The Responsible Edge Podcast

On The Responsible Edge podcast, Veronica Heaven, founder of The Heaven Company, issued a direct challenge to corporate leaders: sustainability must be driven from the top, or it will never be more than a box-ticking exercise.

Sustainability is often perceived as slow-moving, requiring long-term strategies and systemic change. But what if it could be approached with the same urgency and precision as high-performance engineering?

On The Responsible Edge, Jamie Shaw shares his experience embedding sustainability into industries that thrive on speed—Formula One, automotive manufacturing, and now, luxury flooring. His insights reveal how industries focused on performance and efficiency can accelerate sustainability without compromising their core business objectives.

In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin sits down with Nicky O’Malley, a leader in nature-positive business strategy. With a career spanning conservation, corporate responsibility, and high-impact campaigns, Nicky has a clear message: businesses must move beyond sustainability and towards regeneration.

The Responsible Edge podcast, hosted by Charlie Martin, recently featured Julien Lancha, co-founder of Advizzo, a purpose-driven SaaS platform helping water and energy utilities drive efficiency and sustainability through data. From Julien’s corporate tech career to his entrepreneurial pivot, his journey offers hard-won lessons for sustainability startups trying to carve out market space and create lasting impact.

In a recent episode of The Responsible Edge, Peter Mitchell shared invaluable insights into the evolving role of landowners, estate managers, and sustainability leaders in shaping the future of UK land use. With a career spanning military ambitions, rural estate management, and now sustainability leadership, Peter’s journey offers a unique perspective on the challenges — and opportunities — facing landowners in a climate-conscious era.

On a recent episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin sat down with Lauren Wilkinson, a sustainability professional with experience at a leading global drinks brand and a recently completed master’s in Energy, Society and Sustainability at the University of Edinburgh.

Through her experience, Lauren uncovered a hidden weakness in corporate sustainability strategies — the environmental blind spot created by marketing supply chains. From branded bar mats to pop-up displays and giveaway merchandise, these materials often escape sustainability oversight, despite being produced at scale.

On a recent episode of The Responsible Edge, Matt Hocking, founder of Leap, a certified B Corp design agency, shared his philosophy on enoughism—the idea that businesses should redefine success not by relentless expansion, but by understanding what is truly enough.

As businesses worldwide scramble to prove their sustainability credentials, Matt challenges the assumption that scaling up is always the goal. Instead, he advocates for a model where impact, purpose, and resilience outweigh unchecked growth.

“For any ecosystem to thrive, it has to have balance. Growth for growth’s sake leads to collapse. We’ve seen it in nature, and we’re seeing it in business.”

This conversation explored the risks of overgrowth, the integrity of sustainability certifications, and why businesses must redefine their purpose beyond profit.

On a recent episode of The Responsible Edge, Mina Hasman, Sustainability Director at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), shared her insights on why climate literacy is the most overlooked but crucial element in the built environment’s sustainability transition.

With a career spanning architecture, environmental engineering, and policy advocacy, Mina has worked at the forefront of embedding science-based sustainability frameworks into the industry. However, despite the growing push for net zero and ESG commitments, she warns that many professionals still lack the foundational knowledge needed to implement real change.

“Many people still don’t know what net zero carbon truly means—what it entails, how to measure it, and how to verify claims. That’s where problems arise.”

In this conversation, Mina highlights the urgent need for climate literacy, the role of governance in preventing greenwashing, and the steps the industry must take to move beyond fragmented sustainability initiatives.

Governance is often treated as the third, less exciting pillar of ESG—overshadowed by environmental and social concerns. But as Rob Sherwin, a corporate affairs leader with extensive experience in the energy sector, pointed out in his discussion on The Responsible Edge podcast, governance is actually the foundation that makes ESG work.

Sustainability in the built environment has long been framed as a technical challenge—optimising energy efficiency, using lower-carbon materials, and designing smarter buildings. But as Marc Seligmann, Head of Sustainability at Maccreanor Lavington, pointed out in his conversation on The Responsible Edge podcast, the real challenge isn’t just how we build—it’s how we live.

While technological advancements have given us the tools to construct low-carbon buildings, the industry is still grappling with deeply ingrained social expectations that promote high-carbon lifestyles. If sustainability is going to work at scale, Marc argues, we need to change not just construction practices but the way people think about homes, cities, and transport.