Solve For Nature

Alarmed by the surge in climate-related disasters, a growing number of Americans are asking “What can I do to help?” Lawrence MacDonald’s new book, Am I Too Old to Save the Planet? A Boomer’s Guide to Climate Action offers unexpected answers for the 70 million boomers--people born from 1946-1963--who are still America’s most powerful generation.

A former foreign correspondent and vice president of the World Resources Institute, the world’s largest environmental NGO, MacDonald tells how America's most promising generation allowed climate change to become a planetary emergency―and what to do about it now.

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When ecologist Carl Safina and his wife, Patricia, took in a near-death baby owl, they expected she’d be a temporary presence. But Alfie’s feathers were not growing correctly, requiring prolonged care. As Alfie grew and gained strength, she became a part of the family. Carl and Patricia began to realize that the healing was mutual; Alfie had been braided into their world and was now pulling them into hers.

Alfie & Me: What Owls Know, What Humans Believe, by Carl Safina, Ph.D., is the story of the remarkable impact this little owl would have on their lives.

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Sara Turner, Sustainability Manager at Nexii Building Solutions is back to talk about how her challenge went that she decided to take on during our first recording.

Was she able to take the plunge? Listen in and find out!

Find Sara Turner and Nexii online:

First, the tadpoles and frogs disappeared; then the bats and the songbirds left. Dr. Elizabeth Hilborn, a honey bee veterinarian and environmental health scientist, soon realized the bees—the vital pollinators of fruits, plants, and vegetables—were dying. Everything was still and silent. In 2017, after a large flood, most of the teeming life on her beloved family farm in North Carolina had vanished in a matter of weeks.

As a scientist and a naturalist, Hilborn set about to get answers: RESTORING EDEN: Unearthing the Agribusiness Secret That Poisoned My Farm Community (Chicago Review Press; August 8, 2023) is her story.

With her farm suddenly lifeless, Hilborn was disoriented, bereft, and determined to understand. She documented the trail of death, taking water samples, scouring the internet, and calling every environmental expert, government agency, and agricultural consultant she could find. She got her first solid clue when she learned that a neighbor's tractor had been submerged in the floodwaters.

What caused the sudden collapse of life on her farm? How was Dr. Hilborn able to unravel the mystery? Today we hear her story! Listen in!

Find Dr. Elizabeth Hilborn online:

Following a February 10, 2022, court order, gray wolves in the contiguous 48 states and Mexico – with the exception of the Northern Rocky Mountain population – are now protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and listed as threatened in Minnesota and endangered in the remaining states. After being nearly eradicated in the 1990s, the gray wolf has made an astonishing comeback in Washington state, delighting conservationists but infuriating ranchers. Eli Francovich is a journalist who covers the environment, conservation, and outdoor recreation in Washington for the Spokesman-Review, the state's second-largest newspaper.

In his new book, The Return of Wolves: An Iconic Predator’s Struggle to Survive in the American West, Francovich combines interviews, extensive research, and on-the-ground reporting to reveal the deep social and political struggles at the core of this debate over the endangered species. Ultimately, he endeavors to find a solution that will appease both parties—and perhaps mend an ever-widening division in American culture.

What can our relationship with wolves teach us about our relationship with nature as a whole? About our society? Listen to find out!

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Sara Turner is a Sustainability Analyst at Nexii Building Solutions, a company dedicated to innovating and creating breakthrough building systems that prove that planet-friendly solutions aren’t a sacrifice — they’re an improvement in every way over the status quo. Sara has been contributing to the green building industry since 2017, through previous roles that include building science engineering, energy modeling, and renewable technology analysis. At Nexii, Sara leads annual carbon accounting of the company’s operations, coordinates and tracks progress of Nexii’s sustainability commitments, and has been working to implement embodied carbon analysis into product development.
Find Sara Turner and Nexii online:

Buffy Cushman-Patz is the founder and executive director of SEEQS (School for Examining Essential Questions of Sustainability) Charter School, where students are learning to become stewards of planet Earth and healthy, effective citizens of the world. On top of standard core learning in math, science, social studies, English, and the arts, students combine concepts with project-based experiences that allow students to apply what they have learned to real-world situations.

"Everything we do at SEEQS is with the intent of trying to create the kind of community that we want to be a part of. I work at SEEQS because I love this community of students, teachers, and ʻohana and the work we're doing to try to make the world a better place for ourselves and for others."

