Life Ensemble

📄 Full Show Notes & Episode Bonuses

🌍Better World Weekly Newsletter

🎬Subscribe on YouTube

The buildings we spend time in deeply affect our health. This is what the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) is communicating to architects, designers, and workers across industries and borders. We spoke with the CEO and President of IWBI, Rachel Hodgdon, on the Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation Podcast about how things like air quality, water quality, and even seat placement shape not only how we perform at work, but how physically and mentally healthy we are. 

In our Episode with Rachel we discuss: 

• What is an innovation ecosystem? 
• How the World Economic Forum is scaling innovation ecosystems around the globe. 
• Her background in technology and sustainability. 
• The power of affecting systems change globally and becoming more circular. 

Links from the Episode: 

• International WELL Building Institute on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
• U.S. Green Building Council 
• Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation, by Paul Hawken (Pre-Order)
• Strengths Finder 2.0 

Full Show Notes & Episode Bonuses:

https://growensemble.com/positive-work-environment/ 

Connect with Grow Ensemble on Social:

• YouTube
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

📄 Full Show Notes & Episode Bonuses

🌍Better World Weekly Newsletter

🎬Subscribe on YouTube

What makes the world’s most successful companies successful? Sales, growth, market expansion...all contributing factors. But perhaps the most crucial determinant for a company’s success are the local players involved in getting it off the ground: its innovation ecosystem.

The World Economic Forum has been a long standing supporter of sustainable business and economic development. Their Scale 360° initiative seeks to cultivate innovation ecosystems within cities, making them new hubs for innovation. Behind the scenes, Helen Burdett is leading this initiative and ensuring both public and private support for local entrepreneurs to take their concepts from written on a napkin to the real world. 

We spoke with Helen on the Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation Podcast about how innovation ecosystems are crucial for altering the status quo that we know and accept. In this post, based on our conversation with Helen, we’ll explain what an innovation ecosystem is, how innovation ecosystems are built, and provide an example of how one of our favorite environmentally friendly companies has cultivated and built their own innovation ecosystem to accommodate a world-shifting new material.  

In our Episode with Helen we discuss: 

• What is an innovation ecosystem? 
• How the World Economic Forum is scaling innovation ecosystems around the globe. 
• Her background in technology and sustainability. 
• The power of affecting systems change globally and becoming more circular. 

Links from the Episode: 

• The World Economic Forum and Scale 360°
• Helen on LinkedIn
• The Wandering Inn 
• The Power of Habit
• Circular Trailblazers: Scale-ups Leading the Way Towards a More Circular Economy

Full Show Notes & Episode Bonuses:

https://growensemble.com/innovation-ecosystems/ 

Connect with Grow Ensemble on Social:

• YouTube
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

📄 Full Show Notes & Episode Bonuses

🌍Better World Weekly Newsletter

🎬Subscribe on YouTube

During his time in the Peace Corps in Nicaragua, Aram Terry saw firsthand the devastating impact of deforestation and in contrast, the economic benefit of forest stewardship. This fueled his desire to found businesses that focus on sustainable forestry as a means to extend the lives of our forests for future generations. 

The value forests provide goes beyond beauty; their resources can be monetized. A recent estimate puts the value of our global ecosystems at $142.7 trillion annually. 

Since forests have both tangible and intangible value, it’s only right that their management is as sustainable as possible. On the Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation Podcast, Aram shared how he’s making an impact with not one, not two, but three (!!!) businesses focused on reforesting deforested land and creating a market for young wood.

In our Episode with Aram we discuss: 

• What drew Aram to Nicaragua and forest stewardship in particular.
• How Masaya & Co. was started and the growth the company has experienced 
• How Aram's two other ventures also prioritize sustainable forestry and reforestation 
• The economic benefit of reforestation and making wood products 

Links from the Episode: 

• Masaya & Co on Instagram and Made Trade
• Maderas Sostenibles and Guayacan, Aram’s other ventures
• Taking Root 

Full Show Notes & Episode Bonuses:

https://growensemble.com/sustainable-forestry/

Connect with Grow Ensemble on Social:

• YouTube
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

📄 Full Show Notes & Episode Bonuses

🌍Better World Weekly Newsletter

🎬Subscribe on YouTube

Jump on any major highway in the United States and you’ll come across a dark blue bumper sticker with the words “Keep Tahoe Blue” adorning many vehicles. The organization behind the slogan is the League to Save Lake Tahoe, which just as its name implies, has been using advocacy, education, and boots on the ground for sixty-plus years to preserve Lake Tahoe’s unique majesty.

