Social Impact Pioneers

Meet the social impact pioneer Mario Elias Gonzalez. Mario’s expertise reaches from chemical engineer and wind farm community engagement, to 10 years spent with CEMEX working on their Social Impact and Shared Value programmes. Mario joins our podcast to share his expertise on social innovation and the strategy of driving responsible and inclusive business deep into the core of companies. He provid...

Meet social impact pioneer Swenja Surminski as she joins us to break down climate adaptation, resilience and the importance of accounting for climate change risk across all business decisions. “This is not a future issue. This is something that requires action today.” Implores Swenja. As a contributing author to the IPCC, and the lead author of the UK's Climate Change Risk Assessment, Swenja is aw...

Chocolate supply chains are tricky and need help to built resilience to climate change. But with care it can be done. Best selling author, social enterprise founder, CEO and social impact pioneer: Shawn Askinosie shares the true benefits of understanding your supply chain. Shawn setup Askinosie Chocolate 16 years ago with his daughter Lawren. They were recently named by Forbes “One of the 25 Best...

This podcast is a 101 on development finance institutions. Social impact pioneer Andrew Palmer joins us to examine what development finance institutions are, how they came into being, what they do and how they create lasting sustainable impact. Andrew is the Director of Global Affairs at the UK’s development finance institution. During our conversation he peels back the curtain for us, explaining...

Rosa Wang, social impact pioneer, examines how mobile technology frontiers are providing financial access, connectivity, identity and empowerment for people across the world – from Kenya to India. Rosa is the Senior Advisor and former Global Director for Digital Financial Services at Opportunity International. She joins us to share stories from her global journey. Where she has collating first han...

Will it take the 136 years to reach gender equality predicted by the World Economic Forum in 2021? In many parts of the world, women currently fall far behind. Just look at educational achievement, earning differences, ownership of property, access to the internet or mobile phones or participation in decision making for proof. But how do we go about levelling things up for women? Meet social impac...

What does fair trade really mean in practice? And why could it help in tackling climate change? During this podcast conversation you will hear two global experts in fair trade examine why investing properly in the producers and growers within supply chains can create the resilience and capacity required to fight our globe’s greatest challenge. Emily Pearce is the Senior Sustainable Sourcing & Inte...

Justin Perrettson shares a masterclass in why business needs to be listening and participating in public and international decision making; whilst providing us with behind-the-scenes access into the challenges and mechanisms of multi-lateral decision making. Justin Perrettson is the Head of Sustainability Partnerships at Novozymes. The industrial biotechnology company and world leader in enzymes a...

“Society created this hierarchy and unproductive definition of what a leader is.” Meet Ayan Said – this one-woman whirlwind. Part women’s rights activist, education advocate, poet and business development consultant. Ayan is on a mission to change the narrative of how we all talk to each other – by better understanding one another. Ayan’s personal journey spans sectors, geography and socio-economi...

Snigdha Ali and Maria May, of the Gates Foundation examine the opportunities digital and mobile finance create in empowering women. Gender equity is still a long way off. The World Economic Forum estimates that global pandemic has set the gender gap back 36 years. Is digital finance one of the ways that gender equity might be boosted? The global pandemic has sped up the use of digital – in no bigg...

Karen Simmonds explores whether travel and tourism can be a part of a sustainable future and details how we might be able to achieve this. The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) estimate that pre-pandemic Travel & Tourism accounted for 1 in 4 of all new jobs created across the world, 10.6% of all jobs (334 million), and 10.4% of global GDP (US$9.2 trillion). Founder of Travel Matters and the...

What does climate resilience mean and why does it need to be a vital part of business and community activities as we get ready for the full impacts of climate change? Meet Peter Hall. He is the Vice President & Global Director for Climate Resilience & ESG at Woodplc. Peter is a specialist in all things resilience. Whether building climate resilient cities; homes; and infrastructure; or investing i...

This podcast goes to the very roots and heart of Business Fights Poverty – we are going to deeply examine poverty. What it is, where it occurs, to whom, why and what we can do about it. Global exert and leading thinker Sabina Alkire who directs the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) at the University of Oxford - shares her lifelong research into poverty. During our conversation...