Buffy Cushman-Patz, SEEQS's Founder, has explored teaching and learning through the lenses of theory, policy, leadership, and through first-hand experiences as a teacher in both conventional and unconventional settings. Buffy completed her EdM in School Leadership at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in May 2012 , with School Development as her concentration. She earned an M.S. in Geology and Geophysics from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and a B.S. in Geology from the University of Florida.

Find Buffy Cushman-Patz and SEEQS online:

Tim Sperry, the CEO of Carbon Limit, is a scientist entrepreneur who has founded two climate tech companies using novel Carbon Capture & storage technologies. After losing close family members as a child to lung cancer, he developed a strong passion for protecting nature and solving global CO2 pollution. He has found early success by creating effective yet efficiently adaptable solutions to solve the biggest problems in industries ready for disruption. Most importantly, he built a strong dedicated team and a deeply rooted company culture.

After years of trial and error, Tim secured a way to capture air pollution in one of the most important infrastructure components used in construction, concrete. Tim’s award-winning technology, being recognized by The United States Military, large corporations such as Google, and publications such as Boca Magazine, can permanently trap the main culprit of global warming (CO2) inside the concrete that uses his cement mixture. Concrete Structures built with Carbon Limit’s cement will be able to actively capture CO2 pollution directly from the air and store it permanently, improving air quality & promoting a healthier environment in our cities & communities.

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Chris O’Brien is the Founder and CEO of Hungry Giant, a company founded in 2006 and headquartered in Austin, TX. Hungry Giant is a cleantech business commercializing waste management and recycling equipment. A revolution in food waste management, Hungry Giant solutions use new technologies that turn food waste into a useful, reusable resource. They recently launched their Bio-Dehydrator solution. The cutting-edge, proprietary technology turns food waste into a useful, useable, and valuable resource on-site at any facility that generates commercial volumes of food waste. Created by a longtime innovator in the waste management and recycling industry, the Bio-Dehydrator enables food providers to better address food waste and reduce their emissions by helping to eliminate food waste in landfills, the ocean, and other sources, while at the same time creating a valuable byproduct out of a waste. Their range of products includes the Bio-Dehydrator, Bio-Grinder, and Bio-Digester solutions all available to buy, rent, or lease. 

Find Chris O'Brien online:

Erin has been involved in resource recovery for 18 years and in the last decade has focused specifically on the sales and marketing of finished compost. She has supported commercial compost facilities throughout the West Coast and has worked closely with the end users of compost, particularly the agricultural industry. Erin is a Certified Composting Professional through the US Composting Council and a Certified Compost Programs Manager through the Solid Waste Authority of North America. Currently, Erin works as the Resource & Recovery Manager at World Centric.

As someone who's always been super excited about compost, I was really excited to talk to Erin and learn more about composting! I can't wait to talk to her again and continue discussing compost!

Find Erin Levine online:

Daniel Mandler is a Professor of Chemistry in the Institute of Chemistry at the Hebrew University and the incumbent of Archie and Marjorie Sherman Chair in Chemistry. He holds also an adjunct Professorship at the Nanyang Technical University in Singapore.

His research interests span from analytical to physical electrochemistry sol-gel technology, thin films and polymers, coatings of medical devices, forensic science and nanotechnology. He has numerous patents and is very active in commercialization of various applications in numerous fields such as solar thermal coatings and medical coatings.

Today, we're here to talk about a new kind of technology he is developing: sustainable bricks made from salt! These salt bricks replace typical CMU blocks, but don't have nearly as big of a carbon footprint - not to mention they are made from excess, unneeded salt that builds up in the dead sea.

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Lizzie Horvitz is back to discuss her challenge and how it went! If you don't remember, she founded Finch, a browser extension that helps you select sustainable products on Amazon. It's a tool that educates people on the ins and outs of sustainability, making it easier to shop sustainably online, add more transparency to online purchases, and dispel lots of the myths around the nonsense marketing terms like "green," or "organic" that drive consumer behavior but has little impact.

Find Lizzie Horvitz and Finch Online:

Adarsh Ambati, age 16, of California, has been utilizing his talents to design new technologies to help conserve nature! He designed a moisture sensor-based smart sprinkler system that integrates real-time weather forecast data and soil moisture levels to provide optimum levels of water for huge water savings. He also designed a very low-cost, rapid diagnostic to detect the presence of an emerging fungal amphibian parasitic pathogen threatening to wipe out many species of endemic amphibians around the world at a fraction of the cost of current methods. Tying all his ideas together, he founded Green Environment Initiatives to design solutions for environmental crises and to provide STEM education for underserved students.

