Business for Good Podcast

What if we could turn the mountains of food waste we generate every day into high-value chemicals that replace fossil fuels and palm oil—two of the most environmentally destructive inputs in our economy? That's exactly what this episode's guest is doing. Marc den Hartog is the CEO of ChainCraft , a Dutch biotechnology company using fermentation to convert agricultural waste into medium-chain fatty...

This episode's guest is someone who's spent her career studying—and championing—entrepreneurs who don't always fit the Silicon Valley mold. Dr. Lori Rosenkopf is the Vice Dean of Entrepreneurship at the Wharton School and the author of the new book Unstoppable Entrepreneurs: 7 Paths for Unleashing Successful Startups and Creating Value through Innovation . In this short guide, Lori explores how su...

You've heard of carbon capture machines, but what if one of the most powerful tools for removing CO₂ from the atmosphere isn't high-tech at all—just crushed rock and rain? Meet Ana Pavlovic, CEO of Eion and the self-described "Crazy Rock Lady." Her company is pioneering a process called enhanced rock weathering, which uses the natural properties of a green volcanic mineral called olivine to pull c...

In the restaurant world, infant mortality is the norm. Nearly two-thirds of new eateries shut down in their first year. Only one in five lives to see its fifth birthday. So when a restaurant—not just any restaurant, but a plant-based fine-dining spot—thrives for decades, it's not just impressive. It's almost mythic. Enter Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby, the married duo behind Vedge , the acclaimed Ph...

Nick Cooney is one of the most prolific investors in food and ag tech. As the founder of Lever VC , he's helped deploy nearly $80 million from his first fund and has now closed more than $50 million toward his second $100 million fund. He's backed companies across the spectrum of sustainable protein—plant-based meat, cultivated meat, fermentation-derived proteins (including, in full disclosure, my...

Palm oil is everywhere—from food to cosmetics to biofuels—but its production is a leading cause of deforestation, habitat destruction, and greenhouse gas emissions. What if we could have all the benefits of palm oil without the downsides? Enter NoPalm Ingredients , a Dutch biotech startup using fermentation to produce a sustainable alternative to palm oil—without the need for palm trees. Instead o...

What if the fat in your butter, cheese, or even burger could be made without animals, without plants, without fermentation, and without agriculture at all? That's exactly what  Savor is doing. Using a groundbreaking process that transforms compounds like CO₂ and elements like hydrogen into rich, animal-free fats that can mimic what animal fat does, this California-based startup is rethinking how w...

We spend about 90 percent of our lives indoors, yet the air inside our homes and offices is often far more polluted than the air outside. Volatile organic compounds—better known as VOCs—are constantly emitted by furniture, cleaning products, and even the very walls around us. Formaldehyde, benzene, toluene—these chemicals sound like something you'd find in an industrial park, but they're actually...

It's no secret that the alternative protein startups are struggling these days. A combination of lower revenue, intense competition, and less available venture capital is leading to a contraction in the sector, with countless alt-meat and dairy companies conducting layoffs, declaring bankruptcy, and even folding altogether.  Enter Ahimsa Companies , a newly formed investment group acquiring promis...

Did you know that it takes 140 liters of water to make a single cup of coffee? Turns out that coffee, as far as plant crops are concerned, has a fairly heavy footprint on the planet. And it's getting harder to farm, with climate change altering where and how many coffee beans can even be grown. You've heard of making meat without chickens, and milk without cows. Well, you can also now get coffee w...

In this episode we're diving deep into the fascinating world of carbon recycling with a trailblazer who's reshaping how we think about waste and sustainability. Our guest is Dr. Jennifer Holmgren, CEO of LanzaTech —a company on a mission to transform our biggest environmental challenge into an economic opportunity. LanzaTech is pioneering a process that takes industrial emissions—the kind of harmf...

In this episode we're taking you on a journey to some of the most remote corners of West Africa, where energy access is scarce, and innovation is changing lives. Our guest is Nicole Poindexter, the founder and CEO of Energicity , a company that's bringing clean, reliable solar power to off-grid communities in countries like Sierra Leone, Benin, and Liberia. Nicole and her team are doing something...

