What if the clarity you have been searching for in your sustainability career is not found at a desk or on a screen, but somewhere much quieter?

This episode is an invitation to slow down.

Scott Poynton takes you on his morning walk through the frost covered forests above his village in the Swiss Jura Mountains, as the sun rises over Mont Blanc and the Alps, woodpeckers drum overhead and snowdrops emerge from the forest floor after a week of rain.

You will discover:

1. How a simple morning walk in nature can quiet the noise of anxiety and uncertainty and bring a deep sense of calm and connection
2. Why spending time in nature without headphones or distractions is one of the most powerful tools an aspiring changemaker has for finding clarity on their path
3. How climate change is already reshaping the forests of Europe, and what that means for the world we are working to protect

If you've been feeling overwhelmed by your sustainability career search, press play, put your headphones in, and walk with Scott for a while.

What if restoring nature isn’t just about saving the planet but about restoring our own future?

What would happen if we stopped seeing nature as something separate from us and started recognizing ourselves as part of it- and as responsible stewards of the ecosystems that sustain us?

In this episode, Scott Poynton speaks with Tim Christophersen, author of Generation Restoration: How to Fix Our Relationship Crisis with Mother Nature. Drawing on decades of work with the UN, conservation organizations, and now the private sector, Tim shares why he believes ecological literacy is something everyone needs- and why the growing restoration movement offers genuine reasons for hope.

You’ll discover:

• How a childhood pond restoration project shaped Tim’s lifelong relationship with nature—and taught him how quickly ecosystems can respond when humans work with them.
• Why understanding how much nature we have already lost is essential to recognizing what restoration can make possible.
• How changing our perception of humans as separate from nature could transform the way we approach conservation, agriculture, business, and economic development.

Press play to discover how restoring our relationship with nature can create practical opportunities for healthier ecosystems, stronger communities, and a more hopeful future.

Can a law designed to stop deforestation actually make deforestation worse?

The European Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) was created with a clear goal: prevent commodities linked to deforestation from entering the European market. But what happens when a regulation designed in Europe meets the realities of smallholder farmers in tropical countries?

In this episode, Scott Poynton draws on decades of experience working on forest protection and responsible sourcing to examine the EUDR from the perspective of the people at the far end of global commodity supply chains. He explores the regulation's potential unintended consequences, including the risk that farmers excluded from European markets could turn to other markets—or clear more forest to compensate for lost income.

Scott also reflects on lessons from the early no-deforestation commitments involving companies such as Nestlé, Golden Agri-Resources, Asia Pulp & Paper, and Wilmar, and asks whether the collaborative approach that emerged from those processes could offer a better path forward.

Listeners will gain:

• A clearer understanding of why implementing the EUDR is proving so difficult - and why traceability and land-use rules create particular challenges.
• Insight into how the regulation could affect smallholder farmers whose livelihoods depend on expanding or improving agricultural production.
• Lessons from previous company-NGO negotiations that demonstrate how farmers, businesses, governments, and environmental organizations might work together rather than treating forest protection as a simple black-and-white problem.

Play the episode to explore the complex reality behind the EUDR and discover why protecting forests may require listening more closely to the farmers who depend on them.

What can farmers discover when they put biochar to the test in their own fields - and could this simple agricultural waste product help build more resilient soils?

In the small village community of Nakpatua in northern Ghana, farmers are facing degraded soils, changing rainfall patterns, and the ongoing challenge of improving their livelihoods. Biochar offers a potential way forward by helping soil hold water and nutrients while giving farmers a material they can produce themselves from agricultural waste.

In this episode, Scott Poynton takes you directly into the community, where farmers share their own questions, experiences, and expectations as they begin experimenting with biochar on their crops. Rather than simply explaining the science, this conversation captures what happens when farmers get the opportunity to test a new approach in their own fields.

