The Capitalist Hippie

Global energy-related CO2 emissions surged to a record high in 2022, marking a concerning milestone in our collective carbon footprint. In this episode, Robert Murphy, CEO of Othersphere, joins us to discuss the pressing need to accelerate sustainable infrastructure deployment amid these increasing emissions.

Robert's extensive background — from global organizations like the World Bank, Enbridge, and Chevron to tech startups such as Aclima — has positioned him as a visionary leader in this domain. He delves into Othersphere's mission, a spatial computation platform revolutionizing the identification of optimal sites for zero to low greenhouse gas infrastructure, with an initial focus on the pivotal role of hydrogen.

Drawing from his experience, Robert shares how Othersphere's spatial economics platform empowers project developers, operators, and financiers to expedite deploying more environmentally beneficial projects, streamlining team efforts, origination, and diligence while enhancing stakeholder alignment.

In this conversation, Marco and Robert explore the innovative strides Othersphere is making to reshape our approach to sustainable infrastructure, mitigating carbon impact and propelling the world towards a more eco-friendly future.

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Did you know that over a billion people rely on our oceans as their primary food source? However, our sea life is in danger due to overfishing, pollution, and harmful fish farming practices. In this episode, Kirk Havercroft, the CEO of Sustainable Blue, sheds light on the critical challenges threatening our oceanic ecosystems and his company's groundbreaking solutions.

Based in Nova Scotia, Sustainable Blue is on a mission to change the game in how we raise Atlantic salmon. Since 2007, they've been using a special fish farming system that doesn't harm the environment and ensures their salmon are raised without any escape, antibiotics, growth hormones, or waste. They have been supplying local restaurants and stores for over ten years.

With his project management and accounting background, Kirk leads a team that's making a big difference. They've expanded their impact in Canada and are taking their eco-friendly farming practices to the United States.

Join us as we chat with Kirk and explore how Sustainable Blue is not just about raising great salmon but also about leading the way in keeping our oceans healthy while providing sustainable and delicious food for everyone.

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The average person in Canada produces an equivalent of 14.2 tonnes of CO2 yearly. In the United States, the number goes up to 17.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Most people have no idea about those numbers or even what they mean. And Michelle Li is trying to make sure people understand the impact of their daily lives on the environment. As a former Silicon Valley employee, she made it her mission to teach as many people as possible about carbon footprint in a fun and hip way. Clever Carbon was founded with that vision, trying to close the gap on carbon illiteracy for a more transparent and accountable world. The company combines pop culture, fun colours and characters, and sustainability in an easy-to-digest way, making the topic more approachable and actionable. Michelle speaks to Marco about what made her leave Silicon Valley to open her eco-company, why she chose education as her business model, and why she believes teaching people about their daily impacts on the environment will make the world more sustainable. Clever Carbon helps achieve that goal by turning carbon footprint into a fun game that can engage teams, families, and schools to reduce some of the damages generating the climate crisis.

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The global population is expected to grow to 10 billion people by 2050, and one of the biggest challenges the next generation will face is feeding everyone. Deeply concerned with those challenges, Marc St-Onge decided to look for solutions by creating a series of global platforms for the development of sustainable fermentation-based protein and food ingredients, decentralized healthcare, and clean technology. As CEO of Smallfood, Marc solved the feeding crises by using an uncommon ingredient: microbes. By leveraging its potential to evolve, he and his team were able to facilitate nutritious, animal-free, vegan, and environmentally friendly food for various companies. This week, Marc speaks about what made him choose this specific path for his company, the impact of biotechnology on the food industry, and how we should be paying closer attention to the environmental consequences of the food-production systems we have in place now. With a decade's research and over 20,000 unique microorganisms discovered, Smallfood has produced food ingredients abundant in high-quality protein and omega-3 with lower environmental impacts, showcasing a way of doing things differently in the market. Follow us on Instagram: @someonelikeyoupodcast.

Since the Industrial Revolution, human activities have raised the levels of atmospheric CO2 by 50% – meaning we now have over 150% more CO2 in the atmosphere than in 1750. These high levels are trapping heat and raising the temperature of the planet. There is a natural way to reverse this effect: giving our soil the power to re-absorb the CO2 released into the air. That's Alexsandra Guerra's mission with the company she co-founded, Nori. As an entrepreneur and environmental engineer, she decided to make carbon removal her work and helped develop a technology that takes farming to a new and more sustainable level. Growing up in Miami, she realized early on that climate change would have a major impact on her life and the lives of those around her. That created a sense of urgency that made her dedicate the past 18 years to researching solutions to reverse carbon emissions. In this episode, Alexsandra talks about her motivation behind the business, what made her choose carbon soil as the focus of her business venture, and how she applied her engineering background and knowledge of blockchain to reverse carbon emissions and reinstate the soil's ability to absorb CO2. With over 18 carbon removal projects under its belt and more than 125 thousand tonnes of carbon removed from the atmosphere, it's safe to say Nori has found a way to reverse the damage that's been done so far. Follow us on Instagram: @someonelikeyoupodcast. Episode website page: https://unlessbrands.com/episode-41-alexsandra-guerra-nori

Almost half the land that can support plant life on Earth has been converted to croplands or pastures. And, more surprisingly, that transformation took away between 50 and 70 percent of the soil's ability to store carbon, contributing to a quarter of all man-made global greenhouse gas emissions.

