Jarrod Luxton, Senior Lead at the Finnish Innovation Fund (Sitra), Board Member of Finland's Sustainable Investment Forum (finsif) and Founder of First Arrow discusses what a best-practice sustainability strategy looks like in 2025! The key player? Nature! We delve into the topic of valuing nature-based solutions and compare and contrast between Australian and Nordic contexts, especially Finland's priorities and motivations for the practice. Jarrod and I also reflect upon our times in Australia and the transition to Europe.

Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro & Nordic Summers and reconnecting via Podcast
4:36 Missing Australian Rules Football ("Footy")
6:14 Jarrod's own podcast creation journey
7:29 Jarrod's interest in ESG
12:58 NBS and Terminology
17:13 Valuation of NBS, Sitra and Jarrod's perspective
34:41 Finland's Adoption of NBS - current status
37:25 Green gentrification and being equitable with NbS
39:55 The role of spatial data
41:36 What does a best practice sustainability strategy look like in 2025
48:22 Unpacking the importance and thinking of circular economy
51:00 The TNFD-LEAP Framework for financing
55:01 Jarrod's current endeavours
56:34 Investing in nature - are nature credits a thing?
58:24 The importance of communication and Jarrod's new company
1:02:18 Q&A Start
1:02:39 What does innovation mean to you?
1:05:28 Key event, person, book
1:08:20 Time Management
1:10:43 Favourite childhood memory
1:11:39 Biggest Challenge to Date
1:14:02 Advice for young professionals
1:15:56 What would you most like to be remembered for?
1:17:35 Where can people reach you?
1:18:31 Final Message
1:18:46 Outro

Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!

Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.

Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:

• X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
• Instagram: @petermbach87
• Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun!

Episode #4 delves into "Water sensitive urban design as part of the urban form" -  Martijn Kuller (ep3) first reacts to how NotebookLM produces a heavily prompted deep dive discussion (my work of art) of an older review we co-authored, highlighting the ease with which prompting can get dangerous and misleading if not in the right hands. We then both react to an Audio Overview of the same review produced by Google Gemini 2.5 Pro, the LLM upon which NotebookLM is based - shorter and more concise.

Full Reference to the Paper: Kuller, M., Bach, P.M., Ramirez-Lovering, D. and Deletic, A., 2017. Framing water sensitive urban design as part of the urban form: A critical review of tools for best planning practice. Environmental modelling & software, 96, pp.265-282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2017.07.003

Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w)

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:26 Guest Intro and what's happened since Episode 3
4:39 How this experiment works
5:44 Guest's prior experience with AI
9:59 Martijn's critique of current thoughts so far
12:25 The Experiment Structure
13:07 The human summary
16:43 Live Reaction - Prompted NotebookLM
31:52 Post-Discussion - Prompted NotebookLM
36:57 Live Reaction - Gemini Audio Overview
52:01 Post-Discussion - Gemini Audio Overview
55:16 Thoughts on the future of AI
57:50 Wrap-up
59:10 Outro

Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!

Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.

Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:

• X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
• Instagram: @petermbach87
• Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

Thomas Young, Associate and Blue-Green Infrastructure Specialist at The Environment Partnership (TEP) in the UK shows us his journey from the technical side of green roofs to the more holistic broader planning of sustainability and blue-green infrastructure. His incredible journey is supported by many seemingly unrelated topics, travels and passions that have all contributed to the impact he is creating in the UK. Find out how beer, mushrooms, cowboys and community among many others are linked to this intricate story!

Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro and a house tour
4:09 Origins of Tom's Ecology Inspiration
7:13 Sheffield and Tom's PhD side project
12:59 Green Roofs 101
22:30 Fungi to help Green Infrastructure
28:12 Writing the British Standards for green roofs
32:20 Blue-Green or Green-Blue Infrastructure? Return of Terminology
35:10 Venturing into Sports Turfs
41:56 Joining TEP and thinking about golf courses
53:08 The Nuffield Farming Scholarship and Tom's world travels
1:03:52 Learning for the UK's future cities and sustainability
1:07:40 Tom's current endeavours
1:12:47 Q&A Start
1:13:14 What does “innovation” mean to you?
1:13:53 Key event book person
1:14:43 Time Management
1:16:56 Favourite childhood memory
1:17:36 Biggest Challenge to date
1:18:37 Advice for young professionals
1:19:42 What would you most like to be remembered for?
1:20:27 Where can people find you?
1:21:08 Final Message
1:21:36 Outro

Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!

Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.

Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:

• X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
• Instagram: @petermbach87
• Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

Mashael Yazdanie, Group Leader, Scientist and Lecturer at the Urban Energy Systems Lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Materials Science & Technology (Empa) traces her journey across the renewable energies towards more holistic thinking around energy, sustainability, society and sufficiency. We cover her projects in both the global north and south, key concepts such as planetary boundaries, sufficiency, efficiency and doughnut economics as well as the need to learn, unlearn and relearn if we want to become more adaptive and resilience in the face of the climate crisis.

Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro and Solar Racing
5:58 Nature and energy?
9:50 Sufficiency, planetary boundaries and doughnut economics
20:31 Mashael's early renewables journey - Biogas Energy in Pakistan
29:58 Mashael's early renewables journey - Wind Energy
33:37 Mashael's early renewables journey - Tidal energy and the rest
36:35 Is there a favourite renewable?
38:01 Energy grid centralization vs. decentralization
42:30 Planning-support modelling & optimization
44:48 Understanding the breadth of modelling tools
46:49 Energy in West Africa - The Measures Project
54:28 The concept of 'Regret' in decision-making
1:01:56 Coming full circle to sufficiency
1:04:06 Learning, unlearning and relearning for the climate crisis
1:10:06 Mashael's future trajectory
1:14:30 Q&A Start
1:14:50 What does "innovation" mean to you?
1:16:00 Time management
1:20:34 Favourite childhood memory
1:21:26 Biggest challenge to date
1:23:45 Advice for young researchers
1:27:57 What would you most like to be rememnbered for?
1:30:16 Where can people find you?
1:30:58 Final message
1:33:06 Outro

Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!

Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.

Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:

• X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
• Instagram: @petermbach87
• Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun!

Episode #3 delves into "Different perspectives on urban nature-based solutions" -  Veljko Prodanovic (ep13) and I react to how NotebookLM produces a deep dive discussion on an opinion piece around human, ecological and AI perspectives of urban nature based solutions, this time guided by a focus prompt.

Full Reference to the Paper: Prodanovic, V., Bach, P.M. and Stojkovic, M., 2024. Urban nature-based solutions planning for biodiversity outcomes: human, ecological, and artificial intelligence perspectives. Urban Ecosystems, 27(5), pp.1795-1806. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-024-01558-6

Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w)

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:26 Guest Intro and callback to main series
3:31 How this experiment works
4:31 Guest's prior experience with AI
9:50 The human summary
11:20 Live Reaction
49:18 Post-discussion
53:40 Potential Future of AI
55:54 Wrap up
57:21 Outro

Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!

Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.

Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:

• X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
• Instagram: @petermbach87
• Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun!

Episode #2 delves into "Tools for urban heat mitigation" -  João Paulo Leitão (ep1, ep40) and I react to how NotebookLM produces a deep dive discussion of a fairly long and comprehensive literature review paper that we co-authored along with colleagues.

Full Reference to the Paper: Probst, N., Bach, P.M., Cook, L.M., Maurer, M. and Leitão, J.P., 2022. Blue Green Systems for urban heat mitigation: mechanisms, effectiveness and research directions. Blue-Green Systems, 4(2), pp.348-376. https://doi.org/10.2166/bgs.2022.028

Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w)

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
1:25 Guest Intro
1:57 Guest’s prior experience with AI
4:06 How this experiment works
5:17 Live Reaction
49:22 Post-discussion
52:12 Thoughts on the future of AI
53:49 Final remarks
54:39 Outro

Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!

Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.

Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:

• X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
• Instagram: @petermbach87
• Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

Don Weatherbee, CEO of Regenx Tech Corp in Alberta, Canada shows us how you can scale up metals recycling (or regeneration as he calls it) sustainably. We discuss his journey from studying accounting to joining the mining and resources industry and how he is now leveraging opportunities to close the loop and create the circular economy around critical metals worldwide, in particular, the opportunity of aligning chemistry, process and supply chains around catalytic converts and Platinum Group Metals.

Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro, Snowy Canada and Units
3:25 Unraveling the broader power of accounting
7:19 Dealing with post-mine closures challenges
11:35 Regeneration vs. Recycling of Metals
13:51 From junior exploration to catalytic converters
18:46 Catalytic Converters 101
22:59 Hydrometallurgy for regenerating metals
25:17 Scaling up from lab to pilot to plant
30:51 Challenges with eWaste Recycling
34:03 Long-term trends for Platinum and Palladium
38:48 Thought experiment on the market size
40:39 Limitations of mining requires more recycling
42:25 What's in store for RegenX?
45:08 Q&A Start
45:43 What is innovation?
47:57 Key moment, book, event
50:46 Time management
53:50 Favourite childhood memory
56:06 Biggest challenge to date
59:11 Advice for young professionals
1:01:02 What would you like to be remembered for
1:02:07 Where can people find you?
1:02:58 Final Message
1:03:20 Outro

Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!

Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.

Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:

• X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
• Instagram: @petermbach87
• Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun!

Episode #1 delves into "Cooling Establishment Time" - Lucas Gobatti (ep39) and I run this research paper through NotebookLM and record our reaction to the deep dive discussion it produces. 

Full Reference to the Paper: Gobatti, L., Bach, P.M., Scheidegger, A. and Leitão, J.P., 2023. Using satellite imagery to investigate Blue-Green Infrastructure establishment time for urban cooling. Sustainable Cities and Society, 97, p.104768. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2023.104768

Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w)

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:26 Guest Intro
2:30 How this experiment works
3:49 Guest prior experience with AI
4:41 The human summary
5:55 Live Reaction
54:37 Post-Discussion
59:54 Thoughts on the future of AI
1:01:27 Final remarks

Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!

Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.

Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:

• X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
• Instagram: @petermbach87
• Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

João P. Leitão, Senior Researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science & Technology (Eawag), Professor at ETH Zurich and the first guest of this podcast returns for a Part 2 to reflect on the podcast 40 episodes later, more fun topics about Portugal and major research topics that we did not cover on the first episode including urban drainage asset management, urban heat mitigation and the central role that water plays in adapting cities to climate change and an uncertain future. As a newly promoted Professor, we also look at what Joao's research plans are with his team going forward into a rapidly changing world.

Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
2:04 Guest Intro and Reflections on the podcast
4:45 The return of salted cod (Bacalhau)
7:02 Portuguese Wine and Cork
9:23 A curious case of inheritance
13:30 Getting into the science
14:58 Updates in the world of flood models
16:42 Rainfall intensities & flood volumes
19:12 Balancing model complexity and insight
22:54 Joao's preferred term for BGI
24:29 Urban drainage asset management
29:03 Encouraging more data exchange and joint learning
31:05 Speaking a different language in disciplines
33:11 Leveraging time zones for research productivity
37:34 Beginning our journey on urban heat together
42:12 Uchimizu
49:03 Is GIS becoming more relevant?
52:21 The next stage of Joao's research
54:32 Q&A Start
54:59 If you had a magic wand?
58:29 What do you define as innovation?
1:00:51 Favourite childhood memory
1:03:58 What would you like to be remembered for?
1:04:53 Easter Egg: A not German joke
1:06:57 Final Message
1:07:57 Outro

Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!

Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.

Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:

• X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
• Instagram: @petermbach87
• Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

Lucas Gobatti, PhD research at ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) goes deep into how Albert Einstein, Benedictus de Spinoza and Karl Marx have shaped his worldview and connection to cities and nature. As a trained architect, civil engineer and urban planner, we discuss how he balances science and spirituality in his research on urban heat and stormwater management and how we can improve the liveability of cities in the global north and south, particularly in Switzerland and Brazil.

Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:59 Guest Intro & Books
6:38 Einstein, Spinoza, Spirituality and the Laws of Nature
13:20 Karl Marx, spatial inequalities and cities
17:28 Late Marx, Kohei Saito and the three displacements
21:19 Microsimulation and agents as Lucas' entry point
24:17 From Altruism to Green Roofs and Stormwater
27:23 Brazil's Nature-based solutions Trajectory
30:13 Shedding light on a different planning landscape
35:08 Lucas' Urban Heat Research - Cooling establishment time
39:48 Lucas' Urban Heat Research - Role of water and irrigation
43:31 Experimenting with microclimate models
46:03 The Brasilandia District Project
50:10 Next steps in Lucas' Research
52:10 Q&A Start
52:26 What do you define as innovation?
54:46 Key event, book, person
59:49 Time Management
1:07:54 Favourite childhood memory
1:09:49 Biggest challenge in career to date
1:13:14 Advice for young professionals
1:15:37 What would you like to be remembered for?
1:23:35 Where can people find you?
1:24:35 Final Message
1:25:31 Outro

Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.
Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!

Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.

Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on:

• X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach
• Instagram: @petermbach87
• Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/