Aaron’s passion in life is trying to help influence how large complex businesses can function better. He is a public policy professional, with particular interest in planning, futures, technology governance and organisation of complex systems. Outside work he has published poetry, teaches multi-disciplinary university courses on policy and leadership, and volunteers in community building, inter-faith dialogue and youth development. Aaron shares his views and insights on data, insights,...

Continuing on from our previous episode with Ricardo, we sit down with two more UNICEF fellows, Norhan and Iman, who co-created the Youth Future Foresights Playbook. Both share some great insights into the challenge of putting such a mammoth project together and how diverse perspectives of youth in North Africa and Sub Saharan Africa are incorporated. This groundbreaking initiative has been created to build youth engagement capacities, to find tangible opportunities for meaningful youth...

Ricardo Guzman is a Sustainable Development Engineer at heart. Originally from Honduras, he has dedicated his time and research to development, sustainability, climate change mitigation and decarbonisation. He is a decarbonisation leader and promoter of climate action empowerment in Honduras and has been working with UNICEF to cocreate the UNICEF Youth Foresight Playbook. This groundbreaking initiative has been created to build youth engagement capacities, to find tangible opportunities for...

In this episode we are joined by Co-Founders Brett Thompson and Tasneem Karodia of Newform Foods, a foodtech startup offering a B2B bioproduction platform for cultivated animal and food products. Newform Foods is leveraging a continent-spanning research and development network to help food producers, retailers and business owners develop and scale cultivated animal products, at a significantly lower cost than the industry norm. They represent the convergence of cost-efficiency and pioneering...

Sinead Bovell is the Founder of WAYE and she has been bridging the gap between young entrepreneurs and the digital future by revolutionising the way that young people learn about technology. Everyday 600+ Millennials and Gen Z tune into WAYE’s platforms to learn about the intersection of business, technology and the future.    WAYE educates young people on the intersection of business, technology, and the future, with a focus on minority markets. WAYE supports young people in building career...

In this episode Kwamou gives us some great insight into the work she has been doing in Africa, providing safe spaces and more importantly a voice for women often overlooked in policy making based on current and future needs. Kwamou is an anticipation specialist seeking the adequacy between our imagined futures and our values, especially fighting against the replication of 'used futures' onto the global South. She is an experienced facilitator and lab designer involved in labs run mainly in...

Children and young people have been a driving force for change throughout history. It makes sense therefore that they should also be deeply involved in imagining the future – their future, our future, the future of the planet, and that their absence from foresight and decision making spaces greatly hinders our capacity to anticipate how the world is changing. In this episode we sit down with Fisayo Oyewale. Fisayo is an agriculturist, a Futurist, and a Facilitator working at the intersection...

We live on Earth at a time known as the Holocene. A time when atmospheric conditions have created the most beautiful balance of biodiversity ever known. Right now though, we literally consume our planetary boundaries. Food is in the middle of it all. It causes a third of all global emissions, chugs away 70% of our annual freshwater, and has simply zero respect for our planet. The system needs rebooting. In this episode we hear from Christian Poppe who at the time of recording was Director...

In this episode we hear from Greg Ombach who undeniably has such a critical role in leading the transformation for Airbus in their ambition to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. We discuss Greg’s techniques in block building, from aircraft modifications to improve fuel efficiency. We also hear about how Airbus are implementing Sustainable Aviation Fuel, Green Hydrogen and Carbon Capture. Will we see hydrogen aircraft by 2035? Spoiler alert, it looks very likely.   Airbus approaches...

Many don’t realize that the majority of the chocolate they purchase is directly linked to deforestation and child labour in Ivory Coast and Ghana. California Cultured’s mission is to educate chocolate lovers on the harsh truths of the chocolate industry and provide a solution though our plant cell culture technology. Climate change, deforestation, forced labour and many other issues are putting the world’s chocolate supply at risk of collapse. The time is now to build a cleaner and better...

Johanna Hoffman is a designer, urbanist and strategist exploring the ties between design, planning, fiction, and futures. She is also the founder of Design for Adaptation, a studio using strategic planning, interactive storytelling and speculative design to survey the impacts of potential futures and spur proactive adaptation. In this episode we learn about the work she does with other firms, implementing foresight assessment, futures research, story and strategy to help people, cities and...

Through a regenerative portfolio, Barney builds resilience in rural locations, providing jobs, research capacity and the protection of globally significant ecosystems. He is currently based in Far North Queensland, Australia, pioneering a venture to restore 527 acres of the world’s oldest rainforest, Daintree. His team is delivering organically managed geo-tagged trees in an interactive dashboard that tracks each tree's health over time. Through a biodiversity program, advanced sensors, and...

