The Net Zero Business Podcast

A whopping 90% of global trade is transported by sea - about 1.5tonnes per person on earth every year. This represents 3% of global emissions yet lies outside the Paris Agreement. This week on the pod, I'm joined by Ollie Taylor, Founder of Marine Futures, to talk all things maritime Sustainability, covering the decarbonisation of the global shipping trade, elite yacht racing and Ollie's specific...

On a daily basis we hear opinions on why the UK's electricity prices are so high – is it due to our reliance on gas or our Net Zero policies? This week, Andrew Sissons, Director of Sustainable Future at NESTA, joins me to discuss NESTA's decarbonisation of domestic heating projects, and how to make that transition more affordable which takes us on to power prices. We unpick why UK electricity cost...

This week on the pod I'm joined by Hattie Park, Sustainability Manager at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, or, as most people think of it, Wimbledon. We talk about the challenges of half a million people descending on the grounds, expecting to be fed and watered, reducing the impacts of buildings and how Hattie and her team engage with the players to get the message out to a wider audience. If yo...

The Sustainability Show is our four weekly review show. There's been plenty of news in the last four weeks with the possibility of the Strait of Hormuz reopening to fossil fuels, a number of energy records met and the UK Government starting the process of adopting the seventh carbon budget. Ex UK PM Tony Blair also popped up with his views on Net Zero amongst plenty of other issues. I also review...

Chris has 35 years' experience in the energy sector, cutting his teeth in a coal fired power station before moving on to hydro, wind, nuclear solar and BESS projects both in the UK and globally. We talk about transferable skills, the threat of blackouts, how economics are unfolding and Chris's current mission: pushing back against energy misinformation. Fascinating stuff! To get the listener offer...

This week, I'm joined by Lauren Juliff of the Clean Growth Fund. The fund seeks out early stage entrepreneurs with the potential to abate more than 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum and give them the money and guidance to bring their concepts to market. One of the themes of our discussion is that switching investment from high carbon industries to lower carbon sectors isn't enough – cash...

Paul Brannen is a former Member of the European Parliament turned passionate advocate of the use of timber in construction and author of the book Timber! – How Wood Can Help Save the World. In this enlightening conversation, Paul explains the full climate benefits of using fast growing spruce as a construction material, how modern forestry practice can help support biodiversity and the policy chan...

In this second episode of The Sustainability Show, I look at the last four weeks' Sustainability news: the continuing Strait of Hormuz crisis, the remarkable fuss over RCP8.5 and the fallout from the UK's local elections which turned into anything but. I also reflect on the last three interviews here on the pod and pull out my key learning points, before a little life lesson. This episode is broug...

This week I'm joined by Ketan Joshi, climate communications wizard, to discuss how to talk about climate change and its solutions in a world of disinformation. We talk about Ketan's formative experiences of so-called 'wind turbine syndrome' through battling algorithms, reply guys and AI slop to making some recommendations for Sustainability Professionals to help them cut through the noise. We coul...

This week I'm joined by Claire Poole, founder and CEO of Sport Positive, which seeks to help embed Sustainability into sport, from grassroots to the Olympics. We cover a huge amount of ground, most notably the What's Stopping Us: Applying psychology to accelerate climate action in sport Report co-sponsored by Sport Positive which has some fascinating insights which can be applied to any sector. Cl...

When an EV battery is no longer fit to power a vehicle, that is not the end of its useful life. Connected Energy takes those batteries and effectively doubles their lifespan by using them in Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) for grid management services before they are ultimately recycled. Founder and CEO Matthew Lumsden explains how the business models for both sections of that process work,...

Regular listeners may have noticed the normal rhythm of our episodes is three guest interviews followed by a solo effort by yours truly. I'm pleased to launch a new version of that fourth episode – a monthly round up of news, interviews and other reflections which I hope you will find useful if not inspiring. This month we cover the ongoing situation in the Gulf, the IEA energy review, changes to...

Today I'm joined by Frédéric Dalsace, Professor of Marketing at the prestigious IMD business school and co-author of a new book, Clean Winners. The book looks at where high profile corporate sustainability ventures have failed, notably Unilever, and sets out 'Sustainability 2.0' to address those shortcomings. As you'll hear, we don't agree on everything – the role of premium Sustainability product...

