The Impact Equation

The Impact Equation

By Rafi Addlestone and Adam PikeBusinessEntrepreneurshipScienceNon-ProfitEarth Sciences
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The Impact Equation episodes

  • Shantanu Agarwal: The $100m Carbon Removal Breakthrough
    Mati Carbon, led by founder and Mulago fellow Shantanu Agarwal, made history in April 2025 by winning the $100 million XPRIZE Carbon Removal. In this episode, Shantanu shares how Mati uses enhanced rock weathering to turn pollution into soil-enriching fertilizer for smallholder farmers in the Global South. We discuss the unique model that combines rigorous climate science with a non-profit governance structure, exploring whether effective climate solutions can be both technically credible and distributively fair. Shantanu is a Mulago Fellow and this interview is the second in a series of three episodes with our friends at the Mulago Foundation https://www.mulagofoundation.org.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    45 min
  • Peter Briffett: Taking On & Beating Payday Loans
    Today's episode we welcome Peter Briffett, CEO and co-founder of Stream. Most people are paid at the end of each month but bills and emergencies don't keep to a calendar, so the lowest-paid end up borrowing - through overdrafts and payday loans - to bridge the gap. Stream lets workers draw earnings they've already accrued, and has grown from there into savings, financial coaching and benefits, built around the employer rather than a bank. It now reaches more than three million workers across roughly a thousand employers, including the NHS, is backed by social-impact investors and recently closed a $90m Series D that took total funding past $200m.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    41 min
  • Folake Owodunni: Creating emergency infrastructure in Africa
    Folake Owodunni is the co-founder and CEO of Emergency Response Africa. ERA is a healthcare technology company improving how medical emergencies are managed across Africa, starting in Nigeria. They operate the largest network of trained First Responders, ambulances, and verified emergency-ready hospitals. This network allows them to connect people experiencing medical emergencies to the help they need, anytime, day or night. Folake is a Mulago Fellow and this interview is the first in a series of three episodes with our friends at the Mulago Foundation https://www.mulagofoundation.org.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    25 min
  • Lord Maude: Fixing the State, from Thatcher to Cameron

    Lord Francis Maude is a senior British political figure and former minister. His career spans three Governments, four decades and multiple continents. Having had his first ministerial post under Margaret Thatcher, Francis has long experience and deep understanding of how governments work. From his early days in the HM Treasury to leading reform in the Cabinet Office, he became one of the architects of modern UK public service reform. As Minister for the Cabinet Office during the coalition years, he drove efficiency, digital transformation, and a sharper focus on execution inside government.


    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    45 min
  • 91up
    Adam and Rafi review the last seven episodes in our regular wash up conversation

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    20 min
  • Mark Bjornsgaard: £Billion plan to Heat Homes Using AI Data Centres

    Mark Bjornsgaard has scaled and exited seven businesses in healthcare, finance and music. As founder of Deep Green, Mark has worked out how to turn waste heat from AI data centres into heating local infrastructure and homes, with billions of investment. In this conversation, Mark talks through the long road to making that idea commercially viable, why earlier versions failed, and why the real breakthrough came from solving an economic problem rather than leading with a green one. He is refreshingly direct on what it takes to build: kill weak ideas early, stay obsessed with the customer problem, and make new systems real enough that people can trust what they are seeing.



    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    44 min
  • Sherry Madera: Climate action is about data
    How does a trained chemist transition into an investment banker, a senior British diplomat in Beijing, and ultimately, the CEO overseeing the world’s most critical environmental disclosure platform? In this episode Rafi sits down with Sherry Madera, CEO of CDP, to map out her curiosity-led career and explore how data has become the ultimate force for global change. From navigating the thick PM 2.5 smog of Beijing to steering massive data strategies at the London Stock Exchange Group, Sherry has spent her life translating complex risks into actionable boardroom intelligence. Rafi and Sherry dive deep into the mechanics of CDP—an independent platform capturing environmental data from over 24,000 companies representing two-thirds of the world’s market capitalization. Sherry breaks down the core business realities of sustainability, the expansion of disclosure beyond carbon, and why the ultimate test for modern corporations is moving from simple correlation to hard economic causation.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    38 min
  • Lord Michael Barber: Tony Blair's Head of Delivery

    Lord Michael Barber is the founder of the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit under Sir Tony Blair, author of How to Run a Government, and the global pioneer of deliverology. Over the past three decades he has advised governments around the world on one of leadership’s hardest questions: not what to do, but how to get it done. In this episode, Lord Barber reflects on the experiences that shaped his approach to leadership, from his Quaker upbringing and early years as a teacher to building a delivery system at the heart of government. The conversation explores why execution so often fails, how leaders can create focus in complex organisations, and what it takes to sustain progress when priorities compete for attention. Michael explains the origins of the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit, the importance of trajectories, data and accountability, and why effective delivery depends as much on relationships and culture as it does on process.He also shares lessons from applying delivery approaches internationally, including in Pakistan, discusses public value and the future of public services, and argues for stronger dialogue between government and innovators, entrepreneurs and business leaders.



    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    43 min
  • Roundtable: Investing in Nature and Biodiversity

    This roundtable special brings together three founders working at different edges of the same question: how do we rebuild our relationship with nature through markets, products, and everyday economic choices? Cain Blythe is the founder of CreditNature, a platform designed to unlock large-scale investment into biodiversity and ecosystem recovery by making nature measurable and investable. His work sits at the frontier of nature finance, where ecological integrity and capital markets collide.

    Will Foulkes leads Stabiliti, which embeds a “Green Margin” into commerce to fund verified local restoration. His focus is on making nature funding frictionless within everyday transactions. And, Matteo Ninna is cofounder and CEO of Natur Contact, a footwear company grounded in natural movement, durability, and responsible production, translating sustainability principles into physical products. 



    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    44 min

About The Impact Equation

From the publisher's feed

Welcome to The Impact Equation, conversations with leaders shaping a brighter future, hosted by Adam Pike, social entrepreneur, and Rafi Addlestone, impact advisor, With our special…