Impact at Scale

The Impact at Scale Podcast had a lively and exciting conversation with Sonia Weymuller Co-Founder and General Partner at VentureSouq.

VentureSouq is a Dubai-based venture capital fund with a global portfolio. They manage thematic funds, with a current focus on FinTech and ClimateTech.

Sonia got her start in investing by organizing what would become one of the largest private investment syndicates in the Middle East. She talks to us about her usual journey to being a VC and how she feels about

• Some of the topics that Sonia covered:
• Starting as a syndicate
• Unconvential approach to VC
• Knowing when to make the jump
• How you start a fund
• The difference between impact, ESG and climate
• Climate investing in the Middle East

Some other titles we considered for this episode:

1. Enough talk, lets act
2. Energy companies are the ones with money to make change happen
3. Everyone now understands that climate change is happening

Impact at Scale got to discuss the world of sustainable cleaning products with Jeremy Lee, CEO & Founder of SimplyGood. SimplyGood is a cleaning product supplier that has developed an innovative new way to package a traditional product.

Jeremy started the company during covid when cleanliness and hygiene came into sharp focus. He realized we were wasting so much space and energy in the transportation of cleaning products when most of the product was actually water. He felt there could be a better way.

Some of the topics that Jeremy covered:

• Inefficiencies in current cleaning solutions
• Lack of innovation
• Changing human behavior
• Opening a business during covid
• Difference between regular and impact businesses

Some other titles we considered for this episode:

1. Punching upwards against the big boys
2. Creating value outside of sustainability

Impact at Scale got the chance to sit down with Konstantin Popovic the founder of Impact3P a consultancy that helps businesses turn their sustainability journey into a competitive advantage by aligning people, planet, and profit. KP believes that all companies need to be sustainable businesses and that doing so will be good for their business. Increasingly stakeholders such as customers and employees want.

Some of the topics KP talked about

• Midlife awakening
• How we can make marketing part of the solution
• Approaching Sustainability from a business standpoint
• Employees want to work for companies with shared values
• The importance of those in the middle
• How loving the planet is like loving your wife

Other titles we considered for this episode:

1. Carbon cannot be the only issue we focus on
2. Looking at sustainability as an opportunity
3. We have to all be in on sustainability
4. "Let's save humanity"

Impact at scale caught up with Barak Ekshtein the Founder of TONTOTON. TOTOTON is a plastic credit solution for non-recycled plastic. Choosing to focus on the hard-to-recycle plastic that typically gets left behind in the current recycling system. So far they have collected and treated more than 2,513 tons of orphan plastic and are growing every day.

Barak was inspired to start this business when he noticed the growing amount of plastic that we could not recycle and wanted to do something about it—developing an economy around cleaning up orphan plastic and creating jobs for those that collect this plastic.

Some of the topics that Barak discussed:

• The $10 billion recycled plastic market
• Recyclable vs non-recyclable
• The problem with orphan plastic
• Taxing the producers of plastic
• Plastic credit system
• Transparency in the recycling system

Other titles we considered for this episode:

1. It is a problem that keeps growing and growing
2. It's everyone's fault, so there is no one to blame
3. Move from selective collection to inclusive collection
4. It is a mix of business opportunity and strong impact
5. Impact businesses must be profitable

The Impact At Scale Podcast enjoyed talking about the recycling industry with Nishchay Chadha the CEO of ACE Green Recycling. ACE is a green battery recycling technology company that has sustainable solutions for both lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries and is developing clean technology solutions for other metallic waste streams.

Nishchay started his career in the mining industry where he experienced firsthand the impact that it had on the planet. This was where he first got a view of the recycling space and saw that there was an opportunity in this fast-growing market to develop solutions that would meet the needs of the planet. Battery recycling is an industry that will continue to grow as the production of all sorts of batteries continues to increase significantly.

Some of the topics that Nishchay covered

• The complexity of the recycling process
• Moving from mining to recycling
• Incentivizing the right sort of behavior
• Size of the recycling market

Some other titles we considered for this episode

1. Unless you are commercially successful it's not going to be a sustainable business
2. More recycling will lead to less mining
3. Companies sitting with billions in cash will need to part with it

Impact at Scale got the chance to talk to Renat Heuberger the CEO and Co-Founder of South Pole. South Pole develops and implements comprehensive emission reduction projects and strategies that turn climate action into long-term business opportunities for companies, governments and organisations around the world.

Renat has been in the sustainability space for a long time and we talk about some of the stories from the early days of South Pole and how he feels the world needs to change it's perspective on what success is. Renat is a firm believer that people should be successful by saving the planet and not by digging it up and destroying it. This is a great conversation with someone who is on the front lines of helping organizations decarbonize and be more planet positive.

Some of the topics Renat Covered:

• Creating a business case out of the protection of the environment
• Holding people accountable to the promises they make
• Importance of science based targets
• What the price of carbon should be
• How regulation is created
• The role of activists in the movement
• The most impactful way to reduce carbon in this country

Some other titles we considered for this episode:

1. How much does it cost the whole world for the emission of 1 tonne of CO2
2. Will environmental accounting soon be as robust as commercial accounting
3. When all the actors act in concert you create a wave that is unstoppable
4. We need all people in their capacity to make a difference together
5. The richest people on the planet should be the most successful environmentalists
6. Offsetting only works with a robust reduction strategy

Impact at scale spoke with George Wade the Co-Founder of Zevero which was conceptualized when the founders struggled to get accurate data for their emissions and thought about building a tool they could use for themselves. So that was the genesis of Zevero, a platform that helps businesses measure, report and reduce their carbon.

We talked about George's early fascination with sustainability and some of the contradictions he saw in the space. His hope is that getting companies to report on carbon emissions will make them take their reduction goals seriously.

To read George's blog check out The Grumpy Optimists

Some of the topics Geroge covered:

• Starting a business by finding a problem
• What are the drivers for change
• Working with unique customers
• Climate change in culture

Some other titles we considered for this episode:

1. Change is possible
2. You don't know if you have achieved success in climate change

Impact at Scale was joined by Manish Sethi, a Founder of Rescued Glass and currently employed at Thrust Carbon. Rescued Glass upcycles glass bottles from landfills into decorative and usable household items, endeavoring to make a meaningful difference, one bottle at a time.

