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Energy efficiency is the "first fuel" of the energy transition—but how do we finance it at scale? In this TBLI Radical Truth Podcast, we are joined by Jonathan Maxwell, CEO and Founder of Sustainable Development Capital LLP (SDCL). As one of the world's most experienced investors in low-carbon solutions, Jonathan provides a masterclass on mobilizing capital for the infrastructure of the future.
We've reached a decisive moment for climate finance. Jonathan moves past theory to discuss the reality of distributed energy, retrofits, and the specific tools needed to make efficiency an investable and urgent asset class.
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Why This Matters:
Everyone talks about renewable energy—solar, wind, batteries. But the fastest, cheapest path to emissions reduction is using less energy in the first place. Energy efficiency is the "first fuel": it reduces demand, cuts costs immediately, and doesn't require building new generation capacity.
Yet efficiency remains underfinanced. Jonathan Maxwell, who has spent decades mobilizing capital for low-carbon infrastructure through SDCL, explains why: fragmented projects, measurement challenges, and lack of standardization make efficiency harder to finance than utility-scale renewables.
This conversation reveals how to overcome these barriers through data-driven investing, standardized contracts, and creating investable asset classes from energy savings. For institutional investors, project developers, and policymakers, Jonathan offers a strategic roadmap for scaling the energy transition through efficiency and distributed energy.
About Jonathan Maxwell:CEO and Founder, Sustainable Development Capital LLP (SDCL). One of the world's most experienced investors in low-carbon solutions and energy efficiency infrastructure. Expert in climate finance, distributed energy, and scaling institutional investment in the energy transition.
About TBLI Radical Truth Podcast:TBLI Radical Truth Podcast explores practical solutions for financing the energy transition and climate infrastructure at scale.
Part of TBLI Group—the world's leading ESG and impact investing network for 25 years.
Learn more: https://www.tbligroup.com
#TBLIRadicalTruth #EnergyTransition #ClimateFinance #EnergyEfficiency #JonathanMaxwell #SDCL #SustainableInvesting #ESG #GreenInfrastructure #ImpactInvesting #DistributedEnergy #LowCarbon #InfrastructureInvesting #FirstFuel
In this TBLI Radical Truth Podcast, we sit down with Jackie Logan, SVP at Honeycomb Credit, to discuss a revolutionary shift in how we fund our communities. Honeycomb is a platform that allows everyday people to invest directly in local small businesses, bypassing traditional gatekeepers to build wealth from the bottom up.
The "Radical Truth" here is simple: small businesses are the backbone of the economy, yet they are often starved of capital. Jackie explains how community-powered lending creates a financial system rooted in trust, transparency, and shared prosperity.
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Small businesses are the backbone of local economies—yet banks systematically underfund them. Traditional lending favors large, scalable companies with predictable cash flows and collateral. Main Street businesses—restaurants, retail, service providers—don't fit the model, leaving communities starved of capital while Wall Street swims in it.
Jackie Logan and Honeycomb Credit offer a different vision: community members investing directly in local businesses they know and trust, earning interest while building neighborhood wealth. This isn't charity—it's profitable investing accessible to non-accredited investors, democratizing capital formation and keeping wealth circulating locally.
For impact investors, community development finance practitioners, and anyone who believes investment dollars should strengthen communities rather than extract wealth, this conversation reveals how technology can rewire finance for shared prosperity.
About Jackie Logan:SVP, Honeycomb Credit. Expert in community-powered lending, inclusive finance, and democratizing access to capital for small businesses. Champion of financial equity for diverse entrepreneurs and building wealth in underserved communities.
About TBLI Radical Truth Podcast:TBLI Radical Truth Podcast explores innovations democratizing capital access and building community wealth.
Part of TBLI Group—the world's leading ESG and impact investing network for 25 years.
Learn more: https://www.tbligroup.com
#TBLIRadicalTruth #HoneycombCredit #JackieLogan #SmallBusiness #CommunityCapital #ImpactInvesting #MainStreet #SocialImpact #FinancialEquity #LocalEconomy #CommunityLending #InclusiveFinance #WealthBuilding #DemocratizingCapital
Is the future of food found in a lab or in the soil? In this TBLI Radical Truth Podcast, we sit down with Chris Smaje, farmer, social scientist, and author of the controversial book "Saying No to a Farm-Free Future."
