Sustainability In Your Ear

Mitch Ratcliffe
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Mitch Ratcliffe interviews activists, authors, entrepreneurs and changemakers working to accelerate the transition to a sustainable, post-carbon society. You have more power to improve the world than you know! Listen in to learn and be inspired to give your best to restoring the climate and regenerating nature.

  1. 5 天前

    Sustainability In Your Ear: Building The Circular Economy With Glacier CEO Rebecca Hu-Thrams

    Subscribe to receive transcripts by email. Read along with this episode. The raw material for a $2 trillion circular economy is already flowing through recycling facilities. But how do we capture and use it? Rebecca Hu-Thrams, co-founder and CEO of Glacier, is deploying AI-powered robotic sorters at material recovery facilities (MRFs) across the country, processing recycling for one in 10 Americans. Her robots use computer vision trained on more than 3 billion images of waste to identify and sort over 70 different materials—picking 45 items per minute, 24/7, in conditions that would exhaust or injure human workers. As much as 80% of what Americans put in blue bins never gets recycled. The culprit is outdated technology at MRFs, the vast sorting operations struggling with a labor crisis so severe that facilities often refill the same sorting job five times a year. The work is dangerous, with injury rates twice that of construction. Rebecca, a first-generation American who grew up washing margarine tubs for reuse, saw an opportunity to apply cutting-edge technology to what she calls "the most demented form of manufacturing on the planet." The results are tangible. At oneDetroit MRF, an AI camera on a residue line revealed the facility was losing massive amounts of PET bottles to landfill, material they suspected was slipping through but had never quantified. By adding a single sorter based on that data, they achieved a two-thirds drop in PET sent to landfill and earned $138,000 in additional annual revenue. But Glacier's robots do more than sort. They create an intelligence layer for the circular economy, generating data about what's actually in the waste stream—down to specific brands and packaging designs. Amazon, which has invested in Glacier through its Climate Pledge fund, is using this data to understand what design features make packaging easier or harder for AI to detect, moving from "technically recyclable" to "provably recyclable." With extended producer responsibility (EPR) laws spreading across the U.S., this kind of brand-level accountability will become table stakes. Rebecca notes that EPR has improved recycling rates by over 40 percentage points in parts of Europe. Glacier's vision is to transform recycling from a reactive cost center into advanced manufacturing, built on three pillars: a reliable data layer, consistent automation, and higher-quality feedstock. "MRF managers show up to work, turn on the lights, and hold their breath and wait to see what new, crazy things come down their conveyor lines," she said. "What I hope is true for recycling in the coming years is that producers are making things designed to be really easy to recycle." We're still in the early steps of a long recycling evolution, but the gap between where we are and a truly circular economy may close faster than the past 60 years of recycling's progress would suggest. You can learn more about Glacier at endwaste.io. Subscribe to Sustainability In Your Ear on iTunes Follow Sustainability In Your Ear on Spreaker, iHeartRadio, or YouTube

    47 分鐘

  2. 12月1日

    Examining Colorado's First-Of-Its-Kind EPR Oil Recycling Program With David Lawes

    Subscribe to receive transcripts by email. Read along with this episode.Americans dispose of approximately 1.3 billion gallons of used motor oil annually, but only about 800 million gallons get recycled, and most of that is burned as fuel rather than re-refined into new oil. The plastic packaging oil comes in is more problematic: most curbside programs won't accept them because residual oil contaminates other recyclables. What happens when the companies that make motor oil embrace extended producer responsibility (EPR) laws that require recycling the oil and the containers it comes in? David Lawes, CEO of the Lubricants Packaging Management Association (LPMA), is leading what could become a national model for extended producer responsibility. Colorado just became the testing ground. In September 2024, five major oil companies—BP Lubricants, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, and Valvoline—founded LPMA as an independent producer responsibility organization. Colorado gave producers a choice: join the Circular Action Alliance, which manages all packaging and printed paper recycling in the state, or develop their own sector-specific program that demonstrates better outcomes. LPMA chose the independent path, arguing that petroleum packaging requires specialized handling that general-purpose programs can't provide efficiently. Lawes brings two decades of EPR policy experience to the role, including a decade regulating EPR programs in Canada. The program he ran in British Columbia achieves a 96% recycling rate for oil containers—compared to less than 1% in most U.S. states. "This is not about skirting the law or finding an easier pathway," Lawes explains. "It is about meeting the same results in an industry-friendly way."If Colorado's model works, it could reshape EPR programs nationwide. We discuss why petroleum packaging can't be managed through curbside programs, what lessons from Canada's more developed EPR system apply here, and whether the U.S. needs national recycling standards to harmonize the patchwork of state regulations. You can learn more about LPMA at interchange360.com. Subscribe to Sustainability In Your Ear on iTunesFollow Sustainability In Your Ear on Spreaker, iHeartRadio, or YouTube