On the Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation Podcast, we had the pleasure of welcoming the Chief Strategy Officer of this incredible organization: Jesse Patterson. 

Jesse talked us through the importance of Lake Tahoe and how the organization has made a tangible impact to protect the inherent value of this natural wonder. In this post, we’ll explore exactly how the organization is enacting environmental protection practices that ensure the destination’s longevity far into the future.

In our Episode with Jesse we discuss: 

• What makes Tahoe so blue 
• The history of Lake Tahoe's development
• The biggest environmental challenges Lake Tahoe is facing and how the League to Save Lake Tahoe is addressing them

Links from the Episode: 

• League to Save Lake Tahoe on Facebook. Twitter, and Instagram  
• Quiet by Susan Cain
• PM Press
• Keep Tahoe Blue Sticker 

Full Show Notes & Episode Bonuses:

https://growensemble.com/keep-tahoe-blue/ 

Connect with Grow Ensemble on Social:

• YouTube
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

📄 Full Show Notes & Episode Bonuses

🌍Better World Weekly Newsletter

🎬Subscribe on YouTube

We spend around seven hours per day consuming content, a number that’s only increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether it’s news, Netflix, or social media, people are constantly reading, absorbing, and learning new information. Still, a 2019 study showed that 32% of people actively avoid the news. So, what is the content we’re taking in? What is it teaching us, and how does it inform our views and our mental health? 

The Solutions Journalism Network is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting newsrooms and journalists who are sharing solutions stories. Solutions journalism outlines responses to social problems that aren’t only uplifting, they’re success stories that increase audience engagement and provide unique insight. As a society, we need these high-level, evidence-based reporting projects to help combat false information and encourage unity in a divided population. 

In our Episode with Fara & Kelly we discuss: 

• What solutions journalism is and why it's needed
• How the pandemic has shaped solutions journalism 
• How Next City uses solutions journalism 
• How solutions journalism can model positive responses to social issues for other cities

Links from the Episode: 

• Solutions Journalism Network on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube
• Know Your Price by Andre M. Perry 
• Next City on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn
• Next City’s Best Solutions of 2020 
• You Are What You Read by Jodi Jack

📄 Full Show Notes & Episode Bonuses

🌍Better World Weekly Newsletter

🎬Subscribe on YouTube

In April of 2013, the Rana Plaza building collapsed, killing 1,132 people and maiming more than 2,500 others. This tragedy became a symbol of the fashion industry’s impact and need for sustainable reform. 

April 24, 2021 marks eight years since the Rana Plaza disaster, and it also marks the ceremonious kick-off of Grow Ensemble’s series: The Impact of Fashion.

This series, created in partnership with sustainable fashion leaders at Dhana, will provide a comprehensive look at the social, environmental, and economic impact of the fashion industry, much of which provided the underpinnings for the Rana Plaza disaster. 

This episode is our launching pad where we are going to: 

1. Introduce you to the avoidable tragedy at Rana Plaza; and 
2. Explore what has been done since the collapse to address the working conditions and protection of workers in the fashion industry.

Keep up with our series on The Impact of Fashion, here. 

Connect with Grow Ensemble on Social:

• YouTube
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

-- -- -- 

*We record The Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation Podcast with Riverside, check them out. 

📄 Full Show Notes & Episode Bonuses

🌍Better World Weekly Newsletter

🎬Subscribe on YouTube

Ah, democracy. A system where political leaders are fairly elected for the people, by a majority of people, to protect and serve the nation. Or, not so much. 

The influence of money in politics and campaign funding has become a terrifying new reality in the shared democracy of the United States of America. Politicians are no longer elected for their platforms and ability to serve the American public. With cash on the table, politicians exist to serve their donors instead of their voters, which affects the policies they support, how they allocate government spending, and their expressed values.

A few organizations are working to remove the influence of cash within politics. American Promise is making a difference by attempting to uphold our democracy via the passing of the 28th Amendment, which would overturn the Citizens United Supreme Court decision that allows uncapped spending and contributions from corporations to candidates in an election cycle. On the Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation Podcast, Cory spoke with President Jeff Clements on the stakes of implementing such groundbreaking legislation and how the organization’s goal shapes their day-to-day work. 

In our Episode with Jeff we discuss: 

• The role of money in today's political system.
• Why American Promise is pushing for a 28th Amendment to the Constitution.
• The role of capitalism in politics and how money impacts corruption.

