Michael has led sustainability at Levi Strauss & Co. since 2001. Under his leadership, Levi has been a leader in bringing sustainability to the apparel industry and Michael has helped drive industry collaboration on sustainability, serving as Chair of the Better Cotton Initiative and Board member of the Sustainable apparel Coalition. In this interview, Michael explians what sustainability means to Levi’s, discusses the company’s commitment to becoming more sustainable, and its profits throug...
Apr 28, 2017•24 min•Ep. 21
How can economics deal with climate change? In this interview, Martin Wolf, Associate Editor and Chief Economics Commentator of the Financial Times, talks about the crucial importance of dealing with climate change and discusses the ways in which economic analysis and policy can help. He shares his views on the milestone COP21 agreement and the role of taxes and regulation dealing with climate change. Martin assesses the potential of using more environmentally inclusive economic accounting measu...
Mar 31, 2017•53 min•Ep. 20
Andreea Strachinescu is head of the New Energy Technologies and Innovation unit in the Directorate General for Energy at the European Commission. She is responsible for the development of the policy and actions on non-nuclear energy research and innovation. In this interview, Andrea talks about recent developments in EU renewable energy, in particular, growing focus on research & innovation, the ways in which the EU is currently emphasizing replication & scaling of renewable energy initi...
Mar 20, 2017•46 min•Ep. 19
Katherine Collins has had a a long successful career in traditional fund management – she was head of US Equity Research at Fidelity Investments and later as Portfolio Manager was responsible for investment decisions for the multi-billion dollar Fidelity America funds. But over her career she came to see serious shortcomings in the way traditional finance operates. Her work at Honeybee Capital today is focussed on illuminating a more human and natural path to investing – in particular applying n...
Feb 21, 2017•49 min•Ep. 18
Professor Kevin Anderson is an important – and outspoken – voice on how our emissions today are locking in dangerous levels of climate change and how we need immediate and strong action now, individually and collectively, if we are to bequeath our children a safe and secure future. He is the Deputy Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research holds a joint chair in Energy and Climate Change at the School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering at the University of Manchester...
Feb 10, 2017•57 min•Ep. 17
Ericsson has been at the forefront of corporate sustainability initiatives for many years- and will publish its 24th annual Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility Report on March 1 2017. In this podcast, I speak to Elaine Weidman-Grunewald, Vice President of Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility (CR) for the Ericsson Group worldwide about the company’s sustainability journey. Elaine’s work is focused on driving Ericsson’s sustainability and CR initiatives and she is head of Ericsson R...
Jan 27, 2017•31 min•Ep. 16
John is a pioneer in the world of corporate responsibility and sustainable development -as a writer, consultant, and serial entrepreneur he has been at the forefront of sustainability thinking for four decades. John is the author or co-author of 19 books —- he is credited with coining key sustainability terms including environmental excellence, the triple bottom line, and People, Planet & Profit. He is also co-founder of four environmental and sustainability businesses, including SustainAbil...
Jan 10, 2017•44 min•Ep. 15
From a vantage point of 40 years experience helping create the field of sustainability, Hunter Lovins is in an excellent position to explain where sustainability is today–and to highlight the latest thinking that will drive regenerative practices, the next wave beyond sustainability. Hunter is the President of Natural Capitalism Solutions, an entrepreneurial NGO that helps companies, communities and countries implement more regenerative practices profitably. Hunter is on the steering committee o...
Dec 12, 2016•38 min•Ep. 14
Little had been written on the role of environmental taxes when Paul Ekins wrote The Living Economy in1986. Since that time we have learnt a lot more about the potential role of taxation in dealing with climate change, yet there has been relatively little implementation of these ideas. In this podcast, Professor Ekins gives his view on the crucial role of smart regulation, new technologies and carbon taxation in dealing with climate change. He also discusses role of markets in solving climate pr...
Nov 29, 2016•29 min•Ep. 13
After several false starts, many experts now believe that the green finance sector is at a tipping point. Investors are paying attention to ESG factors as never before, there is an explosion of investor interest in green bonds, and195 countries adopted the first-ever universal, fully ratified global climate deal in Paris in 2015. In this podcast, eco-finance pioneer Tessa Tennant gives her view on recent developments in green finance, explores the implications of the Paris Agreement, and talks a...
Nov 21, 2016•50 min•Ep. 12
Author, media theorist, professor, activist: Douglas Rushkoff wears many hats. At the heart of his work is a recurring theme: how to redevelop society to better serve humans. In this episode, Douglas discusses his latest book, Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus, which raises fundamental questions about what he calls the “old extractive, growth-based capitalism.” This is a hard-hitting critique of the digital revolution, finance in Silicon Valley, and its obsession with growth-and a call for new ec...
