Second Nature

Oxygen Conservation

Life on Earth is changing faster than ever. Second Nature introduces you to the people driving that change.Join host Rich Stockdale as he sits down with some of the most interesting people working at the intersection of nature, business, finance, adventure, leadership, and politics. Together, they uncover the stories, lessons, and truths that will shape the future of our planet.Expect everything from extreme journeys in the wild to high-performance insights, from conservation breakthroughs to the realities of building purpose-driven organisations. These conversations challenge assumptions, spark new thinking, and shine a light on what it really takes to make an impact in the world at scale.Started in 2023 and brought to you with support from Knight Frank, Second Nature is your chance to learn from the people pushing boundaries and creating change—one honest conversation at a time.

  1. E165 Dimple Patel: Stop Waiting For Permission

    4 DAYS AGO

    E165 Dimple Patel: Stop Waiting For Permission

    Dimple Patel didn't arrive at the CEO chair via the usual route. She grew up on a council estate in the north of England, the daughter of immigrants who had their house burnt down and opened the shop the next morning anyway. She got to Cambridge on scholarships, traded through the 2008 financial crisis at Goldman Sachs, scaled a coffee chain to 37 stores and sold it to private equity, pivoted into tech, exited a second company days before the consumer market collapsed — and then walked into the biodiversity space to lead NatureMetrics, one of the most important science and technology businesses operating in the natural capital economy today. This is a conversation about what it actually takes to build something from nothing. About the work hard fallacy — why grit alone isn't enough and what you need instead. About what happens to your identity the morning after you sell the business you poured everything into. About why you should never tell anyone your company is for sale. About the real cost of debt funding, aggressive investors, and signing commercial leases without reading the small print. About building a culture that bridges world-class scientists and commercial operators. And about the one piece of advice Dimple would give her younger self — not to believe in yourself, but to trust your conviction that you'll find a way through. If you've ever built something, tried to build something, or wondered what separates the people who make it from the people who don't — this one is for you.

    1hr 26min
  2. E164 Ian Simm: Nature Is The Next Big Trade

    26 MAR

    E164 Ian Simm: Nature Is The Next Big Trade

    Can investing help solve environmental challenges — while still delivering strong returns? In this episode of the Oxygen Conservation Podcast, Rich Stockdale speaks with Ian Simm, Founder and CEO of Impax Asset Management. For more than two decades, Ian has been investing in companies that enable the transition to a more sustainable economy — from renewable energy and water infrastructure to smart materials and pollution control. Today, Impax manages around £25 billion on behalf of institutional investors including pension funds and sovereign wealth funds. But Ian’s journey into environmental investing didn’t start in finance. It began with adventure — travelling across China as a teenager and later crossing the Sahara on a tandem bicycle — experiences that shaped his view of the environment and the role business can play in protecting it. Rich and Ian explore how capital markets can accelerate environmental solutions, why renewable energy and water infrastructure remain some of the biggest opportunities ahead, and where climate and resource risks are still mispriced by global markets. This episode is about markets, leadership, and the long-term transition to a more sustainable global economy.

    59 min
  3. E163 Vian Sharif: Finance, AI and the Future of Nature

    19 MAR

    E163 Vian Sharif: Finance, AI and the Future of Nature

    What happens when financial markets finally realise nature isn’t external to the economy — but fundamental to it? In this episode of the Oxygen Conservation Podcast, Rich Stockdale speaks with Vian Sharif, Founder of NatureAlpha — a company using AI and environmental data to help financial institutions understand how their investments impact the natural world. Today, NatureAlpha’s insights inform institutions representing over $25 trillion in assets, helping investors identify risks linked to biodiversity loss, water stress, pollution and ecosystem degradation. But Vian’s journey didn’t begin in finance boardrooms. It began with a transformative moment in Kenya that changed how she saw the relationship between nature and the global economy. This conversation explores the rise of nature risk in financial markets, the role of AI and data in conservation finance, and why the next major shift in investing may revolve around biodiversity and natural capital. Because protecting nature isn’t just environmental. It’s economic.

    1hr 7min
  4. E162 Will Foulkes: Retail Is Sitting On Untouched Billions

    12 MAR

    E162 Will Foulkes: Retail Is Sitting On Untouched Billions

    What if the fastest way to fund nature isn’t through donations… but through the global payments system? Will Foulkes left elite structured finance at a Magic Circle law firm to build something radical: a “green margin” embedded into everyday transactions that automatically funds nature restoration. From adding 1p to supermarket products, to integrating directly into Europe’s largest payment processor, this conversation goes far beyond sustainability theory. It’s about rewiring capitalism itself. Rich and Will explore why philanthropy won’t scale, why pension funds demand standardisation and 8% returns, and why nature must become a true asset class if we’re serious about rewilding half the planet. They unpack high-volume micro-transactions, invisible ESG impact, institutional capital, and what it really takes to move global markets. If you care about business, finance, retail, or the future of conservation — this episode will change how you think about scale. The technology exists. The model works. The only question left is: who moves first?