We live in an era where techno-utopians dream of a world fed by vertical farms and lab-grown meat. But Chris argues that this "farm-free" vision is ecologically naive and socially dangerous. In this conversation, "Farming vs. Fiction," we explore why real agriculture is essential for community, democracy, and our connection to the planet.
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Why This Matters:
Lab-grown meat, vertical farms, precision fermentation—tech billionaires and venture capitalists promise these innovations will feed the world while saving the planet. Chris Smaje, both farmer and social scientist, calls this what it is: dangerous fantasy.
Farm-free futures ignore ecology: soil is irreplaceable for carbon storage, biodiversity, and nutrient cycling. They ignore energy: growing food in factories requires massive inputs. They ignore society: concentrating food production in corporate labs destroys rural communities, traditional knowledge, and democratic food sovereignty.
Real climate solutions require more farms, not fewer—small-scale, regenerative, diverse farms reconnecting people with land and food. For impact investors, sustainable agriculture advocates, and anyone concerned about corporate control of food systems, this conversation challenges techno-utopian narratives dominating climate and food discourse.
About Chris Smaje:Farmer, social scientist, and author of "Saying No to a Farm-Free Future." Expert in agroecology, small-scale farming, and critiques of industrial agriculture and techno-utopianism. Champion of food sovereignty, regenerative agriculture, and community-based food systems.
About TBLI Radical Truth Podcast:TBLI Radical Truth Podcast challenges techno-utopian narratives in food, agriculture, and sustainability, exploring grounded alternatives.
Part of TBLI Group—the world's leading ESG and impact investing network for 25 years.
Learn more: https://www.tbligroup.com
#TBLIRadicalTruth #ChrisSmaje #FutureOfFood #RegenerativeAgriculture #Agroecology #FoodSovereignty #LabGrownMeat #SmallScaleFarming #Sustainability #SoilHealth #FarmFree #EcoJustice #DemocraticFood #VerticalFarming
In this episode of TBLI Radical Truth, we sit down with Ady Beitler, co-founder and CEO of Nilus — a social enterprise dismantling the "poverty penalty" by making healthy food affordable in low-income communities and food deserts across Latin America.
Through technology-driven disintermediation, food rescue, and community group buying, Nilus is proving that inefficient supply chains are a choice, not a necessity. Ady shares the logistics, the tech stack, and the human story behind a model delivering dignity, nutrition, and scale to the world's most underserved markets.
In this episode:
The key insight: The poverty penalty isn't inevitable. Inefficient supply chains are a design failure — and technology can fix them.
⏱️ Episode Guide:
👤 About Ady BeitlerAdy Beitler is a Uruguayan social entrepreneur, lawyer, and international development expert. He holds a law degree from Universidad de Montevideo, a Master's from Harvard Law School, and an Advanced Project Management Certification from Stanford University. Before founding Nilus in 2018, he worked at the Inter-American Development Bank supporting Haiti's post-earthquake reconstruction and led ConnectAmericas.com, a digital trade platform for small businesses. When he discovered the world was discarding enough edible food to feed millions living in hunger, tackling food waste became his life's mission. Under his leadership, Nilus has lowered the cost of healthy food access by nearly 25% for its clients and was recognised among the 100 Ideas That Can Change 1 Billion Lives — with a jury including the UN Development Programme, Acumen, the Global Impact Investing Network, and Sequoia.
If you believe innovation and logistics can solve systemic inequality, this deep dive into the Nilus model is essential listening for impact investors, social entrepreneurs, food security advocates, and anyone serious about building a more equitable economy.
ABOUT TBLI RADICAL TRUTHReal experience. Real results. No greenwashing. TBLI Group is the world's leading ESG and impact investing network — educating, advising, and connecting investors for 25 years.
🌐 tbligroup.com
#SocialImpact #FoodSecurity #Nilus #AdyBeitler #PovertyPenalty #SupplyChain #SocialEnterprise #ImpactInvesting #FoodDeserts #Innovation #TBLIRadicalTruth
In this episode of TBLI Radical Truth, we sit down with Professor Robert Earhart, Associate Professor of Management Ethics and Marketing at the American University of Paris — a rare voice in academia who has navigated sustainability consulting, international management, and purpose-driven education without compromising his integrity.
