Green Means Business

The majority of all the plastic humans have produced since the 1950s  has ended up in landfills or the natural environment. We are talking 5 billion tons of pollution, contaminating the planet's surface in particular in developing countries.  This episode is about a startup in Hamburg that is creating a whole economy around plastic waste. 

Wild Plastic recovers plastic from the environment in African countries, recycles that material and turns it into trash bags – which are then sold to climate-conscious consumers in Europe. In this interview Christian Sigmund, one of the co-founders, talks about the global logistics of plastic waste, how to convince consumers to pay 30% more for their trash bags and why he decided to create a steward-owned company. Wild Plastic cannot be sold and does not distribute profits among shareholders. In a nutshell, that means that its founders and investors cannot get ridiculously rich. 

Today my guest is Ruth von Heusinger, founder of the NGO For Tomorrow. For Tomorrow allows individuals to become carbon neutral by not only planting trees but also buying European emission rights out of the market. These are certificates that limit the amount of carbon that companies are allowed to produce in Europe. By acquiring those, For Tomorrow not only avoids emissions but also helps to make them more expensive.

Alina Bassi is founder of the Berlin-based startup Kleiderly. Kleiderly transforms fashion waste into a kind of plastic that can be used to manufacture different products. The first one to hit the markets in late September are sunglasses. Alina is a chemical engineer and developed the technology herself.
In this episode we talk about:

• Fashion waste: why 87% of the clothes we ever wear ends up in landfills.
• The process of turning textile into plastic 
• The business model behind Kleiderly and
• Circularity: how to make sure that Kleiderly is not producing even more waste with its recycled products

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 Join me in the next Zero Waste Berlin Festival, that will take place from the 17th to the 19th of  September in Berlin. It's your chance to connect with like-minded people and co-create a sustainable future. Tickets on https://zerowasteberlinfestival.com/.

In this episode, I am supporting Planet Day, an event promoted by the NGO Planet Groups. It's  September the 10th. The event is online and the tickets cost 20 euros, which will be sent to the Rainforest Trust UK. Registration here: https://planetgroups.net/planetday/

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Ivo Degn is founder of the German startup Climate Farmers. Climate Farmers is a network and a platform connecting farmers and supporting their transition to regenerative agriculture. In this interview we talk about:

• How farming could help reverse climate change
• The problem with industrial farming 
• How to make regenerative properties economically viable
• The political environment in Europe for a new kind of agriculture AND
• Climate Farmers' ambitious plan of reaching 10% of Europe's farmland under regenerative management in the next few years

Lubomila Jordanova is CEO and co-founder of the Berlin-based startup Plan A. Plan A helps companies with their carbon accounting by collecting data, visualising it and suggesting ways that companies can improve their environmental performance. Among their clients are the investment bank Société Générale and consulting firm BCG. In this interview we talk about carbon accounting, the problem with sustainability reporting and carbon offsetting.

Tessa Clarke is CEO and founder of Olio, a food sharing app that allows people to give away food and household items - instead of throwing them away. The app was created five years ago by a team in London and has already reached 4 million users. The Olio community is so excited about it that more than 25.000 volunteers help with picking up food and 50.000 ambassador work on the expansion of the app to countries like Mexico and Singapore. 

In this interview, Tessa talks about the step by step of building Olio, from a proof of concept on WhatsApp to the latest funding round. She also explores the complexity of building a business model around free food and her plans to change the way we consume.

David Bryngelsson is CEO and founder of the Swedish startup CarbonCloud. CarbonCloud measures the climate impact of food products. Their most prominent client is Oatly, the oat drink company valued at $10 billion in its recent IPO. 

In this interview, David talks in detail about how ClimateCloud accounts for all the emissions involved in producing food and how he translates all that complexity into a single number presented to consumers. He also shares his experience having tried different business models and he reveals his growth plans.

Welcome to Green Means Business, a podcast about what companies are doing to contribute for a more sustainable economy. If you are interested in ESG investing, this show is for you.