    1hr 11min

  5. 5 MAR

    E161 Lara Salam & Doris Koeck: We Built a Nature Algorithm

    Everyone thinks Oxygen Conservation is a land company. It’s not. It’s a data platform from its absolute DNA. In this rare behind-the-scenes conversation, Rich sits down with the team building the engine that powers every acquisition, every restoration plan, and every carbon model. From screening every square metre of the UK using 50+ datasets, to deploying drones capturing 3cm resolution imagery, to building digital terrain models and LiDAR maps that expose what the naked eye can’t see — this is the infrastructure beneath modern natural capital. They unpack how Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) is becoming the backbone of investable conservation, why most of the sector is still stuck in the analogue age of PDFs, and how data is transforming nature from “nice idea” into measurable asset class. If conservation is going to compete with private equity, real estate and infrastructure, it needs numbers, not narratives. This is the story of the operating system behind Scaling Conservation — and why the future of nature is digital.

    1hr 14min
  6. E160 Rob Gardner: Floods Will Break Britain

    26 FEB

    E160 Rob Gardner: Floods Will Break Britain

    Rob Gardner isn’t trying to make nature sound good. He’s trying to make it investable. As CEO of Rebalance Earth, he’s building the UK’s first natural capital asset manager — structuring real revenue models around flood mitigation, water resilience, peatland restoration, and even oyster reefs. With a £25m cornerstone portfolio backed by West Yorkshire Pension Fund, this is institutional capital moving into ecosystems — not as philanthropy, but as infrastructure. We explore how ecosystem services can generate long-term, pension-grade cashflows, why nature risk is still missing from trustee dashboards, and what it will take to turn biodiversity and climate resilience into a recognised asset class. This isn’t ESG. It’s a blueprint for repricing nature at scale.

    1hr 7min
  7. E159 Giles Bristow: The Water Crisis Was Engineered

    19 FEB

    E159 Giles Bristow: The Water Crisis Was Engineered

    What does real leadership look like when the country’s rivers are polluted, the public is angry, and the system feels stuck? Giles Bristow, CEO of Surfers Against Sewage, has lived both sides of the fight — from environmental lawyer inside the corporate machine to leading one of the UK’s most recognisable grassroots movements. This is not a comfortable conversation. Rich and Giles go head-to-head on profit versus public good, the ethics of finance in an environmental crisis, and whether the law is powerful enough to deliver real change. They explore what it takes to mobilise 100,000 members without losing credibility, how to balance disruption with influence, and why the next Water Bill could define the next decade of environmental campaigning. This episode is about power. Strategy. Courage. And the difference between shouting from the sidelines and leading in the storm. If you care about clean water, ethical investment, or the future of environmental leadership — this one will challenge you.

    1hr 15min
  8. E158 Mark Clayton: Is Your Bank Funding Extinction?

    12 FEB

    E158 Mark Clayton: Is Your Bank Funding Extinction?

    Most banks talk about values. Very few are willing to let those values shape decisions. Mark Clayton, CEO of Triodos Bank UK, leads a bank that treats impact as a discipline, not a slogan. Having worked at the heart of big finance, he understands how neutrality, risk, and growth are used to avoid responsibility — and what it takes to do things differently. This conversation goes inside the real trade-offs of values-led banking: how credit decisions are made, why nature-based solutions challenge traditional finance, what ethical AI governance actually looks like, and how leadership changes when impact isn’t optional. This isn’t a story about fixing banking with better narratives. It’s about what happens when values are allowed to drive the system. Triodos Whitepaper: https://www.triodos.co.uk/press-releases/2025/triodos-bank-targets-sharply-reduced-emissions-and-wants-to-finance-275-energy-transition-projects-by-2030

    1hr 39min
See All (165)

Trailer

Ratings & Reviews

4.8
out of 5
13 Ratings

About

Life on Earth is changing faster than ever. Second Nature introduces you to the people driving that change.Join host Rich Stockdale as he sits down with some of the most interesting people working at the intersection of nature, business, finance, adventure, leadership, and politics. Together, they uncover the stories, lessons, and truths that will shape the future of our planet.Expect everything from extreme journeys in the wild to high-performance insights, from conservation breakthroughs to the realities of building purpose-driven organisations. These conversations challenge assumptions, spark new thinking, and shine a light on what it really takes to make an impact in the world at scale.Started in 2023 and brought to you with support from Knight Frank, Second Nature is your chance to learn from the people pushing boundaries and creating change—one honest conversation at a time.

Information

  • Creator
    Oxygen Conservation
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    165
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Second Nature
  • Show Website
    Second Nature

You Might Also Like