We had the pleasure to sit down with Marc Buckley a regenerative futurist during the Dubai Future Forum ahead of COP28. Marc has been involved in Climate Activism for a long time and is the definition of a force for good. He’s on a mission to show you how to run faster than climate change by being an impactful and exponential human being. Being one of the first to be trained by Al Gore as a Climate Speaker he has made getting through the Climate Crisis towards Resilient Desirable Futures his...

We sit down with Andrew Zolli, Chief Impact Officer at PLanet. Planet is the leading provider of global, daily satellite imagery and insights. Planet is driven by a mission to image all of Earth’s landmass every day, and make global change visible, accessible, and actionable. Founded in 2010 by three NASA scientists, Planet designs, builds, and operates the largest fleet of imaging satellites, as well as online software, tools and analytics needed to deliver data to users. Decision makers in...

We sit down with Hazza Al Mansouri, the first Emirati astronaut to reach space. In 2019, he embarked on the UAE's first scientific mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The mission carried the slogan 'Zayed's Ambition' making the UAE the 19th country worldwide, and the first country in the Arab region, to travel to the ISS. During our discussion, Hazza shares with us his journey to becoming an astronaut. From starting as a jet pilot and wanting to higher and further into space and...

We sit down with Isabella Pirolo and Eman Alkadi form the Dubai Future Foundation, two impressive females and the driving force behind The Dubai Future Forum. The Dubai Future Forum is the world’s largest gathering of futurists taking place once a year. In this episode we dive into what the future of food, space, youth and travel look like in the year 2071. Isabella formerly of the European Commission is now a Senior Consultant at Dubai Future Foundation overseeing the Research and...

This week we are joined by Salman Hussain, Cofounder CEO of FUSE, an impact driven (literally) mobility business that is accelerating the UAE towards sustainable mobility in a unique and fun way, by offering to convert classic and traditional cars to electric. A mechanical engineer turned passionate entrepreneur, Salman and his Cofounder have  made it their mission to clean the mobility sector by identifying more innovative ways to electrify the mobility sector while finding a solution to...

This week we are joined by Matteo Boffa, an impressive Swiss serial impact entrepreneur and angel investor. After starting his career as a private banker and serving two years in the Swiss Army, he decided to make a radical change in his life to serve a higher social and environmental purpose by becoming an active impact investor focused on early stage ESG driven businesses. In this episode Matteo shares his insights into what motivates him to put money into early stage businesses and ideas,...

Did you know that one square mile of mangrove forests can hold as much CO2 as the annual emission of 90,000 cars? We sit down with Vahid Fotuhi the Founder CEO of Blue Forest an award-winning forest restoration company based in Dubai. Blue Forest has amassed over 200,000 Ha of degraded mangrove forests in Africa and Asia which will be restored in partnership with community forest associations. In this episode we get to understand the problem at large, how mangroves impact people and the...

Forget what you think you know about the UAE. Sure, 5 star premium and luxury brands and experiences. That’s there for everyone to see. Consumer sentiment is shifting slightly and preloved is more desirable than once imagined and it’s better for the planet. This week we shine a light on the incredible work Jennifer Sault has been doing her entire career. Jennifer is the Founder of Thrift for Good, the leading charity thrift shop in the UAE, now with branches on the Palm Jumeirah, Times Square...

This week we are honoured to be joined by the impressive female Emirati Entrepreneur, Maryam AlMansoori. Maryam is the General Manager of Rebound Plastic Exchange, a UAE based global trading platform for quality-assured recycled plastics. She shares with us how she is driven to use technology to promote sustainability and reduce plastic pollution in the environment. Did you know the recycled plastics market is assumed to reach a worth of $46.6 bn by 2025. Staggering. We learn about Maryam’s...

This week we are joined by Esther Dahmen and Juncal Marcellan, Cofounders of Kadira, a UAE based impact consulting firm who believe in business as a force for good to drive long term value, increase regenerative growth and foster innovation. In this episode we get into the detail about what becoming a B Corp means and how to use the BIA framework to use as an approach to your ESG strategy. Both Esther and Juncal enjoyed careers with corporate giants such as EY, Strategy&, Sony and L’Oreal...

This week we are delighted to be joined by Daniel Solomon, Founder of HeroGo. As a serial entrepreneur, Daniel is on a mission to enable technology solutions to solve environmental and societal challenges by helping consumers and stakeholders gain awareness of sustainable practices. Walking through the streets of Lagos in his home country Nigeria, he was shocked. Many people had no access to basic necessities. This turned his emptiness into an urge. An urge to fight inequality, an urge to...

Welcome to Series 1 Episode 1 of the Ree-thinking Sustainability podcast. Our purpose is to reframe sustainability, one podcast at a time.   The climate crisis is real. Sensational headlines and daily reminders of how much needs to be done can leave us feeling anxious and fatigued. Feel like you are never doing enough, or not sure where to start? Well, our 8-episode series aims to give the MENA region's most inspiring ESG driven leaders a voice to share their hopes and dreams. We aim to shine...