From the hidden ethical tensions inside CSR to using film and storytelling to teach management, Robert offers a candid roadmap for anyone seeking to align their career with their values.
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The key insight: We cannot consume our way out of social and environmental problems. Robust values, critical thinking, and purpose-driven leadership are what the next generation of managers urgently needs.
⏱️ Episode Guide:
👤 About Professor Robert EarhartRobert Earhart is an Associate Professor of Management Ethics and Marketing at the American University of Paris, teaching core courses in Business Ethics, Marketing, Organisation, and NGO and Mission-Based Management. The American University of Paris He holds a Doctorate in Organisation Studies from the University for Humanist Studies in Utrecht and an MBA in International Management from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus Graduate School of Business. The American University of Paris He entered teaching by accident — pivoting from sustainability investment consulting during the 2008 financial crisis, when his doctoral advisors invited him to teach. Aup His research examines the deep paradoxes facing CSR and sustainability professionals, and he is co-author of Hypermanagement: Experiencing Complexity, exploring how managers can lead responsibly in an era of climate change and rising inequality.
Whether you are an aspiring MBA student, a sustainability professional, or an educator, this episode offers a radical truth about the intersection of ethics, education, and leadership.
ABOUT TBLI RADICAL TRUTHReal experience. Real results. No greenwashing. TBLI Group is the world's leading ESG and impact investing network — educating, advising, and connecting investors for 25 years.
🌐 tbligroup.com
#LeadershipDevelopment #BusinessEthics #Sustainability #HigherEd #PurposeDriven #RobertEarhart #CSR #AUP #ImpactInvesting #TBLIRadicalTruth
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Are we overlooking the world's greatest untapped resource?
In this episode of TBLI Radical Truth, we sit down with Dr. Eric Dawson, co-founder and CEO of RIVET — the world's first consumer-facing micro-financing platform built to harness Gen Z's collective spending power to fund youth-led social innovation globally.
With 1.8 billion young people facing rising unemployment and isolation, Dr. Dawson makes a compelling case: Gen Z isn't just the future — they are the most vital change agents we have right now. And they don't lack ideas. They lack access to capital, mentors, and tools.
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The key insight: Young people control over $3 trillion in spending power and are hungry for authentic avenues to express their values. GrowthCap RIVET turns that economic power into fuel for social change.
⏱️ Episode Guide:
👤 About Dr. Eric DawsonDr. Eric Dawson holds three degrees from Harvard University — a BA in Social Studies, an MEd in Human Development Psychology, and an MDiv in Pastoral Care and Counseling — as well as a Doctorate in Leadership and Innovation from NYU. Harvardae As a Harvard freshman in 1993, he co-founded Peace Games, a social-emotional learning curriculum for Boston Public Schools that grew into Peace First — a global nonprofit now supporting young changemakers across 166 countries. Harvard Gazette He is an Ashoka, Echoing Green, and Pop!Tech Fellow and bestselling author. GrowthCap In 2021 he launched RIVET, with an ambitious goal to invest in over a million new youth-led social innovations by 2035, particularly supporting those in capital deserts. Pcdn
Whether you are an impact investor, a brand strategist, or a young changemaker, this conversation is a masterclass in human development and systemic social innovation.
ABOUT TBLI RADICAL TRUTHReal experience. Real results. No greenwashing. TBLI Group is the world's leading ESG and impact investing network — educating, advising, and connecting investors for 25 years.
🌐 tbligroup.com
#YouthInnovation #GenZ #SocialEntrepreneurship #EricDawson #RIVET #ImpactInvesting #FutureOfWork #SocialImpact #TBLIRadicalTruth #Changemakers
🎙️ SPOTIFY / APPLE PODCASTS DESCRIPTION
Is biodiversity the secret to de-risking your portfolio?
In this episode of TBLI Radical Truth, host Robert Rubinstein sits down with Dr. David Brand, founder and Executive Chair of New Forests — one of the world's foremost authorities on sustainable forestry investment, with over four decades of experience in forest management, science, and public policy.