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If you missed the first episode with Veeral, go back and check it out! Veeral Hardev is the VP of Strategy at Ubiquitous Energy, a company that is becoming the world leader in transparent solar technology, aka clear solar panels!

Last time he was on the show, he decided to take on a sustainability challenge. Let's hear how it went, as well as dig a little more into Ubiquitous Energy and their solar windows!

Find Veeral Hardev and Unbiquitous Energy Online:

Sonja Michaluk is back, but this time with backup from her sister Charlotte! Winner of the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes for her work protecting wetlands and drinking water sources using a novel bioassessment method she created, Sonja came up with a sustainability challenge to take on with her sister in our first recording, and is back to talk about how it went. I was so impressed with Sonja's motivation and passion for saving the environment, and was just as surprised to see her sister is just as motivated and passionate! Definitely worth a listen!

Founded by author T. A. Barron, the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes annually honors 25 outstanding young leaders (in the US and Canada) ages 8 to 18  who have made a significant positive difference to people or the environment.

Sonja Michaluk of New Jersey works passionately to protect wetlands and drinking water sources using a novel bioassessment method she created. For more than a decade, she has collected scientific data and shared it with policy makers to help conserve ecologically sensitive wetlands, critical habitat for threatened species, wildlife corridors, and old growth forests. Through her Conservation Communities Initiative, she has protected more than 50 acres of wetlands in densely populated Central New Jersey – and is working to preserve 250 more. Her years spent streamside have also led to the identification of a threatened amphibian species and protection of its habitat. At the age of 17, she was one of the winners of the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes.

Founded by author T. A. Barron, the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes annually honors 25 outstanding young leaders (in the US and Canada) ages 8 to 18  who have made a significant positive difference to people or the environment.

Find Sonja Michaluk online:

Lizzie Horvitz has been passionate about sustainability since the age of 16 when she lived off the grid. It was there that, depending only on wind energy and rainwater, she saw the solution of climate change before fully understanding the problem.

She founded Finch, a browser extension that helps you select sustainable products on Amazon. It's a tool that educates people on the ins and outs of sustainability by turning complex scientific facts into simple, actionable insights. Their goal is to make it easier to shop sustainably online, add more transparency to online purchases, and dispel lots of the myths around the nonsense marketing terms like "green," or "organic" that drive consumer behavior but has little impact.

Find Lizzie Horvitz online:

Javad Mohammadi is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. His research interests include multi-agent optimization and machine learning in networked cyber-physical systems, including smart grid-interactive buildings, power grid, and electrified transportation systems. In short, he's solving problems and figuring out how to make our electric grids smarter with artificial intelligence!

Find Javad Mohammadi online:

Climate change can be seen as a disaster or an opportunity. Paul Laycock and his company VinZero is a new global company with a goal to cut major emissions from one of the biggest emitting sectors globally: construction. Paul and his staff at VinZero are passionate about facilitating the construction industries digital journey to meet net zero outcomes via digital solutions. According to VinZero, connectivity of processes and design ideas through digitalization is the fastest way for us to achieve more, and use less. To build right, from the start. The global focus on sustainability presents the biggest opportunity for industry to improve efficiency and reduce waste. Now is the time to prepare for the future.

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Today I'm following up with Michael Bayliss, host of the Post-Growth Australia Podcast (PGAP), activist for within the environmental and post-growth movements, Communications Manager and former Victoria/Tasmanian President at Sustainable Population Australia (SPA). Last time we spoke, he decided to taken on a personal challenge, but the challenge ended up taking a life of it's own and evolved into a project that he's now dedicated to! Also, we discuss the upcoming 8 billion day: the day when the population of earth hits 8 billion. 

Definitely check out his podcast, where Michael talks to experts to unpack the notion of post-growth societies and what this means for us, for future generations and for the planet.

Anna DeSimone is the author of Live In A Home That Pays You Back, Housing Finance 2020: New Mortgage Programs for the New Generation of Homebuyers, Retirement Planning and Investing, and Welcome to the Agrihood: Housing, Shopping, and Gardening for a Farm-to-Table Lifestyle. She is a nationally recognized expert in housing finance, and author of more than 40 professional guidebooks and over 600 articles on the topic of fair and responsible lending. She may be an expert in making homes sustainable, but let's see if she's willing to make her life sustainable as well!