Nov 08, 2016•29 min•Ep. 11
Paul Dickinson founded CDP, formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project, in 2000 with a vision to help the global economic system operate within sustainable environmental boundaries, and to prevent dangerous climate change. CDP manages a data platform that gathers data on the greenhouse gas emissions from major corporations around the world. The data reported through CDP is used by a global network of investors and purchasers, representing over $100 trillion. In this interview, Paul discusses trends ...
Oct 26, 2016•37 min•Ep. 10
BSR has been providing socially responsible business solutions to many of the world’s leading companies for almost 25 years, working with 250 member companies around the world to create a more just and sustainable global economy. In this podcast, BSR CEO Aron Cramer, gives his frank assessment of where companies are on their journey to sustainability, the crucial role of finance in the sustainability, and asks difficult questions about the future of an economy based on Western consumption models...
Oct 13, 2016•28 min•Ep. 9
John Kay is one of Britain’s leading economists and has a long-standing interest in the relationships between business and society; he has been writing about responsible business, the role of stakeholders, and business and society for several decades. In this interview, John talks about the real meaning of corporate sustainability, which goes way beyond ESG considerations, and looks at what it takes to develop great sustainable business. This is a fresh and direct look at sustainability that cle...
Oct 05, 2016•23 min•Ep. 8
In this episode of the Sustainability Agenda, Professor CB Bhattacharya, one of the word’s leading sustainability researchers, gives his perspective on his evolution of corporate sustainability over recent decades. Professor Bhattacharya discusses his latest research and gives a preview of his new book. What is the trade-off between sustainability and profits? How do investors respond to good and sustainability news? The impact of engaged employees. And he discusses the five necessary steps to i...
Sep 22, 2016•32 min•Ep. 7
When it comes to getting a perspective on the future of sustainability, who better to speak to than renowned author, futurist and sustainability pioneer Hazel Henderson. A long-time pioneer promoting the integration of environmental and social considerations into economics and business, Hazel has been a key mover in numerous key sustainability initiatives since the mid-1970s. A multi-award winning author, she has been a board member of many important environmental and social finance organisation...
Sep 16, 2016•45 min•Ep. 6
It took many decades over the early 20th Century for a standardised way of presenting financial information to investors to evolve. A similar process is now under way in an effort to include non-financial information in mainstream accounts. But we have to do it in years, not decades. Nowhere has there been more progress than with respect to integrating climate change information. In this podcast, Mardi McBrien, MD of the Climate Disclosure Standards Board discusses the progress that has been mad...
Sep 14, 2016•25 min•Ep. 5
By many measures, humans have shown themselves to be a pretty successful species. But we are living unsustainably. We are consuming more resources than the Earth can provide– we are in global ecological overshoot. The Ecological Footprint, developed by the Global Footprint Network, is a leading measure of human demand on nature, reflecting the productive area required to provide the renewable resources humanity is using and to absorb its waste. And this calculation show that every year we are ef...
Sep 08, 2016•46 min•Ep. 4
Marks & Spencer launched its Plan A progamme in 2007 with the ambition to make the company the world’s most sustainable major retailer. This far-reaching ecological and ethical programme is now in its 9th year. In this interview, Mike Barry, who oversees Plan A, and was part of the initial team that developed the programme, talks about the progress that M&S has made hitting its targets, how M&S deals with innovation in sustainability, the challenges and lessons from integrating susta...
Sep 06, 2016•28 min•Ep. 3
Over the comings years, sums of between US$5 and $7 trillion a year will need to be invested in infrastructure, clean energy, water, sanitation, agriculture, to meet Sustainability Development Goals. New Climate Economy estimates that a massive $93tn investment will be required across the whole economy by 2030 to keep the temperature rise below 2 degrees. This will require both a massive increase in investment and a re-orientation of investment towards lower carbon technologies. How will this mo...
May 13, 2016•55 min•Ep. 2
In the first episode of the Sustainability Agenda, Professor Ioannis Ioannou, a noted sustainability scholar at London Business School unveils the latest research on corporate sustainability. The long-assumed trade-off between sustainability and profits, is it turns out, as many sustainability leaders suspected, illusory. The latest research shows that high sustainability companies are not only more profitable-but they can outperform as investments. And increasingly, investors are paying attenti...
May 13, 2016•45 min•Ep. 1
