary, journey.


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#030: Science fiction to renewable reality: nuclear fusion energy

5/10/2018

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Fusing the energy of the sun and start-ups is the topic of this podcast, where we find out how Tokamak Energy is planning to recreate the power of the sun... on a business park in Oxfordshire, and thus deliver almost limitless renewable energy.


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#029: From disrupting mobility to cleantech investing

20/9/2018

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Serial entrepreneur Charlotte Morton of Cleantech Innovate shares her experience founding, advising and investing in game changing sustainable startups.


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#028: Unshackling ourselves from fossil fuels

6/8/2018

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Richard Barker of Iona Capital talks about what the abolition of slavery in Britain tells us about climate change. The historic moral movement that preceded the industrial revolution is a poorly understood era of Britain but could hold the key to how finance and political campaigning need to change.


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#027: Leading a revolution with a life less throwaway

24/7/2018

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Buy Me Once is an online curator of beautiful products that last. Tara Button, founder of buymeonce.com and author of “A Life Less Throwaway” shares her journey from working at a global advertising agency to manifesting her dream of a global platform for durable goods and leading a movement for sustainable living.​


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#026: Turning mangroves into money: cryptocurrencies for good

11/7/2018

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​Alan Laubsch, leader of Lykke’s Natural Capital Markets group, is a connector and ecosystems builder. His mission is to protect earth’s most vital ecosystems by democratizing impact investment with the blockchain. He has over two decades of risk management experience with leading financial institutions.


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#025: Reimagining a fairer financial system... and yes it’s crypto

19/6/2018

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​Scott Nelson, Chairman & CEO of Sweetbridge talks about his #GameChanging blockchain enabled sustainable finance solution to create a more inclusive and fairer world.


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#024: Blockchain Disruption in the Energy Supply Chain

14/5/2018

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Rapid innovation using blockchain technology is becoming a major game changer, surfing the renewables revolution and shift to prosumers*. We interviewed Erwin Smole at the EventHorizon conference in Berlin on how blockchain has the potential to disrupt every part of the energy market. 


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#023: Blockchain Crowdfunding for a Solar Powered Africa

3/5/2018

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​Abraham Cambridge, CEO and Founder of The Sun Exchange talks about how they are bypassing the disinterest of governments and banks in solar energy, while combining the best decentralised technology and financing model to create game changing impact.


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#022: Getting circular in the office

9/4/2018

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Dr Greg Lavery, Founder of Rype Office talks about how he's bringing a disruptive circular economy model into the buildings industry by re-manufacturing beautiful furniture


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#021: Signs of Circular Economy Tipping Points

14/3/2018

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Ken Webster, Head of Innovation at Ellen MacArthur Foundation shares where he sees indications of the tipping points towards a circular economy, particularly focusing on high growth businesses and initiatives. 

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Ken discusses why platform cooperatives and collaboration opportunities in circular economy are seen as a key in moving towards a circular economy. He also talks about policy issues such as how finance will need to be more patient and why there needs to be a change in taxation to tip us towards a truly circular economy.

We are now moving towards an economy where utilisation of assets rather than selling of products becomes important. Ken explains how we are shifting from products to services and cites Philip’s offering of lighting-as-a-service and Bundle's washing machine and MudJean’s clothing rentals as examples of moving away from selling products to providing a service which means making things last longer.

Ken shares that nature works with a limited palette of material and there is a new science of using form to find new functions in biomimicry and at a materials level we should move towards simplicity.  He provides examples of Brazil’s Leontino Balbo Junior who is scaling regenerative agriculture, and Lula farms in Canada which is using rooftop aquaponics for urban farming and London’s own Winnow who reduce food wastage from restaurants.

The podcast was recorded over the phone, so apologies for the comparatively poor audio quality.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation aim is to accelerate the transition to the circular economy.  

Ken Webster tweets @CircularEconKen

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#020: Achieving Culture Change with a Global Business

7/3/2018

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​Frank Krikhaar Global CSR Director of Dentsu Aegis Network on using power of people and marketing to achieve the UN SDGs

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Frank Krikhaar leads the Global CSR team in Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN), a global corporation with 65 offices and 35000 people. DAN has worked on creating marketing campaigns to create mass awareness for the UN Sustainable Development Goals as well as working with local partners to achieve behaviour change at a community level.

In this episode, Frank talks about his 6 years in DAN and how he achieved the culture change in this large global marketing agency and why people are now knocking on doors wanting to engage in sustainability.

Frank made the internal move from finance and strategy into sustainability. With a background in the creative and marketing industry, Frank emphasises the importance of using connections and relationships in building on the sustainability transformation within Dentsu Aegis Network.

