This week I spoke with an inspiring creative engineer working in the renewables space in Australia. He’s got an interesting side project that sounded incredible, working to save lives in rural Africa.

Andrew Dickson is a renewable energy project developer with 15 years of experience developing large scale wind and solar projects across Australia. He’s currently Project Manager for the Asian Renewable Energy Hub project, a very large scale wind and solar project in the Pilbara, Western Australia. The project is set to export energy to Indonesia and Singapore, to power mines and mineral processing in the Pilbara and to produce green hydrogen for local and export markets.

Outside of his day job however, Andrew has a ‘side project’ which has led him to be part of an initiative several years in the making. Hot on the heels of a successful global project called TeamTrev, a zero-emission race around the world in 2010/2011, Andrew formed a new team upon receiving a call for help from Zimbabwe. The challenge: Could they develop an electric vehicle to transport pregnant women from remote villages to hospitals in northern Zimbabwe, to help reduce maternal mortality? The team took it on. Called the African Solar Taxi, it has evolved into a low mass, rugged electric vehicle to help address transport poverty and maternal mortality in northern Zimbabwe.

When women choose to give birth in their villages, without proper medical care or sanitary hygienic conditions, medical complications during delivery can be disastrous. Many serious conditions can all result in the death of women or their babies. Just as importantly, unassisted births in villages are twice as likely to result in the transmission of HIV from an HIV-positive mother to her child. A key contributing factor to maternal mortality and morbidity in Zimbabwe is the lack of adequate, reliable and affordable transport services. So in comes the idea of the Solar Taxi.

The African Solar Project

“It really is developing a new form of transport that solves transport poverty that is not solved in other ways currently. “

Andrew and his team are in the process of finalising the prototype and the pilot to test the vehicle is on for early next year. Another brilliant start up collaboration one would hope will ultimately receive the required government and private backing it needs, seeing it addresses an urgent and real problem and will inevitably save lives.

African Solar Taxi prototype 2018 and at the rear the famous TeamTrev electric vehicle

The Asian Renewable Energy Hub (Pilbara) project

” It’s weaving the indigenous people much closer into the economic fabric of the Pilbara, which has been somewhat achieved with mining projects but there’s a really big difference with mining project and renewable energy projects. Simplistically renewable projects don’t take away the resource from the land, the resource is completely reversible at the end of the project, it doesn’t pollute. So it’s completely different. “

Both the Pilbara and African Solar projects blew me away in their own way. The positive impact the Pilbara project could have on the local indigenous community, for future job opportunities and also the export potential created is massive. It’s currently an 11,000 MW project, which would generate approximately 55 terra watt hours per year. Victoria alone consumes 40 terawatt hours of electricity per year, so it gives you an idea of the capacity of the project.

Andrew’s Solar Taxi story is so uplifting. Using technology and teams working together to save lives where its nee...

This week I had the opportunity to speak with Shantha Bloemen, Founder of an exciting new startup whose mission is set to transform the lives of small scale farmers in sub-saharan Africa. We talk about her love for Zimbabwe and the belief that the country is on the path to a stronger, brighter future. 

Mobility for Africa is a social enterprise that aims to bring renewable community based transport solutions to rural women in Africa that are affordable, efficient and environmentally friendly. Seventy percent of Zimbabwe’s agriculture are small scale farm holders so if the upcoming pilot is a success, Mobility for Africa could be a real game changer as it makes sense it would be adopted by other countries within the region.

Why will it be a game changer? It’s empowering rural women in Sub Saharan Africa with transport that can help them save time, better sell their goods at the market, take their children to the clinic and school, collect water, as well as improve their economic opportunities within the households and local communities.

” By building a model that reinforces and builds local distribution networks, seeks to change behavior and empower women, and works on a sustainability model that also creates shared economies, Mobility for Africa will create new opportunities and improve the quality of life for rural communities. “

We talk about Shantha’s background helping the world’s poorest. Having spent the last two decades working in international humanitarian and development assistance in Africa & Asia, Shantha is now able to put her experience into this venture, that if successful, will make a practical and concrete difference in women’s lives. In the past she’s been actively involved in getting media attention to child rights, global health and poverty.

