Consumers and grocers who want to verify the quality of the beef they sell are asking for increased supply chain transparency. Vivian Tai, Director of Innovation at GS1 US visited with Earth911 in February 2024 to introduce GS1's Digital Link advanced universal product code and returns to talk beef transparency with Jayson Berryhill, cofounder of Wholechain, who worked with GS1 to develop a new standard for cattle traceability using innovative blockchain technology. Wholechain Cattle Traceabilit...
Oct 07, 2024•41 min•Season 4Ep. 35
David Katz, founder and CEO of Plastic Bank , returns to talk with Mitch Ratcliffe about the groundbreaking social enterprise's effort to transform plastic waste into economic opportunity. Plastic Bank has created a “global bottle deposit program " that partners with companies to incentivize the collection of ocean-bound plastic in vulnerable communities. Plastic Bank provides vital income while reducing plastic pollution, with over 3 billion plastic bottles already intercepted from entering our...
Sep 30, 2024•37 min•Season 4Ep. 34
Meet David Steinman, an environmental activist, investigative journalist, and author who has worked to expose the dangers of chemical toxins in everyday life. Steinman's bestselling 1990 book, Diet for a Poisoned Planet , highlighted the hidden chemical dangers in our food. In his latest book, Raising Healthy Kids: Protecting Your Children from Hidden Chemical Toxins , examines how everyday products contribute to this health crisis and offers practical advice for parents to reduce their children...
Sep 23, 2024•39 min•Season 4Ep. 33
More than half the world's population—4.4 billion people—live in cities today. That number is expected to rise to 80% by 2050. Our guest, Nadina Galle, is a trailblazing ecological engineer and author of The Nature of Our Cities . She is an ecological engineer who studies the intersection of nature and technology in urban environments. Nadina developed the concept of an Internet of Nature (IoN) that uses tools like artificial intelligence, automation, and sensors to support and enhance ecosystem...
Sep 16, 2024•43 min•Season 4Ep. 32
The global push for sustainability has reached a critical juncture, particularly in industries traditionally associated with high environmental impacts, such as chemical manufacturing and mining. These sectors, vital to the global economy, are also significant contributors to carbon emissions and environmental degradation. However, innovative approaches are beginning to transform how these industries operate, making sustainability not just an option but a driving force of innovation. On today's ...
Sep 09, 2024•40 min•Season 4Ep. 31
Rachael Z. Miller is a leading voice in the fight against microfiber pollution , the plastic smog that trails our clothing like exhaust from a car. You might not see them, but our synthetic clothing sheds millions of tiny plastic fibers that make their way into our atmosphere, oceans, and rivers. It’s been less than a century since the introduction of synthetic textiles — nylon was the first about 90 years ago — but microfibers are already found everywhere on the planet, from the peaks of the Hi...
Sep 02, 2024•45 min•Season 4Ep. 30
Meet Emily McGarvey, furniture maker and retailer Room & Board's first Director of Sustainability. The company, founded in 1980, recently became an employee-owned B Corporation. Room & Board has made significant efforts to reduce the environmental impact by engaging 12,000 U.S. craftspeople to make its furniture, achieving 95% sustainable wood sourcing, including using urban wood recovered for reuse in tables and chairs and making 51% of its packaging recyclable on the path to 100% targe...
Aug 26, 2024•33 min•Season 4Ep. 29
Alison Cove, CEO and founder of USEFULL , works at the forefront of a critical shift in how we approach food service sustainability. By implementing collection systems for reusable food packaging, USEFULL helps university and corporate cafeterias reduce their reliance on single-use plastics and paper packaging. Alison joins the conversation to explain her company's trackable, tech-enabled reusable steel food containers and cups. After adopting Usefull's reusable system, Carleton College saw a dr...
Aug 19, 2024•32 min•Season 4Ep. 28
Growing, packaging, transporting, and distributing food is a major source of society’s emissions, accounting for approximately 26% of annual global emissions. Reducing the impact of food production is critical to bringing society back within the planetary boundaries, and Wayne McIntyre, cofounder and CEO of Montreal-based Relocalize, wants to “Decarbonize and hyper-localize food & beverage manufacturing.” The company is developing technology and a business strategy for decentralized food pro...
Jul 22, 2024•36 min•Season 4Ep. 27
Tim Sperry is the Founder and CEO of Boca Raton, Florida-based Carbon Limit , the maker of CaptureCrete. He founded the company in 2020 after recognizing concrete’s huge environmental price — it accounts for about 6% of annual global emissions. CaptureCrete is a powder additive for concrete mixes that extracts up to 220 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air per ton, locking it into the concrete as a stable mineral. CaptureCrete’s impact, after accounting for the CO2 it absorbs, is only about 25%...
