Welcome to the final episode of Purpose and Profit with Kathy Varol . Over the past four years and 100 episodes, this podcast has been a space to celebrate, uplift, and learn from business leaders who are ushering in a new era of conscious capitalism. These remarkable individuals are redefining what it means to succeed in business by bringing heart, humanity, and an inspiring sense of responsibility into everything they do. As we wrap up this chapter, I want to reflect on the incredible journey ...
Jan 29, 2025•9 min
Marilyn Waite leads the Climate Finance Fund. She has worked across four continents in renewable and nuclear energy, climate modeling, and investment. Author of Sustainability at Work: Careers That Make a Difference , Marilyn’s writing has been featured in the Financial Times , the Boston Globe , and Trellis (formerly GreenBiz ), where she served as editor at large. Marilyn holds a Master’s Degree with distinction in Engineering for Sustainable Development from the University of Cambridge, and a...
Jan 15, 2025•47 min
Dr. Anastasia Volkova is the CEO and Co-founder of Regrow Ag, a software company specializing in scalable decarbonization solutions for agriculture, using satellite imagery and proprietary biogeochemical modeling to measure and reduce scope 3 emissions on farms. Operating globally with over 100 customers—including General Mills, Nestle, Kellogg and Unilever—and monitoring 10%+ of the world’s arable land, Regrow aims to be a one-stop shop for the agriculture industry’s climate needs. Anastasia ha...
Jan 01, 2025•57 min
Chris Kanik is the CEO and Founder of Smart Cups, a sustainability-driven technology company that achieved global recognition with its flagship product—a printed energy drink. All of the flavors and ingredients are printed on the button of a cup, just add water. The Smart Cups printed technology eliminates the need to bottle and ship liquids, significantly reducing carbon footprint. Smart Cups Technology was recognized on Time Magazine 's 100 Best Inventions of the Year list for 2021. Chris also...
Dec 18, 2024•35 min
Dimitry Gershenson is the CEO and co-founder of Enduring Planet, a fintech platform that offers founder-friendly working capital and financial advisory services to climate startups and SMEs. Prior to Enduring Planet, Dimitry led M&A and served as COO for Rango Wireless, an Enduring Ventures portfolio company. Before that, Dimitry built Meta’s Energy Access program, a $15M+ investing initiative that enabled energy access for 3M people and unlocked nearly $500M in additional capital in underse...
Dec 04, 2024•43 min
Eugene Kirpichov runs Work On Climate, a non-profit building the workforce needed to solve climate change equitably and justly, which he started after leaving his big tech career in 2020 to focus on solving climate change. Work on Climate has helped thousands of people land climate jobs and advance their companies, and is now focusing on creating systems change to support the full climate talent transition. In this episode, we discuss: ● How a systems thinking approach is needed to create “the c...
Nov 20, 2024•40 min
Zimri T. Hinshaw, Founder and CEO of Rheom Materials, Inc., is a graduate of Temple University's Economics program and SOSV's IndieBio Program. Zimri started the company from his Temple University dorm room with initial ambitions to design leather jackets and pivoted to creating the materials themselves after realizing a gap in the market. Rheom Materials is pioneering the use of biopolymers derived from plant-based matter for new applications across the fashion, home goods, electronic, and auto...
Nov 06, 2024•46 min
Eric Rubenstein is the Managing Partner at New Climate Ventures (NCV). NCV launched in October 2021, holistically tackling climate change by investing in innovative early-stage startups that target carbon removal, reduction, and avoidance ecosystems. NCV has invested in companies across climate tech, recycling, alternative materials, food tech, and energy transition, among other emissions-avoiding technologies Before founding NCV, Eric held roles at Citigroup and Louis Dreyfus in their respectiv...
Oct 23, 2024•57 min
Chad Park is the Vice President, Sustainability & Citizenship for Co-operators, a leading Canadian insurance and financial services co-operative with more than $62 billion in assets under administration. Co-operators is a holding company for a number of entities with one common goal: creating financial security for Canadians and their communities. Because they are a co-operative, their business decisions are guided by their values of inclusion, and responsible and sustainable development. Ch...
Oct 09, 2024•52 min
This is the #1 listened-to episode from the Purpose and Profit podcast. We’re doing a rerun, so if you’re new to the podcast, you don’t miss this great conversation. Professor Mark Kramer is a senior fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a former senior lecturer at Harvard Business School and visiting lecturer at the Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley. He is also a co-founder and advisor with both FSG and the Shared Value Initiative . Mark has worked wit...