Some of the topics that Manish discussed:

• Attending NIST International School in Bangkok and the concept of Service Learning
• Graduating from Kings College in London and working at Thrust Carbon
• The importance of education in creating awareness and impact for sustainability
• The challenges of building a remote team and the role of mentorship
• Bringing learnings from his current job back to Rescued Glass

Other titles we considered for this episode:

1. Taking Glass Waste and Transforming It Into Something Beautiful
2. Having a Long-Term View Helps
3. I’ve Drowned a Few Times
4. Continuous and Constant Feedback
5. People Love to Sell Dreams
6. It Will Take Me Ten More Years

Impact at Scale connected with Alex Laplaza to discuss early-stage impact investing and what technologies are currently exciting him. 

Alex is a Partner at Lower Carbon Capital, a venture firm that "back kickass companies that make real money slashing CO2 emissions, sucking carbon out of the sky and buying us time to unf**k the planet." Lower Carbon's investments in leading-edge technologies include sustainable lithium mining, plasma-taming fusion magnets and electric passenger planes. 

Some of the topics that Alex covered:

• The relationship between technology and policy
• A single volcano cooling the earth
• Producing better products not just climate products
• Obligations of countries
• How seeing the impacts motivated him
• Scaling impact globally

Some other titles we considered for this episode:

1. VC Is a Tool to Scale Solutions With a Remarkable Track Record
2. What to Do in the “Break Glass in Case of Emergency” Situation
3. The Risk of Inaction
4. We Don't Care if Our Customers Care About the Planet
5. What to Do to Get the Attention of a VC

Impact at Scale could not have enjoyed its conversation with Aparna Bhatnagar Saxena more.  You can hear in our voices how much fun we were having.

Aparna is the CEO of TORAJAMELO, a slow, ethical, sustainable, lifestyle brand that is working towards alleviating the cycle of systemic poverty in rural excluded communities, preserving the cultural heritage of “backstrap loom weaving” in Indonesia, preventing the breakdown of rural communities due to outward migration, and environmental sustainability of natural habitats.

Some of the topics that Aparna covered:

• Being raised by two feminists, a scientist father, and a banker mother
• Growing up in a household where there was no discrimination based on gender
• Her very traditional career arc prior to joining TORAJAMELO
• TORAJAMELO's Founder's life-changing experience with the weaving community in Toraja
• How telling the TORAJAMELO story led to her becoming its CEO
• The importance of having agency and a sense of ownership over your work

Some other titles we considered for this episode:

1. You Should Carry Only Enough Luggage that You Can Manage
2. Don’t Let My Gender Decide That I Need Help
3. I Owned the Responsibility
4. How Do You Navigate Through Ambiguity?
5. I Didn’t Do It to Prove a Point

Impact at Scale learned a lot about building communities with Alya Annabi the founder of GreenPush. GreenPush runs various programs that empower people with knowledge, resources, and support to encourage sustainable behaviors in every part of their business and personal lives. Alya is passionate about growing communities from the ground up, which really shows in this conversation. 

Some of the topics Alya covered: 

• Creating a vibrant community
• Finding purpose and value in communities 
• The power of individuals to impact change 
• How to help those that want to make a difference
• The importance of small actions

Some of the other titles we considered for this episode: 

1. Taking a Positive Approach to Sustainability
2. As Individuals, You Have So Much Influence
3. Long-term Change Through Building Communities 
4. Helping Change Through Building Communities
5. People Are Influenced by What Other People Are Doing

Impact at Scale chatted with Paul Bevan, Founder and CEO of Magic Valley. Magic Valley is an Australian food company developing healthy and delicious cultivated meat products.

Some of the topics Paul covered: 

• The growing market of businesses supporting an impact
• The effectiveness of replicating the taste and texture of meat and letting people move towards the no meat direction themselves
• Paul’s hypothesis on why even after the 4 main factors the percentage of Vegans did not increase
• Understanding the process behind cultivated meat and where it comes from
• Magic Valley’s future plans

Some of the other titles we considered for this episode:

1. Speak Up for People and for Animals
2. Driving Lasting Behavioural Change
3. Stop Dressing Up Plants as a Meat Product
4. Transparency Is Key for the Consumer

This episode was produced by Stephanie Ng.

Impact at Scale went on the road to talk to Mathias Boissonot, a co-Founder of Handprint, a sustainable software company that helps businesses be involved in regenerative projects. Mathias is passionate about the power of mangroves and other natural resources to absorb carbon from the atmosphere and created Handprint as a way to connect businesses with these projects.

Some of the topics Mathias covered:

• Getting small NGOs access to institutional money
• The power of mangroves for decarbonization
• What is regenerative software?
• How large companies are incorporating regeneration
• Man-made carbon reduction systems and carbon P/Ls

Some other titles we considered for this episode:

1. Mangroves Are a Miracle Technology
2. We Did the Opposite of What Should Be Done in a Normal Startup
3. The World Is Moving Towards a New Paradigm
4. Do We Live in a World With a Carbon Tunnel
5. Carbon Is Not the Only Currency of Sustainability 

Impact at Scale chatted with Tom Peacock-Nazil, the Founder and CEO of Seven Clean Seas. Seven Clean Seas is an organization that has commercialized ocean plastic cleanup. What started as a passion project for Tom and his wife has now turned into a full-fledged business, employing people to help with waste management.

Plastic is a major problem in our world and Tom and his team want to do everything they can to help stop as much of it as possible from getting into the oceans. Tom tells us about how they lucked into their business model and how that eventually led to him working for the World Cup in Qatar. Tom also talks to us about how cleaning up the waste is not good enough and how they are working with communities to help educate them on how to manage plastic and their waste in general.

Some of the topics Tom covered:

• Turning a passion into a business
• How a condom company changed everything
• Working with the World Cup
• Impacting local communities
• What happens to the plastic once it is collected
• The importance of waste management
• Setting audacious goals

Some other titles we considered for this episode:

1. You Are Not Going To Fix This Problem With Philanthropy
2. Creating a Product With Permanence
3. People Do Not Understand the Damage to Their Health That Plastic Can Cause
4. People Don’t Even Have Bins
5. There Is No Magic Bullet for This, We Can’t Clean Our Way Out
6. Start Slow and Take Little Steps

In the latest episode of Impact at Scale, we are talking to Lauren Blasco who is a Principal for ESG at AC Ventures and Neels Steyn Venture Architect Director at BCG Digital Ventures. They are the authors of Scaling Impact With Technology. Accelerating ESG Adoption in Indonesia's Digital Economy, a report that aims to be the baseline for how Indonesian tech companies measure their impact. The report looks at a wider range of issues than just one's carbon footprint when allocating a score to a company.

