Meet The Changemakers

My guest is Dr. Alexander Grevel, a German climate activist. He is a board member of Klimaliste, a new party in Germany that advocates for climate action to achieve the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees.

Alexander holds a Bachelor of Science, a Master of Science and a PhD in Biology and he is an active supporter of the Last Generation and Scientist Rebellion - two climate protection movements that use civil disobedience to spur political negotiations on much needed climate action.

On this episode, we talk to Alexander about how Klimaliste was founded and what their goal is. We learn about Alexander's experience as a scientist who is involved in the climate protection movement and what challenges the movement is facing in Germany. 

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My guest is Şenol Ağaç, founder of Zerobottle. Şenol has been an independent consultant in the drinking water industry since 2016. While living in Paris and working internationally, Şenol was amazed to discover that in countries like France, Austria, and the Netherlands, most people drink from the tap; in Germany people stick to the mass use of bottled water. 

Through his continued work, he recognized the huge environmental impact of switching to tap water. Also the quality of water as a protected food, the convenience of immediate availability, and the extremely low cost of 0.2 Euro Cents per liter on average are unbeatable arguments for its enjoyment.

In 2022, Şenol founded the environmental movement - Zerobottle. The issue of switching from bottled to tap water has become even more critical given inflation (which also affects bottled water) and independence from Russian fossil fuels (which are also used in the production and transport of bottled water). Not to speak of the hot weather periods we’re experiencing as a result of climate change. The solution is tap water!

Şenol's vision for Germany: One day you will walk through everyday life with a refill bottle and refill everywhere instead buying water in single-use plastic bottles.

My guest is Manuel Kreitmeir who is a Social Entrepreneur and 'Third Culture Kid' with a background as a second-generation tea and spice farmer in Sri Lanka. He created Ohana Social Enterprise, which delivers coffee and tea from family-owned farms to purpose-driven companies, offices and coworking spaces.

He is a Facilitator and Thought Leader for Social Innovation. He worked as a Policy Advisor for the UN and European Commission for Social Entrepreneurship and Social Economy.

He co- founded the Digital Social Innovation Lab - Germany's first digital University incubator. At the Mannheim Business School, Manuel is also a Lecturer in the Master in Sustainability & Impact Management.

He leads systems change as the co-founder and director at the Center for Open Social Innovation, or COSI, in Heidelberg, Germany. Connect with Manuel on LinkedIn. 

My guest today is Ziwa Hillington, Managing Director at Green Bio Energy Ltd. - a Ugandan-based clean energy social business. 

Green Bio Energy is based in Kampala and Uganda’s leading manufacturer of eco-friendly briquettes. For 14 years, ZiwA has been working with international and national expert teams as well as marginalized communities in the social business arena and with NGOs. His work advances innovation and distribution of clean energy technologies and the social business framework, to fight poverty and climate change.

Connect with Ziwa on LinkedIn and on the Green Bio Energy website.

My guest is Jennifer Lauruol, based in Lancaster, England, who designs and builds gardens that are regenerative, ornamental, edible, and wildlife-friendly. 

With over 30 years’ experience, she works with individuals, groups, and organizations to use land sustainably for food production, herbal medicine, wildlife and beauty. She helps people to design and live with maximum resilience, whether in the urban, suburban or rural setting.

She is a trained permaculture and forest garden designer and designs stylish, natural gardens for outdoor living, food, herbs and wildlife.

Fine Jennifer at carpediemgardens.co.uk or on LinkedIn. 

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My guest, Tara Diaz, is an acupuncturist and herbalist practicing in El Segundo, CA.  Her practice Tara Diaz Wellness exists to inform about health, wellness, and East Asian medicine traditions that inspire people to take action over their well-being.

Tara grew up in Venice Beach, California and credits her unique upbringing with her interest in integrative medicine.  As a teen she could be found in a health food store researching herbs in the pre-internet world or spending time with her grandmother giving her insulin shots or testing her own blood sugar and researching diabetes.

After studying psychology as an undergrad where she was first introduced to mind-body medicine, she went on to spend several years in the hospitality industry before studying Traditional Chinese Medicine in 2009.

