New Ventures Podcast
By Sanjoy Sanyal
New Ventures Podcast Jul 15, 2021
# 71 Community engagement key to food security.
Bangladesh is acutely vulnerable to the climate crisis. BRAC, the world’s largest NGO is implementing adaptation clinics in very vulnerable areas. The process involves understanding the specific problem the community is facing and then implementing a solution, while taking the community along. The results are extremely encouraging.
Sections
Section 1: First 25 minutes about BRAC’s approach
Section 2: Next 20 minutes about how this approach is applied to the various geographies
Host: Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
Guest : Tausif Ahmed Qurashi
Senior Programme Manager, Climate Change Programme
# 70 Cellular food – Anytime soon?
Cellular meat is not going to flood your supermarket shelves anytime soon. Across the world, only four companies have got regulatory approval. They are organising tasting sessions in restaurants and “pop ups” but it will take several years for companies to scale up manufacturing processes to produce sufficient volumes of products at reasonable costs (even assuming that it is only the adventurous, conscious and rich customers who will be the early adopters of cell based meat and dairy products.
But cell based meat, milk and seafood can wean customers off the real thing in a way that plant based foods cannot. The plant based foods is a rapidly growing industry and is an 11 billion dollar in the world. Plant based meats have environmental benefits over conventional meat but it is hard for these “fake meats” to cater to the aspirational and cultural aspects of a meat dish. Which is where cell based meat comes in.
Some countries are taking proactive steps in developing regulation for this food innovation. Singapore which imports almost its food is doing so because it wants to secure food supplies (grow 30% of its food by 2030). One company has received regulatory approval. Netherlands wants to remain a food exporter even as they hit net zero targets. The US is another front runner and has given regulatory approval to two countries.
The encouraging thing is that regulators are innovating around the regulatory process itself. User friendly websites are encouraging companies to get in touch.. Enquiries and responses are promptly answered. Regulators are righty concerned about safety and health of consumers and go through a process that takes a year to two to understand the product and the production process, assess the risks and develop risk mitigation processes. However, the process is collaborative with regulators acknowledging that they are learning along with the companies. Most importantly the regulators appreciate that the companies they are dealing with are start-ups and do not have an army of lawyers. They are going out of their way to make the whole process transparent. Some of them are even making previous application drafts available so that companies can develop better applications.
Sections
Section 1: First 12 minutes Ambika’s background, why cell-based food and a global overview Section 2: Next 30 minutes regulation and government support.
Host : Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
New Ventures Website
Guest : Ambika Hiranandani
Regulatory Affairs and Strategic Partnerships, Senara
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ambika-hiranandani-b4815616b/
# 69 Measuring soil organic carbon.
A rancher in South America is worried about the condition of his land. He knows that improving the soil condition will help in growing more grass which his livestock can feed on. He wants to leave his land in a better state to his children so that they can inherit his profession as well and decides to more regenerative practices. A NGO in East Africa has been already working in improving the agricultural practices of thousands of small holder farmers. This allows them to grow more food and not cut down forest trees in an effort to feed their families. Farmers like these know the true benefit of “soil organic carbon”. It helps increase soil fertility and improve biodiversity in the lands they live in. The voluntary carbon market which provides financial incentives to farmers to sequester carbon provides only additional benefits to these important gains. International organizations implementing large land restoration projects that help generate carbon credits need to remember that for these projects have to generate positive socio-economic benefits to local communities if the benefits of carbon sequestration have to be positive. Soilwatch works with international organisations and carbon project developers to develop carbon projects. It tries to incorporate elements that help improve food security in these projects. The services include creating baseline of biomass in and above the soil, modelling how much carbon will be sequestered, designing project activities that help in achieving the goals and monitoring and verifying the amount of carbon sequestered. The process of doing this requires deep scientific expertise. The team at Soilwatch includes agricultural experts, ecological economists, data scientists and behavioral science experts. They use AI and machine language tools to identify cropland from satellite images. But AI is not only the only arsenal at their disposal. To answer important questions like how much carbon is going to be sequestered if the temperature rises by 1 degree C there is a long history of statistical ecological tools that are available. The important thing is to do the right tool and the right data source for the problem at hand. Sections Section 1: First 5 minutes Joona’s background and starting Soilwatch Section 2: Upto 22 minutes what Soilwtach does. Section 3: Last 13 minutes about examples of Soilwatch’s projects Host Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise www.regainparadise.org Guest Joona Mikkola Chief Scientist, Soilwatch
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joona-mikkola/
# 68 Pledging to protect the land.
The Luangwa region and the Kafue regions in Zambia hosts some of the finest national parks in the world. Unfortunately, these forests and the wildlife are under threat. An average farming family who lives near these areas cuts down 60 to 70 big trees in a year just to use as firewood for cooking food. Falling soil fertility and a growing population is forcing them to cut down more trees and convert to farmlands. More recurrent droughts and floods, because of climate change is making the situation worse. To protect the forests and the wildlife, Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO), a Zambian NGO is working with farmers so that they have the right incentives not to destroy the forests and poach the animals.
COMACO helps farmers learn agricultural practices to get more yield of the traditional crops they are already growing such as maize, beans, groundnuts and soya beans. They also introduce them to produce new practices: beekeeping, mushroom farming and caterpillar farming (dried caterpillars fried with tomatoes and onions is a local delicacy to be eaten with maize or cassava flour). They help farmers practice agro forestry with a tree species that helps fix nitrogen to the soil and prevent the depletion of soil fertility. The twigs of these trees can also be used as firewood. Efficient cookstoves and sustainable hoes (that does not disturb the organic component in the soil) are provided free. COMACO then buys farm products from the farmers by paying them a premium, processes them into items like peanut butter and dried mushrooms. Most of the proceeds are ploughed back into the communities.
COMACO is financed by a mixture of debts and grants. Some of the grants are for broader purposes but many are for specific projects. In partnership with the Stockholm International Water Institute, COMACO is digitizing all farmer records. The organization has also made some progress with carbon finance. They started developing a carbon finance project in 2012 to sell them to the World Bank. One more project is being developed with Acorn Rabobank. So far US$ 4.9 million of carbon credits has come to the communities.
