In this week's episode, Gil speaks with Matt Rogers, the founder and CEO of Mill, a startup revolutionizing how we tackle food waste. They delve into the inspiration behind Mill, discussing how the idea came about and the parallels to Matt's previous work as the co-founder of Nest, the company behind the iconic learning thermostat and other smart home products. Matt discusses the functionality of Mill's kitchen bin, which transforms food scraps into nutrient-rich animal feed, and how the...

According to the International Energy Agency, the world is expected to build more renewable projects in the next five years as we have in the past 20. But this rapid and massive growth in the renewable energy space has proven increasingly challenging for insurers of these assets, who are struggling to deal with mounting losses from natural disasters (which themselves are often driven by climate change) as well as growing demand for new products that insure against other emerging risks such as...

With the recent proliferation of sometimes conflicting standards around sustainability and impact reporting, companies across the globe are seeking trusted partners to help them determine and measure sustainability metrics that are truly material to the business and its stakeholders and also generate real value. To this end, Workiva – a global software-as-a-service company – has developed a suite of products to help companies make real progress on their sustainability journeys. In this...

We all depend on the cold chain to keep our foods, vaccines, and medical equipment safely chilled from production to use. This energy intensive process requires constant monitoring. As CEO of Therma, Manik Suri deploys small mobile sensors that monitor conditions to optimize energy efficiency and quality along the cold chain. His work is infused with his family’s legacy of service to others, and his team is dedicated to leveraging technology to improve the well-being of both people and...

At this point, the science is very clear. If we want to limit global warming to 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels, we must not only reduce existing emissions, we must also at some point become net negative – meaning that we are removing more carbon from the atmosphere than we are putting into it. In this episode, Chad Reed sits down with Climeworks CFO Andreas Aepli to discuss the promise of Direct Air Capture (DAC) to provide a scalable, measurable and permanent solution for carbon...

In this episode, Chad Reed speaks with Calvert Impact's President and CEO, Jennifer "Jenn" Pryce, and Beth Bafford, Calvert Impact's Vice President of Syndications and Strategy. Calvert Impact is a global nonprofit investment firm that helps investors and financial professionals invest in solutions that people and the planet need. During its 28-year history, Calvert Impact has mobilized approximately $5 billion to build and grow local community and green finance organizations. Jenn and Beth...

In this week’s episode, we explore the world of cement. Concrete is the second most consumed material on earth behind water and is essential to the infrastructure that will enable the transition to renewable energy. But producing cement, which is the material that glues concrete together, is incredibly carbon intensive. As CEO of Fortera, Dr. Ryan Gilliam looks to nature and how coral and shells are strengthened by imbedding ambient carbon. Fortera’s first plant, in Redding, California, will...

In this week's episode, we're stepping into the world of sustainable footwear with Kirsten Blackburn, Director of The KEEN Effect — the social impact division for hybrid footwear brand KEEN. Since its founding in 2003, KEEN has evolved into a leading global footwear company renowned for innovation, originality, and a strong emphasis on sustainability. Throughout the conversation with Gil, Kirsten, who has spearheaded environmental, social, and governance strategies across for-profit and...

For several years, well-intentioned companies seeking to reduce their emissions from electricity consumption – a primary component of their Scope 2 emissions – have bought Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) or signed Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs). Known as energy or megawatt hour matching, this approach, which forms the backbone of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s Scope 2 Market-Based Method accounting system, does not distinguish the time, location or emissions profile of a company’s...

Nanobubbles provide an effective solution to many of the challenges of climate change. These nanoscopic bubbles are 2500 times smaller than a single grain of salt and can be formed with any gas. Unlike larger bubbles, they remain suspended in liquid longer and remain stable until they interact with surfaces or contaminants. Their size allows them to achieve dissolved oxygen levels many times greater than those achieved using traditional aeration technologies. With applications from...

Every community across the globe produces waste. This waste can come from landfills, decomposing food, animal manure, and wastewater sludge. As this waste decomposes, it emits natural gas – primarily composed of methane, which is a naturally occurring but very potent and harmful greenhouse gas. In fact, methane is nearly 30 times more potent at trapping heat in our atmosphere than carbon dioxide. Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) projects capture this methane before it harms our environment and...

In this week's episode, Gil speaks with Matt Rogers, the founder and CEO of Mill, a startup revolutionizing how we tackle food waste. They delve into the inspiration behind Mill, discussing how the idea came about and the parallels to Matt's previous work as the co-founder of Nest, the company behind the iconic learning thermostat and other smart home products. Matt discusses the functionality of Mill's kitchen bin, which transforms food scraps into nutrient-rich animal feed, and how the...

Seafood provides nearly 20% of the animal protein humans consume globally. This growing source of protein is also rather healthy with many of our nutrient-rich foods coming from aquatic creatures. But already, the supply of our wild capture seafood has flattened, meaning that the vast majority of our global fisheries today are being overfished in an unsustainable manner. Fortunately, Finless Foods and other sustainable seafood startups are working to bring sustainability-driven innovation...