Find Anna DeSimone online:

Jill Wagner of Terraformation and the Hawaii Island Seed Bank returns to talk about the results of her sustainability challenge and how her mission of reforesting the planet is progressing! Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time for a long conversation, but I'm looking to having another one with her someday!

Find Jill Wagner and Terraformation online:

Anthony Ricchio is an entrepreneur and sustainability influencer I connected with on Instagram and had some interesting chats on sustainability so I decided to invite him onto the podcast and have our sustainability discussion via video chat! The resulting chat ended up being an enlightening, open, and stimulating conversation on sustainability!

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Today we continued our discussion about Hawaii being a case study for the direction the entire world is going: pollution leading to reducing the capacity for our planet to sustain life. Joshua Spodek is host of This Sustainable Life podcast and author of Leadership Step By Step. He guided me once again through exploring my own feelings while stopping me from evading negative feelings about my own pollution and instead exploring them. It ended up being a great conversation on sustainability! Tune in!

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Inflation Reduction Act just passed through the senate, house, and is now heading for President Biden's desk. Today we’re going to talk about what’s in it, and then have a discussion on sustainability and whether this bill is making us more sustainable or not with Joshua Spodek, Author of Leadership Step by Step, Professor at NYU, and probably the most sustainably living person in the USA. Tune in!

Today, I have something a little different for you. Usually, I'm interviewing someone on my podcast, but today, I'm the one getting interviewed! Some of you may know, I recently moved to Hawaii and ended up buying a home here. However, in looking for a house, I found myself feeling conflicted about it, and Joshua Spodek, host of This Sustainable Life podcast, suggested we talk about it. It was a good conversation that forced me to explore some of my own feelings about sustainability conflicting with my own personal wants for me, my wife, and my daughter. I hope some of you out there can relate to the feelings I felt, and I hope the conversation is helpful to some of you! 

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John Hartman is currently CMO of Ando, the leader in sustainable banking. He is an award-winning marketing executive who's worked with brands such as Oakley, SkullCandy, Volcom, L'Oreal, Lancome, Intuit, RayBan, HugoBoss, AAA, AARP, Intuit, WarnerBros and Taylor Guitars.

Ando has disrupted the traditional banking industry by investing customer money exclusively in green initiatives like renewable energy and responsible agriculture, potentially giving users 27 times the impact of other environmental actions. Additionally, Ando is 100 percent transparent as to where those investments are made. These are just two of the many reasons Ando has been named a Certified B Corp, a recognition of their commitment to building a sustainable, inclusive economy that works for everyone. Ando users pay no monthly fees while enjoying the possibility of early paydays and easy transfers from old accounts.

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David A. Dodd is the head of the globally recognized International Sustainable Resilience Center, Inc (ISRC), and having dealt with two near death experiences, David has a unique take on resilience at both the macro and micro scale.

After surviving his two near death experiences, he was determined to make a positive impact on this world. In 2005, when Hurricane Katrina hit, David shifted his focus to disaster recovery and resilience. In 2011, while crafting an economic recovery strategy for Japan after the Fukushima Tsunami, the idea of the International Sustainable Resilience Center was born.  ISRC is dedicated to furthering the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals and is one of 8 Public Private Partnership (PPP) Specialist Centers of Excellence affiliated with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe International PPP Centre of Excellence.  ISRC strives to improve disaster resilience and sustainability worldwide by specializing in providing "People first" PPPs that are sustainable and enhance disaster resilience, as well as integrating sustainability and resilience into PPPs of all types, globally. 

Think he's prepared to take on a challenge to make his own life more sustainable?

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Steve Melink is the Forbes Books author of Fusion Capitalism: A Clean Energy Vision For Conservatives, and founder/CEO of Melink Corporation, a Cincinnati, Ohio-based company considered a pioneer in renewable energy solutions for the commercial building industry. He also is a national speaker on sustainability, clean energy and zero-energy buildings, and has consulted with federal and state legislators.

So often renewable energy is politicized: if you're on the left, you must support green energy, if you're on the right, you must support fossil fuels. But Steve shows us that renewable energy has nothing to do with politics: it's the energy of the future. It's cleaner, healthier for us, and most importantly (from an economic standpoint), it's cheaper! 

