The Plucky Bamboo Podcast

Bioplastics have existed for over 30 years. After three decades of government grants, investor capital, and charismatic founders, the industry still hasn't produced a genuinely profitable company. Alexander Blum, founder of Applied Bioplastics, is trying to be the first. In this episode, Alex breaks down why an industry the world needs has struggled to make money: the gap between scientific le...

Climate tech has a communication problem. And it's slowing down the entire industry. Akhila Kosaraju, co-founder of What If Design, works with deep tech climate companies on design, messaging, and product experience. She's seen brilliant founders with world-changing technology lose deals, confuse buyers, and waste months of development - all because of how they present their work. In this...

Climate action without measurement is guesswork. In this episode, Gilad Regev explains how Kora is building real-time carbon tracking tools to turn employee behavior into measurable decarbonization. We explore the gap between intention and action - and why most companies still treat sustainability as a reporting function instead of a strategic lever. We discuss: Why carbon data must be real-time t...

Sustainability isn’t sustainable without revenue. In this episode, Helen Zhang shares how she’s building Coffee Elf -a company transforming commercial coffee waste into bio-based materials and cosmetic ingredients. What started as a kitchen experiment is now evolving into a circular system spanning industrial sourcing, processing, and downstream partnerships. We discuss: Why climate founders must...

What does real scale look like in a sustainability business? For Mallika Reddy, founder of Cancelled Plans, it doesn’t mean producing more. It means producing differently. Mallika’s studio transforms industrial waste, from pharmaceutical packaging to billboard misprints, into high-value design pieces. But along the way, she’s had to confront some uncomfortable truths about growth, marketing, and w...

Clean heat is one of the biggest pieces of the climate puzzle - but it won’t scale unless it makes financial sense. In this episode of The Plucky Bamboo Podcast, I sat down with Jane Melia, Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer of Harvest Thermal, to explore what it really takes to bring climate hardware into the mainstream. Harvest combines heat pumps with thermal storage to deliver low-carbon hea...

Turning climate concern into meaningful action is one of the biggest challenges facing the sustainability movement today. In this episode of The Plucky Bamboo Podcast, I sat down with Brett Walter, founder & CEO of Climate Action Now, to explore how technology can mobilise individuals to drive systemic climate impact. After a career building scalable software in Silicon Valley, Brett launched...

Commercialising sustainable materials is one of the hardest and most misunderstood challenges in climate tech. In this episode of The Plucky Bamboo Podcast, I sat down with Marc McConnaughey, CEO of Biobond Adhesives, to unpack what it really takes to bring bio-based industrial products to market. Biobond is on a mission to replace petroleum-based chemicals in adhesives and coatings with plant-bas...

In this episode of The Plucky Bamboo Podcast, I sat down with Emilio Sassine, Founder & CEO of Cedrus, to talk about what it really takes to commercialise AI in the built environment. Cedrus is building a platform that helps real estate owners reduce emissions across building portfolios - using AI to replace static energy audits with dynamic, data-driven retrofit planning. But as Emilio shared...

In this episode of The Plucky Bamboo Podcast, I sat down with Josh Knauer, Co-Founder & CEO of ReSeed, to explore how environmental markets can work better for the farmers at the centre of them. Josh has spent his career building businesses at the intersection of technology, sustainability, and economic inclusion. Through ReSeed, he’s focused on a simple but powerful idea: If we want farmers t...

Building a sustainability business isn’t just about good intentions. It’s about the trade-offs you make when values, margins, and growth collide. In this episode of The Plucky Bamboo Podcast, I’m joined by Sara Baxter, Co-Founder and CEO of Paperclip. Sara shares what it’s really like to build a consumer sustainability brand under real commercial pressure - from absorbing higher material costs to...

In this episode of The Plucky Bamboo Podcast, Chris Jones sits down with Brad Stutzman, Founder and CEO of o3 Energy, to talk about what actually drives adoption in commercial renewable energy. Brad shares lessons from building o3 Energy across residential, commercial, and small utility-scale markets - including when to pivot, how to evaluate new offerings, and why many sustainability messages fai...

Growth in traditional industries doesn’t fail loudly. It slows quietly - when leaders stop building forward and start protecting what already exists. In this episode of The Plucky Bamboo Podcast, Chris Jones sits down with Titan Immel, Founder of Ag Hub Midwest, to talk about what scaling, sustainability, and leadership actually look like in agriculture - one of the most risk-sensitive industries...

In this episode of The Plucky Bamboo Podcast, I’m joined by Kyle C Grant-Talbot, founder of Oxwash (since acq. by Elis), to explore what it really takes to scale impact in an industrial sustainability business. Kyle shares the journey of building Oxwash from a PhD idea into a high-growth company decarbonizing one of the world’s most overlooked industries: industrial laundry. We talk openly about t...

Sustainability often comes down to what organisations decide to do with what they no longer need. In this episode of The Plucky Bamboo Podcast, Chris Jones is joined by Michael Amos, Managing Director of Waste to Wonder, to explore why reuse is so often missed in corporate decision-making. Michael has spent more than 20 years helping businesses redistribute redundant furniture and equipment to sch...

In this episode of The Plucky Bamboo Podcast, Chris Jones sits down with Scott Case, founder of Zettawatts, to talk about what real climate action looks like inside large organizations. Scott brings decades of experience as a founder and operator, from technology and public health to clean energy. Today, his work focuses on helping companies decarbonize electricity in ways that actually move the g...

Building a sustainability business means learning how to lead through uncertainty - not just when things are going well, but when policy, incentives, and markets are constantly shifting. In this episode of The Plucky Bamboo Podcast, Chris sits down with Casey Cole, President of ARE Solar, to talk about what it really takes to build a resilient solar business over the long term. Casey shares his jo...

Reducing food waste sounds simple. In reality, it’s one of the hardest problems to solve in modern supply chains. In this episode of The Plucky Bamboo Podcast , Chris Jones sits down with Katherine Sizov, CEO and founder of Strella BioTech, to talk about what it really takes to build and scale a sustainability business in operational, risk-averse industries. Katherine shares how Strella uses senso...

Clear measurement is one of the biggest missing pieces in sustainability. In this episode of The Plucky Bamboo Podcast, Chris Jones sits down with Jeff Kirschner, founder of Litterati, to talk about what it really takes to create impact in complex, real-world systems like waste and plastic pollution. Jeff shares how Litterati evolved from a community clean-up idea into a data science company worki...

Carbon accounting is quickly shifting from a sustainability initiative to a core operational requirement. Many companies genuinely care about climate, but urgency often appears only when a major customer requests emissions visibility or ties it to revenue, risk, or compliance. In this episode, William Loopesko, founder and CTO at Aclymate, explains how his team is building software that helps smal...

Scaling nature restoration sounds simple until you try to do it at the level the planet actually needs. In this episode, Simón Torras, co-founder of Ponterra, breaks down how they design, finance, and operate large-scale ecosystem restoration projects on degraded agricultural land. From securing one of the largest carbon credit pre-sales in the space to coordinating 120+ people on the ground, Simó...

When it comes to sustainability, good intentions are not enough. You need a business model that works. That’s what Jack Duffy Protentis, founder and CEO of eSki, discovered while building electric jet skis that are clean, quiet, and profitable. In this episode, Jack shares how eSki is decarbonizing the water sports industry by focusing on what truly drives adoption - better economics, not just bet...

Most climate messaging tells people the planet is warming but not what it means for their lives. In this episode of The Plucky Bamboo Podcast, Melody Serafino , co-founder of The Number 29 Communications , explores why climate and sustainability have a communications problem — and what businesses can do to fix it. Drawing from her work with impact-driven brands, Melody shares how honesty, transpar...

Most companies didn’t build their supply chains for sustainability. They didn’t even build them for resilience. Espen Sivertsen, founder and CEO of Ivaldi Group, is changing that by turning complex, global logistics into local, on-demand manufacturing networks. Instead of shipping parts, Ivaldi sends files. Instead of waiting weeks for components, they’re produced on-site, often in hours. And in t...

Sustainability companies face a hard truth: customers say they care about the planet, but that's rarely why they buy. The gap between what people claim to value and what actually drives their purchasing decisions can make or break your growth strategy. That's the challenge Allie Reeves, CEO and co-founder of Baro, had to navigate head-on. Baro is a peer-to-peer fashion rental marketplace b...