Airrows on Air

In this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with Jeffrey Foote. Jeffrey is a career sustainability man who held an executive position with Coca-Cola for 20 years, spearheading climate action in the very early days, and now heads up his firm Footeprints Resourcefulness Consulting. We discuss how he got started in sustainability, his family’s roots in community benefit, and his various investments in clean-tech. Our conversation explores successes and challenges in key pillars of sustainability in our modern lives, including recycling, composting and the ways in which consumers are driving circular economy practices in the corporate landscape.

In this week’s episode, we are doing something a little different. I am the subject of today’s interview with ATTA President and dear friend, Casey Hanisko, leading the conversation. She is a longtime traveler who began her career at the space voyage division of Zegrahm Expeditions and is a key player in helping Tomorrow’s Air take root.

On today’s episode our guest is Jeff Shafer, Chief Empowerment Officer at BRANWYN. Jeff shares his story from growing up surfing in L.A., to ski-bumming in Flagstaff, Arizona, to launching multiple successful clothing brands including AGAVE and Bluer Denim. He has studied psychology and computer science along with wilderness survival and is blunt about the realizations behind his midlife pivot to sustainable brand BRANWYN,  which is focused on women’s empowerment and sustainability.

Jeff has an incredibly interesting background in sports, travel, and fashion that he’s now bringing together in his own way to make the world a better place.

This week I am joined by Jessica Reilly-Moman. Jessica is a social scientist, political ecologist, and a mixed media journalist focusing on climate change and resilience in coastal communities. We discuss her climate research that has led her through the mountains, to large-scale solar projects in the desert, and sailing through Latin America. Jessica’s cross-national perspective has given her insight on the unique set of issues in different places but also their commonalities. She shines a light on inequities as they relate to climate change and why we must view climate actions not as having singular effects, but rather as a whole system. And who and how they impact.

After all of her worldly travels, Jessica is back to where she grew up in New England finishing her Ph.D. in Ecology & Environmental Studies at the University of Maine’s Darling Marine Center. In her off time from saving the world, she enjoys singing and dancing with her daughter.  She even treats us to a little serenade!

Today I’m delighted to speak with a brilliant scientist and personal friend, Dr. Letty B. Brown. Letty is a Fulbright Scholar with a Ph.D. in Forest Science from UC Berkeley. As a scientist, she specializes in restoration, conservation planning, and nature-based solutions to climate change.

Our guest today is Jonny Bierman. Jonny is a travel journalist and founder of Eco Escape Travel — a platform for travelers to find excellent sustainable travel experiences and businesses. He works with clients in values-based destination marketing and content creation.

In this episode, I’m delighted to be joined by Renaissance man Grant Faber. Grant is a Research Assistant at the Global CO2 Initiative and is currently in the Master's program for Sustainable and Complex Systems at the University of Michigan. His focus when it comes to systems is on carbon capture and utilization, and he shares how climate change has a cascading effect on all systems.

This week I’m joined by Matthew Eshed. He is an entrepreneur, systems designer and engineer working in climate innovation.  Matthew’s extensive background has made him an expert in the carbon community. He talks about his experience as one of the early players in Direct Air Capture and his latest projects with his organization Climatetech Advisors. Matthew talks about the power of “awe” and how he wants to change the way the world values an ecosystem on both a systemic and individual level.

I met Matthew at AirMiners, where he and his fellow founders focus on creating, identifying and facilitating a market demand for products that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Matthew transitioned into his current organization, Climatetech Advisors, after demonstrating a direct air capture system at the Global Climate Action Summit. He sourced raw materials from other organizations in the community to create a concrete planter prototype. I loved my conversation with Matthew about how small behaviors can make a big impact in the world of climate.

What You’ll Hear on This Episode:

“There are millions of people—possibly even hundreds of millions or maybe even a billion people—all around the world who sincerely at their core want to be in partnership with the Earth just like we do.  And all we have to do is be open to seeing that they’re all around us.” 

Mentioned In This Episode:

Tomorrow’s Air

In this episode, Edmund Morris speaks to me from the future! — from Perth, Australia a day ahead of my US west coast time zone. A market systems and tourism consultant with deep experience in the country of Jordan who, since this conversation was recorded, has launched Equator Analytics, a consulting firm that uses data analytics for sustainable tourism development.

One of the widest ranging discussions to date on Airrows on Air (because Edmund has such a broad set of interests and fascinating experiences!) we cover topics both dense and fluffy: traveling through Syria as a young college graduate, assembling the data needed to calculate the number of jobs created by adventure travel in a country, why Jordan is a great place to learn how to dive, the cultural mashup that occurs when a Brit weds a Jordanian, how a lack of economic measurement systems for non-mainstream types of tourism results in a misunderstanding of the varying impacts of different types of tourism, how the world’s leading expert in Scandanavian medieval studies (Edmund’s mum!) is supporting work on his new book, his project to quantify the impact of the world’s largest cruise ship on the rainforest, and of course …the state of climate action and global warming in places Edmund has worked and played.

**Excuse us please, repeated mention is made of a person named ‘Shannon’ — that would be Shannon Stowell, President of the Adventure Travel Trade Association.

“Carbon removal just hadn’t crossed my radar because it’s so nascent in terms of scaling. As I started to dive into the numbers though, unlike carbon offsetting, it gives me a lot of hope.”  — Edmund

Mentioned:

WANA Institute

Adventure Travel Local Analytics System

Caroline Bremner, Euromonitor International

WTTC

Nori

Edmund’s Playlist:

Jurassic Five: Concrete Schoolyard

Dave Brubeck: Take 5

Floating POints Ensemble - Live on KEXP

Caribou: Can’t Do Without

Four Tet: Daughter

Nujabes: Reflection Eternal

Quarteto Em Cy: Tudo Que Voce Podia Ser

David Hone is an expert in global warming scenarios as the Chief Climate Change Advisor for Shell; he is also the author of Putting the Genie Back and is on the board of the International Emissions Trading Association; the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, and the Global Capture and Storage Institute. He joins me today to discuss his perspective on energy and climate change issues, how the system is starting to move, and a few of the changes already in energy that are visible and available. David also is a world-class traveler and shares my love for Antarctica, so we talk a little about the beauty and magic of the land, and what he thinks is in store for travelers in the future.

What You’ll Hear on this Episode:

Mentioned:

Putting the Genie Back