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Joshua Sam Miller is an environmental activist, mindful musician and immersive media producer dedicated to raising world-wide environmental awareness by curating immersive sound and visual experiences in support of ocean conservation. His work as a multi-disciplinary artist and conscious entrepreneur is motivated to support a healthier, more sustainable world. He believes that modern society has created an unhealthy model that leads too often towards stress, burnout and environmental pollution. Featured all over the world - and debuting at Burning Man 2019 - his work seeks to inspire more connection, love and understanding between human beings and the natural world.  

Just in time for World Oceans Day, Miller aims to raise environmental awareness and inspire connection with Sounds of the Ocean - Live in Concert – an album that tells the story of what is really happening in our underwater world by pairing recordings of whales, dolphins and ocean sound with live instruments such as clarinet, handpan, piano, kalimba, singing bowls and saxophone. With 100% of profits going directly to support ocean conservation groups around the world, Miller invites listeners to listen mindfully and offer oneself permission to enjoy the experience and soak up the good vibes, while being open to making a few adjustments in our daily lives to help these creatures thrive for many generations to come. From this place of awareness and abundance, the hope is we realize the impact we are having on the ocean and can commit to better protection around the world. 

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Veeral Hardev is the VP of Strategy at Ubiquitous Energy. He has over a decade of experience commercializing novel nano-materials products for the electronics industry. Why's that important? Because Ubiquitous Energy and the group of MIT and MSU scientists that started it, are looking for new ways to reduce humanity’s carbon footprint by seamlessly integrating solar power technology into everyday products and surfaces. 

Ubiquitous Energy is the world leader in transparent solar technology working towards a goal of helping solve climate change by creating truly transparent renewable energy for every surface across the globe. Ubiquitous Energy’s patented technology, UE Power™, is the world’s first invisible electricity-generating alternative to traditional windows. UE Power™ harvests solar energy and serves as an invisible, onboard source of electricity for greater energy efficiency. Founded by scientists from MIT, Ubiquitous Energy is now producing its highly transparent, efficient solar cells in a production facility in Silicon Valley.

Find Veeral Hardev and Unbiquitous Energy Online:

Neil Sims is a marine biologist with a professional commitment to "softening mankind's footprint on the seas". After working in fisheries management he began to recognize the need for us all to move "more towards a culture of nurture" of marine resources rather than a purely extractive approach. As marine finfish stocks worldwide continued to decline, Neil and his partners saw both opportunity and imperative to apply their invertebrate hatchery and growout expertise to help solve the world's looming seafood crisis and formed Ocean Era, formerly Kampachi Farms.

Ocean Era focuses on the global need for expanded production of high-value, marine fin-fish, and pursuit of "next generation" technologies, including: remote offshore culture systems, more sustainable and scale-able feeds, and new species based in Hawaii. Through innovative research, and application of the best available science, Ocean Era strives to remain on the cutting edge of healthy, environmentally responsible seafood.

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The impacts of climate change have become dire. Rising temperatures, volatile weather, and poor air quality affect our physical and mental health in dangerous new ways. From increasing the risk of infectious disease to amplifying emotional stress and anxiety—even the healthiest among us are at risk. To help you deal with the stresses that come from climate change, Bonnie Schneider has authored the book Taking The Heat: How Climate Change is Affecting Your Mind, Body, and Spirit and What You Can Do About It. In it, Schneider provides crucial advice from science experts and medical professionals to help you cope with climate anxiety, identifying climate-related health hazards, and a lot more! So today, Bonnie agreed to come and talk with me about some of the ways climate is affecting us all, and what we can do about it! Listen in!

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Tanja Hester is the author of Wallet Activism: How to Use Every Dollar You Spend, Earn, and Save as a Force for Change and Work Optional: Retire Early the Non-Penny-Pinching Way. She spent most of her career as a consultant to Democratic politics and progressive issue campaigns, and before that as a public radio journalist. Tanja retired early at the age of thirty-eight. She documented the process on her award-winning financial independence/retire early (FIRE) blog, Our Next Life. Today, we're going to be talking about how every purchase you buy matters, and how every one counts as a vote for the way you want the world to be. Are your purchases aligned with your values?