COMACO uses market-based mechanisms to create impact but is itself structured as a non-profit. This allows it to meet pledges to remote communities. It would not have been able to do what it does, if it were not a community-focused non-profit.
Sections
Section 1: First 38 minutes about what COMACO does in Zambia
Section 2: Next 12 minutes about impact, partnerships and funding.
Host: Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
New Ventures Website
Guest : Edward Zulu - Monitoring and Evaluation Manager, COMACO
Guests Website and contact details : www.itswild.org,
# 67 Rainwater is not seeping in.
Years of repeated tilling the same piece of land with a hand
hoe has compacted the soil in Malawi into a hard layer.
Plant roots cannot penetrate this “hard pan” and they grow
laterally, instead of vertically. Rainwater does not penetrate
the soil either but rushes along the furrows created in the
land, washing away the top soil. This is drastically reducing
agricultural production plummeting Malawi, whose
youthful population is dependent on agriculture, into crisis.
Climate crisis is making things worse. There are heavy
periods of rain, followed by dry spells and more frequent
cyclones. Standing crops are swept away and heavy rain
exacerbates soil erosion. Spells of drought makes plants,
already deprived of soil moisture, wither.
The solution is simple. Break down the hard pan of the soil.
Create deep beds and plant the crops there so that they are protected from storms. Rainwater seeps into the soil so that the soil has enough moisture during droughts. Tiyeni, a
local Malawi NGO has been training farmers on this
technique of “deep bed farming” for more than a decade.
They work with government extension workers who in turn
work with lead farmers who demonstrate these techniques
to other farmers.. Some of them have quadrupled their
yields. Tiyeni has worked with 30,000 farmers across the
county.
It does not cost too much money to train farmers. Isaac
Chavula feels that with about 450 million Malawian
Kwachas (less than US$ 300k) they can cover a lot of the
country. He also thinks it is a “lot of money”. That is
because funding for Tiyeni has been hard to come by – the
funding they get is from projects they do with universities
or companies. They are partnering with SIWI to raise the
profile of rainfed farming. Most of Sub-Saharan Africa’s
land is not irrigated. Governments have too little money to
invest in large irrigation projects. If all farmers in Malawi
could adopt deep bed farming, there may not be need to
spend a lot of money either in solving the looming problem
of food security.
Sections
Section 1: First 20 minutes introduction to the problem of agriculture in Malawi and the solution to the problem , Deep Bed Farming
Section 2: Next 23 minutes on what needs to be done so
that Malawi farmers have access to the solution.
Host: Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
Website www.regainparadise.org
Guest : Isaac Monjo Chavula, Country Director, Tiyeni
Kasonde Mulenga, Programme Manager, SIWI
Guests Website and contact
details. https://www.tiyeni.org/
# 66 Sustaining simple pleasures.
The wine and the alcohol industry has been around for millennia and obviously is not the major cause of climate change. But then like every other industry it has to reduce its emissions and environmental impact. More importantly, the wine industry is being impacted by unpredictable weather events. Drought, sudden frost and wildfires are affecting the quantity and quality of grapes. Transporting wine requires a lot of energy. Glasses are heavy to ship around. Transporting bulk wine across the continents, selling wine in paper cartons, reducing the weight of glasses and using completely recycled bottles are all part of the solution. To adapt to climate change, wine makers are growing different types of grapes, growing them in
different regions, conserving water and discarding monoculture. Consumers care about sustainability but companies need to give them great tasting products which are also produced sustainability. It will be unfair to deprive a hard working person of a simple pleasure in the name of sustainability.
Sections
Section 1: First 10 minutes introduction to David and the sustainability commitment of Direct Wines
Section 2: Next 14 minutes about how the wine industry’s mitigation and adaptation approach.
Section 3: Last 8 minutes about consumer perception towards sustainability.
Host : Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
Guest : David Gates
CEO Direct Wines
# 65 Foodtech is not just tech.
In the last five years, plant based foods have started appearing on supermarket shelves, on restaurant menus and even on the assembly chains of fast food outlets. There is still skepticism however. Customer demand in the US and UK seem to be flattening out and there are no real entry barriers to new companies bringing out new products. It is not unusual for a new industry to stall after initial period of excitement. During the initial period, many new companies rush in and then there is a shake out. A few companies survive and they are able to expand the customer base. The plant food industry may not follow this traditional bloodbath. After all, food tastes are incredibly varied and there can be thousands of plant foods. This points to the need for companies to do marketing 101: segment customers, understand needs, create awareness. Germany can be a role model . Here a fortuitous combination of innovative supermarkets, aware citizenry and intelligent policies have helped hundreds of private label plant based foods to be available in supermarkets.
Sections
Section 1: First 17 minutes introduction to Sonalie, her work and what is broken with the food system.
Section 2: Next 23 minutes about innovation in food systems
Section 3: Last 8 minutes about the participation of large companies
Host - Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
Guest- Sonalie Figueiras - Founder, Green Queen Media
# 64 Finding out what’s going on.
Extreme events occur not just because of climate change but also local damage to the environment. The effects are also sometimes hard to foresee. Not all events are well reported either. ClimateNode wants to scan websites, news reports, scientific papers to understand what type of climate events are happening, their causes and effects. ClimateNode has developed its technology on surface water flooding in the UK. ClimateNode uses natural language processing. Natural language processing helps categorise and scan documents and build a library of documents that can then be used by large language models. This type of analysis would supplement the more quantitative models of climate change.