David delivers his radical truth: the investment world is obsessed with Climate Tech while systematically overlooking the massive financial and environmental potential of Nature-Based Solutions. From carbon storage to biodiversity offsets to sustainable livelihoods, he makes a compelling case for why forests deserve a central place in every serious portfolio.
In this episode:
The key insight: Most institutional capital chases Climate Tech while forests — which simultaneously address carbon sequestration, biodiversity loss, and community livelihoods — remain chronically underfunded. That is a massive mispricing opportunity.
⏱️ Episode Guide:
👤 About Dr. David BrandDr. David Brand has over 40 years of experience in forestry investment, forest management, science, and public policy. Building Bridges He is the founder and former Executive Chair and CEO of New Forests, founded in 2005, a sustainable forestry investment manager with more than $8 billion in assets under management across 4.3 million hectares in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Building Bridges He started New Forests with a $1 million loan and grew it into one of the world's leading forestry investment managers. UBC Forestry He holds a PhD in Forestry from the University of British Columbia and a Bachelor of Science in Forestry from the University of Toronto, and currently serves as inaugural Chair of the International Sustainable Forestry Coalition — an organisation of 23 companies working to advance the transition to a nature and climate-positive circular bioeconomy. Building Bridges
Whether you are a portfolio manager, an ESG strategist, or a nature-positive investor, this episode is essential listening for anyone serious about the future of sustainable finance.
ABOUT TBLI RADICAL TRUTHReal experience. Real results. No greenwashing. TBLI Group is the world's leading ESG and impact investing network — educating, advising, and connecting investors for 25 years.
🌐 tbligroup.com | 🌐 newforests.com.au
#SustainableForestry #DavidBrand #NewForests #NatureBasedSolutions #CarbonStorage #Biodiversity #ImpactInvesting #RadicalTruth #TBLI #NaturePositive #ESG #SustainableFinance #ForestryInvesting #ClimateFinance #NaturalCapital
🎙️ SPOTIFY / APPLE PODCASTS DESCRIPTION
Is the "Green Transition" a logistical impossibility?
In this episode of TBLI Radical Truth, host Robert Rubinstein sits down with Professor Simon Michaux, Associate Professor of Geometallurgy at the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) — one of the most provocative and rigorous voices in the global energy transition debate.
Simon brings decades of mining engineering expertise to answer the $100 trillion question: do we actually have enough minerals to replace fossil fuels? His research reveals a staggering gap between political ambition and geological reality — and delivers a wake-up call that every ESG investor, policymaker, and sustainability professional urgently needs to hear.
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The key insight: The existing strategic plans for the energy transition are logistically impractical as currently designed. This is not an argument against transition — it is an argument for radical honesty about what transition actually demands.
⏱️ Episode Guide:
👤 About Professor Simon MichauxSimon Michaux is an Associate Professor of Geometallurgy at the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK), working in the Circular Economy Solutions unit. He holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Physics and Geology and a PhD in Mining Engineering from the Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC) at the University of Queensland, graduating in 2006. Simon Michaux He spent 18 years studying and working at the JKMRC's Sustainable Minerals Institute, involved in several high-profile industry-funded research programmes. Simon Michaux His landmark 2021 GTK report demonstrated that transitioning away from fossil fuels would require mining of minerals and use of recycled metals on a scale far greater than current strategic plans anticipate. GTK His work has brought him before government teams, economists, and policymakers around the world.
Whether you are an impact investor, an energy policymaker, or a sustainability strategist, this episode is essential listening for anyone serious about the real constraints of the green transition.
ABOUT TBLI RADICAL TRUTHReal experience. Real results. No greenwashing. TBLI Group is the world's leading ESG and impact investing network — educating, advising, and connecting investors for 25 years.
🌐 tbligroup.com | 🌐 gtk.fi
#EnergyTransition #SimonMichaux #CriticalMinerals #NetZero #Sustainability #Mining #GreenEnergy #RadicalTruth #TBLI #CircularEconomy #BiophysicalEconomics #ESG #SustainableFinance #ClimatePolicy #NaturalResources
In this episode of TBLI Radical Truth, we sit down with Professor Olinga Ta'eed — global pioneer in blockchain, social impact measurement, and AI-driven investing — to explore why ESG as we know it is fundamentally incomplete, and what a genuinely comprehensive measure of value looks like in 2026.