In this week's episode, Gil Jenkins and Hilary Langer speak with Jason Horowitz and Emma Bubola of The New York Times about their recent cover story on Venice's battle against the relentless forces of rising seas. They discuss the unlikely early success of the MOSE sea walls in protecting the city during high water events that have become increasingly commonplace due to climate change.

With extreme weather events proliferating, insurance companies are already on the front lines of climate change. In this episode, Chad Reed speaks with Sarah Chapman, Chief Sustainability Officer for Manulife – one of the world’s largest insurance providers and investment managers. Sarah discusses how Manulife incorporates ESG risks and opportunities, including emissions accounting and biodiversity issues, into its operations and investment decisions, the three pillars of Manulife’s ambitious...

More than 90% of Fortune 500 companies report their emissions using the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP), which supplies the world’s most widely used greenhouse gas accounting standards. But despite significant advances in data analytics around emissions measurement, it’s been nearly a decade since the GHGP was last updated. Thankfully, the NGOs that manage the GHGP recently kicked off the update process, soliciting feedback from stakeholders across the spectrum. In this episode, Chad Reed and...

Expanding access to clean energy like solar is essential to global climate goals, and it is especially impactful for the residents on island nations in the Caribbean that face high energy costs and are exposed to increasingly violent storms. As the director of projects for the Rocky Mountain Institute (now known as RMI), Chris Burgess navigates the decarbonization and decentralization of energy in markets that have previously been left out of the energy transition. Hilary Langer and Chris...

In this episode, Gil Jenkins speaks with Peter Krull, Partner & Director of Sustainable Investing at Earth Equity Advisors, A Prime Capital Investment Advisors Company. Peter focuses on creating and managing Earth Equity’s sustainable, responsible, and impact investment portfolios as well as writing thought leadership pieces and elevating the responsible investing story. Gil talks with Peter about his background and journey into the industry, how sustainable investing has evolved from...

Over the last few years, there has been an influx of venture capital seeking out profitable climate tech startups. At the same time, asset-backed financing has become generally more available and cheaper – all else equal – for renewable energy and other sustainable infrastructure projects. But there has been a missing middle – investors willing to underwrite both technology and project-level risk to drive systemic climate positive change. This is why Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP)...

Way back in early 2020, Microsoft made some of the most ambitious climate pledges of any corporation on the planet. It pledged to be carbon negative by 2030 and by 2050 to remove from the atmosphere all the carbon the company has emitted either directly or by way of electricity consumption since its founding nearly 50 years ago. It also launched a $1 billion Climate Innovation Fund to accelerate the global development of technologies required to achieve these pledges. In this episode, Chad...

Kim Kovacs is the Chief Executive Officer of element6 Dynamics. She is spearheading a transformation in the hemp industry to bring industrial hemp production to scale. By replacing tree-based pulp in paper and in packaging, hemp can reduce the pressure to harvest forests while also sequestering carbon and replenishing soils. In this episode, Hilary Langer and Kim Kovacs discuss how hemp works as a carbon sink, why both farmers and corporations are eager to get involved in hemp production,...

Dr. Brian von Herzen is the founder and executive director of the Climate Foundation, and a champion of marine permaculture – a process that the Climate Foundation is bringing to scale to reduce carbon, improve food security and regenerate marine ecosystems. In this episode, Hilary Langer and Brian von Herzen discuss the importance of restoring balance to the ocean, how marine permaculture engages populations that depend on the ocean for food, and how his team plans to expand marine...

Every day, the alphabet soup of climate and ESG-related NGOs seems to thicken. But their respective raisons d’etre can seem like a mystery for all but the closet of insiders. To help unravel the role of each of these organizations in the broader social movement and policy push for urgent climate action, Chad Reed speaks with Ivan Frishberg, the chief sustainability officer of Amalgamated Bank and a pioneer of climate collaboration for big banks and corporates. Given his historically central...

Corals are the gems of the oceans, creating beautiful colors and shapes that form our reefs while serving many vital functions for life on this planet. With 25-40% already lost, the worldwide coral population faces incredible danger from climate change and other threats. But there is hope. On this week’s episode, Hilary and I talk with Dr. David E. Vaughan, an esteemed marine biologist and author of the new book The Secret Life of Corals: Sex, War, and Rocks that Don’t Roll. Dr. Vaughan has...

In this episode, Hilary Langer speaks with Michelle Moore, CEO of the nonprofit Groundswell and author of the recently published book, “Rural Renaissance. Revitalizing America’s Hometowns Through Clean Power.” Michelle has spent her career advocating for equitable power. Her accomplishments range from delivering programs that cut energy use by $11 billion and led to the deployment of 3.2 Gigawatts of new renewable energy production while leading sustainability for the Obama Administration;...