Frank also shares with us where he takes inspiration from and his personal concerns of the future of CSR.

​Head over to Dentsu Aegis Network CSR page here.
​Frank Krikhaar tweets at @FKrikhaar

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#019: The Sage of Sustainability

14/2/2018

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John Elkington, Founder of Volans, creator of the Triple Bottom Line and global CSR leader on his sustainable journey

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Business Week described John Elkington as "a dean of the corporate responsibility movement", a poll placed him in the top 5 of global CSR leaders and he created the concept of the Triple Bottom Line: he truly is the sage of sustainability. ​

In this episode, John talks about his personal journey over the decades pushing for sustainable development.
He discusses his work bridging the gap between activist NGO campaigners and those mainstream businesses looking to be responsible.

During the conversation he shares insight from the Volans report “Breakthrough Business Models: Exponentially, More Social, Lean, Integrated, and Circular.” John suggests that the sustainability industry needs to disrupt itself and how we need to think in much longer terms. A serial sustainability entrepreneur and thinker for 40 years, he started his first business, ENDS, in 1978 (which is still going strong), founded two high profile consultancies, SustainAbility and Volans, is the author of 19 books and is on the boards of 20 organisations. ​

Head over to Volans to learn more about Breakthrough Business Models.
John Elkington tweets at @VolansJohn


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#018: Circular Feathers: Rethinking Waste

7/2/2018

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​Mayor of London Low Carbon Entrepreneur 2016 Winner and Echoing Green Fellow, Ryan Robinson is the cofounder of Aeropowder which is turning waste feathers from the poultry industry into a high value circular economy product. 

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In this episode, Ryan explains how biomimicry inspired Aeropowder is exploiting the unique insulation properties of feathers for last mile food delivery and getting rid of synthetic insulation. Ryan shares the interesting background behind meeting cofounder Elena Dieckmann at Imperial College and what lead them to forming their company.

Ryan also talks about his journey from being a PhD researcher in air pollution and talking to astronauts in his Masters to figuring out the entrepreneurial challenges of working with industry partners and the importance of learning by doing.

Head over to Aeropowder to learn more about this new circular economy product.
Ryan Robinson tweets at @Aeropowder


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#017: Tackling Extreme Poverty

29/1/2018

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​Multi award winning African entrepreneur, Kennedy Odede shares his journey tackling extreme poverty and bringing education, healthcare and clean energy to local communities.

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In this episode, Kennedy Odede inspires us with his story as a homeless kid facing daily challenges of violence on the street to how he started Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO), the largest grassroot movement transforming urban slums in Nairobi, Kenya.

Kennedy Odede is the founder of SHOFCO that is addressing the deep challenges of extreme poverty. Kennedy explains how he has managed to create quality healthcare services and a safe space to educate young women and bringing in new solar technology to the local community.

Kennedy is recognised for the impact he is creating and awarded the Young Global Leaders and Echoing Green Fellow. Kennedy strongly believes the power of technology, education and why we should always start with the people.
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Learn more about SHOFCO here https://www.shofco.org/
Kennedy Odede tweets @KennedyOdede

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#016 : Bamboo to Loo

21/1/2018

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​Chris Forbes, award winning entrepreneur and cofounder of The Cheeky Panda on disrupting the toilet paper industry with sustainable bamboo.

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In this episode, Chris Forbes the cofounder of award winning The Cheeky Panda talks about why bamboo is an obvious solution to disrupt a mainstream product that is such a core part of everyday life. Chris explains how The Cheeky Panda business has moved from concept in 2016 to launching in mainstream retailers such as Wholefoods and Ocado and big wholesale distributors Bunzl by 2017, and with even bigger plans for 2018.

Chris explains how he is driving this potential #GameChanger business and why the whole business process is pushing the boundaries of consumer sustainability.

Chris compares bamboo versus recycled toilet paper and why they have created a health product in the process of developing Cheeky Panda. He also talks about how they are protecting the rainforests through carbon offsets and plan to use biobased plastics in their packaging.

Head over to www.TheCheekyPanda.co.uk to find out more about their bamboo loo rolls.
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Chris Forbes tweets @forbesymore

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#015: Single Organizing Idea

15/1/2018

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Neil Gaught, author of "CORE", talks about how a Single Organizing Idea can change business for good

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Neil Gaught is a strategy advisor, author and speaker who helps businesses define and implement sustainable positioning strategies. He is the author of “CORE: How a Single Organizing Idea Can Change Business for Good.”

In this episode, Neil talks about; his journey, both recent and over his career, how he is using the Single Organising Idea (SOI) framework to get clarity on business positioning, the power of brand, and how to humanise businesses.