From advising the Chinese Ministry of Commerce to speaking at The Vatican, Professor Ta'eed has spent decades at the bleeding edge of one question: how do we quantify what truly matters — beyond carbon, beyond profit, and beyond conventional ESG metrics?
In this episode:
The key insight: Most ESG frameworks measure what is easy to count, not what truly counts. Until we can quantify love, hope, community, and social wellbeing alongside carbon, we are only measuring half of reality.
⏱️ Episode Guide:
👤 About Professor Olinga Ta'eedProfessor Olinga Ta'eed PhD FIoD is the founder of the Centre for Citizenship, Enterprise and Governance (CCEG), the world's leading think tank on the movement of value, with over 200,000 members. In 2018 he became the world's first Professor of Blockchain at Birmingham City University and Chief Editor of Frontiers in Blockchain, the first peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to blockchain. He served as Expert Advisor and Council Member to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce's China E-Commerce Blockchain Committee, overseeing an industry worth $1 trillion. His Social Earnings Ratio — dubbed the "God Metric" by the Vatican — became the fastest adopted social impact metric in the world, offering a direct corollary to the financial Price Earnings Ratio used across global stock markets.He currently chairs AITEA Intelligent Technology Co. Ltd (AI, Beijing) and serves as Chief Editor of Frontiers in Blockchain.
Whether you are an ESG professional, an impact investor, or a technologist shaping the future of finance, this episode is essential listening for anyone serious about measuring what truly matters.
Note: Please update the episode timestamps marked 0:X:XX above once confirmed.
ABOUT TBLI RADICAL TRUTHReal experience. Real results. No greenwashing. TBLI Group is the world's leading ESG and impact investing network — educating, advising, and connecting investors for 25 years.
🌐 tbligroup.com
#ESG #Blockchain #AI #ImpactInvesting #SocialImpact #FinTech #OlingaTaeed #Sustainability #GodMetric #Web3 #TotalValue #SocialEarningsRatio #TBLI #RadicalTruth #ESGInvesting #SustainableFinance #ImpactMeasurement
In this episode of TBLI Radical Truth, we sit down with Jim Rutt — complexity thinker, tech pioneer, and one of the leading voices behind the Game B movement — for a sweeping conversation about the fatal flaws of our current civilisational operating system and what a genuinely better world could look like.
Game A — the system of short-term competition, systemic exploitation, and zero-sum thinking that has defined modern society — is showing its cracks. Jim argues it is not just reformable. It needs replacing. And Game B is the framework for what comes next.
In this episode:
The key insight: Game A is not a series of isolated problems — it is one interconnected system producing predictable outcomes. Solving it requires replacing the system, not patching it.
⏱️ Episode Guide:
👤 About Jim RuttJim Rutt is a Distinguished Fellow at the Santa Fe Institute and Chairman of the California Institute for Machine Consciousness, as well as the host of The Jim Rutt Show podcast. He was CEO of Network Solutions — which operated the .com, .net, and .org domain namespaces — and negotiated its $15 billion acquisition by Verisign in 2000, and served as the first CTO of Thomson Reuters.He was Researcher in Residence at the Santa Fe Institute from 2002 to 2004, studying the application of complexity science to financial markets, social simulations, agent-based models, and evolutionary artificial intelligence. Vt He is Past President and co-founder of the MIT Free Speech Alliance, and Executive Producer of the film An Initiation to Game~B. In 1981, he was also the first person to use the term "snail mail" to describe conventional postal services. Wikipedia
Whether you are an impact investor, a systems thinker, or someone who senses that the current world needs more than incremental reform, this conversation is a masterclass in civilisational rethinking.
Note: Please update the episode timestamps marked 0:X:XX above once confirmed.
ABOUT TBLI RADICAL TRUTHReal experience. Real results. No greenwashing. TBLI Group is the world's leading ESG and impact investing network — educating, advising, and connecting investors for 25 years.
🌐 tbligroup.com
#GameB #JimRutt #SystemsThinking #Sustainability #FutureOfHumanity #SocietalEvolution #ScienceAndTechnology #RegenerativeFuture #FreeSpeech #SantaFeInstitute #TBLI #RadicalTruth #ComplexityScience #ImpactInvesting #CivilisationalChange
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