The Environmental Transformation Podcast with Sean Grady

The U.S. drinking water MCLs for PFAS remain in effect, but court challenges, proposed deadline extensions, and regulatory uncertainty have left public water systems in a difficult position. Taryn McKnight , VP and PFAS Practice Leader for Eurofins Environment Testing , breaks down the current state of PFAS regulation in the United States, including the legal battles over EPA's drinking water...

Battelle's Chlorinated Conference draws 1,500 environmental professionals from 23 countries, and its division manager explains why PFAS treatment is pushing the industry to its limits. Joe Tarsavage , Division Manager of Environmental Solutions at Battelle, discusses the 30-year history of the Chlorinated Conference, how PFAS contamination has reset treatment standards from two nines to five o...

Forty percent of prospects never make a buying decision, and the reason is rarely the competition. Rohail Khan , founder of Avant. AI and executive consultant for Corporate Visions , breaks down why the status quo is the most dangerous competitor in any sales cycle and how to defeat it. Khan draws on 25 years as a C-suite executive, including roles at Xerox and Bank of America, to explain what CEO...

ToxiMapp aggregates over 60 geospatial environmental datasets to show users exactly which toxicants are present in the air, water, and soil near any U.S. address, and the platform's founders say most people have no idea what surrounds them. Deb Hordon, Ph. D. , founder and CEO of ToxiMapp, built the platform after moving her infant daughter into two separate communities with cancer clusters. N...

Microplastics appear on a federal contaminant watchlist for the first time, and the regulatory path forward remains far from certain. Megan Quinn , senior reporter at Waste Dive , breaks down what the EPA's proposed new Contaminant Candidate List 6 actually means for water utilities, landfill operators, and chemical manufacturers, and why the lack of standardized test methods could slow any fu...

The U.S. Department of Energy spends roughly $8 billion annually cleaning up nuclear waste from Manhattan Project-era sites like Hanford, Washington and Oak Ridge, Tennessee. On this episode of the Environmental Transformation Podcast , host Sean Grady sits down with Steve Moore , president and CEO of Veolia Nuclear Solutions Federal Services Group , to discuss the agency's most pressing envir...

Sean Grady interviews John M. Beath, P.E. (TX), LCA-CP, CEO and founder of John Beath Environmental, LLC, on the Environmental Transformation Podcast. Beath explains life cycle assessment (LCA), carbon footprints and how companies evaluate emissions across raw materials, manufacturing, transportation and product use. In this episode, Beath breaks down LCA basics for beginners, including emission f...

Host Sean Grady talks with Kevin Lavezzo of CHEMTREC about the side of the chemical world most people never see, but responders rely on when accurate information matters. They unpack what CHEMTREC actually does, including how its Emergency Operations Center triages calls, uses tools like the Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG) , and connects callers with product experts. Lavezzo explains a common m...

TerraCycle CEO and co-founder Tom Szaky returns to the Environmental Transformation Podcast with host Sean Grady for an update on what has changed since his last appearance in episode 20 in 2020. Szaky breaks down why most items are “not recyclable” because of economics, not technology, and why reuse is TerraCycle’s biggest investment through the Loop platform, including what it has taken to scale...

On the Environmental Transformation Podcast, host Sean Grady talks with Charlie Sellars , author of “What We Can Do, a Climate Optimist Guide to Sustainable Living” and a director of sustainability at Microsoft. Topics include: • Why “crisis language” can burn people out, and how Sellars frames “pragmatic” climate optimism. (“crisis language kind of burns people out”; “The optimism language is a p...

On this episode of the Environmental Transformation Podcast , host Sean Grady speaks with Enviro Apps co founder Amit Bhargava live at the EHS Hazmat Summit. Bhargava explains how his platform streamlines digital hazardous waste and dangerous goods documentation, improves emergency response times, reduces administrative burden, and helps shippers and carriers save money. He also discusses regulato...

Alan McKim , founder of Clean Harbors , joins the Environmental Transformation Podcast to discuss how he grew the company from a four-person startup in 1980 into one of North America's largest environmental and industrial services providers. McKim reflects on early emergency response work, major acquisitions including Safety Kleen, going public during the 1987 crash, and building a nationwide...

Host Sean Grady welcomes Scott Parker, Executive Director of Enfinite—the Industrial Liquid Recycling Association—to discuss the organization’s rebrand from NORA and its mission to connect, educate, and protect the industrial liquid recycling industry. Parker shares Enfinite’s history, key regulatory advocacy work, challenges like PFAS management and driver shortages, and how members are embracing...

