We talk with Ashay Bhave, founder of Thaely, who as a middle-schooler dreamt of becoming a sneaker designer. His journey begins at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, where disenchanted within the first year, he returned back to Dubai to pursue a degree in business at Amity University. As a designer Ashay wanted to solve problems - the problem of plastic grocery bag waste - we consume 3 trillion of them annually. After some near fires in his kitchen, he developed a product Thaely...

Gabriel Silva's dream of becoming a pilot was lost when he was diagnosed with type II diabetes, he decided to change his lifestyle and diet. Introspection led him to his spiritual roots which are based on one simple principle - "do no harm". He apprenticed in his father's shoe factory to learn the trade. He launched Ahimsa in 2013. In 2014, only 6 months they took a very big step. They opened the doors to their own factory. He felt uncomfortable that his products were being made by a third...

Woven Air - as muslin was known in the 1600s...the Portuguese legend said it was the fabric woven by mermaids. What makes a fabric muslin? The original muslin was produced solely from a cotton plant called, Phuti Karpas, which grew exclusively along the banks of a certain stretch of the Brahmaputra river. The extracted cotton was then hand-spun into an extraordinarily delicate yarn in villages near Dhaka, Bangladesh. Six yards of muslin cloth could be fitted into a matchbox, sixty yards...

Africa with its rich arts and crafts have so much to offer to the world. We are excited to find online or in a nearby store a unique, one of a kind piece from a land far away. But we should pause to think as to how much of what we pay actually goes back to the artisans and their communities. Today we talk with Jenny Nuccio, Founder and CEO of Imani Collective - Global Social Enterprise Empowering Artisans, who wanted to not only promote the art from Kenya, but make sure that the artisans are...

What does it take to start a business several thousands of miles away, and that too when you were just 19. Kate Holby co-founded Ajiri tea with her sister Sara Kolby, to create a full cycle of sustainable aid. Because education is a sustainable investment, 100% of the net profits go back to Kenya to pay school fees for orphans. Ajiri Tea Company is now sponsoring 29 orphans in school and is employing four different women’s groups. Learn more about these amazing young ladies.

Bradford and Bryan Manning are two blind brothers on a mission to cure blindness. At a young age, they were diagnosed with an eye disease that causes blindness over time. To fight back, they left their former careers to start Two Blind Brothers, a small charitable clothing company that donates 100% of the profits to drive life-changing research for a cure for blindness. Their condition inspired a special attention for details, a passion that carries over into the construction of their...

Swahili Coast partners with artisans in East Africa to craft ethically handmade, fair trade, adventure-ready accessories.It connect them to global markets using principles of fairness, dignity, and respect. Swahili Coast strives to support the creation of worker-owned cooperatives and provide continuing support through fair exchange and promotion of workers rights in the East Africa region.

What if the gifts you buy to celebrate yourself and your people brought joy to many more people? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Buy handmade, change women's lives. We chat with Joan Shifrin and Catherine Shimony, extremely dynamic and creative women who run this New York-based non-profit brand Global Goods Partners, like a business and with the overall mission to do good and empower women. Their work, resources, and...

With Valentine's Day around the corner, why not make your partner feel special while also empowering women with Phool Co? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ It was the day of Makara Sankranti, an ancient Indian festival marking the end of the winter solstice, celebrated by bathing in the sacred waters of the river Ganges. On that cold winter morning in 2015, Ankit Agarwal, founder of Phool Co took his friend Jakub,...

Natural gas used to heat our homes, cook our meals and sometimes even to move our cars comprises mainly of Methane - a know greenhouse gas. While we go on this journey to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels and green house gasses, there needs to be a sustainable alternative to conventional natural gas. The anaerobic activities in landfills creates Renewable Natural Gas (RNG). RNG is a hundred percent match to conventional natural gas and can thus be piped and supplied using the existing...

We like to check in with some of our previous guests to see how their business has changed, what goals were achieved and the ones that were not. How they may have pivoted or continued the path they had chosen. It is a pleasure to have Shameek Ghosh, CEO of Trustrace -Tracing for Fashion. He joins us once again from Stockholm, Sweden. We talk about fashion traceability and regulations on this industry in Europe and North America. How they have changed and the impetus for these changes....

Cotton fiber and fabric is considered to be one of the most natural material. Given that, who would have thought that the process of manufacturing cotton fabric uses materials and techniques that cause environmental damage. Cotton needs to be cleaned and the “trash” removed for the cotton to become white and more absorbent to dyes. Alkaline and other harmful chemicals used to bleach in this process need to be washed out completely. The dyes in itself are harmful and their effluence further...