Sections
Section 1: First 8 minutes introduction to ClimateNode and its UK flooding study
Section 2: Next 10 minutes about the importance of natural
language processing
Section 3: Last 4 minutes about ClimateNode’s ambition
Host- Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
Guest - Helen Jackson - Director, ClimateNode
# 63 Partnering smaller companies.
There are 150 million mid-market companies across the world who do not have the resources to invest in measuring climate metrics. Software can help them understand what standards are applicable, pull out and validate data sitting at various places in the company systems, suggest and help manage personalised projects and then communicate results to stakeholders. Misio starts with what is important to the organisation and who really cares to define how artificial intelligence models can be used. Regulations are driving the need for software but smaller impact companies and their venture capital investors are also using the software. Smaller impact- seeking companies have lesser resources to invest on sustainability projects because they have to focus on profitability. AI is useful because it helps these scarce resources be better used.
Sections
Section 1: First 13 minutes about the climate regulations and the need for AI standards.
Section 2: Next 15 minutes about the Misio’s software and its use.
Section 3: Last 7 minutes about the Australian ecosystem
Host: Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
Guest Name : Jeremy Biggs, CEO, Misio
# 62 Stopping Land Degradation.
In the Sahel, farmers do not have the money to buy
chemical fertilisers. They use organic methods of farming
which works well when they do. Unfortunately, the
temperatures in the Sahel are already more than global
averages. Rainfall is scarce but when it does the downpours
are heavy. The top soil is often carried away, making the
soil infertile. People clear forests to grow food. Without
trees the ability of the soil to retain water reduces. Well
thought out agro forestry projects where communities plant
indigenous trees can break this vicious cycle. Tree Aid, an
international charity, raises money to support local
communities. It works with local organisations to help
implement these projects. The non-timber forest products
are sold in export and domestic markets. The trees also
grow food that provides vital nutrition.
Sections
Section 1: First 13 minutes about Sahel, Tree Aid and Tom.
Section 2: Next 16 minutes about the projects done by Tree
Aid .
Section 3: Last 13 minutes reflections on how to expand the impact
Host: Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
Guest: Tom Skirrow, CEO Tree Aid
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-skirrow-06a90b36/
# 61 New food...What's cooking?
There are six subsectors to the alternative protein industry.
Plant based meats, precision fermentation and cellular meat
are the main ones. Plant based “mock meat” has been
around in Asia for centuries. There are relatively less
technological barriers to get products out but companies
will still have to overcome taste, nutrition, cost and
regulatory barriers before products reach mass markets.
Precision fermentation should come next. Cellular meat is
farther down the path. For precision fermentation, the
technology has to be adopted from the pharmaceutical
industry. But costs have to come down drastically. With the
public issue of Impossible Foods, many investors started
getting interested in the sector. What followed was a hype
cycle with companies being able to raise large amounts of
capital at high valuations. Things have settled down since
then. Investors must understand that the alternative protein
products will need a few decades to reach a mass market.
As the new food-tech industry grows, people working in the
current food industry will see losses of jobs and livelihoods.
But like with any new technology, new types of jobs will be
created and there will be opportunities for small niches
growing food using regenerative methods. And it would offer the consumer more choices.
Sections
Section 1: First 4 minutes about Hon Mun Yip and how he got involved in investing in food-tech.
Section 2: Next 18 minutes about Hon Mun Yip’s investors in each sub sector of the industry and which sub-sectors. .
Section 3: Last 18 minutes reflections on the current slowdown in investing and peering into the future
Host: Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
New Ventures Website www.regainparadise.org
Guest : Hon Mun Yip
Investor, Food Tech and Alternative Protein
# 60 Measuring and managing biodiversity
The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures
(TNFD) is driving the demand for AI software. Some
companies also want to go beyond just meeting the
standards and genuinely develop a nature strategy. Xylo
Systems, helps energy and property companies understand
baseline biodiversity data, analyse possible impacts and
develop potential projects. They do so by integrating both
open source data as well as data from proprietary remote
monitoring sources. Artificial Intelligence and Machine
Learning helps in processing large volumes of image and
video data, create an ecosystem level analysis by spotting
patterns and then communicating this complex information
into easily understood reports.
Sections
Section 1: First 15 minutes about the background and what is driving the market.
Section 2: Next 15 minutes about Xylo’s approach and
examples of where the software has been used
Section 3: Last 7 minutes reflections
Host : Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
New Ventures Website www.regainparadise.org
Guest : Jada Andersen
Co-founder and CTO, Xylo Systems Australia
# 59 Usable and Understandable Energy Plans
Transition Zero has used artificial intelligence to measure
emissions from coal and gas power plants. It has trained
software to learn from satellite images and verified
published emissions. The trained software can then estimate
emissions only from satellite pictures of power plants where
the published data is not available or needs to be verified. It
is now helping countries develop net zero ambition plans.
Satellite data provides a variety of inputs to the modelling
software both on physical infrastructure (electricity grid
infrastructure, renewable energy assets) and natural
infrastructure(biodiversity and landscapes). Artificial
intelligence can rapidly develop multiple versions of plans.
taking into consideration all these multiple inputs and
applying various constraints. Traditional energy modelling,
on the other hand can take into consideration only a limited
number of variables. TransitionZero also make its data in
open format so that other modellers can use it freely. This
helps in smaller countries of the Global South develop
robust plans that they can use to evaluate their plans to net
zero without relying on expensive consultants whose
opaque tools are not as useful either.
Sections Section 1: First 18 minutes about TransitionZero and its offerings
Section 2: Next 15 minutes about applications and uses.
Host : Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
New Ventures Website www.regainparadise.org
Guest Name André Ferreira
Data Scientist, TransitionZero
Website and contact details.
# 58 To adapt, invest in tuna processing.
Arnab Sengupta has worked with about six agricultural commodities and knows a lot about tuna. Tuna is consumed fresh and in canned forms. It is caught in the deep sea near some of the small island developing states and then processed in Thailand or Ecuador. The processing industry employs a lot of people because the fish has to be cleaned perfectly in a way that has not been mechanised. The industry, by working with non-profits, scientists and governments, has addressed many of the concerns with regard to over-fishing. Climate change is, however, making its presence felt. It is too early to predict the future (and indeed if one could do so commodity traders would make a killing) but one thing is probably certain: species will migrate both away from where they are caught now and also deeper into the ocean. This will increase fishing costs and reduce revenue for the countries that sell fishing rights.