In a region where many companies see little value in ESG reporting, this is meant to be used as a guide for the future as sentiments and requirements change. AC Ventures applied this methodology to all of its invested startups, none of which were sustainability-focused companies, to see what their impact as a business was. The hope is that this will become as regular as reviewing financial accounts in the future as businesses are being held to higher standards by both the public and investors.

Some of the topics covered:

• Passions kindled at young ages
• Net impact ratios
• The outcome of their report on Indonesia
• What corporates can learn from startups
• Where the responsibility for ESG should lay
• Corporate greenwashing
• How to affect big changes

Some other titles we considered for this episode:

1. Create a Framework That Would Guide the Way
2. Looking at Impact as a Whole
3. We Need a Baseline to Work From
4. Change Requires Multiple Iterations and Cycles

The Social Innovation Podcast got to sit down and talk to Andre Menezes, the founder of Tindle Foods and Nex Gen Foods. Andre is a man clearly passionate about food and in this case specifically chicken. Singapore-based Tindle Foods produces plant-based chicken and has recently started working in the US and European markets.

In this discussion, Andre talks to us about alternative protein and the changes we are seeing in our society in terms of approaching animal products. We got to ask Andre all the questions we had about alternate protein and got a deeper understanding of the industry and where it is going.

Some of the topics Andre discussed:

• Reaching the pinnacle of food experiences
• The importance of team culture
• The United States as a key market
• Designing alternative meats that are healthy
• Comparing the price of plant-based vs natural meat
• How much protein do we actually need

Other titles we considered for this episode:

1. An Unforgettable Plant-Based Experience
2. Plant-Based Meat Is Not Here to Replace Broccoli
3. A Chicken Is 70% Water
4. We Are the Only Species That Drinks Milk From Another Species
5. How Many Parents Would Take Their Kids to See How Meat Is Made?

The Social Innovation Podcast had an in-depth conversation with Sonalie Figueiras the founder of Green Queen Media and the founder and CEO of Source Green a platform that helps businesses reduce the plastic in their packaging.

Sonalie is an award-winning social entrepreneur, building Asia's first impact and sustainability media platform. In this episode, we discussed several issues related to sustainability including plastic, carbon tax, and impact investing as well as what people can do to have a positive impact.

Some of the topics Sonalie covered in detail:

• Quantifying the cost of plastic to the planet
• How plastic can impact one's health
• Who should pay for the waste
• How to deal with the lazy consumer
• How can we factor the environmental cost into the end products?
• Everyone agrees plastic pollution is a bad thing

Other titles we considered for this episode:

1. We Are Addicted to Convenience
2. We Are Doing the Math Wrong
3. I’ve Seen Behind the Wizard of These Big Companies
4. The Cost of Not Doing Has to Be Greater Than the Cost of Doing
5. Plastic Waste Serves No One
6. When People See Information Clearly They Change Their Behavior

The Social Innovation Podcast had a great chat with Brice Degeytar the founder of Bizsu which has set an impressive goal of reducing 1 million tons of CO2 by 2027. They intend to do this by helping businesses reduce the energy required to cool buildings and offices.

We discussed everything related to air-con and cooling and just how big an impact this has especially in Asia. Brice has a tool that any building can easily deploy on existing systems to reduce the energy requirements to cool any property.

Some of the topics Brice covered:

• Bizsu's goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 1 million tonnes
• Opening his eyes to the waste around the world
• Building and implementing easy-to-deploy solutions
• The change in global heating and cooling needs
• Learning lessons from the past and from nature
• The power of an idea to push a company

Some other titles we considered for this episode:

1. We Have to Show the Positive Effects
2. Bring the Message in a Positive Way
3. I Will Help Companies Consume Less Energy

This episode was guest-hosted again by Zal Dastur. Zal, has been an entrepreneur for the last 14 years and has turned his attention to helping solve the climate crisis in the best way he knows, helping for-planet businesses develop and grow. As an active advisor and investor, Zal has impacted dozens of companies in the climate space helping them to reach their potential to do the maximum good for the planet.

The Social Innovation Podcast sat down with Matt Ward a Partner and Syndicate Investment Lead at 4Ward VC. 4Ward.VC is a sustainability-focused investing syndicate. 

In this episode, we asked Matt all the questions that early-stage companies would want to ask about raising money from investors. If you have recently started a company or are thinking about doing so, this is a show you don't want to miss. Matt gives great advice for companies that are looking to raise their Seed or Series A funding.

Some of the details that Matt discussed:

• Team, TAM, and Time
• The power of an amazing team
• How to value your startup
• How to properly assess investors
• How to get the attention of investors
• Syndicate investing versus more traditional venture capital investing

Other titles we considered for this episode:

1. The Valuation Doesn’t Matter Just Get the Round Done
2. Great Product, Great Traction Trumps Everything Else
3. The Only Way We Are Successful Is by Helping Our Startups Succeed
4. Venture Investing Is a Hits Driven Business
5. If You Can Survive the Next 3-5 Years There Will Be Unlimited Funding
6. We Are All on Team Planet Together
7. Everything Else Came Second

The Social Innovation Podcast sat down with Dharsono Hartono, the CEO of Rimba Makmur Utama. Rimba Makmur Utama manages the world's largest nature-based solution generating more than 7 million tonnes of carbon credits annually. 

Dharsono is an EY Entrepreneur of the year, a World Economic Forum Sustainability Pioneer, a Schwab foundation social entrepreneur of the year, and in 2022 won the YPO Global impact award. Dharsono has been working on this project for more than 15 years and he talks to us about the power of nature-based solutions, the importance of working with local communities as well as the challenges of being an entrepreneur in a new space.