    36 分鐘

  3. 11月24日

    Star's Tech Hando Choi On Inventing A Low-Carbon, Low-Chloride De-Icer Made From Star Fish

    Read along with our transcript. What if the solution to winter's infrastructure corrosion and environmentally benign home sidewalk de-icing was an invasive starfish being thrown back into Korea's coastal waters? Hando Choi, president of Star's Tech, joins the conversation to explain how one region's invasive species problem can become another's environmental breakthrough. The company developed ECO-ST, a de-icing product made from starfish skeletons that not only melts ice faster than conventional rock salt but also reduces the chloride pollution that causes billions of dollars in damage to roads, bridges, and vehicles every winter. Meanwhile, in Korean waters, the Northern Pacific sea star has become such a menace to shellfish aquaculture that the government purchases 3,000 to 4,000 tons annually to control populations. Stars Tech upcycles about 10% of that collected material, extracting the porous calcium carbonate structures that give starfish their shape and their remarkable ability to store and release chloride. The technology began as a high school science project when founder and chief scientist Seungchan Yang experimented with natural pore structures to control ion release, eventually connecting that research to the negative impacts of conventional deicers while studying at Seoul National University. The economic case is compelling once you factor in the full cost of ownership. While ECO-ST runs $465 to $650 per ton compared to $100 to $150 for commodity rock salt, salt itself accounts for less than 5% of most winter maintenance budgets. The Isaac Walton League of America estimates that infrastructure damage from road salt ranges from $30 to $300 per ton used. Stars Tech's simulations based on U.S. municipal data show ECO-ST can deliver up to 5,000% ROI over time when lower infrastructure maintenance costs, fewer reapplications, and ESG compliance benefits are factored in. ECO-ST is available on Amazon in the U.S. and Canada, with retail partnerships launching this winter. You can learn more about Stars Tech at starstech.co. Subscribe to Sustainability In Your Ear on iTunesFollow Sustainability In Your Ear on Spreaker, iHeartRadio, or YouTube

    34 分鐘

  4. 11月17日

    Liquidonate CEO Disney Petit On Solving The Retail Returns Crisis

    Subscribe to receive transcripts by email. Read along with this episode. What if the solution to the retail industry's $890 billion returns crisis wasn't better logistics, but better logic? Disney Petit, founder and CEO of Liquidonate, is proving that the most sustainable return skips the trip back to a warehouse and goes directly to a community in need. Americans returned nearly 17% of all retail purchases last year, generating 2.6 million tons of landfill waste and 16 million tons of CO2 emissions. Each return costs retailers between $25 and $35 to process, yet 52% of consumers admit to participating in return fraud at least once. Petit witnessed this broken system firsthand as employee number 15 at Postmates, where she built the customer service team and created Civic Labs, the company's social responsibility arm. Her food security product Bento, which allowed people without smartphones to access free food via text message, won Time Magazine's 2021 Invention of the Year Award. Now Liquidonate has earned recognition as one of Time's Best Inventions of 2025. Liquidonate integrates directly with retailers' existing warehouse and return management systems. When a product comes back and can't be resold—open box, slightly damaged, or simply unwanted—the platform automatically matches it with a local nonprofit or school that needs it. "It's the same reverse logistics workflow they already use," Petit explains. "It's just redirected toward community good instead of going to the landfill." The platform handles everything: shipping labels, pickup coordination, and tax documentation so retailers can write off donations. Retailers recover logistics costs through tax benefits while communities receive quality products, and millions of pounds of goods stay out of landfills. To date, retailers using Liquidonate have diverted over 12 million items from landfills, working with more than 4,000 nonprofits across the country. Liquidonate also tackles return fraud by eliminating "keep it" returns, when customers claim they want to return something but are told to keep the item and still receive a refund. "One hundred percent of the time we're producing a shipping label for a nonprofit who wants that product," Petit says. "We completely eliminate that keep-it return option, so we eliminate the returns fraud option." With $900 billion worth of inventory potentially available for redirection, Petit approaches the business through the lens of environmental justice, building a for-profit company designed to prove that doing good and doing well aren't mutually exclusive—they're interdependent. Nonprofits and schools can sign up for free at liquidonate.com. Retailers interested in partnering can reach out to partners@liquidonate.com.Subscribe to Sustainability In Your Ear on iTunesFollow Sustainability In Your Ear on Spreaker, iHeartRadio, or YouTube

    35 分鐘

  5. 11月10日

    Luke Purdy, Wieden+Kennedy's Director of Sustainability, on Advertising's Power To Change