Shantha and her team are currently in the middle of raising seed funding for the first shipment of electric bikes to Zimbabwe. On a recent visit to China, Shantha finalized the first order of tricycles. The Chinese company they are sourcing the bikes from has been in operation since 2005, and has produced more than 300,000 three wheel electric vehicles.  The first container of 54 tricycle parts will be ready for shipment by the middle of November. So it’s all happening now.

I have been following Shantha and the work she does for vulnerable communities in developing countries and was really keen to hear more about the new venture, what led her there and also gain a better understanding of what some of the critical issues faced by these communities are that are now able to be addressed using new technology combined with strategic local and global partnerships.

It’s a crucial time for Mobility for Africa, Shantha has just been contacted by a donor since our chat, who promised matching funds for up to $12,500 so the startup is well on its way to achieving its target of $50,000. If you are interested in contacting Shantha or donating you can do so using this link or through her email and social media links below. I just love the social impact the success of this startup would foster across sub-saharan Africa, so I can’t wait to have her back to talk about just what the impact was on the ground. Enjoy the episode!

Shownotes

Shantha Twitter

Mobility for Africa website

Mobility for Africa – fundraising page

Mobility for Africa Facebook Page

South African Development Community

This week I had a chance to speak with Dr David Chong, a brilliant paediatric plastic surgeon at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne. David also works tirelessly in the charity space, including with Operation Smile and the Mercy Ships organisation. 

I was particularly keen to talk to David about the incredible work he's been doing with Operation Smile and Mercy Ships. David regularly volunteers his time and expertise on the Mercy Ships, an organisation that brings life saving medical assistance to developing countries irrespective of their socio-economic status. David's schedule takes him abroad regularly, so I was grateful to meet up, and was surprised to discover just how much time he dedicates to helping the world's poor, why it's a priority for him, what led him to do the work he does today, both at home and abroad.

We talk about the value of doing what you love, life changing mentors and the miracles he experiences in his everyday life. It was so brilliant to sit down and find out more about what makes David tick, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Shownotes

Royal Melbourne Children's Hospital

Mercy Ships

Dr Gary Parker

Operation Smile

Shenton College

Dr Fiona Wood

Gordon Baron Hay - paediatric surgeon

Mark Edwards - cardiac surgeon

Robert Larbelestier - cardiac surgeon

This week I had a chance to speak with Adelle MacDonald, Owner and Co-founder of Botanic Baby, a cloth nappy service in offering an ecologically sustainable nappy delivery service in Melbourne Victoria. Now, i’d normally not speak to an owner of a nappy business on the show. However this one is different. This service is the only one providing a service like this in Melbourne, delivering clean cotton nappies/biodegradable nappies in the city.

Melbourne has a population of five million people. And only one nappy service using a circular economic model, with only 200 clients? I found that fact alone staggering. We need to do more. 

Sustainability Victoria report that up to four million disposable nappies are used each day in Australia and New Zealand, each nappy requiring approximately one cup of crude oil to make. 700kg of used disposable diapers go into the landfill per child annually and each nappy is estimated to take up to 500 years to break down. And even then, they only break down to microscopic plastic parts. Two billion, yes that’s right, two billion disposable nappies are being sent to landfill each and every year. Things have to change.

At a time when retailers around Australia are charging for single-use plastic bags as customers increasingly voice concerns about excessive plastic packaging, particularly on fruit and vegetables  wouldn’t it make sense for the public and supermarkets to target nappies too? Its a huge issue, and one that I think needs more attention in Australia.

Can you imagine a world where there is no longer single use disposable plastic nappies? I’d like to think we could get there.

MacDonald talks about her business, the hilarity of testing product and the challenges and wins of driving a business model that is light years away from the current take-make-dispose extractive industrial model of our past. There’s a world of opportunity to rethink and redesign the way we make our products. We talk about the need to transition to “decoupling” economic activity from the consumption of our finite resources, which is destroying our environment, and designing waste out of the system. Botanic Baby have partnered with Eenie Designs, who have a patented nappy system that’s a world first and unlike any other ordinary nappies. Together I hope they are on the path to greater sustainability in the nappy ecosystem in Australia. 

