Building a sustainability business isn’t just about good intentions.It’s about the trade-offs you make when values, margins, and growth collide.

In this episode of The Plucky Bamboo Podcast, I’m joined by Sara Baxter, Co-Founder and CEO of Paperclip.

Sara shares what it’s really like to build a consumer sustainability brand under real commercial pressure - from absorbing higher material costs to competing with cheaper alternatives and navigating growth without losing trust.

We talk about:

• Why sustainable materials often come with a “green premium”

• How founders decide when to protect margins vs values

• The reality of DTC and wholesale growth for early-stage brands

• Why influencer marketing and agencies often disappoint

• How trust, education, and transparency shape long-term demand

• The hard lessons Sara learned as a founder - and what she’d do differently

This episode is for sustainability founders and operators who want an honest look at what it takes to grow a values-led business without shortcuts.

In this episode of The Plucky Bamboo Podcast, Chris Jones sits down with Brad Stutzman, Founder and CEO of o3 Energy, to talk about what actually drives adoption in commercial renewable energy.

Brad shares lessons from building o3 Energy across residential, commercial, and small utility-scale markets - including when to pivot, how to evaluate new offerings, and why many sustainability messages fail to resonate with business decision-makers.

Rather than leading with ideology, Brad explains why successful renewable energy companies focus on outcomes that can be measured: energy costs, risk reduction, grid reliability, and operational impact.

The conversation also covers how o3 Energy works with real estate owners and developers, why relationships and trust still matter in B2B sales, and how founders can make clearer decisions in fast-changing markets.

This episode is for sustainability founders, operators, and commercial leaders who want a grounded, practical view of how renewable energy gets adopted in the real world.

Growth in traditional industries doesn’t fail loudly. It slows quietly - when leaders stop building forward and start protecting what already exists.

In this episode of The Plucky Bamboo Podcast, Chris Jones sits down with Titan Immel, Founder of Ag Hub Midwest, to talk about what scaling, sustainability, and leadership actually look like in agriculture - one of the most risk-sensitive industries there is.

Titan shares how rapid early growth led to complexity, stalled momentum, and leadership blind spots - and how stepping back to rebuild systems, refocus on value, and redefine sustainability helped the business move forward again.

This conversation explores:

• Why growth often plateaus after early success - and how founders lose sight of the future

• How systems matter more than headcount once complexity sets in

• What sustainability looks like when customers’ livelihoods are on the line

• How to introduce change in traditional industries without breaking trust

• The leadership shifts required to move from “holding steady” back into growth

Ag Hub Midwest serves growers across the Midwest by focusing on efficiency, operational fit, and long-term value - not hype or short-term wins.

If you’re building a sustainability business under real constraints - margins, people, operations, and trust - this episode offers a grounded, practical perspective on what it actually takes to scale.

In this episode of The Plucky Bamboo Podcast, I’m joined by Kyle C Grant-Talbot, founder of Oxwash (since acq. by Elis), to explore what it really takes to scale impact in an industrial sustainability business.

Kyle shares the journey of building Oxwash from a PhD idea into a high-growth company decarbonizing one of the world’s most overlooked industries: industrial laundry. We talk openly about the operational, technological, and leadership challenges that emerge once sustainability businesses move beyond pilots and into real scale.

This conversation goes beyond mission and intent, and into the practical realities leaders face as demand accelerates.

We cover:

• Why industrial and deep-tech sustainability companies scale differently from SaaS

• The trade-offs between speed, risk, and long-term impact

• How AI and software accelerate progress while creating new operational constraints

• The leadership mindset shift required as teams, systems, and complexity grow

• What scaling impact actually looks like when infrastructure is involved

If you’re a founder or leader building a sustainability business - especially one rooted in physical systems - this episode offers a grounded look at what growth really demands.

Sustainability often comes down to what organisations decide to do with what they no longer need.

In this episode of The Plucky Bamboo Podcast, Chris Jones is joined by Michael Amos, Managing Director of Waste to Wonder, to explore why reuse is so often missed in corporate decision-making.

Michael has spent more than 20 years helping businesses redistribute redundant furniture and equipment to schools and charities around the world. His work challenges a common assumption: that recycling is always the responsible option.

In the conversation, we discuss:

• Why recycling should be the last step, not the first

• How usable assets quietly become labelled as “waste” inside organisations

• The awareness gap that stops companies from seeing reuse as a viable option

• How social enterprises connect commercial decisions with real social impact

• What leaders can change upstream to keep value in the system for longer

This episode is a practical, grounded look at sustainability, procurement, and responsibility - focused on how decisions actually get made inside real businesses.