“CORE” draws on Neil Gaught’s personal experiences as a design consultant and strategy advisor on businesses positioning to change business for good.

He advises a wide variety of organizations, ranging from international NGOs and corporates to start-ups, faith based organizations and government institutions across the world and is currently on a world tour and is delivering keynote presentations.
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Neil Gaught tweets @NeilGaught

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#014: The Power of Purpose

19/12/2017

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Having literally written the book on it, John O'Brien, Partner at One Hundred discusses the challenges of developing a more purpose led culture within your organisation.

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Ethical purpose champion, author and philanthropist, John spent over a decade with Business in the Community before managing several of the Prince of Wales' charity programmes. More recently John wears several hats within Omnicom, where his passion for purpose led positions is evident.

He brought all his learning from the last decades together in his book "The Power of Purpose", which has the tempting sub-title: "
Inspire teams, engage customers, transform business" and has got into the Top 10 for Amazon, and Top 3 for WH Smith business book charts.

John is a #GameChanger within the world of charity, social enterprise and business, and in this podcast we discuss how anyone within an organisation has the potential to influence and add purpose to their place of work. 
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John shares his obervsations of the shift towards purpose lead organisations following the financial crash, the rise and fall of "CSR" and how to use the power of purpose to create a new culture within your organisation. 

Find see his Tweets here.

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#013: Happy Hero & #ClimateOptimist

11/12/2017

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​Solitaire Townsend, Co-founder of Futerra shares the inspiration behind her new book, 'The Happy Hero', the Climate Optimism movement & successful Futerra campaigns
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Solitaire Townsend’s Twitter profile  succinctly reads: “Author of www.thehappyhero.org. Co-founder of @Futerra. #ClimateOptimist”
 
In this equally succinct interview we dive into an exploration of what inspired Solitaire to become a green entrepreneur as a teenager, how that has influenced her to investigate the connection between happiness and heroism and the evidence of its impact. 
 
We discuss how she is passionate about communicating that whilst we must take climate change seriously, that linking climate and optimism isn't either weird or dangerous, and how we can deal with apathy around climate change by believing that we can deal with it.
 
Along the way we also find out about the work Futerra has done with the likes of WWF and Sky, their partnership with The Climate Group for #ClimateOptimist, the importance of empowering and educating women, and more, all in a succinct 26 minutes.

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#012: Cleantech Horizon Scanning

4/12/2017

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Bernie Bulkin, Executive Chairman of K3Solar provides a whistle stop tour of the major challenges and opportunities in cleantech with a focus on solar, 5G and more!
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Bernie Bulkin is currently Executive Chairman ofK3Solar.  We asked Bernie to share his #GameChanger ideas after hearing his fascinating talk at the Cleantech Venture Day in London.  The topics covered in this podcast include the need and future of solar energy and its role in supporting health and education in developing economies. We also discuss the challenges and opportunities also seen in other sectors, including the clean-tech application of 5G in water monitoring and waste-reuse - it's not just for making phone-calls! 

Bernie is a former Chemist Lecturer and was the Chief Scientist for BP. As a "critical friend" to the UK Government, he championed a number of topics in his role within the Sustainable Development Commission with a specific focus on solar when he led the UK Office of Renewable Energy.

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#011: Zero Carbon Economy

23/11/2017

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John Corr, MD of Smart Ledger, discusses the impending Zero Carbon Economy including Energy Prosumers, Blockchain, EVs, VCs, and everything inbetween

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John Corr founded Smart Ledger in April 2016, since then it has gone on to become one of the global Top 40 Blockchain businesses.

In this #GameChangers conversation we discuss the rapid rise in electric vehicle (EV) use, with the potential that in 10 years 95% of all journeys will be electric. We also explore how ordinary citizens are set to go from being just energy users to also being energy producers (AKA prosumers), storers and traders on the wider market, driven by blockchain technology.

Lastly we discuss how the very nature of venture capital (VC) is changing to drive forward these innovations.

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#010: Business on a Mission

3/10/2017

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Andy Last, CEO of MullenLowe salt has literally written the book on how business can do good and grow profitably

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Andy Last co-founded MullenLowe salt in 2000 and in 2016 published the award winning 'Business on a Mission: how to build a sustainable brand'.

In this conversation we have a fascinating chat about his career, his clients, the book and the power of business to do good and grow profitably.

Andy advises brands and corporates on social purpose and sustainability communications and is a regular speaker and commentator on the power of business to lead positive change.

His consultancy was one of the first companies in the UK to be accredited as a B-Corporation, working on high profile campaigns for brands such as Unilever, Manpower and JLL. 

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