What does it take to stand on the front lines of one of the most dangerous and increasingly common realities of our climate crisis era? Discover the intense world of elite wildland firefighting with Kelly Ramsey , the first woman in about a decade to join the Rowdy River Hotshots, a pseudonymously named, California-based crew of highly trained wildland firefighters. In this episode of Earth911's Sustainability In Your Ear, Kelly shares insights from her powerful new memoir, Wildfire Days: A Woma...
Jul 07, 2025•38 min•Season 5Ep. 21
What if the solution to our plastics crisis isn't just about individual behavior change but building entirely new marketplaces that make plastic-free living accessible and transparent? On this episode of Earth911's Sustainability In Your Ear, discover the grassroots approach with Simona Paganetto, founder of Implasticfree.com , who has transformed her search for plastic alternatives into a curated directory of nearly 150 vetted brands committed to ditching plastic packaging and single-use produc...
Jun 30, 2025•41 min•Season 5Ep. 20
As climate change accelerates and traditional crops face mounting pressures from drought, extreme weather, and soil depletion, innovative solutions are emerging from unexpected sources. Explore the soil-restoring potential of the pongamia tree with Marc Diaz, Chief Commercialization Officer at Terviva , an agtech company that has spent over a decade unlocking this hardy species’ dual capabilities as a nutritious food source and sustainable fuel feedstock. Through their Ponova platform , Terviva ...
Jun 23, 2025•46 min•Season 5Ep. 19
What if the ingredients discarded daily in food production could become the foundation of a more sustainable food future? On this episode of Earth911's Sustainability In Your Ear, discover the pragmatic vision with Yousuf Ahmed, founder of B-SIDES , a Brooklyn-based startup, proving that upcycled snacks can be delicious and environmentally responsible. Inspired by tasting a single slice of spent grain bread in 2014, Yousuf transitioned from finance and music to food innovation, launching B-SIDES...
Jun 16, 2025•41 min•Season 5Ep. 18
As the world confronts the urgent challenge of removing billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, breakthrough innovation is essential to scale solutions fast enough to meet global climate goals. On this episode of Earth911's Sustainability in Your Ear, discover the groundbreaking results of the $100 million XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition , a four-year competition among 1,300 teams from 88 countries that represents one of the most ambitious efforts to catalyze carbon removal inn...
Jun 09, 2025•39 min•Season 5Ep. 17
On today's Sustainability In Your Ear, meet Brenna Simmons-St. Onge, a systems strategist, regenerative futurist, and founder of B the Light Consulting, as we explore her family's extraordinary three-year journey around the world. The Regenerative World Quest isn't your typical travel adventure; it's a deliberate mission to identify, amplify, and help replicate Earth's most promising regenerative communities and projects. From Costa Rica to South Africa, she and her family engage with leaders, l...
Jun 02, 2025•53 min•Season 5Ep. 16
Energy is required at every step of the food and beverage industry supply chain, from growing grapes to bottling and delivery, making it a significant source of emissions and a prime target for climate innovation. On this episode of Earth911’s Sustainability in Your Ear, we explore how wineries and other producers are turning to clean, renewable energy to cut costs, reduce emissions, and future-proof their operations. We’re joined by James Presta, Business Development Manager at REC Solar, and M...
May 26, 2025•38 min•Season 5Ep. 15
On today’s Sustainability In Your Ear, meet Kavita Patel, a principal at MUUS Climate Partners, as we discuss how smart investments and business support can drive environmental impact while generating returns. MUUS Climate Partners invests in early-stage climate technology companies, with a portfolio including battery recycler Nth Cycle, EV charging innovator AmpUp, and innovative air conditioning developer Harvest. The firm targets critical sectors—energy, industry, materials, and transportatio...
May 19, 2025•43 min•Season 5Ep. 14
On today's Sustainability In Your Ear episode, discover a transformative approach to rainforest conservation with Dr. Hannah Peck, Deputy Director and Policy Lead at Cool Earth . She brings a decade of experience in the rainforests of Peru and Papua New Guinea with Cool Earth's innovative strategies that prioritize direct support over traditional carbon offset models. Cool Earth challenges the heavily promoted carbon offsets industry , arguing that they often serve as a smokescreen for continued...
May 12, 2025•34 min•Season 5Ep. 13
On this inspiring episode of Sustainability In Your Ear, we reconnect with storyteller, systems thinker, and regenerative agriculture pioneer Douglas Gayeton to explore the latest developments in the Ecological Benefits Framework (EBF)—a potentially game-changing tool designed to redefine how we value nature. First introduced during an Earth911 podcast event in 2023, the EBF offers a bold new way to measure what matters most to nature—air, water, soil, biodiversity, carbon, and equity. Unlike tr...