Sections Section 1: First 18 minutes about Arnab and the tuna industry
Section 2: Next 25 minutes about climate change and overfishing concerns and how the industry is responding
Host : Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
New Ventures Website www.regainparadise.org
Guest Name : Arnab Sengupta
https://www.linkedin.com/in/arnabsengupta/
Website : arnab@cantab.net
# 57 Managing risks, Communicating strategies.
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive are complex (climate is only one of the five pillars of sustainability) and that creates the need for software to manage the process of meeting the new standards. Metabolic a consultancy used its experience of working with clients to develop Link a product that enables users start with data that they have and identify hotspots and define projects with the aim of managing impact and risk. Link also helps managers to communicate a science based story inside and outside the organisation. The ultimate vision is to help organisations collaborate with others to address problems. Upcoming standards are driving the adoption of software but companies – especially those in the food and apparel industries – are cognizant of the need for getting it right and not just tick the boxes.
Sections
Section 1: First 8 minutes about Pieter and his company Metabolic
Section 2: Next 31 minutes about the software Link that allows organisations assess nature and biodiversity impacts risks and impacts.
Host
Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
New Ventures Website
Guest
Pieter van Exter
Director of Product, Metabolic Software
Guests Website and contact details.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pieter-van-exter/
# 56 Using credit lines effectively.
Credit lines are a very common instrument of moving climate finance from international development financial institutions to intermediaries in developing countries.
Unfortunately and very surprisingly, not all of these lines get utilised. Rainer and Sanjoy who have worked with credit lines for many years explain how credit lines can be made more effective. The market needs to be assessed, potential products tested, the processes have to be thought through and there needs to be far better coordination between teams within the local financial intermediary.
Technical Assistance should also be more strategically deployed and one key criterion is reusability of interventions and continuous improvement.
Sections Section 1: First 6 minutes about lines of credit and their importance in climate finance.
Section 2: Next 18 minutes about how to make lines of credit more successful and effective.
Section 3: Last 22 minutes about how to make best use of Technical Assistance.
Host - Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
New Ventures Website www.regainparadise.org
Guest Name Rainer Agster
Founder, aimplifin GmbH
Website- https://de.linkedin.com/in/raineragster
https://www.aimplifin.eu/
# 55 Preparing proactively for climate migration.
A small country like Bangladesh is vulnerable to both extreme events and slow deterioration of living conditions due to climate change. People migrate in droves when extreme events occur, they migrate in trickles as agriculture and fishing becomes unviable. The Climate Bridge Fund, supported by the German Development Bank, and implemented by BRAC, the world’s largest NGO aims at increasing the resilience of people as they migrate to urban areas.
They fund two types of projects. Some projects are implemented by small NGOs who work in informal settlements to improve sanitation conditions and help people seek new livelihood projects. Other projects implemented by BRAC itself help develop nationwide climate adaptation strategies. These projects need to be implemented with urgency but they do not cost the earth.
Sections Section 1: First 16 minutes to understand why people are moving on account of climate impacts?
Section 2: Next 28 minutes about the Climate Bridge Fund
Host : Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
New Ventures Website www.regainparadise.org
Guest Name : Dr Md. Golam Rabbani
Head of Climate Bridge Fund Secretariat at BRAC
Guests Website and contact details. : rabbani.golam@brac.net
https://www.brac.net/program/climate-bridge-fund/
# 54 PAYG everything is a reality.
BBOXX started selling small solar home systems in Rwanda thirteen years back. It was heady times as several entrepreneurs from the Western world rushed to provide modern electricity to millions of customers in Africa . The industry soon attracted enormous global investor interest.
Like all hype cycles, reality dawned as some of these companies collapsed.
Listen to this podcast with Christopher Baker-Brian of the BBOXX , a company which has lived to tell the tale.
Sections In these 35 minutes we discuss:
The storms the company has come through. How the applications of the pay as you go technology has expanded ?
How many things have been solved but the problem of local currency debt has not been ?
Host Name : Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
New Ventures Website www.regainparadise.org
Guest Name : Christopher Baker-Brian
Co-founder and MD Product Division
Guests Website and contact
details. @cbakerbrian
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisbakerbrian/
# 53 Breaking the cycle of subsistence farming.
A very small part of arable land in Africa is irrigated and with climate change already happening, there is neither time nor money to build grand irrigation projects. What can be done, however, is to collect rainwater, which now comes in sudden heavy downpours, using age-old techniques. Add on solutions that measure soil moisture, predict weather and connect farmers to market and you can transform agriculture in Africa. Requires a commitment to support local organisations and foster partnerships for the next thirty years.
Listen to this podcast with Anton Earle of the Stockholm International Water Institute which is implementing a rain fed agriculture project in the Zambezi river basin.
Sections Section 1: First 15 minutes about the climate change impacts in the Zambezi river basin
Section 2: Last 30 minutes about how only rainwater can be used to transform agriculture if the correct conditions exist
Host : Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
New Ventures Website www.regainparadise.org
Guest : Anton Earle
Director of African Regional Centre at SIWI
https://siwi.org/transforming-investment-in-africas-rainfed-agriculture-tiara/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/anton-earle-20427611/
# 52 More intelligible ESG Data
Michael Poisson helps us understand the types of companies in the crowded ESG scoring industry. The industry is very crowded with various types of companies offering different data products based on the customer needs. Incoming regulations will lead to standardised products. Companies use broadly two types of approaches. One way is to make sense of publicly available data and the other is to use technology such as artificial intelligence and quantitative modelling. To some extent, these approaches are merging not least because all publicly available
information cannot be believed.
I host this podcast with Michael Poisson, Managing Director of IdealRatings which has the world’s largest database of ESG scores of public companies with my co-host Raven McMenemie of Eden Smith Group, a specialist data staffing and consulting business.