Tara enjoys cooking, yoga, and middle eastern dance as well as spending time with her family.  She also volunteers with her children’s school PTA and the Mindful Veterans Project in her free time.

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My guest is Erika Reyes, CEO at inwit, Canada’s first zero-waste takeout ordering platform. Erika is a creative marketing expert with over seven years' international experience in branding and customer behavior. She has worked on developing strategic partnerships with over 200 businesses in Mexico, UAE, the U.K. and Canada.

In 2018, she started to realize that as a Marketer, her job was to take a “product” and influence someone to purchase it. The truth is, little to no thought was spared to the environmental or social impact of the product. She made the choice to leave the Marketing industry in 2019 to research and pilot solutions to tackle single-use plastics and waste. She led the implementation of the Wisebox Pilot project, Toronto's first reusable takeout container program by deposit citywide. She was nominated for “Favourite Women Entrepreneurs” by Young Women in Business and selected a Woman4Climate Mentee by the City of Toronto in 2020.

Today, she is the CEO at inwit, Canada’s first zero-waste takeout ordering platform, a startup that believes that if each of us commit to do more, we can change the world; that individuals and corporate actions have the ability to bring about positive changes in society.

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My guest is Ryan J. Kemp, a regenerative and sustainable business consultant and guide, author and speaker. Since graduating cum laude in finance from Northeastern University in Boston, Ryan has worked in and traveled to over 45 countries learning from cultural elders about ways of seeing and being in the world, working on solutions to some of the world’s largest issues, writing about it through poetry and prose and speaking on various podcasts and summits.

Some of Ryan’s past work includes consulting with the Prime Minister of Cameroon, H.E. Philémon Yang, to implement rural infrastructure initiatives using non-toxic and non-degenerative materials to assist farming communities in cutting down on food spoilage, collaborating with the Minister of Energy in Myanmar working towards renewable energy independence while replanting mangrove forests on the Bay of Bengal - and living and working on intentional communities and permaculture farms throughout Hawai’i, the Caribbean, and Central America assisting movements in food security and sovereignty.

He is a member of the Sustainable Change Research Network, the International Alliance for Localization, the Doughnut Economics Research Lab, and he is a certified 200-hour Ashtanga Yoga teacher, an Ayurvedic practitioner, a published author and poet. He also is a graduate of the altMBA and has created up-leveling practices inspired from that program into his work with businesses and individuals.

Connect with Ryan on his personal website, on Pueo Consulting, or on LinkedIn. 

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I speak with Kieran White, a 22-year-old entrepreneur and environmental advocate based in London and the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Kieran is passionate about solving the recycling and global waste problem our planet is facing. He left high school wanting to be of use to the world and subsequently joined Tesla at age 18. Over 2 years he got the opportunity to travel, working on UK and European wide projects in key areas of rapid growth and scaling for the markets.

He left Tesla and joined the high growth startup, Lasso Loop Recycling, where he is the Chief Operating Officer leading the company’s US launch and expansion as they release their first product. Kieran believes that anyone can be capable of anything if they put in the work and believe without limitation it is possible. His mission: to work on our planet’s greatest problems to make the future an exciting and sustainable reality.

This episode was recorded in June 2021. It is as current now as it was then.

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I talk to Purnima Ramakrishnan who is a heartfulness trainer, a UNCA award winning journalist and the recipient of the fellowship in Journalism by the International Reporting Project, John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

She is the Chief Strategy Officer at World Moms Network, a Forbes Top 100 Website for Women uniting women from 30+ countries and 6 continents. She finds joy in meditation and writing and writes passionately about passionately about social causes, parenting, spirituality, womanhood, and life in India. She is a practitioner and trainer of Heartfulness Meditation and the host for the award-winning chat show - GLOW (Genuine Loving Outstanding Women).

Purnima used to work as an electronics engineer and contributed to the automotive electronics industry for a decade before becoming a writer and heartfulness trainer. Say hello to Purnima on Linkedin. 

This episode was recorded in June 2021. It is as current as it was then. 

If you like this episode, please rate it on Apple Podcasts and share it - you'll support the great work of our changemakers.