Some of the major topics that Dharsono covered:

• Transitioning from banker to conservationist
• The power of who we surround ourselves with
• Empowering the local community
• The importance of nature-based solutions
• How climate solutions can be good for businesses as well
• The principles of carbon credits
• Changing the lives of the villagers in the projec

Some other titles we considered for this episode:

1. We Are Caretakers for Mother Earth
2. Give Me Another Year
3. Doing Things for the Right Reason
4. A New Way of Doing Business
5. Changing the Behavior of People on the Ground

The Social Innovation Podcast spoke to Alex Budak, a University of California, Berkeley faculty member and the author of Becoming A Changemaker. "Becoming a Changemaker is a radically inclusive playbook for leading positive change...Budak is driven by the belief that anyone—regardless of title, personality, race, gender, age, or class—can be a changemaker"

Some of the topics Alex and I discussed: 

• Alex’s Ah-Ha moment
• The importance of change at the grassroots level
• Community and changemaking VS heropreneurship
• Alex’s path to teaching changemaking at UC Berkeley
• What is flow?
• Sneak peek of findings from studies in the book

Some other titles we considered for this episode:

1. Letting Your Curiosity Guide You
2. One Person Teaches, Two Learn
3. Failure Isn’t Fatal
4. A Sense of Agency Over Our Lives

This episode was produced by Stephanie Ng.

The Social Innovation Podcast spoke to Marc Allen and Grace Sai, the co-Founders of Unravel Carbon. Unravel Carbon is enterprise software that helps companies track and reduce their carbon emissions, focusing on Asia's supply chains.

Some of the topics that Marc and Grace covered:

• The existing 92 different carbon accounting software solutions
• How competing regulatory environments complicate the problem
• Unravel Carbon's goal to reduce 5% of global carbon emissions
• SaaS plus Service business model
• The necessity for Asia to be the leader in emissions reduction
• Why all countries have to go net zero

Other titles we considered for this episode:

1. Bringing All That I Can Bring
2. Reduce First, Offset Last
3. People Don’t Want to Be Left Alone With a Carbon Report
4. Changing Behavior at Scale
5. Given a Choice, No One Wants to Care About Climate Change

The Social Innovation Podcast spoke to Erika Balzarelli the Founder of The Sustainable Smallholder, an innovation studio that focuses on helping smallholder farmers become sustainable, commercial suppliers. 

From her years in the field, Erika shares with us an understanding of the needs of farmers on the ground. Her passion for what she does shines brightly in this conversation along with her inspiration to contribute to making a change, "The woman effect" and the power behind co-creation.

Some of the topics Erika covered:

• The challenge of reaching more than 525 million farmers
• Her unique B2B2F approach
• Starting her own NGO in India
• The work Erika did on the ground
• Rice is more than just food
• What the priorities should be in rice

Some other titles we considered for this episode:

1. Rice Is a Huge Opportunity for Innovation
2. The Transformative Lever of Co-creation
3. The Women Effect
4. Shut Up and Start Doing It

The Social Innovation Podcast thoroughly enjoyed its conversation with Dr. Farshad Shishehchian, the Founder and CEO of Blue Aqua International.  Blue Aqua combines the art and science of farming to build a sustainable, new world.

Some of the topics that Dr. Farshad covered:

• Born in Iran/Azerbaijan
• Obtaining a Ph.D. in shrimp farming
• Fishing versus farming and the importance of replacing what is caught
• If we want to tackle food security, we need to eat Tilapia
• Why salmon and shrimp dominate the finance of fishing
• Ecosystems below 10,000 meters

Other titles we considered for this episode:

1. I Always Introduce Myself as a Farmer
2. Your Lobster and My Lobster Are Different
3. We Know More About Our Solar System Compared to the Ocean
4. Human Being Is a Very Confused Species
5. I Had a Lot of Chicken at Home
6. There Are a Lot of Unknowns

The Social Innovation Podcast was recently introduced to Tiffany Tong and after a quick chat, we knew we had to have her on the show. Tiffany is a co-Founder and the CEO of Aloi, a tokenized, digital-loan platform that powers affordable finance for micro-entrepreneurs.

Some of the topics that Tiffany covered:

• Studying Development and Agriculture at University
• How small-holder farmers manage a large part of natural resources globally
• Aloi's mission and reason for being
• Farmer success stories and what it actually feels like to the farmers that benefit
• Proving the platform with Standard Chartered and getting other banks onboard
• How tokenization minimizes fraud and enables trust

Some other titles we considered for this episode:

1. Data Is My Forte
2. I Just Kept Learning and Learning and Didn’t Want to Leave 
3. Tokenization Is the Future
4. We’re Making Impact, and That Is So Important to Me
5. It’s Growing the Trust

This episode was produced by Isabelle Goh.

The Social Innovation Podcast spoke to Carolin Barr K., the Founder of susGain.  susGain is a social enterprise on a mission to connect better the different eco and socially-conscious stakeholders in Singapore to accelerate the change towards a more sustainable nation. susGain's rewards app nudges and incentivizes consumers in Singapore to adopt more sustainable lifestyle habits.

Some of the topics we covered with Carolin:

• How her work in behavioral science helps her understand how to drive behavioral change
• The importance of cultural norms and social influence
• Culture is an important part of her identity
• What influences habit formation
• How to convince people that the small actions we do make a difference
• susGain helps local charities benefit from your sustainable habits

Some other titles we considered for this episode:

1. Relearning the Way We Do Things
   1. The Intention-Action Gap
   2. I Didn’t See That Change Happening

This episode was produced by Isabelle Goh.

The Social Innovation Podcast was fortunate to have Evelyn Tay, VP, Communications and Public Affairs, Sustainability - APAC, at foodpanda on the show.  What made this even better was recording in the foodpanda offices in Singapore.

Some of the topics Evelyn discussed:

• Her father’s immigrant story from China to Singapore
• Multilingualism as a competitive advantage
• Saving 900 million pieces of plastic cutlery as a result of one decision
• The importance of building a community around what you do
• The need to have continuous dialogue with the drivers and riders
• Internal feedback sessions as an integral part of foodpanda
• Why and how electric vehicles matter

Some other titles we considered for this episode:

1. You Couldn’t Do the Job Without Empathy
2. We’re Not Just Status Quo
3. Post COVID, Everything Changed
4. I’m So Proud That Our Leaders Do It

This episode was produced by Isabelle Goh.