May 05, 2025•1 hr•Season 5Ep. 12
As federal environmental protections face weakening, a grassroots movement is gaining strength across the U.S., focusing on environmental rights rather than policy adjustments. Maya van Rossum, environmental attorney and founder of the Green Amendments For The Generations movement, returns to Sustainability in Your Ear to discuss that states' response to cuts to federal environmental regulations. Maya explains how state-level constitutional amendments are redefining environmental protection as a...
Apr 28, 2025•41 min•Season 5Ep. 11
In the race to address climate change, technology often steals the spotlight—solar breakthroughs, carbon capture , electrification, and AI. None of it scales without the right leadership. Green progress depends on the people who can fund, integrate, and lead technology-driven organizations to success. Meet Colin Smith and Kahlil Dumas, co-founders of Execnow , an executive placement firm focused on building leadership teams that can scale climate innovation . They connect mission-driven companie...
Apr 21, 2025•47 min•Season 5Ep. 10
In today’s media environment, disinformation and distraction are pervasive. The most troubling issue may not be misinformation but the critical information that is systematically ignored or underreported. Andy Lee Roth, Editor-at-Large of Project Censored , returns to Sustainability In Your Ear to discuss the top censored stories of 2023–2024, with a special focus on environmental reporting. Project Censored has tracked and amplified suppressed stories since 1976, drawing attention to the topics...
Apr 14, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Season 5Ep. 9
Josh Dorfman—known for his The Lazy Environmentalist book series —visites to share his latest efforts to make sustainability seamless, smart, and scalable. From hosting eco-living shows to launching climate tech ventures, Dorfman’s mission: make sustainable choices attractive and accessible. In the 1990s, while working in China, Dorfman saw the country’s shift from bicycles to cars and realized the environmental cost of global development. That insight set him on a path to shift consumer culture...
Apr 07, 2025•38 min•Season 5Ep. 8
As trade dynamics shift and tariffs reshape supply chains, construction companies must rethink how they source materials, balance costs, and integrate sustainable solutions. The push for greener, more resilient construction materials is at the heart of this transformation. Grant Quasha, CEO of Eco Material Technologies , returns to the show to share an update. Since his last appearance in October 2023 , the company has made significant strides—including securing an $800 million Green Term Loan F...
Mar 31, 2025•35 min•Season 5Ep. 7
Plastic and paper waste from product packaging remains an environmental crisis, with millions of tons of packaging ending up in landfills and the ocean every year. Despite growing consumer demand for sustainable alternatives , many companies still struggle to balance eco-responsible packaging with cost, performance, and branding needs. Discover the challenges and opportunities shaping sustainable packaging alternatives with Elizabeth Corbett, President of Enterprise Sales at AE Global , a leadin...
Mar 24, 2025•39 min•Season 5Ep. 6
Humanity is grappling with the effects of climate change, and one urgent challenge is ensuring a stable and sustainable supply of protein for human consumption and agricultural use. That's where molecular farming, an innovative technology that uses the power of plants to produce high-quality proteins, may present a unique solution. Tune into Sustainability In Your Ear for a conversation with Maya Sapir-Mir, co-founder and CEO of PoLoPo , to explore how molecular farming could transform food prod...
Feb 10, 2025•34 min•Season 5Ep. 5
Climate Change has terrible impacts today, and youth coming of age face depressing prospects. However, they are stepping up to the challenge and could see the fruits of their efforts in a restored climate during their lifetime. Climate restoration requires extraordinary efforts of young people, who are already leading the charge. On this episode, Sustainability In Your Ear introduces another winner of the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes, which recognizes each year a dozen youth for their in...
Feb 03, 2025•32 min•Season 5Ep. 4
Meet Garik Himebaugh, the founder of Eco-Stylist.com , a site dedicated to promoting sustainable fashion choices. Garik's journey into the world of sustainable fashion began with a background in peace studies and an MBA, and he discovered social entrepreneurship as a grad student and launched Eco-Stylist in 2018. There, he helps consumers make informed, sustainable fashion choices with a directory of brands that meet his criteria for ethical production and environmental responsibility.encouragin...
Jan 27, 2025•38 min•Season 5Ep. 3
Practical progress toward a sustainable lifestyle, whether you are an individual or a business, will always be unique to your situation, but you can base your choices on lessons learned by others. Tune into a conversation with Sarah Currie-Halpern, Co-Founder of Think Zero LLC , a consultancy that helps businesses, institutions, and households reduce waste and embrace sustainable practices . With a focus on practical, actionable solutions, Sarah and her team work to make sustainability accessibl...