Links from the Episode: 

• American Promise on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn
• 2021 National Citizen Leadership Conference
• Corporations Are Not People: Reclaiming Democracy from Big Money and Global Corporations by Jeff Clements
• Our Common Purpose
• Jack by Marilyn Robinson

Full Show Notes & Episode Bonuses:

📄 Full Show Notes & Episode Bonuses

🌍Better World Weekly Newsletter

🎬Subscribe on YouTube

This episode originally aired in June 2020. You can find the full episode & show notes here: 

https://growensemble.com/one-percent-for-the-planet-kate-williams/ 

Only 3% of philanthropy goes to environmental causes and 1% for the Planet, an environmental organization unlike any other, is shifting the very way we think about philanthropy by encouraging businesses and individuals to give just 1% of their sales or income to an environmental nonprofit. This member community is shifting the conversation around giving and elevating the standard for businesses. 

In our Episode with Kate we discuss: 

• 1% for the Planet’s history
• How just 1% truly is creating global change
• How businesses and nonprofits find success through powerful partnerships
• How Kate sees her role as CEO and leader 
• The importance of storytelling to raise awareness and inspiration

Links from the Episode: 

• Kate on LinkedIn
• 1% for the Planet on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn
• The Planet Post 
• The Planet Service Announcement
• We’re Still In 
• Oliver Russell
• All Good Products
• Brooks Wine
• B Corporation
• The Overstory by Richard Powers

Connect with Grow Ensemble on Social:

📄 Full Show Notes & Episode Bonuses

🌍Better World Weekly Newsletter

🎬Subscribe on YouTube

The Food and Drug Administration doesn’t require feminine care products, such as tampons, to have their ingredients disclosed, even though they spend a combined six years inside the bodies of women around the world. Overall, the feminine care industry is selling sexual wellness products that aren’t catered towards women’s health; they often contain harmful ingredients and perpetuate a destructive narrative around female sexuality. 

Enter our savior in sustainable, affordable, safe sexual health products: Meika Hollender. Meika revolutionized the personal care industry and redefined the stigmatized nature of sexual wellness for women through her company, Sustain.

In our Episode with Meika we discuss: 

• Meika's founding of Sustain Natural and the trials and tribulations of running a socially conscious business.
• Meika's new role at Grove Collaborative and the acquisition of Sustain by Grove 
• The role of business in social and environmental issues

Links from the Episode: 

• Sustain Products on Grove Collaborative
• Grove Collaborative
• Sustain’s Website
• Get On Top: Of Your Pleasure, Sexuality & Wellness: A Vagina Revolution, by Meika Hollender
• Seventh Generation
• Cribsheet: A Data-Driven Guide to Better, More Relaxed Parenting from Birth to Preschool by Emily Oster 
• Nurture: A Modern Guide to Pregnancy, Birth, Early Motherhood And Trusting Yourself and Your Body by Erica Chidi Cohen
• Erica Chidi Cohen’s company, LOOM

Full Show Notes & Episode Bonuses:

https://growensemble.com/meika-hollender/  

Connect with Grow Ensemble on Social:

• YouTube
• Twitter

📄 Full Show Notes & Episode Bonuses

🌍Better World Weekly Newsletter

🎬Subscribe on YouTube

Luxurious, sweet, delectable, delicious. Around the world, chocolate is a consumer favorite. It tops our ice cream, fills our bellies on Halloween, and makes a s’more a s’more. Chocolate is so ingrained into our everyday lives, but most consumers aren’t aware of the disastrously dangerous supply chain from cocoa bean to bar. 

Tony's Chocolonely has risen to global fame since the company's first slave-free chocolate bar hit shelves in 2005. Today, Tony's is a B Corporation and Fairtrade chocolate company elevating the standard for chocolate companies everywhere. 

In our Episode with Ynzo we discuss: 

• The current crisis of modern slavery in the chocolate value chain 
• The work Tony's is doing to combat slavery and raise the bar for other chocolate brands. 
• The consumers and companies both play in ethical chocolate. 
• The role of certifications in the industry and what they actually mean for producers. 

Links from the Episode: 

• Tony’s Chocolonely on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter
• Tony’s Chocolonely on Thrive Market
• The Chocolate Case Documentary 
• Rotten: Bitter Chocolate on Netflix 
• Sign the Petition for 100% Slave Free Chocolate
• Into the Wild by John Krakauer

Full Show Notes & Episode Bonuses:

http://growensemble.com/slavery-free-chocolate/  

Connect with Grow Ensemble on Social:

• YouTube
• Twitter
• LinkedIn