Sep 25, 2024•50 min
Katherine Neebe serves as senior vice president of national engagement and strategy, and chief sustainability and philanthropy officer for Duke Energy. She leads Duke Energy’s stakeholder engagement efforts to develop solutions to meet customer needs for continued reliable and affordable energy—while simultaneously working to achieve the company’s goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. In addition, Katherine maintains oversight of the Duke Energy Foundation, which provides philanthropic supp...
Sep 11, 2024•58 min
Breene Murphy is the president of Carbon Collective, a climate investment advisor. They create low-fee investment portfolios for employer 401k plans and individuals that divest from fossil fuels and reinvest in climate solutions. They have launched two Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs): a climate solutions equity ETF (ticker: CCSO), and a green bond fund (ticker: CCSB).. Carbon Collective is an implementation partner of Project Drawdown, and a member of Rewiring America’s CEOs for Electrification coa...
Aug 28, 2024•28 min
Julia Marsh is the CEO and co-founder of Sway, a clean tech startup scaling seaweed-based, home-compostable packaging. Sway’s patented products match the vital performance attributes of conventional plastics and are designed to plug into existing infrastructure, enabling scale and massive impact. Julia’s work is driven by a deep passion for regenerative design and biological circularity. In 2023, Sway won first place in the TOM FORD Plastic Innovation Prize. In 2021, Sway also won the Beyond the...
Aug 14, 2024•39 min
Dalila Wilson-Scott serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer of Comcast Corporation, and President of the Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation. Dalila oversees all Diversity, Equity & Inclusion initiatives and philanthropic strategy with a focus on advancing digital equity and economic mobility through Project UP, which is supported by a $1 billion commitment. In 2023, Dalila was honored as WICT Woman of the Year in recognition of her work developing women leaders who transf...
Jul 31, 2024•1 hr 1 min
Dr. Stafford (Staff) Sheehan is an American scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur at the forefront of the carbon capture and utilization industry. Staff is the Co-founder and CTO of AIR COMPANY, a business converting captured carbon dioxide, water, and electricity into the fuels and chemicals that we get from fossil fuels today. He is the inventor of AIR COMPANY’s core patents and is responsible for the technology and operations of the business. Prior to founding AIR COMPANY, Dr. Sheehan served ...
Jul 17, 2024•37 min
Alex Lauver has been in the Outdoor Industry his entire career. Alex is currently Sr Director Materials, Innovation, & Sustainability at Outdoor Research (OR) where he specializes in advanced materials, sustainability, and high-performance apparel. Since 1981, Outdoor Research has created outdoor apparel, accessories, and equipment for outdoor enthusiasts and military users around the globe with an Infinite Guarantee for their products. Most recently, Outdoor Research has partnered with a ch...
Jul 03, 2024•58 min
Rob Acton is the Founder & CEO of Cause Strategy Partners. Through his firm’s signature program BoardLead, Cause Strategy Partners has placed nearly 3,000 professionals in the United States and the United Kingdom on nonprofit boards, while training tens-of-thousands more in high-impact nonprofit board service. Rob is a recognized expert on nonprofit governance and leadership. He has nearly three decades of experience founding, leading, and scaling social good organizations as both a nonprofi...
Jun 19, 2024•58 min
Anna Hammond is the Founder and CEO of Matriark Foods, a social impact business on a mission to scale access to healthy food for the benefit of people and the environment. Each year in the USA, roughly 33 million tons of perfectly healthy vegetables never make it to the table. That’s a waste of food, water, and greenhouse gasses. It’s bad for farmers and the planet. Matriark Foods upcycles farm surplus and fresh-cut remnants into healthy, delicious, low sodium vegetable products for schools, hos...
Jun 05, 2024•52 min
Shawn Seipler is the founder and CEO of Clean The World, a social enterprise that offers sustainable, socially responsible programs to the hospitality and meetings industry. Their mission is to prevent millions of deaths caused by acute respiratory infection and diarrheal disease. Clean The World started in Shawn’s garage in 2009, recycling leftover soap from hotel rooms to create new bars for those in need. Today Clean the World is a global enterprise with over 8,300 hospitality partners, and p...
May 22, 2024•49 min
Hannes Schoenegger is the co-founder and CEO of Swiss bag brand QWSTION and its “spin-off” company Bananatex®. QWSTION has been making bags from plants since 2008, combining functionality and timeless design with the smallest ecological footprint and biggest social footprint possible. Their efforts have been honored with several international awards for outstanding material development and sustainability solutions. Bananatex® is a Cradle to Cradle Gold Certified® material. In this episode, we di...