Jan 20, 2025•35 min•Season 5Ep. 3
We celebrate a milestone episode of Sustainability In Your Ear, our 500th program since we launched in 2018, with an in-depth conversation with Paula Whyman, author of the captivating collection of essays, Bad Naturalist . It's a tale about her purchase and efforts to restore a couple hundred acres of meadowland in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia that had once been a farm and orchard. Paula's stories explore the complex interplay of identity, vulnerability, and the natural world with wit, d...
Jan 13, 2025•47 min•Season 5Ep. 2
Start the new year with a dive into the world of biosolids—a potentially transformative way to turn sewage that traditionally is seen as waste into a valuable material for sustainable agriculture. With the appropriate precautions, humans can turn our ickiest stuff into inexpensive fertilizer for farms and homes. Humans have been using their excrement as fertilizers for millennia. At scale, biosolids-based fertilizer would be a big step toward comprehensive circular approaches to human waste. How...
Jan 06, 2025•39 min•Season 5Ep. 1
The Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law contributed much-needed progress but has not completed the transition — only approximately 21% of total utility-scale electricity generation in the United States comes from renewables. According to the World Resources Institute 31 gigawatts of solar energy capacity was installed in the U.S. in 2023, up 55% compared to 2022. But now we are entering the second Trump era, facing an administration that, despite its hostility to renewables...
Dec 09, 2024•41 min•Season 4Ep. 42
Food production is one of the most impactful forces shaping our environment, responsible for approximately a quarter of annual global carbon emissions, deforestation, and soil depletion, among other impacts. However, a new generation of food and snack companies is stepping up to change the narrative, working to make food production a force for regeneration, sustainability, and environmental stewardship. Tune into this discussion with Keith Bearden, CEO of Alter Eco Foods , a snack and chocolate ...
Nov 25, 2024•40 min•Season 4Ep. 41
Being a consumer in an advanced economy—or any economy these days—is challenging because you cannot keep up with the ever-changing range of ingredients and materials in the products at the store. For example, thousands of new chemicals are registered annually . Still, many more compounds that could be harmful are introduced and used in manufacturing. These chemicals can harm our health and the environment. However, many tools for interrogating our world and the products we buy are emerging, offe...
Nov 18, 2024•41 min•Season 4Ep. 40
The sharing economy can be a platform for keeping products in circulation and out of landfills until they are no longer usable and must be recycled. If we can get more uses out of things we currently throw away, we can reduce the need to extract raw materials from the Earth. Meet a pioneer in sharing, Daan Weddenpohl, founder and CEO of Peerby, an innovative Dutch platform at the forefront of the sharing economy. Peerby connects people within neighborhoods and communities, enabling them to share...
Nov 11, 2024•38 min•Season 4Ep. 39
Sustainability In Your Ear welcomes back oceanographer and author John Englander, who last visited with us in February 2023 . John is the author of two pivotal books on Sea Level Rise, High Tide on Main Street: Rising Sea Level and the Coming Coastal Crisis , which explores the science behind rising seas and its far-reaching impacts on society, and Moving to Higher Ground: Rising Sea Level and the Path Forward , which offers a comprehensive look at how individuals, businesses, and governments ca...
Nov 04, 2024•48 min•Season 4Ep. 38
The climate crisis cannot be solved by one person, one organization, one company, or one government. A network of collaboration is being built, and nonprofits often serve as the connective tissue. Our guest today Brett Jenks, is the CEO of Rare.org , a global conservation and development organization dedicated to empowering communities in the world's most biologically diverse regions to sustainably manage their natural resources. Under Brett’s leadership, Rare has grown from a small nonprofit in...
Oct 28, 2024•41 min•Season 4Ep. 38
The water crisis is one of the most pressing issues facing our planet, with climate change, population growth, and pollution threatening the availability of clean water worldwide. One company working to tackle this problem head-on is Spout Water. This California-based startup has developed an innovative solution, the Spout Monolith, a sleek kitchen device that produces pure drinking water from the moisture in the air. Spout founder and CEO Reuben Vollmer joins the conversation to explain how a p...
Oct 21, 2024•30 min•Season 4Ep. 37
The global food system is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, responsible for about 25% of annual anthropomorphic CO2 emission, the unfortunate, planet-warming exhaust of our industrial society. But what if we could eat our way out of the climate crisis? Author Mark J. Easter joins the conversation to talk regenerative farming and his new book, The Blue Plate: A Food Lover’s Guide to Climate Chaos . He explores how we can change our diets to help restore the environment ...
Oct 14, 2024•39 min•Season 4Ep. 36