The Ellen MacCarthur Foundation work tirelessly to drive policy change and partnerships using a circular economic model: “Through a change in perspective we can re-design the way our economy works – designing products that can be ‘made to be made again’ and powering the system with renewable energy. We have the opportunity to create long-term resilience, generate new business and economic opportunities and provides environmental and societal benefits.”

As an engineer working with DevOps teams, MacDonald is a champion of the no waste model, generating a new kind of business that I hope will...

This week I had a chance to speak with Boyd Cohen, an author and urban strategist focused on the areas of urban innovation, sustainable development, entrepreneurship, smart cities and the Internet of Mobility. He's lived everywhere, he's published 3 books (Climate Capitalism, 2011; The Emergence of the Urban Entrepreneur, 2016; Post-capitalist Entrepreneurship, 2017) and speaks regularly in the smart city space globally.  Currently based in Barcelona, Boyd co-founded IoMob in 2017, a blockchain startup seeking to decentralize the mobility sector by providing an open protocol for the Internet of Mobility (IoM).

It was super interesting drilling down on his current project, IoMob, a tech mobility startup combining open source and blockchain technology to aiming to decentralise mobility. They are talking with significant players in the mobility services sector and are due to beta test in global blockchain mega hub, Singapore, later this year.

My biggest take away was the optimism Boyd has that entrepreneurs now have the tools and technology to address some of our intractable urban problems, through collaboration and smart partnerships between city administrators, entrepreneurs, educational institutions, commercial players and civic organisations. Great ideas come and go, but Cohen says if we can work to nail the execution of ideas, encouraged by city leadership, who are in a position to create a framework for entrepreneurs to work with them and other partners, including private, to solve issues such as waste, congestion and climate change, we will go a long way to securing a better future.

We talk about the challenges faced by urbanisation, and how these challenges can be met by local entrepreneurs who are now able to tackle current issues by tapping into hubs like FAB Labs, which inhabit cities globally. Fab Labs provide widespread access to modern means for invention. They began as an outreach project from MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA), and has now morphed into a collaborative and global network. All Fab Labs share common tools and processes in order to build a global network which has become a distributed laboratory for research and invention. Machines available to use by any team accessing the Lab include 3-D Printers, laser cutters, milling, scanning and digital sewing machines.

Cohen brought up several interesting projects where local entrepreneurs are working collaboratively both locally and globally to solve local problems. His own start up is testament to this, and if successful, will be a game changer in the urban mobility issue. If they pull it off I have a feeling we'll be hearing a lot more from Cohen in the future.

He is also the current Executive Director of the Blockchain Cities Alliance which launched in June 2018. He's coming to Australia and New Zealand in early September to give a keynote at the Melbourne's Blockchain Centre, the details of which are in the show notes below. Any one who ones to touch base with Boyd, please just connect with him on his social media handles below.

Hope you enjoy the episode.

Follow Boyd on Twitter

Follow Boyd on LinkedIn

Shownotes

Boyd Cohen Smart City Wheel

Fab Labs

Centrality - NZ

Blockchain Centre - Event Sept 3rd - Smart City Blockchain City 6-7.30 venue to be confirmed

New Urban Mechanics

This week I had fun speaking with Monica Kang, Founder and CEO of InnovatorsBox® based in Washington DC. For several years Monica has been a powerhouse of a creative educator, transforming today’s workforce through the power of creativity. She's driven by the belief that everyone is innately creative and that creativity can be used to catalyze personal and professional change.

Monica and her company work with some of the most innovative companies in the world, including Facebook, IBM, John’s Hopkins University, Booz Allen Hamilton and Georgetown University to name a few and her work has been awarded across numerous platforms including The White House, Women’s Business Enterprise National Council and Ashoka Changemakers. She also works as an adjunct professor at BAU International University where she teaches entrepreneurship and leadership.

We talk about Monica's upcoming book called "Rethink Creativity: How to Innovate, Inspire and Thrive at Work" which has already received powerful endorsements from a number of senior leaders. It comes out this September and challenges the reader to access their creativity a little every day to help you transform. I can't wait. At a time when innovation and strategy are the power metrics for future success, it's great to drill down on just what some of the tools and activities are that you could apply to be more creative personally and professionally. 