If you care about sustainability that works in the real world, this conversation will give you a new way to think about waste, value, and impact.

In this episode of The Plucky Bamboo Podcast, Chris Jones sits down with Scott Case, founder of Zettawatts, to talk about what real climate action looks like inside large organizations.

Scott brings decades of experience as a founder and operator, from technology and public health to clean energy. Today, his work focuses on helping companies decarbonize electricity in ways that actually move the grid forward.

In this conversation, Scott shares what surprised him most while building Zettawatts, not policy or technology, but how difficult it is to separate real commitment from polished sustainability reporting.

They discuss:

• Why scope 2 emissions are where many companies stall

• How budget ownership and executive buy-in shape what’s possible

• The gap between published commitments and operational reality

• Why meaningful sustainability progress is often slow, quiet, and complex

This episode is for sustainability leaders, founders, and operators who want a more realistic view of how climate goals turn into long-term decisions and why the hardest work rarely looks impressive at first.

Building a sustainability business means learning how to lead through uncertainty - not just when things are going well, but when policy, incentives, and markets are constantly shifting.

In this episode of The Plucky Bamboo Podcast, Chris sits down with Casey Cole, President of ARE Solar, to talk about what it really takes to build a resilient solar business over the long term.

Casey shares his journey from starting out as a solar installer to leading the company through industry volatility, changing tax incentives, and the so-called “solar coaster.” Along the way, he reflects on the mindset shifts required to move from operator to leader - and why staying grounded in mission matters more than ever.

In this conversation, we explore:

• How leadership changes as sustainability businesses scale
• Why the solar industry is inherently volatile - and how founders can prepare
• The balance between short-term pressure and long-term impact
• Why mission matters most when markets and policies shift
• What sustainability leaders should prioritize to build businesses that last

If you’re building in sustainability, clean energy, or climate tech - and trying to grow without losing focus - this episode offers a grounded, real-world perspective from someone who’s lived every stage of the journey.

Reducing food waste sounds simple. In reality, it’s one of the hardest problems to solve in modern supply chains.

In this episode of The Plucky Bamboo Podcast, Chris Jones sits down with Katherine Sizov, CEO and founder of Strella BioTech, to talk about what it really takes to build and scale a sustainability business in operational, risk-averse industries.

Katherine shares how Strella uses sensor technology and data to predict produce shelf life, helping packers, ripeners, and retailers make better inventory decisions, reduce waste, and improve quality — without relying on climate guilt to drive adoption.

They discuss why sustainability only scales when it makes clear financial sense, how to sell into long enterprise sales cycles, and why focusing on efficiency and ROI often creates the biggest environmental impact.

This conversation is packed with practical insights for sustainability founders, operators, and leaders trying to turn impact into a durable, scalable business.

Clear measurement is one of the biggest missing pieces in sustainability.

In this episode of The Plucky Bamboo Podcast, Chris Jones sits down with Jeff Kirschner, founder of Litterati, to talk about what it really takes to create impact in complex, real-world systems like waste and plastic pollution.

Jeff shares how Litterati evolved from a community clean-up idea into a data science company working with cities, brands, and institutions around the world. They explore why awareness alone doesn’t drive change, why many sustainability interventions fail without a baseline, and how data helps leaders make better decisions about policy, infrastructure, and investment.

The conversation also dives into the realities of building a mission-driven business - from hiring the right people, to resisting the pressure to scale too fast, to staying focused on outcomes instead of optics.

If you’re a sustainability founder, operator, or business leader trying to balance impact, growth, and long-term thinking, this episode offers grounded, practical insight.

Carbon accounting is quickly shifting from a sustainability initiative to a core operational requirement. Many companies genuinely care about climate, but urgency often appears only when a major customer requests emissions visibility or ties it to revenue, risk, or compliance.

In this episode, William Loopesko, founder and CTO at Aclymate, explains how his team is building software that helps small and medium businesses measure and manage their emissions without becoming carbon experts. We explore the operational challenges behind messy customer data, why education matters when climate risk feels distant, and how AI-powered categorization and product design help reduce manual labor.

We also dive into:

• How partnerships can unlock scalable one-to-many growth
  

• Why customer success drives product and UX decisions
  

• Why climate risk assessments are becoming part of standard business software
  

• The long-term vision for a connected carbon network across the economy
  

Aclymate’s approach shows that the future of carbon accounting is not guilt-driven or theoretical. It’s practical automation, clarity, and business urgency.

Listen to learn how carbon visibility is becoming a strategic advantage for companies that want to scale responsibly and stay ahead of customer expectations.