How Can Green Startups Make Money?

Superstar climber Sasha DiGiulian and Ethiopian technologist Kidus Asfaw have one big thing in common: both are entrepreneurs with a focus on sustainability and ethical products. Every day they face the challenge of making money with their green startups, while also helping to solve some of the big environmental issues of our time. 

In this episode of On Thin Ice, a podcast by Iceworm Media in partnership with the Bally Peak Outlook Foundation, they share their respective experiences and tips for aspiring founders and pioneers who want to create companies with a purpose.

Sasha is a climbing world champion, a professional first-ascender holding a series of records, book author, influencer and the founder of SEND bars, a vegan food company based in Colorado. Kidus is a Time Climate 100 entrepreneur who won many awards, helped UNICEF build schools from trash, and founded Kubik, a startup that turns plastic waste from Ethiopia’s high-altitude cities into low-carbon buildings. 

In North America, Africa and elsewhere, Sasha and Kidus have witnessed dramatic changes in the environment and the impact of pollution and urbanization on mountain landscapes. After explaining what prompted them to launch their ventures, the guests offer valuable insights into their industries.

Kidus talks about plastic waste–a hot topic also for the Bally Peak Outlook Foundation–the challenges of decarbonizing real-estate by moving away from cement, the crucial importance of factoring sustainability into the conceptual phase of your startup, and a key issue with the mindset of venture capitalists.

Sasha explains why natural, healthy foods are more expensive than highly processed, conventional ones, and how she developed her own vision for developing nutritional bars made with locally farmed ingredients, including adaptogens, benefitting health and athletic performance. She also looks back at her expedition to Alaska with a microplastics scientist, and updates us on her lobbying efforts in Washington, D.C., with the Explore Act and her other climate-related initiatives.

Join host Paolo Bosonin for an action-focused conversation about what it means to be a green entrepreneur, and some of the realities of launching and running a green business today.

On Thin Ice is produced in partnership with the Bally Peak Outlook Foundation.

Head to ballypeakoutlook.org/  to learn more about the foundation, which is on a mission to safeguard the world's fragile mountain habitats from the adverse effects of global warming and excessive tourism. 

Production credits: 

Original Music: Nadir Cassim

Editorial advisor: Dave Vetter

Graphic Design: Guillaume Ory

Video editing: Iceworm team

Would you like to suggest guests and projects that we should cover? Do you have feedback or questions? Email paolo@iceworm.media