Sections Section 1: First 20 minutes about the ESG industry and ongoing trends
Section 2: Last 10 minutes about how AI can be changing the industry and managing a ESG data company
Host: Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise. www.regainparadise.org
and Raven McMenemie www.https://edensmith.group/
Guest : Michael Poisson Managing Director, IdealRatings
Author at the ESG Data Revolution: Sustainable Fuel for Tomorrow’s Business
Guests Website and contact details.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelpoisson/
https://www.idealratings.com/
# 51 Why join a climate programme?
What you learn at a world class incubator? In this podcast , two entrepreneurs reflect on the time they spent at Carbon 13, Cambridge’s climate venture builder. Why did they apply? What happened when they meet their other cohort members? Did the experience help them? What is the progress they have made since then?
Finally, it seems to boil down to know to the maximum; “Know myself”
Sections Section 1: First 20 minutes about the businesses of Andy and Natalia
Section 2: About their experiences in Carbon 13
Host: Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
New Ventures Website www.regainparadise.org
Guest Name : 1. Andy Hale , CEO and Co-Founder at xtonnes, https://www.linkedin.com/in/drandrewhale/
2. Natalia Dorfman, CEO and Co-Founder at Kita, https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalia-dorfman/
# 50 Partnering to solve the climate crisis.
Human wildlife conflict has social causes and is being exacerbated by climate change. Solving it requires an integrated approach. Technology is key but you cannot air drop it in these frontiers of climate change. To make real impact organisations of different types must come together and their funders will have to support these partnerships. Listen to this fascinating podcast to know how software technology is being tested among the Masai tribes in a partnership between two very different organisations and understand how these unusual partnerships can be nurtured to meet the twin crises in biodiversity and climate crises.
Sections Section 1: First 20 minutes about the nature of the problem that is being tackled.
Section 2: Next 15 minutes on the solution.
Section 3: Last 11 minutes on how these projects can be supported
Host Name : Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
New Ventures Website www.regainparadise.org
Guest Name : 1. Dr. Irene Amoke
Executive Director, Kenya Wildlife Trust
https://www.kenyawildlifetrust.org/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-irene-amoke-a61a9241/
2. James Alden
Founder, Climate Edge
http://www.climate-edge.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-alden-7a1b699a/
# 49 The stage is set for climate talent.
Deep Science Ventures is building climate businesses with a plan. What is required to reverse global warming? What are the constraints in reaching outcomes? What technology solutions can remove these constraints? Who are the best people to develop the technology? How can we give them opportunity to think about the problem?
Listen to this fascinating podcast about they are building companies in Direct Air Capture and Renewable Energy from these first principles.
Sections Section 1: First 18 P minutes on the Deep Science Ventures approach
Section 2: Next 35 minutes on the approach in action
Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
New Ventures Website www.regainparadise.com
Guest : Pina Fritz, Ph.D Head of Scoping Climate. Deep Science Ventures
Adam Tomassi-Russell Director Climate & Energy. Deep Science Ventures
Website
https://deepscienceventures.com/
Contact details
https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-tomassi-russell-75363352/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pina-fritz-phd-8896499b
# 48 Data mining for better mining.
The mining industry contributes more than 4 per cent of the global greenhouse gas emissions. That is about the share of cement and chemicals & amp; petrochemicals taken together. It also consumes water in areas where it is in short supply. Things can get worse. The transition to electric vehicles and renewable energy will increase the demand for minerals and rare earths several times over. Ore quality is declining and companies are digging deep to meet the increased demand. Listen to this podcast to know how IntelliSense is using artificial intelligence to help mining operations not only reduce the use of energy, water and chemicals but also become more profitable.
Sections Section 1: First 12 minutes in understanding the problem
Section 2: Next 14 minutes about examples of IntelliSense’s solution
Section 3: Understanding AI and peering into the future
Host: Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
New Ventures Website www.regainparadise.org
Guest Name and Designation Sam Bose, Founder & CEO, IntelliSense.io
Guests Website and contact details : https://www.intellisense.io/, https://www.linkedin.com/in/sambose/
# 47 Humanism, Climate Change and Tagore
Can the tools that we have – science, technology and business – address the issues that we face from climate change? After all, these are the very things that has brought us to this problem. So it is right to be skeptical. But then in the limited time these tools are all that we have. It is not practical to think that we will build everything afresh . This difficult problem can be solved if we use the same tools with a different mindset. This is why the philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore, the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 may need to be resurrected.
Sections Section 1: First 13 minutes introducing Rabindranath Tagore.
Section 2: Next 24 minutes about his philosophy and why it is important in this time.
Host : Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
New Ventures Website www.regainparadise.com
Guest Name : Dr. Bashabi Fraser, Professor Emerita of English & Creative Writing
Director, Scottish Centre of Tagore Studies (ScoTs)
Edinburgh Napier University
Guests Website and contact details. https://scotstagore.org/bashabifraserwriter@gmail.com
# 46 Something priceless out of nothing.
2 people attract 15 volunteers. These 15 volunteers are supported by people across the UK. Seeing the success of this first group, scores of groups spring up across the UK and the world all working on recycling plastic waste for products such as survival blankets for people who have nothing else to keep warm during the winter. The groups partner with corporate organisations, charities and public bodies. Scaling this organisation does not take money, it needs “admin time”. Is this how future of climate business should look like?
Sections Section 1: First 6 minutes about the
Section 2: Next 17 minutes about how our organisation works
Host : Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
New Ventures Website www.regainparadise.com
Guest : Pen Huston, Founder, Crisp Packet Project
Guests Website : https://crisppacketproject.com/
# 45 Reinventing investing for climate crisis.
Description: Suppose millions of people come together to fund innovations that have the highest impact on solving the climate crisis. The areas they target are the priority areas science is telling us to focus on, not just the VC flavour of the year. The innovations they support are examined by intelligent common people as well as by experts. The innovators license out the technology so that solutions scale rapidly. That is what Time for Planet is trying to build and making progress on.