The Social Innovation Podcast was joined by Marina Tran-Vu, the Founder of EQUO.  Derived from the words ECO, meaning not harmful to the environment and STATUS QUO, meaning an existing state or condition, EQUO stands for the ideal of creating products with minimal impact to the environment.

Some of the topics that Marina and I discussed:

• Leaving a high-paying job and going 'back' to Vietnam
• Living quite an unsustainable life prior to founding EQUO
• The grass straw and deciding to commercialize them globally
• Starting a business during a recession
• Building a sustainable AND fun brand
• European expansion

Some other titles we considered for this episode:

1. To Be Honest, I Was Completely Not Sustainable
2. I Wanted Bright and Loud and Colorful
3. I Did Everything by Trial and Error
4. The Biggest Currency in Life Is Time
5. People Said This Was Crazy and Stupid

This episode was produced by Isabelle Goh.

The Social Innovation Podcast welcomed Lily Dempster, the Founder & CEO at One Small Step.  One Small Step is a mobile app with tailored programs to help you cut your carbon footprint. It employs behavioural science to make green living simple, easy and fun.

Lily started her career working in the Prime Minister's office before realizing she could have a bigger impact by helping people make changes on an individual basis. She has always viewed success in terms of the positive impact she is having on the planet. It is clear from the way she speaks that she is passionate about what she sees as the biggest issue of our lifetime.

This episode was guest-hosted again by Zal Dastur. Zal, has been an entrepreneur for the last 14 years and has turned his attention to helping solve the climate crisis in the best way he knows, helping for-planet businesses develop and grow. As an active advisor and investor, Zal has impacted dozens of companies in the climate space helping them to reach their potential to do the maximum good for the planet.

Some of the topics Lily discussed:

• The movie that woke her up to climate change
• Climate change as a threat multiplier
• Insights into government policymaking
• Government regulation versus individual action
• The influence of mining, oil and gas on Australian politics
• Climate change as progressive vs conservative issue
• Our ability to influence those around us
• Socially contagious behaviors
• Helping people take the first step
• The difficulty of getting large organizations to change

Other titles we considered for this episode:

1. Success Looks Like Making a Contribution to Society
2. Climate Change Is the Biggest Social Justice Issue Facing Our Generation
3. Climate Change Is a Network Problem
4. Where Do You Have In Your Life the Biggest Points of Influence
5. We Have a Lot More Power Than Is Currently Acknowledged

The Social Innovation Podcast spoke to Max Nelen the CEO and Founder of Agros about all things farming and agriculture. Max moved from being a management consultant to talking to smallholder farmers all over Southeast Asia to try and find a solution that works for them to lower their carbon footprint. He takes a farmer-first view for his business, ensuring that all of his solutions are driving value for the farmer, first and foremost.

This episode was guest-hosted again by Zal Dastur. Zal, has been an entrepreneur for the last 14 years and has turned his attention to helping solve the climate crisis in the best way he knows, helping for-planet businesses develop and grow. As an active advisor and investor, Zal has impacted dozens of companies in the climate space helping them to reach their potential to do the maximum good for the planet.

Some of the topics covered in this episode:

• Feeding the world
• The requirements of smallholder farmers in Asia
• Convincing farmers to change
• The power of soil as carbon capture tool
• The impact of rice on the planet
• Helping farmers manage their soil and fertilizer
• VCs and proving traction over time
• The iterative process of product development
• A financial model that works for farmers

Other titles we considered for this episode:

1. Agriculture Is 24% Of Global Greenhouse Gas Emission
2. By 2050 90% Of the World's Soil Will Be Degraded
3. Take an Outside View, Ask the Difficult Questions
4. Double the Income of 100,000 Farmers in Southeast Asia
5. The Feedback Is Smiling Faces
6. Constant Questioning of the Status Quo
7. Farmers Don’t Really Care About Climate Change

The Social Innovation Podcast had a great discussion with Samridh Goyal, the Founder & CEO of Solar Horizon.  Solar Horizon is a full service solar project consultancy operating in South East Asia and India with a mission to help companies unlock the full value of their rooftops by harnessing the power of the sun. Sam comes with a wealth of experience having been in the solar industry for more than a decade. In this conversation we talk about the future of solar in South East Asia and we cover the next big thing in solar, decentralized energy creation.

This week's episode is guest hosted by Zal Dastur. Zal, has been an entrepreneur for the last 14 years and has turned his attention to helping solve the climate crisis in the best way he knows, helping for-planet businesses develop and grow. As an active advisor and investor Zal has impacted dozens of companies in the climate space helping them to reach their potential to do the maximum good for the planet.

Some of the topics covered in this episode:

• Why solar is perfect for the urbanized world
• The Singapore solar market boom
• The challenge of net zero
• What Singapore got right in its model
• Floating solar
• Using the energy grid like a battery
• Decentralized energy creation
• Deregulating energy markets
• Blockchain enabled solar systems and energy distribution tracking
• An integrated energy market for ASEAN

Other titles we considered for this episode:

1. The Grids in the Region Must Start to Deregulate
2. Finally the Banks in Singapore Offering Green Loans
3. Peer to Peer Energy Trading
4. Power to the People
5. A Virtual Power Grid
6. Power the Entire Planet With Renewables
7. The Revolution Will Happen at the Distributed Energy Level
8. We All Have to Play Our Part

The Social Innovation Podcast was joined by Mayur Singh, a co-Founder at Green Collective and a Founding Partner at IxSA.

Mayur truly embodies the title of this week's episode. From a young age, he has chosen his own route both in what he wanted to study and in his career. Coming from a background in investment banking, Mayur has combined his love of sustainability and a for profit mindset to develop a retail as a service concept in Singapore.

This week's episode is guest hosted by Zal Dastur. Zal, has been an entrepreneur for the last 14 years and has turned his attention to helping solve the climate crisis in the best way he knows, helping for-planet businesses develop and grow. As an active advisor and investor Zal has impacted dozens of companies in the climate space helping them to reach their potential to do the maximum good for the planet.