Enter Chris Tolles. CEO and Co-Founder of Yard Stick PBC, he took global warming personally and believed soil offered an excellent solution to slow down the rapid increase of the planet's temperature. A businessman always surrounded by scientists, he started his journey as an undergraduate in furniture making and turned entrepreneur by co-founding a company in the skincare and sun protection market before pivoting again. In this episode, he talks to Marco about what made him choose soil as the focus of his work, the impact he hopes to make on agriculture, and his mission and motivation behind the business. Yard Stick believes it's possible to increase climate-positive agriculture and change the ecosystem health while improving farmers' livelihoods in a win-win situation that brings a much-needed positive note to combating climate change. Follow us on Instagram: @someonelikeyoupodcast. Episode website page: https://unlessbrands.com/episode-40-chris-tolles-yard-stick-pbc

A study shows that 77% of people in the U.S. want to learn how to live more sustainably. Today's guest is Laura Wittig, CEO and founder of Brightly, a platform that combines content, community, and shopping to ignite change for the conscious consumer. Laura worked in tech for numerous years as a project manager. At Amazon, she hit a wall selling as many shoes and handbags as possible without concern for the environment. In this episode, Laura speaks with Marco about drowning in her never-ending micro-trend consumerism and getting off-gassing headaches from the plastic wrapping and pleather items in the Amazon office, her need to get to the bottom of what true eco-consumerism is, which led to the creation of her podcast, Good Together, and how she scaled Brightly quickly by thinking of content creation like an engineer would. With a reach of 3 million people every day across all their channels, 99% of which is attained organically, Brightly is leading the way to better and more sustainable consumerism for the planet by building trust via authentic and realistic eco-lifestyle media content.

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Episode website page: https://unlessbrands.com/episode-39-laura-wittig-brightly

An estimated 70% of carbon emissions can be decreased by transitioning to a circular economy. Today's guest is Garry Cooper, CEO and co-founder of Rheaply, a service company specializing in enterprise asset management technology for the circular economy. Garry was doing a PhD in Neuroscience at Northwestern University in a well-resourced lab when he noticed a friend's lab with fewer resources that could benefit from certain items his lab had but didn't need. Garry speaks with Marco on how his DYI resource-sharing program at Northwestern led him to develop his idea for Rheaply, how Rheaply aims to create the experience of getting rid and finding items that look new but aren't just as exciting as shopping for new products, and that you don't need to be a climate scientist to get started with your sustainable business idea. With the mission of building circularity for every business, Rheaply is paving the way to making circularity accessible, trendy, and sustainable.

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https://unlessbrands.com/episode-38-garry-cooper-rheaply

Transitioning to a circular economy could generate 25 trillion USD worth of additional economic output globally by 2050. Today's guest is Stuart Lilley, CEO and founder of ReFeed Farms, a Langley, BC facility that focuses on food waste recovery through a circular nutrition model. Stuart was raised in Wales around international cuisine, and his love of food continued as he worked in the hospitality industry and later as a food waste management consultant. Stuart speaks with Marco on how he disrupted the linear food waste management industry with a sustainable and traceable business model, his fundraising challenges and how he addressed them, and how not having "all his eggs in one basket" when it comes to manufacturing products is critical for initial business growth. With the desire to scale localized manufacturing facilities in Ontario and the United States, ReFeed Farms is demonstrating that repairing the food system by using 100% of the nutrition found in unused food and returning it to feed people, livestock, and the soil is attainable. Follow us on Instagram @someonelikeyoupodcast. https://unlessbrands.com/episode-37-stuart-lilley-refeed-farms

A third of the world's fish docks are overfished, with the remaining two-thirds fished at capacity. Today's guest is Tony Long, CEO of Global Fishing Watch, an international non-profit organization sharing open-source information to combat illegal fishing practices. Tony spent 27 years with the British Royal Navy, and his love of the high seas led him to join the non-profit sector. Tony speaks with Marco on the problems of commercial fishing we face today, the various tools Global Fishing Watch uses to track fishing activity globally, and why making the data they collect accessible to everyone is critical. By continuing to break down electronic barriers and making fishing data open-source, Global Fishing Watch is paving the way to protecting our oceans by 2030 with transparent and accessible practices.

Follow us on Instagram @someonelikeyoupodcast. https://unlessbrands.com/episode-36-tony-long-global-fishing-watch