Mindful Businesses

Met up with one our favorite guests Luis Fernando, Founder of Amor Perfecto, for breakfast in Bogota, Colombia. During our recording we had hoped to share our love for coffee over a cup of coffee in Bogota and we are happy that we were able to meet and catch-up. We loved learning about what the company its growth and future plans. Amor Perfecto has six locations in Bogota and is poised for a globa...

Urban flight in America in the 1960s  resulted in downtowns having empty abandoned buildings and structures. The city governments had to eventually demolish these structures and their debris ended up in the landfills. Our guests Michael Gainer and Ian MacDonald of Reuse Action, who live in Buffalo, NY, started thinking about the millions of dollars the demolishings would cost the city and the taxp...

Sustainable products are priced out of reach of most Americans. They cost the consumers more due to a variety of reasons - higher costs of inputs and innovation, demand is higher than supply and sometimes…just because.. people are willing to pay more. If we are on this global journey to make our world sustainable we need each and everyone on board. Our guest on this episode Reid Edgar , Owner of S...

Today we talk with Ryan McPherson, Chief Sustainability Officer at University of Buffalo. He heads the Climate Action Plan at the university. The University has the goal of climate neutrality by 2030. They plan to achieve this goal by having 10 strategies to achieve it. Strategies such as “Not all electricity is created equal”, “Waste not”, and “putting a price on pollution”. These goals were driv...

This episode was originally aired on February 18, 2020 We talk with co-founders Sujata and Taniya (Su and Ta) who decided to quit their well-paying jobs and put their hearts and souls into spreading love through traditional hand-woven sarees. They have a family of 1400 weavers. The process of weaving every saree is a celebration of centuries of tradition and the authenticity of Indian arts. Suta s...

The firsts in our lives have a special place in our life experience. May it be the first job, first business venture, first car and even your first podcast episode. Today we wanted to re-air on the 4 year anniversary, our first episode Palm Straw. It was a startup in 2019 which my mentor at that time Dora Lutz I suggest that I reach out to. This startup with such a simple sustainable idea and prod...

As formula companies’ productions are limping back to normal, after the recall, a question some people ask is why can't mother "just" switch to breastfeeding their infants. As most mothers know that it is not that easy to make that switch. Breastfeeding a baby can be hard - it needs support from the family, spouse, pediatrician and most importantly the medical community. Breast milk can be stored...

The practice of manufacturing for planned obsolescence seems to be what most manufacturers in the present time follow. This means to make an item that will break down sooner than their earlier versions, lack of how-to-fix information or tutorials and even make it impossible to be repaired. The direct impact of such a philosophy increases the bottom line of the business at the cost of increasing e-...

Repairing an item is an achievable and straightforward path to achieve sustainability goals. This "concept" is becoming more and more apparent with Right to Repair legislations being passed as laws in some states in the US and countries worldwide. In January 2023, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the Digital Fair Repair Act, a law that will increase the consumers ability to repair some electronics and red...

"No Mow May..." in Buffalo and Western New York, was a cooperative effort by neighbors, municipalities, and counties to stop residents from mowing their lawns for a month to help pollinators such as bees survive and help their population grow. Pollinators are an integral part of the global food supply. This episode delves into how the bee population has been affected by commercial and large scale...

With summer fast approaching, sipping a glass of wine, we wondered about the practices of vineyards - a highly competitive and commercialized industry. Around the same time we were pitched by Ehlers Estate for an interview with their General Manager and Winemaker. In our conversation with several of the mindful business leaders, we sought insights into the economics of running a sustainable and pr...

When Jodi Bakst and Cor Rademaker, co - founders of Circular Design Consultants had the opportunity to develop oa piece of land in North Carolina, they had the vision to make it North Carolina’s first net-zero neighborhood. They put this vision to pen and paper to create Array Sustainable Design and bring to market a twelve lot neighborhood on 60 acres, in picturesque Orange County, North Carolina...

