This week, I go on a bit of a rant about three fallacies that afflict Net Zero and the low carbon transition. These are:

1. The Not Me Guv Fallacy
2. The 1% Fallacy
3. The Relatively Good Fallacy

Do you recognise any of them?

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Emma Fletcher is one of those quite extraordinary people whose ability to get things done is unparalleled. She led a community project to develop a 100 home zero carbon heat network in her village in her spare time. This in turn attracted the attention of Octopus Energy founder Greg Jackson who offered her the role of Low Carbon Homes Director, and when they say 'low carbon', they're not talking about tinkering around the edges!

Here's what we discuss:

• How Octopus is effectively a data company
• How the Kraken platform allows Octopus to disrupt the energy market
• The home retrofit challenge and how Octopus takes inspiration from Formula 1 to bring down costs
• The evolving economics of low carbon homes
• Octopus's mission to build 100,000 zero carbon/zero bills homes

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If you listen to the press and pundits, you'd think ESG investing is dead as a doorknob. But what's the reality? In this week's episode, I catch up with Georgia Hall, ESG & Investment Director, Listed Infrastructure at Maple-Brown Abbott, to help us separate the signal from all that noise. Here are some of the things we cover:

• What is ESG investing and is it really in decline?
• How stranded high carbon assets are a genuine risk to investors
• Why the US is highly unlikely to see a 'coal rush' no matter what President Trump thinks.
• Key growth areas for ESG investing
• How the added scrutiny of the ESG sector is shaking out the greenwash

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Don is almost certainly the first ordained minister I've had on the Net Zero Business Podcast, he's also a Sustainability consultant whose core audience is small business owners in Mid West USA – ie likely Donald Trump voters. For me, as an atheist, this was a fascinating and sometimes deeply philosophical discussion of personal values, business and our relationship with nature. Don's humanity, wisdom and insights should be an inspiration to us all.

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This week on the pod, I discuss a simple precondition of sustainable behaviour in the public and/or employees – you have to make it easy for people to do what you want them to do. That might sound obvious, but in practice being green is often made rather difficult. I give three examples from my life and career that make the point, plus ways to discourage us green behaviour – and how to identify those barriers.

The Net Zero Business Podcast is brought to you by Terra Infirma Ltd - bringing Sustainability to Life

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This week on the pod, I'm joined by Marga Hoek, entrepreneur, investor, and author of The Trillion Dollar Shift and Tech for Good. The former book sets out the trillion dollar investment opportunity presented by the Sustainable Development Goals while the latter looks at the Sustainability opportunities set out by innovations such as AI, blockchain and robotics. We discuss these two topics along with Marga's collaboration with Imagine5 on storytelling to inspire change for good, creating a triumvirate of planks to build the bridge to Sustainability. "We are playing a new game with old rules" is just one quote from Marga which I will be musing on for a very long time.

This episode is brought to you by Terra Infirma Ltd - bringing Sustainability to life.

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In this fascinating chat with Rachel Ward, Sustainability Manager at the Royal Veterinary College, London, I think we cover more issues than any other episode - not surprising given the wide variety of activity at the College: teaching buildings, 400 student rooms, a veterinary hospital and a farm with 200 head of cattle. Here's a taste of what we cover:

• Facilitating reuse between generations of students and charities
• Low carbon anaesthesia
• Smart bins to boost recycling rates
• Sustainable agriculture: biodiversity, soil carbon and climate adaptation
• Using quirky stories to capture people's imaginations
• Becoming hedgehog friendly
• Decarbonising listed buildings and using novel building technologies

My only regret about this episode is bringing it to a close – Rachel kept providing more and more insights, so I should have kept things going...

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This week I'm joined by Jennifer Geary, award winning author of a set of books on how to be a C-level executive, including co-authoring How to be a Chief Sustainability Officer. Here's what we cover:

• Leadership in difficult political times
• Connecting Sustainability to the company purpose
• Should the CSO be a standalone role or integrated into other C-roles
• Ownership of Sustainability, including Green Jujitsu (my smart engagement technique)
• AI and reducing the data burden in reporting

If you want a deep dive into 'How to be a CSO', check out my episode with Jennifer's co-author Anna Krotova.

The Net Zero Business Podcast is brought to you by Terra Infirma Ltd – Bringing Sustainability to Life.

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In this episode of the podcast, I talk about the need to start casting off mental baggage that is holding back the transition to a low carbon economy. I give some policy examples, but I also take a few pot shots at those in the Sustainability sector who resist innovation in our methods. We need to keep doing things better!

The Net Zero Business Podcast is brought to you by Terra Infirma Ltd - Bringing Sustainability to Life

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With electrification emerging as the prime route to the decarbonisation of transport, space heating and many industrial processes, the gazillion dollar question is, can the electricity grid deliver sufficient zero carbon electricity to make this happen? To get some answers, this week on the Net Zero Business Podcast, I caught up with Paul Glendinning, Energy Systems Director of Northern Powergrid (NPG) – we discuss the following:

• The remarkable decarbonisation of the UK electricity grid to date
• Paul's prediction that NPG will hit Net Zero by 2028
• "What if the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow?"
• How market reform is unlocking clean energy projects
• Smart grids, AI and vehicle to grid (V2G) technology

The Net Zero Business Podcast is brought to you by Terra Infirma Ltd - bringing Sustainability to life

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