This episode was previously aired on April 23, 2023. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Oil spills in our world where engines are omnipresent are almost inevitable. Larger accidental spills on land and water have catastrophic effects on the environment, plant and animal life. Ironically some of the industrial spill clean-up solutions often used may not always be eco-friendly. SaveSorb is a totally natural, sustainable plant...

As we open our kitchen faucets and fill a glass with drinking water, we probably don’t realize that around 2 billion people globally do not have access to clean and safe drinking water. Clean and safe potable water is such a basic necessity but is still inaccessible to one-fourth of the population in the world. For them, bottled water is not a luxury but a necessity for a healthy and disease-free living. In the United States, municipalities are equipped with water treatment plants and the...

Friendship and support is what creates a community and a sense of belonging. That is exactly what our guest Priyasha Shah, Founder of Sakhya wanted to create amongst the women who love South Asian fashion and styles. She started the platform Sakhya where sellers could post their pre-loved saris, salwar kameez, lenghas to offer it to buyers who would love to own a piece of South Asian fashion. These outfits and saris woven with the memories, may it be a shopping trip with cousins in India or...

In this episode we chat with Ben Wan, Principal at RODE Architects about the roles architects can play in reducing the impact of climate change on our planet. Given that over 40% of all energy produced is used to run the buildings, how can architects reduce the energy consumption of these structures is the question we asked Ben. One of the goals is to use sustainable materials, may they be ones made out of recycled materials, easily recyclable, or far more durable than conventional products....

Most consumers are aware of the numbering 1 to 7, embedded in the recycle symbol under plastic items and they diligently put them in recycling bins. The numbers denote the type of plastic so that they may be recycled appropriately. The truth of the matter is that only the number 1 and 2 are easily recyclable and rest end up in the landfills. We ask our guest Donald Thomson, Founder and CEO OF CRDC Global (Center for Regenerative Design Collaboration) what happens to the numbers 3 to 7 and how...

Met up with one our favorite guests Luis Fernando, Founder of Amor Perfecto, for breakfast in Bogota, Colombia. During our recording we had hoped to share our love for coffee over a cup of coffee in Bogota and we are happy that we were able to meet and catch-up. We loved learning about what the company its growth and future plans. Amor Perfecto has six locations in Bogota and is poised for a global expansion.We also had a chance to visit the Amor Perfecto Cafe Laboratory where we experienced...

Urban flight in America in the 1960s resulted in downtowns having empty abandoned buildings and structures. The city governments had to eventually demolish these structures and their debris ended up in the landfills. Our guests Michael Gainer and Ian MacDonald of Reuse Action, who live in Buffalo, NY, started thinking about the millions of dollars the demolishings would cost the city and the taxpayers and its impact on the environment. They believed that methodical deconstruction of the...

Sustainable products are priced out of reach of most Americans. They cost the consumers more due to a variety of reasons - higher costs of inputs and innovation, demand is higher than supply and sometimes…just because.. people are willing to pay more. If we are on this global journey to make our world sustainable we need each and everyone on board. Our guest on this episode Reid Edgar, Owner of Spot Detergent is committed to making his sustainable products accessible to everyone. His...

Today we talk with Ryan McPherson, Chief Sustainability Officer at University of Buffalo. He heads the Climate Action Plan at the university. The University has the goal of climate neutrality by 2030. They plan to achieve this goal by having 10 strategies to achieve it. Strategies such as “Not all electricity is created equal”, “Waste not”, and “putting a price on pollution”. These goals were driven by the availability of sustainable solutions, policy changes and by students demanding...

This episode was originally aired on February 18, 2020 Today we revisit an episode where we talk with co-founders Sujata and Taniya (Su and Ta) who decided to quit their well-paying jobs and put their hearts and souls into spreading love through traditional hand-woven sarees. They have a family of 1400 weavers. The process of weaving every saree is a celebration of centuries of tradition and the authenticity of Indian arts. Suta strives to preserve the art of generational craftsman,...

The firsts in our lives have a special place in our life experience. May it be the first job, first business venture, first car and even your first podcast episode. Today we wanted to re-air on the 4 year anniversary, our first episode Palm Straw. It was a startup in 2019 which my mentor at that time Dora Lutz I suggest that I reach out to. This startup with such a simple sustainable idea and product did not make it through the pandemic, but nevertheless valuable sustainable lessons were...

As formula companies’ productions are limping back to normal, after the recall, a question some people ask is why can't mother "just" switch to breastfeeding their infants. As most mothers know that it is not that easy to make that switch. Breastfeeding a baby can be hard - it needs support from the family, spouse, pediatrician and most importantly the medical community. Breast milk can be stored up to four days in the refrigerator giving the mothers some flexibility to return to work or even...