Sustainable Founders

Joanna Jensen is the exit founder of Childs Farm, a sensitive skincare brand, and the author of ‘Making Business Child’s Play’. Joanna talks to Raakhee with unfiltered honesty about the personal inspiration and drive behind the products and brand, whilst navigating some of the hardest chapters of her personal life. Proudly British, with strong ethics at its heart, she discusses finding a value ali...

Robert Cobbold is a co-founder of Native Squared, a company selling environmental rights, allowing us to protect nature one square at a time. Rob talks to Raakhee about why nature and biodiversity are as important as carbon credits. With each square costing the same as a cup of coffee, this is still more than what a logging company would pay. Discussing the left brain bias that western society is...

A special episode looking back at 2025 and exploring concerns and the opportunities for 2026. Key themes include how tariffs and uncertainty make planning difficult, yet how the underlying belief in sustainability remains unchanged.  Discussing the challenges in investment funding, the investment drops in first of a kind projects, ai for climate versus ai for defense, the growing importance of com...

Ruby Raut is the co-founder of WUKA, a holistic period underwear brand. Ruby talks to Raakhee about the personal experience inspiring the products, and how each underwear replaces approx 200 disposable pads/ tampons into landfill, at a fraction of the cost and carbon footprint. Discussing how to have conversations people don’t want to have, using polarising and bold campaigns to cut through the no...

Hugo Tagholm of Oceana, an organisation fighting to protect our oceans; and a founder at Surfers Against Sewage. Hugo talks to Raakhee about navigating from royalty to politicians and surfers, we discuss his journey from North London boy to champion for our oceans. ‘We can’t do to the oceans what we have done to the land; imagine our oceans with only 4% natural ocean wildlife’. Oceana campaigns to...

Stephen Crosher is the co-founder of RheEnergise, a high density hydro-power energy business in the UK. Stephen speaks to Raakhee about their modern twist on an old idea, turning small hills into giant batteries for energy storage, and including nature corridors. Discussing the challenges of storage for renewable energy, the opaqueness in the energy industry and what renewables can do for UK energ...

Aura Murillo and Louise Skajem are the founders of Resting Reef, a memorial service turning the ashes of those who have died into coral and oyster reef memorials, restoring marine life and biodiversity. Louise and Aura speak to Raakhee about their inspiration, how they work with closely with local communities in Bali to create and install the memorials, and their next locations. With 95% of UK and...

Louisa Ziane is the co-founder of Toast Brewing, an award winning craft beer brand from East London's Hackney, brewed using surplus bread. Louisa talks to Raakhee about 1/3 of the worlds food being wasted, and how they were inspired at a sandwich factory that was throwing away the heel ends of loaves, resulting in 13k of wasted slices of bread from one baker, in one day. Donating ALL profits t...

Nick Stoop is the founder of Pangea Impact investments, focused on sustainable workplace pension solutions. Nick talks to Raakhee about how a sustainable pensions can reduce your overall carbon footprint by approx. 50% AND build your wealth. Discussing perspective, risk and fears, ie where should we be investing our pensions today? Your pension is a powerful vote for the future, and Nick is campai...

Professor Becky Parker is the founder of Project Earth, an organisation empowering young people aged 8-18 to innovate for biodiversity and climate solutions. Prof. Becky talks to Raakhee about the creative minds she works with, and wanting to given them agency in their future. Her students will be aged 40 when net zero 2050 comes into place, yet most sustainability demo days are for people aged 18...

Andrew Wordsworth is the co-founder of Sustainable Ventures, Europe's leading growth partner for climate tech. Andrew talks to Raakhee about starting his first company when he was in sixth form, and the high survival rate for start ups that belong to a Hub vs doing it alone. They discuss why you can’t be a sustainability purist, why profit and sustainability must go hand in hand, as climate te...

Heike Petersen Cunza is the founder of Wellicious, a circular yoga wear brand, with Cradle to Cradle, Gold certification. Heike talks to Raakhee about the depth of their sustainability certification, her priorities of motherhood, and how yoga principals of peace and love contradict the plastic yoga clothing industry (think polyester, nylon fabrics), that harm the wearer and the environment. Heike...

Deepak Ravindran is the Co-Founder of Oddbox, a £30m wonky surplus food subscription service, fighting food waste with imperfect looking fruit & veg. Deepak talks to Raakhee about the changing attitudes towards food aesthetics, with 20-40% of food not leaving UK farms due to their imperfect looks, and the role of supermarket cosmetic standards. Deepak speaks of his mental wellness and resilien...