Jul 15, 2024•36 min•Season 4Ep. 26
For 23 years, Peter Fusaro has been a leading force in the green economy. His exclusive Wall Street Green conference has been a hot ticket for investors and executives looking for sustainable paths forward since 2002. Tis year marks an exciting milestone, as the Wall Street Green Conference will go global with the Wall Street Green Digital Summit on October 15th, 2024. The 12-hour marathon online event will bring together practitioners, investors, and green-thinking startups from around the worl...
Jul 08, 2024•40 min•Season 4Ep. 25
Circular economies grow from the ground up, starting with recognizing that a material used to make a product can be recaptured, reused, resold, and recycled to lower the cost of sourcing raw materials. Mike Baker saw the opportunity to recycle cork for use in the custom insoles and footwear his company, SOLE , makes and launched the ReCORK collection network more than 15 years ago. Since founding in 2008 as a second business of the custom orthopedic insole company SOLE, ReCORK has recycled an as...
Jul 01, 2024•36 min•Season 4Ep. 24
Cotopaxi was built from the ground up to meet these high goals, but any company can transform itself; it just takes the first step, beginning the critical self-reflection that thoughtful leaders can apply to their business. A certified B Corporation, Cotopaxi was founded in 2014 in Salt Lake City and is known for its sustainably designed outdoor products, Cotopaxi is a market leader in combining innovative gear with a solid commitment to social and environmental responsibility. And our guest tod...
Jun 24, 2024•43 min•Season 4Ep. 23
Rising CO2 levels have created climate change, the denier's name for global warming. It's the environmental crisis that will shape our species' future. The long story of willful disregard of the consequences of CO2 levels by government and businesses perpetrated through a trail of lies and misinformation is the history lesson everyone needs to know. However, most books about the climate crisis begin and remain serious, which makes them seriously challenging to read. Our guest today, David Lipsky...
Jun 17, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Season 4Ep. 22
Join the Earth911 podcast community for a special World Ocean Day conversation, Blueprints for Coastal Adaptation, keynoted by ocean advocate Ashlan Cousteau of EarthEcho International and Voyacy . Hear nine experts working at the cutting edge of biodiversity restoration, climate mitigation, and financial engineering about how to construct a blue economy that preserves the rich ecosystems at the boundary of land and sea. The conversation features Doug Heske and Brian Fairhurst of Newday Impact I...
Jun 10, 2024•1 hr 27 min•Season 4Ep. 21
Meet Michelle Carnevale, president of 11th Hour Racing, which advocates for sustainability and ocean health with solutions designed to create a more inclusive future. Michelle recently contributed an article to Earth911, How You Can Help Create A Healthier Ocean By Composting. While it is a growing industry, composting services are still available in too few cities across the United States. According to a 2023 report by the Environmental Protection Agency, only 5% of food waste was composted in ...
Jun 03, 2024•31 min•Season 4Ep. 20
With the rise of recommerce, parents can find and buy top brands' children's products — from toys and clothing to furniture and car seats — at a deep discount. Our guest today is Shraysi Tandon, cofounder and CEO of Kidsy , a dealer of new and open-box children's products that is growing fast. According to TechCrunch , the company reached an annual revenue run rate of $1 million only a few months after going live, and its backers are a Who's Who of tech and sustainability investors. Shraysi come...
May 27, 2024•36 min•Season 4Ep. 19
IKEA is a global retail and furniture giant that has grown up with the modern era, defining a spare but elegant Nordic style that influences many of our homes. Mardi Ditze, IKEA's Country Sustainability Manager, joins the conversation to discuss how the company partners with customers to reduce, reuse, and recycle across its products' lifecycles. Mardi leads the IKEA team that is creating and implementing IKEA's climate goals, which include designing all products for a circular lifecycle, using ...
May 20, 2024•30 min•Season 4Ep. 18
Consumer Reports and Breakthrough Energy recently put numbers on the social cost of carbon, calculating the cost for an American child born in 2024 due to climate change. They found that an American child will face $500,000 and a million dollars in higher cost of living and reduced income during their lifetime as the planet warms, life and food supplies are disrupted, and returns on investments fall. Consumer Reports’ Senior Policy Analyst for Transportation and Energy Chris Harto, who led the r...
May 13, 2024•30 min•Season 4Ep. 17
The fashion industry is responsible for as much as 10% of annual CO2 emissions and an immense amount of waste that chokes landfills, rivers, and beaches worldwide. Too much of our clothing is made from oil-based textiles, like polyester. Tessa Callaghan, cofounder and CEO of Keel Labs , has been recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 leader for her contributions to plant-based fashion. The Morrisville, North Carolina-based early-stage startup has developed a kelp-based alternative called Kelsun. Acc...