Gallup estimates that actively disengaged employees cost the US up to $605 billion each year in lost productivity. In 2016 87% of the workforce survey said they felt disengaged at work. In Australia the percentage is similar. I know myself feeling disengaged at work is a serious drain on my productivity and ability to come up with new ideas. The stats indicate It's a problem of epic proportions so I was pleased to spend some time talking with Monica, a game changer in our transitioning, fast paced economy, who shared some powerful tips on tapping into your creative self and why it's becoming more and more important to do it.

I was astounded Monica had been a nuclear nonproliferation policy expert in the past, yes that’s right...... so I was intrigued how she flipped her career and moved towards helping professionals be more creative. She's experienced how transformative the power of creativity can have in a life when we take the courage to be more creative each day. She will share just what she went through before she started InnovatorsBox®. 

So much of what we talked about resonated with me, I really hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did. Laters!

Show Notes:

Monica's contact:

LinkedIn: Monica Kang

Twitter: @monicahkang

Rethink Creativity: How to Innovate, Inspire and Thrive at Work 

InnovatorsBox®

This week I had the BEST time catching up with Genevieve Leveille, Founder and CEO of Agriledger.     Agriledger is a social impact startup creating crypto ledger and mobile technology solutions for agricultural providers globally. Genevieve is also Co-Chair of the UK's Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) working group. She's an ex-banker and identity management professional, she has been a major change agent throughout her career and as such has super useful insights on how DLT can solve current problems in both agriculture but throughout other industries.

In our chat Genevieve talks about how important it is to get your head around the language of new technologies as a first step to learning more and to potentially be a dynamic player in the new economy, irrespective of the industry you've come from or what skills you have. AI, the Internet of Things, blockchain technology and a tokenised market will have a huge impact on our culture and economy, the way we interact and the way we transact. So we both talk about the value in learning as much as you can about it, to participate and also to invest. A couple of useful examples were discussed to explain how it will apply in our daily lives, and where there are live applications of it globally. It was really interesting to hear about new innovative models were being applied in the agri industry, ultimately improving the producers' liquidity, thereby creating more resilient, sustainable businesses on the supply side and transparency and legitimacy for customers across the supply chain.

What I loved about our conversation was the pragmatic way Genevieve explains the tech. It's well reported that farmers can suffer dire outcomes due to the inflexibility of traditional financial/banking lending cycles. Potentially, through companies like Agriledger, farmers will be in a position to generate income through the creation of their own futures market providing great liquidity when they need it most.

Having worked in the banking sector for many years, I found it really interesting to hear Genevieve's take on the future of finance in the the economy, and explains why she feels they will still have a major role to play. And brokers too. We talk partnerships, the 4th industrial revolution, husbands who support us and so much more.

Unfortunately my cat Alfie cut the conversation short, I'm really going to have to put the animals away..... such a distraction ;-)

Hope you enjoy the show, and of course, let me know if you have interesting people you think I should interview in the tech series, am always up for meeting new people who are doing great things for a compassionate future!! And so is Cha Cha.

Ciao for now!

Show notes

Contact details:

Twitter:     https://twitter.com/GinouInLondon

LinkedIn:  https://uk.linkedin.com/in/genevieveleveille

Telegram: @gleveille

Distributed Ledger Technologies working group - UK

x.509

Stellar

Miss Blockchain

Akasha Indream

Provenance

This week I had a chance to chat with Jennifer Sertl, an internationally recognized influencer in social media. She is President and Founder of Agility3R, a leadership development company dedicated to strengthening strategic skills and helping leaders become more resilient and responsive and she's a respected thought leader in the emerging field of corporate consciousness. Such a joy having her on the show.

We talked about a few things that excited us and troubled us.

Jennifer shared some insights that were big take aways for me.

"Our issue today is not information overload....it is filter failure." So true.

"Life is a blood sport and truth telling is hard."

"You are not a node, you are a frequency."