Milo Pinckney is the founder of Rollr, a deodorant made for pleasure, people, and the planet. Milo talks to Raakhee about being inspired whilst travelling in New Zealand, recognising we are part of the seas and the trees. They discuss the patent on the bottle, the natural anti-perspirant and anti-odourant ingredients, and the emotional first sale. With impressive organic press coverage in GQ, Daze...

Roni Gamzon is the co-founder and COO of BioFluff (Savian and BioPlush), the worlds first plant based alternative to fur and plush (think fluffy fabrics on coats, pillows, kids toys). Roni talks to Raakhee about micro plastics that shed from plush, and how infants have up to x10 more microplastics than adults. Sharing how they showcased the brand at COP28 with Stella McCartney, the exciting yet br...

Ira Guha is the founder of Asan, a social enterprise brand of menstrual cups. Ira talks to Raakhee about her inspiration behind Asan, about period poverty not only being an issue in the Global South, and reducing plastic waste via their reusable cup. Discussing the lack of female representation in product innovation, the stigmas, usage, and pre conceived ideas around menstrual products. With comme...

Connor Bryant is the co-founder and CEO of Rubbish Ideas, an SaaS (software as a service) platform empowering businesses to transition from a linear to circular economy. Connor talks to Raakhee, exploring how data collection around waste can save money and the planet, the challenges of legacy thinking, how litter is a design issue more than a user issue, growing up with eco anxiety, the sustainabi...

Nick Doman is the co-founder of Ocean Bottle, a social impact, reusable water bottle brand. Nick talks to Raakhee about profit and purpose co-existing, and the luxury of waste management. As a social and environmental impact company, they are on a mission to stop ocean plastic, and each bottle they sell funds the collection of a thousand plastic bottles in weight, with collections in India, Indone...

Asher Clark, a 7th generation cobbler is the co founder of Vivo Barefoot, a footwear brand reconnecting people to nature and their natural potential via regenerative footwear. Asher talks to Raakhee about growing up as a Quaker, a rebel, and the culture which inspired him. We discuss shoes not being feet shaped, and how nature is the the best designer. With futuristic 3D printed shoes in the Vivo...

Steven Bethell is the co-founder of Beyond Retro, a vintage and circular clothing company with stores in prime London locations. Steven talks to Raakhee about how they rehome 4 million clothing garments a week and re-manufacture clothes that can’t be sold into something new, and the challenges of leasing a store in upmarket parts of town. Highlights include JLo holding a Coach bag made with repurp...

Harry Dennis is the co-founder of Waterhaul, a brand recovering ghost fishing gear from the UK Cornish coast and transforming this plastic into sunglasses. Harry talks to Raakhee about his journey from marine biologist, working at Surfers Against Sewage, to entrepreneur; and how he secured £1m funding at the BE100 for sustainable start ups, pitching to impact investors at the Blue Earth Summit in...

Rachel Evans and Jesse Schiller are the founders of Kooshoo, a unique hair accessories company using plants not plastic. They talk to Raakhee about the culture of disposability and planned obsolescence; why does anybody need 55 hair ties in a pack? Living on Norfolk Island in the middle of the South Pacific, Kooshoo means feeling well and content, an ethos that runs through every part of this 11 y...

Marcin Koziorowski is the co-founder of Ecobean, a company turning coffee waste into sustainable chemicals; to be used in industries including packaging, food, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Marcin talks to Raakhee about how only 2% of coffee is utilised in making a cup of coffee whilst the remaining 98% is thrown away; how Ecobean collect the coffee waste, split it into 5 fractions of chemicals,...

Patrick Dumas is the founder of Square Mile Farms; a vertical farming solution for the workplace, with modular plug and play systems. Patrick talks to Raakhee about the benefits of zero food miles; the conversations he wants us to have about our food, with transparency about its provenance. They discuss the current food systems, the impact from the centralisation of our supermarket delivery networ...

Lisa Gautier is the co-founder of Matter of Trust, an organisation creating hair mats to soak up oils spills, as one of their major projects. Lisa talks to Raakhee about collecting hair donations from salons and pet groomers, turning them into hair mats, how they got involved and helped in the BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010; using hair for compost and soil nutrients, the Ick f...