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Remember Doug Chadwick, the wildlife biologist who has written 14 books and more than 200 articles, including National Geographic coverage that spans 35 years? Well he's back to discuss his challenge! Unfortunately, he didn't have too much time to record a full 1-hour episode, but it was still such a joy to talk with Doug. He's such a powerful personality to be around; inspiring in every way.

Find Doug Chadwick's Book, Four Fifths A Grizzly online:

Today we're talking with Michael Bayliss, host of the Post-Growth Australia Podcast (PGAP), activist for within the environmental and post-growth movements, Communications Manager and former Victoria/Tasmanian President at Sustainable Population Australia (SPA). 

The focus of his work involves advocacy regarding choice for small families and for working cooperatively with our global neighbours to create equitable societies that do not rely on perpetual growth. On his podcast, Michael talks to experts to unpack the notion of post-growth societies and what this means for us, for future generations and for the planet.

It's a long episode that covers a lot of ground, so I hope you guys enjoy it!

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Jill Wagner is the Chief Forestry Officer at Terraformation, a company that is trying to reinvent reforesting using technology to do what traditional reforesting does in a much shorter timespan. She's a forester, horticulturist and land use specialist, as well as Director of the Hawaiʻi Island Seed Bank and founder of Future Forests Nursery. She's responsible for planting tens of thousands of trees all over the world, and now she's helping us do it faster than ever to slow the effects of climate change, preserve biodiversity, and restore some of our planet back to it's natural state.

Find Jill Wagner and Terraformation online:

Michellee The Fox Returns! Today we're going to see how her personal challenge went, find out what kind of things Michellee is doing now in the world of slow food cooking and regenerative agriculture, and in a special favor to me, going to teach me a brand new recipe she created, just for ME! So excited! Stay tuned until the end for that recipe! 

Find Michellee Fox online:

Martin Williams is the co-founder, president & chief innovation officer of Above Food. He has over 20 years experience in Consumer Packaged Goods (or CPG) in Innovation, Marketing, Operations, and Product Development. Now, with Above Food, he is working on producing and distributing identity preserved ingredients in North America, Asia, Europe, and Africa. In short, they are trying to make plant-based foods that are delicious, organic, better for you, better for the planet, and transparent. Not foods that are actually see-through, but foods that are traceable: they believe you should know who is making your food, where it's coming from, and exactly what's in it. No more smoke and mirrors from the foods we eat! Today we're going to spend time covering a bit of all of that: what kinds of foods they're making, how they manage transparent food chains, and how to make plant-based foods healthy and delicious.

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Isabel Aagaard is an entrepreneur and collaborative designer on a mission to eliminate single-use plastic by creating reusable alternatives to single-use items we use daily. She's the creator of the world’s first reusable cotton swab, LastSwab, which raised more than 1.2M USD from more than 30,000 backers on crowdfunding platforms. Her products are made to last more than 1000 times and are easy to use and re-use, making it simple for people to break their throwaway habits and start going zero-waste. So far Isabel has helped eliminate over 1 billion single-use items, and she aims to make that 50 billion by 2023.

Find Isabel's products online:

Doug Chadwick is an author, nature photographer, and animal researcher that has spent decades living among wild animals. He has a unique, up-close and personal relationship with the natural world. As such, he's seen first-hand the effects climate change has had on the animal kingdom, and it turns out, we're not so different from the animals he studies every single day...

Find Doug Chadwick's Book, Four Fifths A Grizzly online:

Kim McCoy is a man who has spent his life at sea, studying the waves, beaches, marine life, and how they are tied to our land and lives. A man of the natural world, his book is a fantastic look into the world of the ocean. Today we're here to talk oceans, beaches, climate change, and how the human race has shaped the world we live in. Tune in!

Find Kim McCoy's Book, Waves and Beaches online:

Jen Bowden and Joe Haugen from IGS Energy both took on sustainability challenges the last time they were on the show, discussing renewable energy and the Texas blackouts. Curious to see how their challenges went? What did they learn from the attempt? Only one way to find out! Listen in!

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Iza & Samo Login are back for Part 2 of their sustainability challenge! Were they able to succeed? Remember what their challenge was? We even dive a little more into their foundation and how they are helping to evolve industrial agriculture models to become more sustainable. Tune in!