I just love her leadership framework using your ‘Elite 18’:

“Every single person has a leadership model. They just need to be asked their elite 18 are and from there create their leadership model - if they emulate who they admire they will actually act in a way conducive to progress, collaboration, and be their personal best.” It made so much sense - it really blew me away.

Jennifer even worked on me during our chat. A value I hold dear is generosity - and it was so uplifting to drill down on what to do with that quality - exploring what journaling and expressing being generous every week could do to enhance my life, my relationships, my work and my ability to lead. Pretty inspiring and made me think of how much I could achieve if I started to apply this kind of practice in my life. Really cool.

We talk about her own elite 18. She includes Elinor Ostrom in it who's acclaimed work outlines brilliant frames for organizing commons.

Jennifer's 'capacity model' is brilliant too. She’s impeccable in how she uses her ‘wattage’. Honestly, this woman is on fire. So many people she mentioned in our chat, I am going to spend some time myself learning more about who they are and what makes them part of her story and world. It would be worth it.

I love how she feels the work I'm doing is "the compassionate use of wisdom at scale." Honestly, Jennifer needs to move into branding, she's sharp and characterises so fast its breathtaking.

We talk about the tokenised world, even down to Mark Pesce and his PAT token - a wild idea, but one that sounded feasible. Super interesting. She threw it out there that if David Bowie was still around she was sure he would have tokenised himself in much the same manner. And we all know how ahead of his time Bowie was. God I loved that man.

Love her 'reading model' - she says choose books across all genres - business, philosophy, history, fiction/poetry - shake it up but make sure you read one book a month and stay diverse to keep interested and open. Sage advice.

So loved having Jenn (yeah I'm feeling she's a soul mate already) on the show, speaking to people like her restores my faith in humanity.

She's a good one, doing good things, Hope you enjoy the show!

Show Notes

Best way to connect with Jennifer is twitter

Here's a David Bowie post about tokenisation

Blue Cross Blue Shield

Koby Huberman - co-author of Strategy, Leadership and the Soul:Resilience, Responsiveness and Reflection for a Global Economy

Michel Bowens - Founder of the Peer to Peer Foundation

Mark Pesce - Personal Attention Token

Elenor Olstrom - Eight Principles of the Commons

Hayden O'Shaunessey author of Shift

In Time - by Roger Ebert

Eric Hoffer

This week I had the opportunity to sit down and speak with Dr Nicole Lee. Dr Lee is an expert in alcohol and other drug treatment and policy. She is Director at Australia’s leading alcohol and other drug specialist consultancy, 360Edge, and Professor at the National Drug Research Institute. She currently serves on the Australian National Advisory Council on Alcohol and other Drugs. She has published more than 100 journal articles, guidelines, chapters and books on alcohol and other drug treatment, and is a regular contributor to The Conversation.

Dr Lee has over 20 years experience in the both the treatment and policy space of drugs and shares with us where the status and conversation is globally around decriminalisation and regulation of drugs. When having our discussion it was interesting to talk about how strong the moral position has been driving policy in Australia - and we all know now the War on Drugs has been a monumental failure.

We talk about what the future holds, and the pros and cons for decriminalisation, and Dr Lee runs through a process she believes will be the mechanism for change. Test cases. A solid way forward, and one where data is fully available.

Famous stock analyst, author and podcaster, James Altucher, recently talked about where the new millionaires come from - in context several year's ago he predicted a wave of crypto millionaires and he was bang on…

Now Altucher predicts the NEXT round of millionaires - and says they will be cannabis millionaires. He sites a Canadian businessman who’s amassed a $115 million portfolio of pot stocks and another a New York asset manager who’s snapped up pot stocks and ballooned the fund he runs to $830 million. Don't forget of course about PayPal billionaire Peter Thiel, with undisclosed millions invested in pot-based Privateer Holdings…

There are so many reasons drugs, particularly cannabis, should become legal. Certainly in Australia, where I watch the debate with interest, the first stage should be decriminalisation in all states to free up the criminal justice system at the very least.

What's not discussed enough is the next stage - legalisation. The economic opportunity for growth, a greener economy and one that is creating a sustainable revenue stream for governments and business' globally is enormous. The data also points towards the use of it providing greater health benefits than current pharmaceutical drugs for people suffering from various mental health disorders and other serious health issues which have driven the medical marijuana debate in Australia.