Dr. Slava Libman , co-founder and CEO of FTD Solutions , joins host Sean Grady on the Environmental Transformation Podcast to discuss how digital twin technology is transforming industrial water and energy use. Libman shares FTD’s origin story, explains how digital twins help facilities optimize performance and reduce costs, and explores their impact on sustainability and ESG goals. He also covers...

Host Sean Grady interviews attorney Robert Bilott live from the AHMP EHS Hazmat Summit in Louisville, Kentucky. Bilott, the lawyer whose work inspired the film Dark Waters , shares his decades-long fight against DuPont over PFAS contamination, the failures of early chemical disclosure, and the challenges of pushing the EPA to regulate forever chemicals. He discusses his book Exposure , the ongoing...

Sourgum co-founder and CEO Joe DiNardi-Mack shares how his team is using technology, AI, and data analytics to modernize the waste and recycling industry. He discusses scaling a nationwide waste management platform, supporting local haulers, improving routing and diversion rates, and offering enterprise waste solutions. Topics include waste management software, recycling technology, sustainability...

Lisa Foster is a business coach, speaker, and author of Bag Lady: How I Started a Business for a Greener World and Changed the Way America Shops. In this episode of the Environmental Transformation Podcast , host Sean Grady talks with Lisa about her journey founding 1 Bag at a Time, Inc., one of the first reusable grocery bag companies in the U.S., and how she scaled it to sell millions of bags. L...

In this episode of the Environmental Transformation Podcast, host Sean Grady talks with Meaghan Colligan Hembree, Environmental, Compliance & Disputes Partner at Holland & Knight in Washington, D.C. She counsels Fortune 500 companies and global brands on chemical risk, environmental compliance, and high-stakes disputes. Hembree explains extended producer responsibility (EPR) laws, how they...

Host Sean Grady interviews Dr. Surinder Singh, CEO and co-founder of Relyion Energy Inc. Dr. Singh explains how his company is reshaping energy management through AI-driven forecasting, energy management systems (EMS), and battery management systems (BMS). He shares the story behind Relyion's technology, how it extends battery life up to 20 years, and why utility-scale clients, data centers, and c...

In this episode of the Environmental Transformation Podcast , host Sean Grady talks with Alan Roberson , Executive Director of the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators (ASDWA) . Roberson shares insights from over 34 years in water policy, including how ASDWA supports state drinking water agencies, challenges of PFAS regulation, and the impact of federal funding shortfalls on public h...

Veteran environmental attorney Phil Comella joins host Sean Grady on the Environmental Transformation Podcast to break down the EPA’s proposed rollback of PFAS drinking water regulations. With over 40 years of experience, Comella offers expert legal insight on how the delayed compliance deadlines, potential MCL reductions, and CERCLA implications could affect municipalities, water utilities, waste...

Emily Donovan of Clean Cape Fear returns to the Environmental Transformation Podcast to discuss the EPA’s proposed rollback of the PFAS drinking water rules and how it potentially could impact contaminated communities like hers in North Carolina. Host Sean Grady explores the legal, regulatory, and public health stakes behind the EPA’s May 14 announcement, with Donovan providing on-the-ground insig...

Welcome to the Environmental Transformation Podcast with your host, Sean Grady . In this high-impact episode, we’re joined by Sam Goodman , also known as The HOP Nerd —a leading voice in Human and Organizational Performance (HOP) , safety culture innovation, and host of The HOP Nerd Podcast . 🎙️ In This Episode: Sam breaks down what HOP (Human and Organizational Performance) really means, why trad...

In this episode, host Sean Grady sits down with Jim Galligan , Senior Vice President at TerraTherm , to discuss advanced thermal remediation technologies. Jim, an industry veteran with over 34 years of expertise, dives deep into thermal conduction heating (TCH), electrical resistance heating (ERH), and steam-enhanced extraction (SEE)—powerful techniques used to remediate recalcitrant contaminants...

In this episode of the Environmental Transformation Podcast, host Sean Grady welcomes Michael Hoffman, president and CEO of the National Waste and Recycling Association (NWRA) . Hoffman shares his 37 years of experience in the waste and recycling industry, discusses NWRA's advocacy efforts at the local, state, and federal levels, and outlines his vision for improving safety, membership engagem...