By listening, you’ll discover:

• How farmers in Nakpatua are planning to use biochar alongside manure on crops such as maize and okra.
• Why the farmers are interested in biochar’s potential to improve water retention, nutrient availability, and crop productivity.
• What their early questions and observations reveal about building practical, farmer-led approaches to improving soil health and resilience.

Play the episode to hear directly from farmers in northern Ghana as they begin their biochar journey and explore what this simple material could mean for their fields and livelihoods.

Nearly 40% of children under five in parts of northern Ghana are mentally and physically stunted, and climate change is making it worse.

This short episode comes straight from a yam field in northern Ghana, where farmers are working incredibly hard to feed their families through months of dry season when there is no other food.

You will discover:

• Why farming families in northern Ghana spend months living off cassava and yams, and why that creates a hidden nutrition crisis that is stunting children's development
• How climate change is making an already fragile agricultural system even more unpredictable as rains arrive later and less reliably each year
• How biochar work on the ground is trying to help farmers improve their yields, their soils and ultimately their lives

This is what climate change looks like at the frontline, with real people, in a real field, right now.

What if the way the sustainability world has been trying to save the planet is actually part of the problem?

For 25 years, Katie Crichlow has worked at the frontline of sustainability, from pioneering responsible sourcing at Marks and Spencer to leading Nature Metrics, a company using DNA sampling to measure biodiversity across more than 100 countries. Along the way she has become increasingly convinced that the obsession with data, reporting and making the business case for nature has distracted us from the real work.

In this episode you will discover:

1. Why Katie believes we have spent 30 years documenting extinction rather than stopping it, and what needs to change
2. How the impact investment model is failing sustainability, and what a genuinely regenerative business actually looks like
3. Why bringing your humanity and your values into the boardroom is the most important thing a sustainability professional can do right now

If you have ever felt that the sustainability world is going around in circles while the planet gets worse, this conversation will put words to that feeling and point toward a different way forward.

What do you do when you have done everything right, applied for every job, and still nothing comes?

Denis Opio faced exactly that moment in Gulu, northern Uganda, when COVID cost him his job and the applications kept going nowhere. His answer was to stop waiting and start building something of his own.

Together with his wife Harriet, Denis founded Anyim Wa Community Initiative, an organisation that has transformed the lives of more than 400 vulnerable young women across northern Uganda through vocational training, business mentorship, climate coaching and genuine human support.

You will discover:

1. Why Denis decided to stop applying for jobs and create his own climate and sustainability impact instead, and what that decision took
2. How Anyim Wa goes beyond teaching skills to give young women the business knowledge, confidence and community they need to truly stand on their own
3. How climate change is hitting farming communities in northern Uganda right now, and what grassroots climate action actually looks like on the ground

If you have ever wondered whether one person can really make a difference, Denis and Harriet's story will answer that question.

What if something as simple as burnt peanut shells could help farmers feed their families, restore their soils, and adapt to a changing climate?

In northern Ghana, smallholder farmers are facing a growing struggle. Their soils are becoming depleted, fertilizer is increasingly expensive, rainfall is more unpredictable, and failed harvests can mean going without enough nutritious food for their families. For many young people, the lack of opportunity is also driving migration away from their communities in search of a better life.

It’s against this backdrop that Scott Poynton is exploring an ancient technology with the potential to make a meaningful difference: biochar.

In this episode, Scott takes you into the fields of northern Ghana, sitting beneath a shea tree as farmers harvest shea nuts and prepare research trials designed to test how biochar can help restore their soils. Made from agricultural waste such as peanut shells, corn cobs, and crop residues, biochar could help soils hold more water, support soil life, and make crops more resilient as rainfall becomes increasingly erratic.

Scott shares what he has learned from working alongside these communities, including the results of earlier trials that produced a 26% yield increase with Bambara beans and a 98% increase when biochar was combined with chicken manure in a corn trial.