May 08, 2024•38 min
Kimberly Shenk is the co-founder & CEO of Novi Connect, a company that was inspired out of transparency pain points Kimberly experienced firsthand launching an indie clean beauty company. Novi Connect is the first data-driven marketplace for personal care product development. Novi helps brands create clean and sustainable products by working with suppliers, manufacturers, brands, and retailers to validate ingredients along the supply chain. The company acts as a neutral party to ensure full ...
Apr 24, 2024•38 min
Glen Delaney is a project director at the nonprofit Earth Economics. Earth Economics quantifies and values the benefits nature provides, driving effective decisions and systemic change through a combination of education, natural capital analysis, and policy recommendations. As businesses begin to explore their impact and dependency on nature, valuation is a useful tool for integrating nature into their existing frameworks. In his role, Glen works with climate-impacted communities, tribes, and go...
Apr 10, 2024•49 min
Senan Ebrahim is a physician-scientist and entrepreneur dedicated to creating technology to improve global and maternal health. Senan is the founder and CEO of Delfina. He developed Delfina to create lifesaving AI-powered pregnancy care after personally witnessing the challenges faced by pregnant patients and their care teams. Senan previously founded Hikma Health, a tech nonprofit creating digital health solutions for refugees, migrants, and other vulnerable populations. He has an MD and PhD fr...
Mar 27, 2024•53 min
Shola Richards’ life’s mission is an ambitious one: To end generations of professional suffering, simply by changing how we treat each other at work. An advocate for positive change, Shola addresses the often-ignored issue of workplace bullying by highlighting its impact on trust, communication, and company resources. With a focus on unveiling the cost of toxic behaviors, Shola offers practical solutions for creating healthier work environments. At his core, Shola is an advocate and humanitarian...
Mar 13, 2024•54 min
Dr. Cassandra Zentner is the Vice President of Technology and Sustainability at actnano, the global leader in PFAS-free nanocoatings used to protect circuit boards across industries. Actano was created after the CEO, while working at a different company, saw factory workers getting sick from handling traditional coatings. Actnano’s technology is currently protecting many of the world’s foremost consumer electronic brands, safeguarding millions of vehicles, and defending numerous industrial appli...
Feb 28, 2024•45 min
Sam Shiroff is the Senior Director of Global Sustainability for EnerSys. A multibillion-dollar business serving over 10,000 customers in 100 countries, EnerSys is an industrial technology leader offering stored energy solutions that meet the growing need for energy efficiency, reliability, and sustainability. The company’s purpose is “Powering the Future, Everywhere for Everyone”. Sam combines 20+ years of international corporate ESG, sustainability, and community relations experience with a dee...
Feb 14, 2024•1 hr 3 min
Amelia Nickerson is the CEO of First Step Staffing, an organization that connects people experiencing homelessness, veterans, and recently incarcerated individuals to sustainable employment and income. The First Step team has created an ecosystem for success, coordinating closely with other nonprofits to help provide clients with resources and services such as housing, healthcare, childcare resources, transportation, food, and clothing needs to develop a stable path out of poverty and homelessne...
Jan 31, 2024•44 min
Ken Cook is the president and co-founder of Environmental Working Group (EWG), whose mission is to empower individuals with breakthrough research to make informed choices and live a healthy life in a healthy environment. EWG lives its mission by empowering American families with easy-to-use, data-driven tools to help reduce their exposure to potentially harmful ingredients in everyday products like foods, personal care products, cosmetics, and cleaning products. Ken testifies regularly before Ho...
Jan 17, 2024•1 hr 3 min
Marissa Fayer is the founder and CEO of HERhealthEQ, a global non-profit with the mission to improve women’s health in developing countries by providing access to medical devices & equipment, creating an equitable standard of care. Here are two 2020 statistics from the World Health Organization that highlight the inequitable standard of care for women in developing countries that HERhealthEQ is trying to combat: ● 90% of cervical cancer and related deaths worldwide occurred in low- and middl...
Jan 03, 2024•53 min
Carrie Freeman is the Chair of the SecondMuse Group, which includes SecondMuse, the SecondMuse Foundation, and SecondMuse Capital. Carrie is also the Interim Executive Director for the SecondMuse Foundation, a non-profit focusing on advocating for building relational wealth as an approach to building inclusive and resilient economies. SecondMuse focuses on the design, development, and implementation of innovative programming that seeks to benefit people and protect the planet. Over the last deca...
Dec 20, 2023•1 hr 3 min
