The Net Zero Business Podcast

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...

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

This week on the Net Zero Business Podcast, I'm joined by Helen Neal of HN Communications. We cover a huge number of topics including:

• Ethics in the PR Industry
• The importance of leadership commitment
• Brandmapping to create a compelling Sustainability story
• Building trust through sharing the positives and difficulties
• Focussing on what you have done rather than what you plan to do
• Green claims and the nuances of greenwash
• Progress > perfection
• The pros and cons of the BCorp scheme

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

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

This week on the Net Zero Business Podcast, I talk politics with Michael Liebreich, one of the foremost commentators and advisors on the clean energy transition, a former Olympic skier and co-host of Cleaning Up, my second favourite podcast.

Here's a selection of what we cover:

• How the UK Labour Government has fared on its commitment to green growth (we recorded before the Heathrow announcement)
• The imperative of driving down consumer electricity bills
• Why Michael told the Conservative party to commit to Net Zero or die
• Trump's petrostate vision, vs China's electrostate
• Whether hydrogen and CCS are distractions
• Dirty money in politics and the PR industry

The episode of Cleaning Up with Michael and Adair Turner can be found here.

This podcast is brought to your by Terra Infirma Ltd - Bringing Sustainability to Life

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This week I muse on the magic that demand brings to the economy: plummeting prices, rising quality and security of supply. Therefore it follows that to accelerate the creation of a sustainable economy, we must be focussing on ways of stimulating demand for renewable energy, electric vehicles and secondary materials to name but three. I talk about how individuals, organisations and policy makers can do their bit.

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

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

This week on the Net Zero Business Podcast, I'm joined by the two editors/lead authors on a new book 'Leading the Sustainable Business Transformation', Prof Julia Binder and Prof Knut Haanaes from IMD. We discuss the importance of 'head, heart and hands', dig into the importance and power of "future-back thinking" (aka backcasting) and explore the two Profs' favourite case studies.

We also cover a wide range of Sustainability topics including the risks of the low carbon transformation (using the auto industry as a case in point), product-service systems, the circular economy and the importance of design. I thoroughly enjoyed delving into these issues with two such esteemed thinkers!

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.