Most plant-based meats in the US have centered around American staples like hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, and sausages. But there's a world of meat consumption out there, and some of the most popular meat dishes are ones many Americans may have never even tried. In recent years, South Korea has seen great success exporting its culture around the world, with mega-popular K-dramas like Squi...

Imagine trying to run a small business without a constant supply of energy. With electricity intermittency, you may not have access to wifi, a phone, a computer, a way to service your customers and more. One way to solve this problem is to have constant access to fossil fuels to run diesel generators, but this is an expensive and dirty way to operate, creating unsustainable costs for the business...

Eric Schulze loves the intersection of science and food so much that after many years as an FDA regulator, he decided in 2016 to leave the federal government to join the then-nascent Memphis Meats (now  UPSIDE Foods ). He'd go on to spend the next seven years working to advance the cultivated meat pioneer's science, technology, communications, and ultimate regulatory approval by the agency for whi...

We all know chocolate is sweet. The way that it's made—not so much.  From deforestation and climate change to child labor and heavy metal contamination , cocoa farming leaves a lot to be desired.  But what if we could make cocoa powder without having to chop down the rainforest and engage in so many other unsavory practices? That's what California Cultured is working on now. The Davis, California-...

If you follow the world of cultivated meat, you probably know that a few companies have gotten historic regulatory approval and have sold some limited quantities of product both in the US and Singapore. But earlier this year,  Meatly —a company founded only in 2021 and with just a few million British pounds in their pocket—succeeded in getting regulatory approval to start selling its cultivated ch...

Around the time his son was born in 2011, Beni Nofech saw a video that changed his life. After listening to an argument about the need to move away from the view that animals are mere commodities for humanity to use however we like, Beni adopted a vegan diet and soon found himself attending animal movement and alt-protein conferences. From there, he began making angel investments in food tech star...

You've heard of fruit leather, but what about making leather from fruit? Or more precisely, feeding fruit waste like mango pulp to bacteria which then convert those sugars into a leather-like material that can be useful for all types of purposes? That's exactly what Polybion , a startup in Central Mexico, is doing. Co-founded in 2015 by two brothers with a passion for using biology to save humanit...

Alt-meat today is typically made from soybeans, yellow peas, wheat, or some combination of those three crops. But there's a whole world of plants out there, and maybe some of them can be harnessed to widen the world of ingredients available to manufacturers, perhaps even offering better functionality and flavor. One of the problems though, is that making protein isolates from most beans or lentils...

Seafood consumption is going up around the world,  including in the US , with salmon being the fish species Americans love to eat the most . (The only seafood Americans eat more is shrimp, who of course are crustaceans, not fish.)  The biggest wave of alt-meat so far has focused on beef replacement like burgers and sausages, given how many consumers already view red meat as bad for their health. B...

Not everyone gets a second chance of life. But Inna Braverman got just that, and is using her second chance to try to solve one of humanity's most pressing problems.  Born in Chernobyl, Ukraine, Inna was only two weeks old when the nuclear disaster nearly took her life. When her mom found Inna blue and unresponsive from the pollution spewed from the damaged reactor, she used her nursing skills to...

Imagine thinking it would be a good idea to try to help people eat more fruits and vegetables, so you start making whole foods smoothies for your friends and family. Soon you're selling them to more people than you personally know. Next thing you know, you're running an all-vegan frozen meal company with hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, a billion dollar-plus valuation, and hundreds of t...

If America's roughly 180 million meat-loving dogs and cats formed their own nation, they'd reportedly be the  fifth biggest meat-consuming country in the world. As pet-keeping has exploded in the developed world, so too has demand for all the chickens, fish, pigs, and cows to feed those pets. There's even been a trend toward human-grade meat in pet food, meaning pet food isn't simply the meat that...

Maisie Ganzler has never worked at an animal welfare charity nor an alt-protein company. Yet she's in the upper echelon of effectiveness when it comes to reducing the suffering of farmed animals. That's because she's served as an executive of a national food management company supplying 1,000 schools and corporate dining facilities, Bon Appetit Management Company , for decades. In her career, Mais...