May 06, 2024•33 min•Season 4Ep. 16
The Endangered Species Act (ESA), passed in 1973 and signed into law by Republican Richard Nixon, has been a bulwark against unrestrained deforestation and development for over 50 years. It has protected and helped restore 1,700 species that teetered on the brink of extinction but returned to viable populations. Author Lowell Baier was a young lawyer in Washington, D.C., when the law passed and has worked for 60 years at the leading edge of environmental law, including leading the first Presiden...
Apr 29, 2024•34 min•Season 4Ep. 15
Tune in to a special Earth Day 2024 episode about accelerating the path to a circular economy. Sustainability In Your Ear Mitch Ratcliffe shares lessons he learned at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's circular economy-focused REMADE conference, which met at the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Washington DC earlier this month. Scientists and business leaders gathered to discuss and share research about enabling a circular economy. REMADE focuses on reducing waste and cre...
Apr 22, 2024•17 min•Season 4Ep. 14
The built environment, particularly office buildings other urban facilities, are responsible for 39% of the global energy-related emissions, according to the World Green Building Council. About a third of that impact comes from the initial construction of a building and the other two-thirds is produced over the lifetime of a building by heating, cooling, and providing power to the occupants. Our guest today is leading a key battle to reduce the impact of the built environment. Tune in for a wide...
Apr 15, 2024•39 min•Season 4Ep. 13
Youth face the greatest impact of climate change, and will certainly have to live with the consequences of the extractive economy for the longest time. They also have the opportunity to pass along a better world to future generations and Pragna Nidumolu, founder of EcoTeens, is working to make that happen. When she was 14, Pragna launched an organization dedicated to creating dialogue and campaigns to encourage youth to recycle and reuse products and packaging responsibly. She also produces a po...
Apr 08, 2024•29 min•Season 4Ep. 12
Join Earth911's Mitch Ratcliffe for a special World Water Day conversation with model and activist Georgie Badiel and Newday Impact Investing 's Dan Keeler. If you'd like to watch instead of listen to the show, which includes the world premiere of The Georgie Badiel Foundation 's new fundingraising campaign video, visit our YouTube channel . Georgie's team supports a network of village wells in her homeland, Burkina Faso, that provides clean water, solar-powered community learning centers and ga...
Apr 01, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Season 4Ep. 11
Honeywell International is one of the largest companies in the world, ranking 115th in the Fortune 500 and operating in 70 countries around the world. With lines of business in aerospace, building technology, workplace safety, and digital technology, Honeywell is applying its expertise to reduce its environmental impact. Since 2018, Honeywell has reduced CO2 emissions by 18%, progressing toward its Scope 1 and 2 carbon neutrality goal for 2035. Our guest, Dr. Gavin Towler, the Chief Sustainabili...
Mar 25, 2024•42 min•Season 4Ep. 10
Earth Hour 2024, the "Biggest Hour for Earth" of the year, takes place on March 23rd. Since the World Wildlife Fund launched the event in 2007, Earth Hour has symbolized a commitment to the planet by simply turning off lights for one hour. However, despite its noble intentions, awareness of the movement was limited, with only 52% of the global population aware of the event. Our guests today, Phil Wilce and Antonia Simon, are Creative Director for Europe and Senior Experience Consultant, respecti...
Mar 18, 2024•31 min•Season 4Ep. 9
We can all take decisive action to protect the environment: reusing goods instead of sending them to landfills. By passing items on to others, whether through family, businesses, or community efforts, we avoid the need for new resources and reduce carbon emissions. May Al-Karooni, shares her story about founding Globechain.com, the largest dedicated reuse marketplace in the world, with just £800 (about $1,000). She aims to build a platform that enables worldwide reuse of excess inventory and lig...
Mar 11, 2024•42 min•Season 4Ep. 8
The built environment will evolve constantly, and NextCity.org reports that 75% of the infrastructure that will be in use by 2050 has not yet been built. That calls for a lot of concrete, and we need to avoid the emissions associated with that growth if we are to provide housing, workplaces, and everything that connects humanity on an equitable basis in a decarbonized world. Meet Alex Hall, CEO of Concrete.ai , which uses an artificial intelligence-based mixing platform to create affordable, low...
Mar 04, 2024•40 min•Season 4Ep. 7
Meet Electra Coutsoftides, CEO of Xworks, who is building a business network to catalyze recycling progress. Xworks designed its platform to enhance waste handling and trading by accredited waste professionals. The U.K.-based company provides digital compliance reporting capabilities, making it easier for businesses and recycling programs to meet regulatory requirements. Members are verified before joining to ensure user trustworthiness, a keystone in any successful network. That confidence that...
Feb 26, 2024•34 min•Season 4Ep. 6