Sections Section 1: First 22 minutes about how Time for Planet is reinventing investing
Section 2: Next 23 minutes about what climate innovations Time for Planet is supporting and how.
Section 3: The impact Time for Planet can create.
Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
Website : www.regainparadise.com
Guest Name : Cecile Duranton, Managing Director, Time for Planet
Guests Website and contact details : https://join-time.com/en
# 44 Rescuing food from being wasted.
Wasted food leads to a greenhouse gas emissions. Not only is food waste causing global warming but climate change will lead to greater food waste. Extreme events will damage crops. Unseasonal flowering will lead to short term surpluses. Food is wasted because as consumers we have some unsustainable habits and because retailers are seeking efficiency. Oddbox provides growers an option to sell the fruits and vegetables rejected by retailers and compensates them for cost of growing.
Sections Section 1: First 17 minutes about “what” is Oddbox doing
Section 2: Next 18 minutes about “why” food is wasted and “how” Oddbox’s solution is creating impact
Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
New Ventures Website www.regainparadise.com
Guest Emilie Vanpoperinghe, Founder Oddbox
Guests Website and contact details. https://www.oddbox.co.uk/
# 43 Collaboration is must for innovation
The inside story behind the dramatic drop in renewable energy prices is often quite mundane. In this podcast, we discuss how nitty gritty technical and commercial details led to the rapid decline of offshore wind prices in the UK. The story is really that of a trusted organization bringing together industry players to collaboratively explore solutions to common problems. The Carbon Trust is now expanding the approach to floating wind and expanding the integration of wind energy to existing infrastructure. In promoting innovation in energy access it is trying some of these same tools on the energy access situation in Africa. Here it is using challenge funds to support a broad range of initiatives, collaborative approaches and an educational programme on energy access.
Sections Section 1: First 5 minutes about The Carbon Trust, the organisation
Section 2: Till 22 minutes about The Carbon Trust’s work in energy access
Section 3: Last 21 minutes about The Carbon Trust’s work in offshore wind
Name Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
New Ventures Website www.regainparadise.com
Guest Name Angus Vantoch-Wood, Senior Manger, Carbon Trust
Guests Website and contact details. https://www.carbontrust.com/ https://www.preo.org/
# 42 Circular Economy & Green Hydrogen
Green hydrogen is necessary to decarbonise industry. It is possible to make green hydrogen from electrolysis process from renewable energy but the UK government has given out grants to test various ways of making green hydrogen from biomass. A few of them will go to the demonstration stage in the next few years. Post demonstration they can go to commercial stage. Depending on which technology makes its way down this path, green hydrogen can be produced much more cheaply and help both the agriculture and industrial sectors in the UK. Phoebus Power is experimenting with ways to use waste biomass and make green hydrogen. The ability to experiment with innovative approaches is what makes UK’s green hydrogen policy ambitious.
Sections Section 1: First 11 minutes about the various ways of producing green hydrogen and how the UK government is trying to explore the use of biomass.
Section 2: Till 38 minutes about what exactly Phoebus Power is trying to do with the grant and what could happen if they are successful.
Section 3: Last 9 minutes about other clean energy businesses Ravinder is involved in.
Host : Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
New Ventures Website www.regainparadise.com
Guest : Ravinder Shan, CEO Phoebus Power
Guests Website and contact details. https://www.phoebuspower.com/, https://www.linkedin.com/in/rshan/
# 41 Nurturing businesses to seed investment.
Helping climate businesses to get their first customers and the first seed investment is a very tough job. The Greenhouse at the at the Centre for Climate Change Innovation gets it done for about 60 to 70% of the companies they support during a twelve month process. More creditable: most companies they have supported are still in business defying the high mortality rates of start-ups. In this podcast, Naveed Chaudhry talks about the incubation process, the types of companies supported, the angel investing ecosystem in the UK. He goes on to provide two critical insights: specialised VC investors should be ready to invest large amounts in climate but not to chase market share and entrepreneurs should not chase grants and competitions at the expense of their own business.
Sections Section 1: First 29 minutes about what the incubator works.
Section 2: Upto 41 minutes on the impact created
Section 3: Investment patterns and ecosystem lessons
Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
New Ventures Website www.regainparadise.com
Guest Name : Naveed Chaudhry, Co-Founder & Head of The Greenhouse at the Centre for Climate Change Innovation
Guests Website and contact details : n.chaudhry@imperial.ac.uk
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/grantham/innovation/what-we-do/the-greenhouse/
# 40 A future without sufficient climate money.
Every report on climate finance claims that we need trillions to adapt to climate change and moans that the money is not coming through. In this podcast Jaideep Prabhu, the international frugal innovation guru, contemplates the future where not enough money is available soon enough. His message is one of hope.
Sections Section 1: First 22 minutes about how you can do a lot with less.
Section 2: How can we reorganise to transition frugally
Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
New Ventures Website www.regainparaise.com
Guest - Jaideep Prabhu, Professor of Marketing Cambridge Judge Business School
https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/faculty-research/faculty-a-z/jaideep-prabhu/
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jaideep-prabhu-94b3102
# 39 Understand risks, proactively reduce vulnerability
Climate change will not cause disastrous impact. Vulnerability to it will. To reduce vulnerability, public and private managers will have to be clear headed about risks and plan for them. It is not hard to guess that all businesses will be subjected to greater physical risk. What is hard is to assess to what extent and in what time frame. Cervest uses machine learning and statistical modelling to make sense of very complicated scenarios. Its customers include organizations that have to mandatorily disclose climate risks, organizations managing global supply chains and architect firms building prominent new buildings.
Sections Section 1: First 22 minutes about how computing power, data and algorithms are harnessed to assess climate risks for specific assets
Section 2: Till 41 minutes about how this assessment can be used by organisations
Section 3: Last 10 minutes about managing a mission driven nerdy team
Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
New Ventures Website www.regainparaise.com
Guest Name Iggy Bassi, Founder & CEO Cervest
Guests Website and contact details. https://cervest.earth
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/iggybassi
# 38 Architect for health, not looks.
Heatwaves, fires and flooding will impact physical and mental health and will cause additional pressures on public health facilities. This means that not only health facilities but also offices, building and public spaces will have to be designed keeping in mind the health of people who will use them. Architects have to build for this new world also keeping affordability and a growing shortage of construction material in mind. New technology will help but it is also important that architects learn from what worked in the past.