Find Iza and Samo online:

David Radlo is the best-selling author of Principles of Cartel Disruption: Accelerate and Maximize Performance, and an internationally-recognized expert in leadership, innovation, and growth. He is a partner with RB Markets-Achievemost, a Masters professional outside director, a growth coach, and an International Fortune 500 speaker. He is experienced in the US and globally, building sustainable consumer food brands such as Born Free, Farmer’s Best, and Egg-Land’s Best, and has personally negotiated agreements with Fidel Castro. His accomplishments in his 28 years as a CEO include delivering a six-fold increase in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), and a 30-fold increase in enterprise value. He is a graduate of Tufts University and NYU’s Stern School of Business.

David says companies today can’t afford to pay only lip service to sustainability issues. But we're going to see if he will do more than just pay lip service to sustainability when it comes to taking on a personal challenge in his own life!

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Many large companies are transitioning to renewable/clean energy as the world confronts climate change. But what about the small and medium-sized companies that may not have the money to switch to renewable energy? What are the benefits to convince them?

Business owners have concerns about the up-front expenses of switching to clean energy, but those concerns are outweighed by the money savings and other advantages they would realize, says Steve Melink, ForbesBooks author of Fusion Capitalism: A Clean Energy Vision For Conservatives, and founder/CEO of Melink Corporation, a company considered a pioneer in renewable energy solutions for the commercial building industry.

We had a great talk about renewables, how renewables are the right choice to make for a better future, and how you can make your business more sustainable! Tune in!

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Today I'm talking with Iza and Samo Login, two Slovenian tech entrepreneurs who founded Outfit7 and created the Talking Tom app, which has been downloaded over 13 billion times. In just 7 years, they sold their startup for $1 billion dollars to a Chinese investment group in order to dedicate themselves to philanthropic pursuits, with their largest priority being to establish a new model of sustainable, organic, large-scale farming to create the future of sustainable agriculture. They published a book called 7 Unicorn Drive, which details how their unique approach to business and leadership paved the way to financial success.

How did they manage to sell a 250,000 dollar company for 1 billion dollars? How are they using technology to create the future of agriculture and repair our unsustainable food systems? Whats the mindset we all need to adopt if we're going to become a sustainable species on this planet? We talked about all this and more, including taking on a challenge to make their own personal lives more sustainable. So sit back and enjoy my talk, with Iza and Samo Login.

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Today I talked with Jen Bowden and Joe Haugen from IGS Energy, a company that is building a sustainable energy future for a healthier planet. We discussed the state of America's current renewable energy resources, what renewables mean for a sustainability-focused future, and the Texas blackouts of February, 2021. IGS Energy is on the forefront of tackling climate change, but let's see if Jen and Joe feel up to taking on a personal challenge to make their own lives a little more sustainable!

Jen Bowden, Vice President of Brand & Social Impact

With nearly two decades of experience leading transformational initiatives, Jen currently leads IGS Energy’s marketing and social impact efforts. She created the organization’s social impact team in 2014 and since has led organizational efforts in innovation, diversity and inclusion, and sustainability, including the establishment of the organization’s commitment to be carbon neutral by 2040. She is a founding board member of the Columbus Chapter of Conscious Capitalism and currently serves as the organization’s Vice Chair.

Joe Haugen, Power Supply Director

With over 14 years’ experience buying and selling power in the wholesale markets and the last eight at IGS, Joe Haugen is our Power Supply Director, responsible for IGS Energy’s power supply and risk management.  Joe is responsible for power pricing, power trading and hedging, and wholesale market operations behind more than twenty utilities in ERCOT, ISO NE, MISO and PJM. Joe manages a group of twelve analysts and managers.  Prior to IGS, Joe worked at a utility managing the wholesale position of their generation fleet, scheduling demand, and settlement analysis. Joe has vast experience managing the daily operations and settlements, coordinating and scheduling generation resources and demand, implementing demand side management, and integrating new renewable energy resources. Joe is a graduate of The Ohio State University and Otterbein University where he obtained his MBA.

Find More About IGS Energy online:

Today we're talking to Michellee Fox, a Brazilian native, slow food chef, small minority farmer advocate and Business Development Manager for FoodBay TV. She is part of a growing movement called the slow food movement, which focuses on using locally-sourced foods and traditional cooking styles, as opposed to the fast food we are all used to today. She is also has been using regenerative agriculture practices for her farms for over 10 years. She has recently challenged herself with taking on a slow food pop-up restaurant, which we’ll talk more about today! 

Find Michellee online: