Brands for a Better World (formerly Evolve CPG)

By Gage Mitchell of Modern SpeciesBusiness Health & Fitness Nutrition Arts Marketing Food

Brands for a Better World (formerly Evolve CPG) episodes

March 10, 2021007 - Money Doing Good with Adrian Reif of Umana Venture Studio
Solving the world’s biggest problems is no easy task, but with a sustainable mindset and a regenerative approach, we have much more than just hope to rely on.
Today we talk with Adrian Reif, CEO and co-founder of Umana Venture Studio, an organization that’s working hard to provide lasting solutions to global issues. We open the episode by first asking Adrian about the travels that inspired him to create Yumbutter, his first ‘Robin Hood’ business.
Tune in to hear more about Adrian’s journey and how he’s inspiring change.
Key Points From This Episode:
Adrian tells us about his travels.
Hear what inspired Adrian to create a peanut butter company upon his return home.
Adrian’s experience at a silent meditation retreat.
Some of the lessons Adrian learned with his Yumbutter business.
When Adrian decided to start writing about investing.
Adrian’s know-how helped him create a book to help others invest sustainably.
The process of writing his book, The Do Gooder’s Guide to Investing.
Adrian talks about his latest journey in business and creating Umana Studio.
How Umana Studio helps solve the world’s toughest problems.
Ways that Adrian keeps his focus alive.
Adrian shares his thoughts on life, wellness, and his future goals.
How humanity can treat money like water.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Adrian Reif
Adrian Reif on LinkedIn
Yumbutter
Do-Gooder’s Guide to Investing
Do-Gooder’s Guide to Investing on Amazon
Umana Venture Studio
UBS Wealth Management
Aspiration Bank
Deep Work on Amazon
The ONE Thing
Naval Ravikant
Sapiens
Tiny Habits
Green Swans on Amazon
EvolveCPG
EvolveCPG on YouTube
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
1 hr 9 min
March 02, 2021006 - Purpose on Purpose with Rob Sinclair of Conscious Brands
Companies without a clear purpose are incapable of making an impact and reaching their full potential. In the words of today’s guest, the trick to becoming an impactful brand is to know that your “purpose is on purpose.”
In this episode, we speak with Conscious Brands founder Rob Sinclair about creating conscious businesses that pursue meaningful impact in the world. We open our conversation with Rob by exploring his varied business background and the period of self-discovery that led him to found Conscious Brands.
Tune in to hear more about what you can do to build a purpose-driven, conscious, and impactful brand.
Key Points From This Episode:
Rob’s extremely varied background and business career.
How his lavish lifestyle in his earlier career didn’t give Rob a sense of fulfillment.
Rob’s journey of self-discovery and the creation of his show, Vegan in a VW.
How Vegan in a VW became Rob’s gateway into the natural products industry.
Reflecting on the ‘expensive education’ resulting from Rob’s business failures.
We discuss Conscious Brands’ early direction and challenges.
Rob talks about the deeper ‘why’ behind founding Conscious Brands.
Rob’s views on how B-corp evolved over the last decade.
The differences between regenerative and sustainable practices.
Is your purpose on purpose? We look into Conscious Brands’ value proposition.
Learn about the six pillars of a conscious brand.
How Rob’s tool helps companies to focus on their purpose.
The role of communication in co-creating an industry of conscious companies.
Insights into how Conscious Brands developed their services as separate from their consulting offerings.
Using the pandemic as a time to reflect and rethink our roles in the world.
Why Conscious Brands has centered its attention on internal brand believers.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Rob Sinclair on LinkedIn
Rob Sinclair on Twitter
Conscious Brands
Ron Pickarski
The International Culinary Olympics
Carbon Trust
Whole Foods Market
Method
Guayaki
Modern Species
Burning Man
B-Lab
B-Corporation
Larry Fink
BlackRock Capital
Natural Products Expo West
EvolveCPG
EvolveCPG on YouTube
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
49 min
February 24, 2021005 - Regenerative Chocolate Foundation with Antoine Ambert of Alter Eco
The organic chocolate company Alter Eco knows that there’s no quick solution to climate change reversal. Instead, they’re creating impact through long-term solutions that involve converting monoculture cacao farms to a regenerative agro forest model.
Today we speak with Antoine Ambert about what Alter Eco is doing to transform the chocolate industry. A senior director of sustainability at the company, we open our conversation by exploring Antoine’s education and professional background. We then dive into his start at Alter Eco, why their early marketing focused on the communities that they work with, and how their brand evolved.
Tune in to hear more about how one company is changing the world, one chocolate bar at a time.
Key Points From This Episode:
Exploring Antoine’s education and professional background.
Antoine shares his motivation to make an impact when building businesses.
What Antoine learned about sustainable farming from his time in Peru.
How Antoine got his start at Alter Eco.
Insights into Alter Eco and Antoine’s early marketing focus.
Hear about the evolution of Alter Eco’s brand and its promotion of sustainability principles.
Alter Eco’s challenge in communicating their value proposition to consumers.
Why Alter Eco puts their values at the forefront of their products.
We discuss Antoine’s new role at the Alter Eco Foundation.
How the Alter Eco Foundation is implementing more regenerative farming practices.
The dangers of adopting monoculture farming practices.
How non-organic farming methods can be detrimental to farming communities.
Antoine talks about the issues around getting your products certified as organic.
How becoming B Corp certified has affected Alter Eco.
Antoine reflects on Alter Eco’s next big challenges.
Ways that regenerative farming helps reverse climate change.
What Antoine and Alter Eco do to keep pushing forward.
Why a holistic approach to Alter Eco’s supply chain leads to a bigger environmental impact.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Antoine Ambert on LinkedIn
Alter Eco
Alter Eco Foundation
Fairtrade International

EvolveCPG
Modern Species
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
1 hr 4 min
February 17, 2021004 - Curiosity & Connection with Linwood Paul & Matt D’Amour of Subtle Distinctions
For the effective leader, curiosity is a powerful tool to build and nurture strong connections.
Today we speak with leadership experts Linwood Paul and Matt D’Amour of Subtle Distinctions about how fostering your curiosity will make you a better leader; especially at times when emotions run high. From taking stock of your inner-world to helping people feel seen and heard, we touch on the leadership benefits of being curious and how this leads to greater productivity and ultimately, higher returns.
This is a conversation filled with actionable steps to expand your leadership ability. Tune in to benefit from Linwood and Matt’s proven insights.
Key Points From This Episode:
The need to free up space in our minds for what’s most important.
Exploring the links between curiosity and building connections.
What you can do to develop curiosity in your life.
Building a connection by making people feel seen and heard.
Hear about the pillars that lead to being a present and open leader.
Advice on how people can stay connected during the pandemic.
Linwood and Matt talk about how they maintain their connection as business partners and colleagues.
The five currencies that we expend for any action and how this impacts our perception of a service or product.
The differences between finding time, making time, or taking time.
Connecting before doing business versus connecting after business has concluded.
Modeling your work culture so that your team is aware of all expectations.
Why you need to give your team an opportunity to share their views.
How you can make excellent decisions by creating a pool of shared meaning.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Linwood Paul on LinkedIn
Matt D’Amour on LinkedIn
Subtle Distinctions
Oprah Winfrey
Michael Jackson
Barack Obama