Some of the topics covered in this episode:

• Going against the family tradition
• Being a doctor or an engineer
• Finding Ikigai
• How frustration leads to a business
• Taking a step into the unknown
• The growth of Earth Day
• Government's power to push awareness
• Sustainability as a way of doing business
• The changing face of consumer products
• How to make sustainability more inclusive
• Consumers buying into sustainable products

Other titles we considered for this episode:

1. Find My Own Ikigai
2. Maths or Biology
3. Never Scared of Thinking Against the Tide
4. A For-Profit Mindset
5. When Will your Home Be Uninsurable?
6. We Need Consumer Demand for Large-Scale Change
7. I Would Love a Carbon Tax

The Social Innovation Podcast had the chance to talk to Mick Liubinskas, a co-Founder of Climate Salad, an online community dedicated to fostering and developing the climate and sustainability industry in Australia. Mick shares with us what made him leave the tech world and commit to climate and how we can all look around and ask, "What more can I be doing?".

This episode is hosted again by Zal Dastur. Zal, has been an entrepreneur for the last 14 years and has turned his attention to helping solve the climate crisis in the best way he knows how, helping for-planet businesses develop and grow. As an active advisor and investor, Zal has impacted dozens of companies in the climate space, helping them to reach their potential to do the maximum good for the planet.

Some of the topics that Zal and Mick discussed:

• Being a private environmentalist
• How an individual message changed Mick's life
• What good entrepreneurship looks like
• The genesis of Climate Salad
• The Climate Tech 100
• Comparing carbon to dollars (starting to sound familiar!)
• The role of consumers in solving the climate problem
• What should a burger REALLY cost?
• When do we realize this is a crisis?

Other titles we considered for this episode:

1. Maybe It's Time You Get In This Game
2. Startup Helping Startups
3. A Massive Sense of Urgency
4. People Are Dying Right Now
5. More Opportunities Than You Think

The Social Innovation Podcast sat down with Marie Cheong and Quentin Vaquette, two of the founding partners of Wavemaker Impact, to talk about solving the climate crisis through impactful businesses. Wavemaker Impact is a fund and a venture builder looking to grow companies that can earn $100 million in revenue and abate 100 megatonnes of carbon per year.

This week's episode is guest-hosted by Zal Dastur. Zal, has been an entrepreneur for the past 14 years and has turned his attention to solving the climate crisis in the best way he knows, helping for-planet businesses develop and grow. As an active advisor and investor, Zal has impacted dozens of companies in the climate space, helping them reach their potential to do the maximum good for the planet.

Some of the topics that we discussed:

• What does 100x100 companies mean?
• How a trip to the Maldives helped to inspire change
• How to create a new molecule
• Adoption can be the biggest challenge in decarbonization
• Approaching change from the lower point of friction
• The $2BN opportunity in carbon
• How to analyze companies by their ability to draw down carbon
• How to go after the big game in carbon
• What is the carbon TAM?
• Creating a carbon emissions map
• The impact rice growing has on emissions

Other titles we considered for this episode:

1. Carbon Can Be the New Natural Resource for Asia
2. Sustainability Is a Team Game
3. Value Pockets Are Like Hot Pockets, But Full of Dollars
4. Climate Is the New Tech
5. You Don't Need to Be a Scientist to Build a Climate Tech Company
6. The Next Thousand Unicorns Are Going to Be in Climate

The Social Innovation Podcast had such a wonderful conversation with Shamini Dhana, the Founder and CEO of Dhana, Inc. and the CEO at D/Sphere.  Dhana Inc. is a fashion tech company, transforming customer experience from zero-waste designs to social and environmental impact through Circular Fashion. D/Sphere is the creative fashion platform for people to create clothing using second-life materials, share stories while doing good in the world.

Some of the topics that Shamini covered:

• Recording on an auspicious day and naming her company after her father
• Growing up in Singapore
• How working for the government of California was a pivotal point in her career
• Moving to Silicon Valley Bank and establishing it in India
• Taking 25 VCs on a trip to India that was fascinating on so many levels
• Seeing something first-hand has to touch you
• Businesses are getting more value-aligned
• The what, why, and how of D/Sphere
• The circular economy and second-life materials
• The fashion industry's contribution to the world's pollution
• Driving social and environmental impact
• Fashion as a mechanism for telling stories

Other titles we considered for this episode:

1. Came With Two Suitcases and Not Knowing a Person
2. Entrepreneurship Is About Being Able To Navigate In the Chaos
3. A Trajectory of Your Whole Journey
4. I Need To Show You Something
5. We Fundamentally Believe In the Human Expression
6. Empowering People To Create Impact
7. Repair, Resale, Rental and Recycle
8. The Store, the Studio, and the Story

The Social Innovation Podcast was joined by Edward Booty, the CEO at reach52. reach52 delivers health services in markets others don't reach.

Some of the topics Ed discussed:

• Encouraged by his father to travel after graduation from university
• Traveled to India among other countries
• Worked at a pharmaceutical company in Bombay creating new business models for emerging markets
• How even some of the people that join reach52 just assume that basic services exist everywhere
• According to a WHO report, half the world lacks access to essential health services
• The chronic shortage of healthcare workers
• Rural areas suffer most from these shortages
• The sheer amount of medicine that gets thrown away
• Some of the roadblocks to solving healthcare access problems
• The impact of the lack of payment systems in the markets that reach52 serves
• Is healthcare a human right?

Other titles we considered for this episode:

1. Big, Crazy, Loud, and Exciting
2. Seeing It For Real Is Definitely Most Important
3. That’s What It Says On the Tin
4. We Don’t Need Bleeding-edge Innovation
5. People Are Pretty Bad at Taking Their Medicine
6. Cash, Cash, and More Cash…

The Social Innovation Podcast enjoyed the opportunity to talk to Chaitali Patel, the Chief Impact Officer at 100 Women in Finance and the CEO of EverGood.  EverGood seeks to help the world’s most innovative, resourceful, and mission-driven organizations plan, measure, and communicate their impact.

Some of the topics that Chaitali discussed:

• Immigrating from India to the United States as a 17-year-old
• Falling in love with finance because it was part art and part science
• The difference between her computer classes and finance classes
• Transitioning from FinTech and finance into impact and sustainability
• Having a short-lived desire to work for a think tank in Washington D.C.
• The state of Utah and female empowerment
• Success happens slowly and then fast
• Seeing ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) through a risk-management lens
• The potentially large alpha opportunity for ESG investments
• The food industry and reading about ancient civilizations

Other titles we considered for this episode:

1. We Never Left Glam
2. The Constant Change Becomes Your Normal
3. How Do We Fix It?
4. How Big of a Client Can You Take?
5. How Fast Can You Scale?
6. The Purpose Is Building Something Bigger Than Yourself
7. The Initial Seed Funding Has To Be Tied to Sustainability

Brandon Ng, a co-Founder and the CEO of AMPD Energy, was kind enough to join the Social Innovation Podcast.  AMPD Energy is committed to making the construction industry emission-free and sees electrification and connectivity as a key part of this transformation. 

Some of the topics Brandon discussed:

• His parents were both accountants and encouraged him to be one as well
• Was born in Brunei
• While interning at an accounting firm, realized he was wired to be an engineer
• Started AMPD in 2015 and started focusing on the construction industry in 2018
• The cost of batteries kept going down
• The electricity grid was rapidly changing and getting upgraded
• The mix of energy sources on the grid was changing substantially due to the introduction of renewables
• Hyper-urbanization and the pressure it puts on communities and their infrastructure
• The construction industry accounts for ~11% of global carbon emissions
• How big problems also create big economic opportunities
• Finding first adopters that are willing to take a risk
• Partnering with Gammon Construction to co-develop AMPD Entertainer
• Using AMPD Entertainer's gathered data to analyze energy use patterns and determine equipment productivity

Other titles we also considered for this episode:

1. Life Takes You On a Different Trajectory
2. I Think We've Hit That Tipping Point
3. There Was Not Necessarily a Huge Impetus To Change
4. Moving From a Competitive Edge To a Basic Requirement
5. The Question Is, “Do We Care?”
6. Someone Thought They Were Being Funny
7. It’s a Gateway Into Exactly What’s Going On
8. We Knew That Energy Storage Was Going To Be Transformative

The Social Innovation Podcast thoroughly enjoyed its conversation with ShuFen Lin, an ex-startup founder deeply interested in artificial intelligence and climate change.

Some of the topics that ShuFen discussed:

• Working from home and work/life integration
• A work-life that encompassed corporate, startups, and back to corporate
• Worked in the telco business for 15 years
• Left corporate life to start Gluu - a marketplace for trading mobile data
• How she got interested in artificial intelligence
• The implications of AI and our own awareness of its implementation
• The importance of AI literacy and personal responsibility
• The International Energy Agency reported that carbon emissions dropped 5% to 6% during full lockdown
• Seeing the clear, blue sky
• Suppliers, the supply chain, and one's carbon footprint
• FinTech startups and sustainability
• Consumer demand driving product supply

Other titles we considered for this episode:

1. It's More About Work-Life Integration
2. It Has Given Me a Lot of Flexibility
3. We've Seen Businesses That Thrive on Lack of Literacy
4. Commercial Production Is Driven By Consumer Demand
5. I Feel Like I Am Starting from Zero Again
6. The common Denominator I Found Was the Mindset

The Social Innovation Podcast was joined by Fengru Lin, the Founder, and CEO of TurtleTree.  TurtleTree believes that "Food should nourish and delight."  They envision "a world where people, animals, and the planet no longer have to pay the price for the meals on our table..."

Some of the topics that Fengru covered included:

• Working at Salesforce and Google prior to starting TurtleTree
• Learning how to make cheese
• Listening to a speech her co-Founder Max gave at Google
• Filed for patents in 2019 and then founded TurtleTree
• How the cow population has remained constant but milk output rose by almost 50%
• How the health of your gut impacts the health of your whole body
• In the novel food space, 50 to 60% of COGS goes to energy
• The process for painlessly extracting mammary cells from cows and then creating milk
• Singapore as a launchpad for the rest of Asia
• Launching products with FMCG companies
• TurtleTree's funding status and talking to investors

We were joined by Nabeel Ismeer, a co-Founder of MPWRNRGY (I think it needs more vowels.) and the author of "The Hunters Walk."  MPWRNRGY develops, installs, and operates green technologies like solar power on rooftops of commercial and residential properties and electric vehicle charging stations at carparks and other locations.

Some of the topics that Nabeel discussed:

• The story of how his Sri Lankan father got a job in Saudi Arabia
• Why being early matters
• The Hunter's Walk - his first book
• The IPCC and what its mission is
• Climate change
• Where we get pre-satellite era historical weather data
• It's not just electric vehicles and transportation
• The drastic drop in the price for solar installations and operations
• Renewable energy is already cheaper than conventional sources
• Electricity generation by energy source

Some other titles we considered for this episode:

1. Grasp Whatever Opportunity You Get
2. Watalappan Is a Pudding In Sri Lanka
3. What Would Climate Change Do To Us?
4. Mitigation and Adaption
5. That Was Where I Was Doing the Most Good

Social Innovation Podcast was super happy to be joined by Steve Melhuish, Founder PropertyGuru, Sustainability Advocate & Investor, and a co-Founder of Planet Rise.  Planet Rise believes that climate and social inequality are the biggest challenges facing humanity today. It supports companies solving these issues, using tech to achieve impact at scale.

Some of the topics Steve and I covered:

• Hiring a CEO at PropertyGuru in 2018 and remaining on its Board
• Packing for a flight for the first time in 2 years
• The beginnings of his climate and social impact journey
• The critical role that corporates play in combatting climate change
• Helping some of Wavemaker Partners' portfolio companies think more about sustainability
• Building a fund around decarbonization
• Wavemaker Impact
• Building their own carbon map
• About a third of all the carbon sinks in the world are in Southeast Asia
• The opportunity to build 100 x 100 companies
• A few of Planet Rise's portfolio companies

Other titles we considered for this episode:

1. A Monumental Effort from Everybody
2. Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 50%
3. You Can Very Quickly Get Overwhelmed
4. We See Ourselves as co-Founders

Aliza Napartivaumnuay joined me on the Social Innovation Podcast to talk about Socialgiver, of which she is the CEO.  Socialgiver is a platform that is pioneering new ways to connect and use the spending power of consumers to create positive change in the world.