You’ll discover:

• Why depleted soils, rising fertilizer costs, and unpredictable rainfall are creating such serious challenges for farmers and their families in northern Ghana.
• How biochar could help farmers turn agricultural waste into a resource that restores soil health, retains water, and improves crop resilience.
• What Scott and the farmers are hoping to learn from new trials comparing biochar, manure, and NPK fertilizer and how the results could shape a more self-reliant future for these communities.

Play the episode to journey into the fields of northern Ghana and discover how an ancient technology—and a little bit of burnt agricultural waste—could help farmers restore their soils, strengthen their livelihoods, and build resilience in a changing climate.

What if the experiences, people, and passions that shape your life are quietly preparing you for the work you’re meant to do decades later?

At just 15 years old, Scott Poynton heard the voice of legendary forester Richard St. Barbe Baker on the radio—and it helped inspire him to become a forester. Decades later, that same connection brings him into conversation with Hugh Locke, the young man who once travelled alongside St. Barbe Baker and helped preserve his extraordinary legacy.

Hugh’s story is one of an unexpected life of service: from growing up on a farm in Saskatchewan and initially studying architecture, to working with St. Barbe Baker, Mikhail Gorbachev, the Dalai Lama, Prince Philip, and others. Along the way, he became deeply involved in environmental protection, peacebuilding, spirituality, regenerative agriculture, and work with smallholder farmers.

In this deeply personal conversation, Hugh and Scott explore what it means to find your own path, why spirituality and interconnectedness matter in environmental work, and why the future of agriculture may depend on empowering the world’s hundreds of millions of smallholder farmers rather than leaving them behind.

You’ll discover:

• How Richard St. Barbe Baker shaped Hugh’s life—and ultimately influenced Scott’s own journey into forestry—and why preserving the lessons of environmental pioneers still matters today.
• Why Hugh believes regenerative agriculture can combine traditional farming knowledge, modern science, community participation, and measurement to help smallholder farmers restore soils and increase productivity.
• How spirituality, consultation, and a sense of humanity’s interconnectedness could provide a different foundation for tackling climate change, food security, poverty, and the challenges facing the Global South.

Play the episode to hear two lifelong environmentalists reflect on the people and ideas that shaped their journeys—and explore why empowering smallholder farmers could be central to building a more regenerative and hopeful future.

What does it really take to restore a forest and why is planting a tree only the beginning?

For more than a decade, One Tree Planted has turned a simple idea - one dollar, one tree - into a global movement. But as the organization enters its next chapter, CEO Hank Lynch is helping shift the focus from simply counting trees to something much deeper: restoring entire landscapes and creating places where people, wildlife, forests, soil, and water can thrive together.

Hank’s own journey helps explain why that mission matters so deeply to him. Raised on a farm and orchard, he discovered an early love of working with trees before building a career across horticulture, agriculture, biodiversity, and environmental conservation. Today, he brings those experiences to One Tree Planted, alongside a team whose shared commitment is to find practical ways to restore damaged landscapes and support the communities that depend on them.

In this conversation, Scott and Hank explore why successful restoration is about much more than putting seedlings in the ground. They discuss the importance of local knowledge, community involvement, healthy seedlings, long-term care, biodiversity, and adapting restoration strategies to the realities of different landscapes around the world.

You’ll discover:

• Why One Tree Planted is moving beyond its famous “$1 = one tree” model toward measuring meaningful landscape and forest restoration, including whether planted trees actually survive.
• How regenerative agroforestry can help smallholder farmers improve soils, retain water, strengthen biodiversity, and generate income from trees without having to cut them down.
• Why Hank believes the future of restoration depends on collaboration, passionate people, strong local partnerships, and making landscape restoration a much bigger global priority.

Play the episode to hear Hank Lynch reflect on One Tree Planted’s first decade, the lessons shaping its next chapter, and why restoring landscapes - and supporting the people who depend on them- could be one of the most important environmental challenges of our time.