Modern Species
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
48 min
February 11, 2021003 - Launching a Plant-Based Business with Sri Artham of Hooray Foods
Hooray Foods' Founder Sri Artham is on a mission to create what many have called the holy grail of plant-based meat: crispy, smoky bacon – without the pig. Sri is today’s guest, who tells us more about Hooray, a company that makes delicious plant-based meats designed to look, cook, and taste just like the real thing.
Tune in to find out what sparked Sri’s passion for food and products, given his background in systems, design, and business, and where the idea for creating his own plant-based meat product came from in the first place. All this and more in today’s episode, including where to find Hooray bacon and how to use it!
Key Points From This Episode:
Sri shares a bit about his career arc, from a systems design background to business.
How a belief that business can be a powerful force for good inspired Sri’s work with Fairtrade.
What sparked Sri’s passion for products was learning that food was a force for change.
How Sri became interested in plant-based meat, starting with his love for Impossible Foods.
Where the idea for creating his own plant-based pork product came from – how could he save the world with his stomach?
Finding the gap in the market and deciding to make plant-based bacon.
Developing the recipe for his product without a culinary background.
Sri explains that, when he set out to create plant-based bacon, he had no intentions of starting a company – he just wanted to learn.
Some of the challenges Sri had in launching his own food brand, like fundraising.
The obstacles Sri encountered in 2020 while building a business during a global pandemic.
How Sri has used LinkedIn to build his network of collaborators and investors, as well as his team of employees and food scientists.
Plant-based as a recent trend that Hooray Foods hopes to ride the wave of going forward.
Sri speculates on the future of plant-based products and the growth of cell-based meat and mycelium-based products.
Converting meat eaters versus giving existing vegans and vegetarians a tasty alternative.
What Sri has learned about himself throughout this process – and what he is proud of.
Staying up to date with TikTok trends and how that keeps Sri relevant and evolving.
Where to find Hooray Foods products and his favorite way to use it (in a BLT sandwich!)
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Sri Artham on LinkedIn
Hooray Foods
Hooray Foods on Twitter
Hooray Foods on Instagram
Fair Trade USA
Impossible Foods
Good Food Conference
Whole Foods
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
36 min
February 06, 2021002 - Upcycling Opportunities with Daniel Kurzrock of ReGrained
Today, you will hear from Daniel Kurzrock, CEO and Co-Founder of ReGrained, an ingredient platform, and packaged foods innovator, that specializes in upcycling overlooked and undervalued ingredients.
In this episode, Dan explains how ReGrained works with brewery partners to rescue the grain after they have extracted the sugars needed to make beer, using this byproduct to create upcycled nutrition bars, puffs, and premium ingredients. Find out about the scale of the food waste issue and the exciting opportunities available in upcycling to put food to its best use – feeding people!
Dan believes that we can create real and effective change through creative thinking and acting on our ideas. Listen until the end to hear a simple process you can use to find upcycling opportunities in your business today!
Key Points From This Episode:
Hear a brief introduction of Dan and his work, and how upcycling combats food waste.
Dan shares some of the numbers on food waste and explains why it is such a big issue.
Exciting opportunities in upcycling and putting food to its best use; feeding people.
The concept of creating products out of waste isn’t a groundbreaking one; think of whey, a byproduct in the cheesemaking process.
Dan explains how this business was borne from a college hobby of home brewing beer.
Hear about ReGrained’s basic business model; from beer to CPG products.
The differences between upcycling, recycling, and downcycling in terms of food.
The market opportunity in reducing food waste due to an increase in consumer interest.
Why upcycling food is the ultimate intersection between sustainability and health – and, done well, it’s also very tasty!
ReGrained’s vision is to work with other companies to create more upcycled food products.
Choosing to engage in upcycling is 100% within your control to reduce your carbon footprint.
Other examples of upcycling; including root-to-stem or nose-to-tail culinary trends.
Dan reiterates that upcycling isn’t a new concept; food has always been like this!
The issue with labeling a product “waste” and how ReGrained has gotten around it.
Dan names some of his upcycling contemporaries, like Spare Food Co or Pulp Pantry.
Utilizing cascara or the coffee fruit and leaf from the plant, rather than just the bean for coffee.
Similarly, the cacao fruit can be used for a range of products, not just the seeds for chocolate.
How Toast Ale brews craft beer with surplus fresh bread that would otherwise be wasted.
Dan’s tip for those looking to get into upcycling: stop thinking about it and just get started!
How upcycling presents opportunities to break down traditional silos within companies.
Creating shared value between ingredient companies and food companies.
How upcycling creates economic value for suppliers by buying ingredients that would otherwise be wasted.
Advice for upcyclers to overcome future&
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53 min
January 26, 2021001 - A Plastic-Free Mission with Sandra Ann Harris of ECOlunchbox
Today’s guest has a passion for protecting the oceans by reducing human dependence on plastics.
Concerned about the toxins commonly found in lunchbox containers, plastic pollution activist and environmental entrepreneur Sandra Ann Harris started by eliminating plastics from her kids’ lunchboxes, then founded ECO lunchbox, a California green-certified business focused on plastic pollution aversion, and most recently wrote the book, Say Goodbye to Plastic: A Survival Guide for Plastic-Free Living.
In this episode, listeners find out how Sandra has tried to make an impact and why she was inspired to start her own company to combat plastic pollution. Tune in today to find out more!
Key Points From This Episode:
Hear a bit more about Sandra’s career arc, from journalist to aid worker to entrepreneur.
How the stories she chose to write as a journalist reflected her desire to make an impact.
What it was about the plastic crisis that inspired Sandra to start ECOlunchbox.
Some challenges that Sandra encountered in launching and growing her company.
Sandra believes that, with curiosity and creativity, there is nowhere we can’t go and nothing we can’t achieve.
The benefits of crowdfunding versus sourcing investors or self-funding your ideas.
From personal health benefits to the benefit of the planet – how people came to recognize the negative impact of plastic.
The value of using positive messaging rather than using negativity and fear to inspire action.
We don’t need to know all the facts, we just need to be part of the change, however we can.
Sandra shares the inspiration for her book: why this book, and why now?
Pro tips for other thought leaders and entrepreneurs thinking about writing a book.
How Sandra keeps evolving personally by continually taking on new challenges.
Where to find Sandra’s book, Say Goodbye to Plastic: A Survival Guide for Plastic-Free Living.
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Sandra Ann Harris on LinkedIn
ECOlunchbox
Say Goodbye to Plastic
Kickstarter
Cradle to Cradle
The Upcycle
Lovemarks
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
45 min

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Brands for a Better World (formerly Evolve CPG) episodes

About Brands for a Better World (formerly Evolve CPG)