Some of the topics that Aliza and I discussed:

• How growing up all around the world helped shape her
• Her membership in the Obama Foundation
• Working in logistics and supply at a Thai corporate and what it taught her
• What is Socialgiver, why it was founded, and what it is trying to accomplish
• There are approximately $39 BN of spare services a year in Thailand alone
• The importance of transparency in social projects
• Pivoting through the pandemic
• Solving problems for the long term
• Spare capacity and people that need help exist everywhere

Other titles we considered for this episode:

1. Really Stand True
2. Wanting To Create a Better Future for Everyone
3. I Am Not a Born Entrepreneur
4. Create a Way for People to Do Good More Often
5. They Were Willing to Give Stuff, Rather Than Cash

The Social Innovation Podcast was happy to have a conversation with Jan Ivar Czaplicki, a co-Founder of CarbonClick.com and an Edmund Hillary Fellow.  CarbonClick has built the world's simplest and most trustworthy carbon offsetting system to accelerate the fight against climate change. CarbonClick has built innovative, new ways for businesses and individuals to neutralize their impact on the planet as part of their everyday lives, aiming to have a significant and measurable impact in the fight against climate change.

Some of the topics that Jan and I covered:

• How and why he became an Edmund Hillary Fellow
• Seeing the environmental impact of humans while traveling around Southeast Asia
• Noticing the difficulty of solving the carbon footprint problem
• How working at an airline encouraged Jan to build CarbonClick
• The importance of measuring climate change and its impact
• Businesses reducing emissions
• Doing extensive carbon reduction project due diligence
• Transparency matters
• CarbonClick's business model

The Social Innovation Podcast learned a lot from its discussion with Sushil Vaishnav, the Founder of KNP Arises.  KNP Arises is a revolutionary startup that is at the forefront of building a green world.  KNP Arises collects used cooking oils and fats from restaurants and then converts those oils into bio-diesel.

Some of the topics we covered with Sushil:

• When he returned from 8 years in Dubai, was worried about eating out in India
• Something just felt wrong with the food
• Realized that one of the issues was with the reuse of cooking oil
• Some of the food vendors even considered overused oil as their secret flavor ingredient
• Food vendors worried if they did not reuse the cooking oil, customers would not return
• Visited and interviewed over 100 street food vendors
• The health issues that reused cooking oil creates
• Creating awareness for the vendors and their customers
• Logistics and costing
• Potential FinTech opportunities
• Side hustles do not really succeed at scale

Other titles we considered for this episode:

1. Key to Nature's Protection
2. Demand Is Never an Issue for Bio-Diesel

The Social Innovation Podcast enjoyed talking to Sylvia Yu Friedman.  Sylvia is a renowned Author, Award-Winning Filmmaker, and Serial Entrepreneur. Sylvia has devoted her life to exposing the world to the horrors of sex trafficking and human slavery and inspiring others to join in fighting against them.

Some of the topics that we discussed:

• Sylvia's involvement in media since 1997 and her perspective on omnichannel
• How she first learned about sex slavery and comfort women from a newspaper article in 1991
• The genesis of her first book, "Silenced No More: Voices of ‘Comfort Women’"
• The intensity that is necessary to write her books
• The challenge of getting people to open up and tell their stories
• "No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader" and why empathy matters
• The sheer difficulty of filming on location in Asia and the real dangerous situations that Sylvia encountered
• The importance of healing and reconciliation
• Struggling with her Korean heritage and later embraced it

The Social Innovation Podcast was excited to welcome Matthew Friedman, the CEO of  The Mekong Club, back to the show.  The Mekong Club is a catalyst for change, inspiring and engaging the private sector to lead in the fight against modern slavery.

Some of the topics we discussed this time around:

• How Corporate Social Responsibility led to ESG
• Why institutions now must include Purpose along with Profit, Growth, and Prestige
• ESG offers an objective way of measurement
• For ESG measurement to become as effective as possible, there has to be more standardization
• Investment companies are also taking notice as ESG investment significantly outperforms
• Paul Ark and Gobi Partners
• Pollution, access to clean water, forced labor, human slavery, and NGOs
• Understanding invisibility
• Velleity
• The Starfish on the Beach
• Read Matthew Friedman's book - Be the Hero: Be the Change

The Social Innovation Podcast was honored to have Sandeep Aneja and Jetu Lalvani, Managing Partners at Kaizenvest on the show. Kaizenvest is an emerging markets asset manager focused on the future of learning and work, managing private equity and private debt funds in South & Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.  Kaizenvest believes that the future of learning and work is being redefined through technological, pedagogical, and learning-engagement model innovations.

Some of the topics Sandeep and Jetu discussed:

• After a successful career in Silicon Valley Sandeep returned to India
• Sandeep ran into Jetu who was already running the German School in Bombay
• Why Sandeep wanted to buy a school and why people thought he was crazy
• Both men had teaching and schools as a throughline for their entire lives
• When Sandeep was at university, he put together an education program for the railway factory's families
• Kaizenvest is meant to provide smart capital to education entrepreneurs in emerging markets
• How education is an extension of culture and the economy in which it operates
• Education and EdTech investing is not just about schools
• Building a business and having an impact
• Can learning opportunities be personalized?
• The example of a company in the Philippines called PhinMa
• Access, Quality, and Relevance
• Core, Parallel, and Ancillary
• Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Doughnut Economics

Social Innovation Podcast welcomed Gautam Godhwani, a Managing Partner of Good Startup, to the show.  Good Startup is a venture firm focused on the alternative protein sector. It invests in entrepreneurs creating the next generation of food and materials companies.

Gautam moved to the United States with his family when he was 10 years old and settled in Silicon Valley.  Surrounded by technological innovation, Gautam studied Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley, and went on to found three startups prior to building Good Startup.  His first startup was sold to Netscape while his third company (Simply Hired) was acquired by Japan's Recruit Holdings.

Some of the topics covered in our discussion:

• After Simply Hired was sold, Gautam started to explore his interest in sustainability
• Narrowing his focus to animal welfare and alternative proteins
• Launching Good Startup
• Good Startup exists to remove animals from the food system (read the manifesto here)
• The move from ingredients and food science to molecules and biotechnology
• Will technology personalize food?
• What is a flexitarian?
• The importance of food security
• An increased focus on zoonotic diseases

You can see some of Good Startup's portfolio companies here.

You can see some statistics on how many animals are killed for food every year here, here, and here.