Section 1: First 14 minutes about Sumita and her approach to architecture
Section 2: Till 28 minutes about building for healthy living in a time of climate change
Section 3: Till 38 minutes about building techniques and technology for sustainability and affordability
Section 4: Last 6 minutes her advice for younger architects
Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
New Ventures - www.regainparaise.com
Guest Name and Designation Sumita Singha, architect, teacher, writer, artist
Guests Website and contact details- https://www.ecologicarchitects.com/ , https://uk.linkedin.com/in/sumitasingha
# 37 Investors should use satellite climate data.
If we use climate data, we can take actions today at low cost and avoid a lot of pain later. Kayross collects climate data observed by satellites and then makes them useful for public and private investors by combining various sorts of data and interpreting the results using clever algorithms. Investors can
use this analysis to take informed effective decisions to manage risks and take positive action. With authentic data, they can also guard themselves against greenwashing.
Sections Section 1: What is observed? (1-11 mins)
Section 2: How does it help investors? (11-22 mins)
Section 3: How is the data made useful? (23- 43mins)
Sanjoy Sanyal, Founder Regain Paradise
New Ventures Website www.regainparaise.com
Guest Name : Christian Lelong, Director Climate Solutions, Kayrros
Website and contact details: https://www.kayrros.com/
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/christian-lelong
# 36 Climate angels must specialise.
Every city in the world where people have some spare cash to invest in their future should have a group of green angels to support climate innovators. Nick Lyth tells you how to do it and what you can achieve.
Section 1: What have we achieved?
Section 2: What companies do you support?
Section 3: What processes do we follow?
Sanjoy Sanyal - Director
www.regainparaise.com
Nick Lyth - Founder and President
https://greenangelsyndicate.com/
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/nick-lyth-5191951
# 35 Nature can protect islands from man.
Listen to Johan Mendez explain the implementation of an ecosystem based adaptation project in Seychelles
These are the parts of the podcast :
First 10 minutes : the climate change and environmental damage in Seychelles
10 -16 minutes : what is ecosystem based adaptation and why is it important ?
16-29 minutes : what really happened in the project?
29-40 minutes : doing more of these projects
After 41 minutes : developing and implementing these projects, measuring impact.
Sanjoy Sanyal
Visiting Fellow Cambridge Judge Business School
Founder, Regain Paradise, a climate finance consulting firm
https://www.regainparadise.org/
Johan MèndezFacebook link :
https://www.facebook.com/EBAsey.sc/
Instagram link :
EP 34 Ships need to use greener fuels.
Dr. Sanjay Kuttan, Chief Technology Officer of the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonization and Ken Hickson, veteran sustainability commentator explain why moving to new fuels is really the only way for the shipping industry to cut emissions. It is not easy to make the transition, however. The Centre located in Singapore, one of the world’s most important places for the maritime trade is playing a key role in this transition. It is funding critical projects and helping build an industry-wide collaboration.
Sanjoy Sanyal
Visiting Fellow Cambridge Judge Business School
Founder, Regain Paradise, a climate finance consulting firm
https://www.regainparadise.org/
Dr Sanjay C Kuttan
Chief Technology Officer
Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation
Ken Hickson
Author,Advocate,Advisor. Promoter of The Art of Sustainability, ABC Carbon, The Art of Travel, Focus on Forests & Ocean Outlook
# 33 How can climate technology companies be built at speed and at volume?
Listen to Chris Coleridge, of the Cambridge Judge Business School talk of how and his colleagues are helping build innovative organizations that will have the potential to reduce carbon emissions by 10 million tonnes per annum at Carbon 13. The process starts with selecting 70 people of diverse backgrounds from over 1000 applications. These 70 people form their business teams by trading ideas during the first six weeks. In the first six weeks, all members must spend some time physically with each other in the University of Cambridge. Once they form teams they go back and work with each other and come back to pitch for a pre seed investment. Then with this money they are off to an accelerator phase, selling to customers and attracting the next round of investment.
This is building businesses on steroids. It requires highly motivated people who can work with each other. It requires a network of business supporters, people who can provide advice and perspective and open doors with introductions. It also requires that there is a network of venture capitalists who can fork out cash.
EP 32 Why should utilities be seeking out partnerships with companies a fraction of their size?
Listen to George Kibala Bauer, Director Digital Utilities, GSMA in this second episode as he reflects on underlying strategies of businesses using mobile and digital technologies to deliver basic services in emerging countries. Innovative companies are seeking out partners as the mobile companies have customer acceptance. Larger companies are partnering with the younger companies to increase their value to existing customers but also to service entirely new set of customers. But it is also the responsibility of the larger companies to use technologies to help communities come out of poverty and help nations reach climate goals. Public organizations are working with private initiatives to deliver basic services and gather data.
EP 31 Can digital technologies help businesses deliver basic services?
Listen to George Kibala Bauer, Director Digital Utilities, GSMA for a fascinating tour across Asia and Africa, as he talks about how private sector businesses are learning and experimenting and how the deep industry experience of the GSMA is helping to build these businesses.
The GSMA Foundation has been running the donor funded Mobile for Digital Utilities Innovation Fund and has provided catalytic capital to support innovation in providing energy, water and sanitation services to underserved communities in emerging economies.
Sanjoy Sanyal ( Director)
https://www.regainparadise.org/
# EP 30 How will the refrigerant industry change in this decade?
While refrigerants cool commercial and industrial facilities they heat up the atmosphere. The refrigerant gases leak and while they stay in the atmosphere for a shorter term than carbon dioxide, they heat up the atmosphere to a much greater degree. This Catch 22 problem will become worse in a heating world.