Having written about the advantages of decriminalisation and legalisation of hemp and cannabis for medicinal, sustainability and economic reasons more than 20 years ago - I was perhaps more passionate than in other podcast conversations recently. What's crystal clear is the data tells the story - and one would hope we strive for a data driven policies, that are apolitical, for a smarter more compassionate society. It's a more human approach, and one would hope policies are framed with the context of being human as its north star.

Lots of ideas to ponder. It was interesting to hear that Dr Lee has been encouraged and somewhat surprised at the speed the conversation is changing around the issue of drug legalisation in Australia and globally, so I'm keen to have her back on in a year to assess how far we've got, hoping our strong relationships with Canada, the US and New Zealand will have provided the guidance our partisan politicians need.

Hope you enjoy the episode!

Show Notes

David Caldacott

Matt Noffs

Dr Alex Wodak

Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation

The Australian Greens

Senator Di Natale

Groovin in the Moo

Monica Barrett

Dr Nicole Lee

360 Edge

Wow, what a crazy few weeks I've had.

I recently found out I had cancer (BCC) and as the situation unfolded I was told I needed to go under the knife asap - so I did - not pretty ;-) - I haven't been able to speak properly for a couple of weeks. Great for my family - I'm sure silence has never seemed quite so golden. Alas, no podcasts for the last 3 weeks so hope you all understand people, that sometimes, one's health just has to take front seat at the theatre.

Anyway.

It's been an interesting time to ponder about priorities.

I'm all good now, but hey, it was a bit of a scare. And so I've been thinking heavily about my body, and health and well...... cancer and all those things that go through your mind when life's not as fab as it could be.

I love what I'm sharing on People My Dog Would Like and at the same time I thought I'd take the opportunity to pivot a little into the biotech and health space which I do think will have a significant impact on our lives in the future. So I'm doing a series of episodes that focus on health and the future, in all it's forms, and how smart new companies are using tech to drive a food revolution that is good for people, communities and the planet.

So this week, since managing to hold a conversation without sounding like flubber dubber, I had a chance to speak with Julian Mitchell, Co-Founder of Lifecykel, an Australian mushroom biotechnology company that he founded with a good friend, Ryan Creed, that is kicking serious goals in Australia and abroad. He's continually exploring our natural world and I must say, he is spectacularly driven when it comes to his priorities - health and sustainability.

Here's Julian above, on the right, with his business partner, Ryan Creed. We talk about what led him into the 'Shroom Revolution, the future of food, and all the cool things he and his partner and now morphing into doing - biomedical applications, clothing and growing sustainable communities. Julian is a strong believer that the future involves going back to nature for inspiration and combining this with the convergence of new technology will create transformational change for our health and our planet. I just love how a box to grow mushrooms can be delivered to your door and transform the way you are eating at home. Its all about low carbon footprint, high nutrition and well...... so much more.

Something I really loved - I know I can be really basic at times - was the idea of mushroom box fundraising which could take the place of sugar in the old chocolate box fundraiser - we touched on how the business is looking into mushroom leather, and also kicking goals in building communities nationally with their shed program. He also shares with us what it was like to work with the English premier league in his past life and who he now looks to for inspiration in the tech and biotech spaces.

Lifecykel's business model is one that I believe will be a raging success, he shared their challenge just to keep up with current demand. Their plans are stellar - I have them in my sights and feel they'll have a macro impact with their collaborative model which I hope drives behaviour change for many of us. Check out their website here, I hope it inspires you to get online and check out what they are doing in the revolution that is REAL food, and even take him up on Julian's generous offer of 15% off of all mushroom products for listeners who tune in to the episode. The code is revealed towards the end, I tell you, its magic.

I wasn't going to say anything about the cancer scare, but I thought why not? It's becoming so common, do people even stop these days and think about what is happening in their lives? i let the little mark on my face sit there for ages. So since the operation, It's made me take a big step back and think twice about what I want to focus on, who I want to spend my time with and also want to give back when I know in my heart I've received so much.