This conversation is recorded from Glasgow during the COP26 and the Business Fights Poverty Climate Justice Summit. Gib Bulloch, intrapreneur, business influencer and founder of Craigberoch Business Decelerator joins us in Glasgow at COP26 to share his thoughts on why business needs to care more deeply about their people, how connecting with our environment and slowing down will create the energy...

This conversation is recorded from Glasgow during the COP26 and the Business Fights Poverty Climate Justice Summit. During this conversation Devika Gopal Agge, Chief Development Officer and Charlotte Fraiberg, Board Advisor from Health In Harmony share their insights from Glasgow. They talk the day after the COP26 Global Forest Finance pledge is made, during which more than 100 world leaders promi...

Farmers are pioneering climate action as climate change deeply affects farmers around the world. Ghana and Malawi farmers are pioneering climate resilient actions and want to share their insights. During this conversation we hear from: Kate Nkatha Ochieng, Commercial Director, Fairtrade Africa; Bismark Kpabitey, cocoa farmer and climate change project lead from Ghana; Rachel Banda, sugar farmer an...

Regenerative agriculture creates climate resilience. Learn from Kenyan farmer Evalyn Akoth as she shares how she is adopting regenerative farming techniques. Evalyne shares her advice to other farmers and bigger businesses about pioneering climate resilience techniques. During this podcast hear from: Evalyn Akoth, farming in Kisumu County, Kenya. Practical Action’s CEO, Sarah Roberts and Oliver Fu...

By one estimate the demand for photovoltaic installers (or solar energy electricians) is projected to grow 52 percent from 2020 to 2030. Carol Weis and Neha Misra - both part of Remote Energy examine how we train up a new global workforce of solar installers. Remote Energy is a team comprised of electricians, educators and innovators in the photovoltaic industry who share a vision to catalyse chan...

How do you tell a man not to cut down a tree in order to pay for a c-section for his wife? Saving, preserving and revitalising forests is complicated. Learn how business and forest communities can work together to stop deforestation. Kinari Webb has devoted her life and work to tropical forests. Kinari is the founder of Health In Harmony, the author of “Guardians of the Trees” and winner of the UN...

Let's talk about climate change, climate justice and last mile supplies for farmers. Hear about ways farmers tackle climate change and how we can better support remote communities in their last mile supplies.  Meet: Madan Pariyar, member of Nepal’s delegation to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and iDE’s Senior Adviser and iDE’s Nepal in country director Corey O’Hara. iDE...

What is climate justice and why should we care about it? Meet Edward Cameron. Edward has dedicated his career to understanding, delivering, and advocating for climate justice. He has a PhD in the topic and is the founder of the International Institute for Climate Justice. During this podcast Edward shares pragmatic ways to catalyse low-carbon inclusive actions and why he believes business engageme...

Hileena Eshetu and Mark Blackett from Agribusiness Market Ecosystem Alliance AMEA explain how cooperatives benefit smallholder farmers. There are an estimated 525 million smallholder farmers globally – producing one third of the world’s food. Helping farmers and agribusinesses to be as professional as possible could increase incomes, create resilience to shocks and provide access pathways for smal...

How do you effectively spend billions of dollars of taxpayer’s money to help fight global poverty? And how do you invest for climate resilience and account for the unknown such as the risks of pandemics? We hear from Alicia Phillips Mandaville who is the Vice President of the Department of Policy and Evaluation at The Millennium Challenge Corporation (the MCC) – as she takes as through the MCC’s l...

Parag Khanna explores our future, providing us with a cutting-edge guide to the megatrends shaping humanity's next decades. He dives into questions such as: where will we be living in 2050 and how will we get there? Dr. Parag Khanna is a leading global strategy advisor, world traveller, and best-selling author. What that really means is he’s a geography geek and thinker about the future. He holds...

How do you ignite your inner drive? My guest today has dedicated much of his life and thinking to this question – Sharath Jeevan. From business leader, Founding Head of eBay for Charity to education CEO – Sharath candidly shares why unlocking the motivation of his teams as well as for himself is so important. During our conversation Sharath takes us on a journey exploring the drivers of motivation...