Luckily solutions exist. One solution is to move to natural refrigerants (air, water and chemicals such as ammonia, butane, carbon dioxide and propane). To enable companies to effectively manage their refrigerants three steps are required. First, measure what is used and where it is used and how much is used. Second, mitigate and manage leaks. An equipment that is leaking refrigerants is also using more energy so plugging leaks also saves costs. Third, personnel will also have to learn about refrigerants. So far it is mostly relegated to the corner of the basements.
Listen to this podcast from Adrian Bukmanis to explain all this and also discuss what investors should look out for. First, there would be investments in the production of natural refrigerants. Second, there will be opportunities to support companies as they install monitoring software and make the switch. Finally, there will be a need for investment in safely disposing off the current generation of refrigerants when they come to the end of their life. These last opportunities will emerge as regulations tighten.
Sanjoy Sanyal (Director)
https://www.regainparadise.org/
Creating milk goodness without the cows?
Microbes can mimic cows and you can pick and choose milk ingredients you can make in a cell factory.
Lactoferrin is a protein in human milk, animal milk, and other bodily fluids. Colostrum, the first milk made after a baby is born, is higher in lactoferrin. It is made from whey but only 1-2% of whey protein is lactoferrin.
Getting lactoferrin is resource intensive. It involves dairy (think methane emissions and water use) and then converting large quantities of whey into lactoferrin. Very little quantity of it is available in the market and it is expensive.
TurtleTree is trying to make lactoferrin more available by growing it in microbes. Listen to Fengru Lin, Founder & CEO, tell you about how microbes can mimic what cows do and lactoferrin can be mixed with other products to make tasty products.
Milks from plant based sources have been around for a long time but here we are talking of developing specific nutritional products based on what you find in food.
# 28 How can sustainable development solutions scale?
P4G Partnering for Green Growth and Global Goals 2030 has been supporting pioneering partnerships in the areas of clean energy, water and sanitation, sustainable agriculture, sustainable cities and circular economy.
Here she recounts some of the successful partnerships:
1. Creating a credit worthy market intermediary in Zambia for promoting renewable energy.
2. Deploying digital solutions for reducing water wastage in Asia.
3. Reducing plastic waste in the poorer communities of cities.
4. Sourcing sustainable products from small holder farmers.
5. Developing sustainable industrial clusters.
# EP 27 How can public funds promote innovation?
Developed nations can use their climate finance commitments to help emerging nations develop vibrant and innovative approaches to address climate challenges. In this podcast, Robyn McGuckin Director of Partnerships at P4G makes the following points:
1. Public funds should support partnerships that bring innovative approaches to pressing problems.
2. Grant support to projects should be accompanied by capacity building to attract private capital.
3. There cannot be just one fixed approach. To support innovation, funders need to be agile, ready to adapt and be willing to fail.
#26 Travin Singh explains how reducing food loss helps improve profitability.
It is possible to add revenue lines with upcycled products
CRUST Group makes beer from bread and rice that would be otherwise wasted. It also makes a sparkling drink from the parts of fruits that would otherwise be lost.
As it has learnt to make and sell these products, it also offers to partner with customers to take their food waste and convert that to a sustainable product. This helps their partners improve incomes, reduce costs and earn sustainability points.
Reducing food wastage is key to feeding the world in an era of climate change. Travin says that it requires collaboration and localized solutions.
Andre Menezes explains how a plant-based alternative to the world’s favourite meat was developed during the pandemic.
The recipes were tested in an empty kitchen in the Central Business District of Singapore.
As the foodie haven Singapore locked down in the early days of the pandemic, the team of Tindle took an empty kitchen up and turn out recipes which they tested with top chefs.
The recipes were developed in 2020, the product was launched in 2021 and in 2022 the company is launching its products in US, UK and Germany.
The trick is to have common easily available ingredients with recipe ingredients ensuring quick international acceptance.
Dr Avishek Kumar explains how the advantages and applications of vanadium redox flow batteries.
The clean energy transition will need more efficient methods of energy storage. A Singapore based company is making progress.
Flow batteries have the following advantages:
Better performance (both in terms of storage capacity and lower degradation over time)
Operational safety
Lower carbon footprint.
Listen to Dr. Avishek Kumar of VFlow Tech explain how the advantages help in large scale applications of renewable energy storage: electrification of remote island installations and microgrids both in Asia and Africa, and in EV charging infrastructure.
And how being located in Singapore helps build a deep clean tech company.
Digitalization helps in managing the complex web of energy production and consumption.
In this podcast, Emir Nurov , Co-founder of Resync, explains how digitalization technologies helps three types of customers.
First, they can help building owners take control of both the energy consumed and energy produced (given that many buildings are now also producing energy). The Resync system helps building managers both by alerting them to important decisions that need to be taken and automating routine decisions.
Second, they can help renewable energy power producers and the companies that set up, operate, and maintain the renewable energy plants to choose and maintain equipment. In addition to helping large renewable energy producers, the technology can also help smaller companies where the electricity grid is just one source of power and is backed up by both diesel and solar. Resync can help in seamlessly switching from one source to another.
Third, they can help residential consumers and the distribution utilities that serve them to help manage the electricity consumed at their own homes without going through the expense and effort of inserting sensors at each consuming point. Using machine learning technologies, Resync has learnt to spot patterns of appliance use and provide suggestions on when and how they should be used.
Luci Petlack talks about how consumers leading the transition to a sustainable economy.
Consumers can send powerful signals from their spending habits.
Let’s first say what sustainability is not.
It is not about spending more money. It is not about feeling guilty. And there is no one way to achieve sustainability.
Sustainability is being thoughtful about what you eat and what you buy.
As sustainable consumers, we need to be consciously deciding where and how to spend your money.
In this podcast with sustainable lifestyle blogger Dr. Luci Petlack we try and understand the many different things consumers are doing to connect it with the wonderful things that entrepreneurs are doing.
And along the journey we discuss issues of history and justice in the quest for this transition.