This week, I chat to Nick Brown, founder of waterproofing brand Nikwax, the outdoor clothing brand Paramo and his latest venture Green Levers. We talk about fighting pushback from vested interests, embedding biomimicry principles in product design and how Paramo gave Colombian prostitutes not only an escape from the streets but a path to being company owners. Fascinating stuff! This episode is bro...

On this episode of the pod, I talk to Laura Elms, Sustainability Manager at Forest Bikes. We delve into how public bike share works, the sharing economy, why some schemes survive and some disappeared, how Forest tackle their scope 1-3 emissions, and their project to plant Giant Sequoias in Wales. And, yes, I ask why not native trees – and there's a good answer! This episode is brought to you by Te...

The 10th of my 10 Rules for Corporate Sustainability is build a climate resilient value chain – as always there are a few ways of doing this to maximise the effectiveness of your efforts and exploit co-benefits and I run through some of the best approaches I have found working with clients. The pdf version of 10 Rules for Corporate Sustainability can be downloaded from the Terra Infirma website ....

With electrification winning the race to Net Zero, this week we delve into the world of heat pumps with Martin Fahey, Head Of Sustainability at Mitsubishi Electric UK. We talk about how heat pumps work (think heat, not temperature!), how the market is developing and why costs aren't falling the way that those of, say, solar are. We go on to air conditioning, including refrigerants, before talk abo...

This week on the pod, I ask Andrew Griffiths of PlanetMark about the big trends in Sustainability for the year ahead. We talk about upheaval in the reporting standards sector, whether Net Zero should be retired as a brand and the ins and outs of engagement. Plenty to chew on! This episode is brought to you by Terra Infirma Ltd - bringing Sustainability to Life Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privac...

If we didn't have transformers on our electricity grid to step up and step down voltages then we would get nothing out of it; everything would be lost in transmission. Those dull grey boxes are essential to modern life and critical to Net Zero as they enable renewable energy generation, electric vehicle charging and battery storage systems. On the other hand ageing transformers are 'silent energy...

This is the ninth of 10 special episodes to mark the publication of my guide '10 Rules for Corporate Sustainability' where I sum up the lessons I have learnt delivering Sustainability over the last 25+ years. In this episode, I cover Rule 9: Learn to Love Offsetting. Click here to download 10 Rules for Corporate Sustainability The Matteo Deidda episode can be found here. Hosted on Acast. See acast...

In 2017, Stuart Green suffered the kind of loss we all dread. His wife Mia, a human rights and environmental lawyer, was brutally murdered by a hit squad in front of their three children near their home in the Philippines. As a scientist, Stuart decided to research how best to recover from trauma and, after reading 500 pieces of literature, realised that the answer was to abandon the past and embr...

Who better to talk about the Sustainability Profession than Sarah Mukherjee MBE, CEO of the Institute of Sustainability and Environmental Professionals or ISEP? Sarah and I talk about: What counts as a 'green job'? Why IEMA was rebranded as ISEP What membership of a professional institute gives you The shocking state of diversity in the profession Making Sustainability relevant to the average pers...

Another fantastic interview for you this week with the EV Guy himself, Jordan Marsden. In a wide ranging discussion, we cover: • The state of the global car industry • Mythbusting and taking on the trolls • How range anxiety is a thing of the past • Does an EV save you money? • Is charging infrastructure tracking EV sales? • How organisations can support employees and customers • New business mode...

This is the eighth of 10 special episodes to mark the publication of my guide '10 Rules for Corporate Sustainability' where I sum up the lessons I have learnt delivering Sustainability over the last 25+ years. In this episode, I cover Rule 8: The Circular Economy is About Raw Materials, not Waste Management Click here to download 10 Rules for Corporate Sustainability Hosted on Acast. See acast.com...

This week I'm joined by Damian Tow, Director of the Brighton Energy Co-op, to discuss how community based energy systems can thrive in a commercial environment. We discuss: • The definition of community energy • How the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) model works • Community energy's USP/added social value • Scale: how small/large can community schemes go • Skills required • Government policy (or l...