We talk with Shameek Ghosh, co-founder of Trustrace a platform that brings traceability and transparency to the fashion brands such as #Adidas, #Decathalon, and #FjällRaven. It all started when one of his coworkers/friend decided to return to India from Sweden to take over his ancestral property. His friend was dismayed at the destruction that the fashion industry had caused to the lands owned by...

Receiving a gift makes people happy, incentivizes and motivates employees, and builds corporate morale. Businesses give gifts for various reasons - a promotion, to say thank you, reaching a milestone or even”just because”. The businesses try their level best to match the gift to the employees tastes. That can be a daunting task for the gifter. Loop and Tie aims at making corporate gifting intentio...

The cement industry puts out 8% of the world’s CO2 emissions, but having said that, it is very durable and technically made with natural materials. As we go along this journey to build a sustainable home, we look into options to reduce the consumption of cement and therefore concrete in our home. We delve into the techniques to build a strong and dry foundation or basement that can withstand the u...

Carbon cycle occurs naturally in nature during photosynthesis. Plants absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen and when animals consume the plants they release the carbon dioxide that is again absorbed by the plants. Human activities put out more carbon than nature can handle. We have to use every possible way to absorb this excess carbon from the atmosphere. Soil is an excellent source to capture...

Majority of the conversation around fashion waste revolves around finished products that end up in the landfill. But around  12 % that is around 6.3 million tonnes per year is sent by brands to the landfill in the design and development stage. These would be sample booklets with swatches and unused fabric rolls and prior to Fabscrap they ended up in the landfill. We talk with Jessica Schreiber CEO...

This week we revisit an episode on innovative pumped energy storage with RheEnergise!  _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Energy systems need to decarbonise to prevent climate change. There are many solutions to generate energy without using fossil-fuels, but renewable sources of energy are intermittent, depending on how long the sun shine...

Oil spills in our world where engines are omnipresent are almost inevitable. Larger accidental spills on land and water have catastrophic effects on the environment, plant and animal life. Ironically some of the industrial spill clean-up solutions often used may not always be eco-friendly. SaveSorb is a totally natural, sustainable plant material. Using sphagnum peat moss in a proprietary method,...

As we sip our daily cup of tea, we may wonder how and where it was grown and its impact on our planet. Tea production impacts our planet and people on several layers. The farming practices employed, wages paid, living conditions of the workers and its overall impact on our planet. In  2006, Numi Organic Teas was one of the founding (amongst 30 businesses) to be certified as a B corp. They had been...

As a way of welcoming Spring let's learn about composting, specially curbside composting. The result - a beautiful rich soil ready for your spring planting. Let's hear more in this episode. This episode is a re-air from October 4, 2021 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Black Earth Compost was founded in January 2011,...

The risk assessments that governments and corporations make to encourage marginalized communities and uplift them, have themselves become a hurdle to the assistance that they wish to provide. Honnold foundations wishes to fill that gap by partnering closely with nonprofits in a space where their needs are too small for governments and not profitable enough for businesses. The Honnold Foundation wa...

We just heard that “the Delhi High Court has granted an injunction in favor of Barefoot College restraining Barefoot College International (BCI) from using “Barefoot College” (and the two-feet logo) for any purpose whatsoever. More specifically, the Court has restrained BCI from continued use of the domain name www.barefootcollege.org . Further, the Court has also forbidden BCI from using “Barefoo...

Most US elementary school students learn about photosynthesis in their science class. The process is very simple - chlorophyll in the leaves and green stems absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen back into the atmosphere. It is nature's elegant way of capturing carbon dioxide. Carbon cycle is where humans and human activities put out carbon dioxide and processes such as photosynthesis absorb it....

We have this love-hate relationship with plastic. It is versatile, durable, light-weight and used in a multitude of applications. How do we recover and give this plastic a second life or third life?   Today we have with us Doug Woodring, Founder and Managing Director of the Ocean Recovery Alliance - Bringing Creative Surprise to Environmental Engagement. Ocean Recovery Alliance is focused on entre...