    Can the industry that taught the world to consume help us learn to consume more responsibly? Luke Purdy, Director of Sustainability at one of the world's leading creative agencies Wieden+Kennedy, is betting his career on it. After 13 years working on major accounts like Nike and Corona at one of the world's most influential creative agencies, Purdy did something unusual: he wrote his own job description and asked to become the agency's first sustainability director. Wieden+Kennedy gave him the job, and in 2023, the agency became the first global advertising network to achieve B Corp certification across all nine offices in seven countries. With brands spending over $700 billion annually on advertising worldwide, the messages agencies craft shape not just what people buy, but how they think about consumption itself. Luke discusses how he sold sustainability as a business value proposition rather than a compliance issue, why he reports to the CFO instead of the CMO, and how Wieden+Kennedy's carbon removal program for video productions is changing industry standards. He also tackles thorny questions about greenwashing that can guide which clients agencies should work with, arguing that guiding any company toward sustainability is better than refusing to engage. He shares lessons from helping transform Danish Oil and Natural Gas into Ørsted, one of the world's leading renewable energy companies, and explains why authentic storytelling beats green leaves and clichés every time. Can advertising agencies avoid greenwashing while still growing their clients' businesses? And what does it mean when sustainability becomes culture rather than just compliance?You can learn more about Wieden+Kennedy's sustainability work at wk.com. Subscribe to Sustainability In Your Ear on iTunesFollow Sustainability In Your Ear on Spreaker, iHeartRadio, or YouTube

    47 分鐘

  6. 11月3日

    Terraformation CEO Yishan Wong On Reforesting 3 Billion Acres

    Most Silicon Valley CEOs who cash out their stock options start another tech company. Yishan Wong planted trees instead. After helping build PayPal, Facebook, and serving as Reddit's CEO, Wong concluded that humanity's biggest challenge wouldn't be solved with algorithms or network effects—it would be solved by restoring the planet's forests at an unprecedented scale. Mitch Ratcliffe sits down with Wong to discuss Terraformation, the company he founded in 2020 with an audacious mission: restore 3 billion acres of native forest worldwide—an area larger than the entire United States. Planting a trillion trees isn't just about seeds in the ground. It's about solving bottlenecks like funding gaps that leave 95% of qualified forestry teams without resources, seed shortages, lack of infrastructure and technology, gaps in tracking and verification. Terraformation built a support system that includes modular seed banks, solar-powered nurseries, open source forest management software, which is called Terraware and a seed to carbon forest accelerator that's modeled on tech startup accelerators. Since founding Terraformation, Wong has enabled the planting of over 4.7 million trees across 394 species, established 19 seed banks and 21 nurseries and created more than 798 jobs.  "We made Terraware not because this is the most genius piece of technology that will change the world," Yishan explains. "We said, hey, let's just help forestry teams achieve certain basic necessary activities." Unlike commercial timber plantations that prioritize fast-growing monocultures, Terraformation focuses on biodiverse native forests. Native tree species can support an order of magnitude more life than non-native species because they've co-evolved over millions of years. "Trees are the anchor species for a forest ecosystem," he added. "What you're doing is you're growing trees as the anchor species so that all of the other life in that forest ecosystem comes back." Terraformation recently won the Keeling Curve Prize and the G20's RestorLife Award. The company also received recognition at the Global Sustainability Awards, winning SME Company of the Year. Yishan explains why a former Reddit CEO believes in low tech solutions that are the right approach to climate change, how Silicon Valley's lessons about scaling systems could apply to reforestation and what it takes to build an organization designed to be replicated rather than defended. You can learn more about the company at Terraformation.com.Subscribe to Sustainability In Your Ear on iTunesFollow Sustainability In Your Ear on Spreaker, iHeartRadio, or YouTube

    48 分鐘

  7. 10月27日

    The Climate Action Network's Pre-COP30 Briefing with Rebecca Thissen

    Ten years after the Paris Agreement, the world's climate negotiators will gather in Belém, Brazil this November for COP 30, a summit many are calling a critical juncture for global climate action. After COP 29 in Baku ended with what developing nations called a woefully inadequate $300 billion annual commitment—far short of the $1.3 trillion economists say is needed—can multilateral climate negotiations still deliver the justice and transformation the climate crisis demands? And with 71% of climate finance currently provided as loans rather than grants, how is the debt crisis crushing developing countries' ability to invest in climate action? Rebecca Thissen, Global Advocacy Leader for Climate Action Network International, joins Sustainability In Your Ear to unpack what's really at stake in Belém. With a background in International Public Law and years in the trenches of climate justice advocacy, Thissen works at the intersection of finance, economics, and climate action to ensure money flows where it's needed most. She discusses the just transition work program, Brazil's controversial Tropical Forests Forever Facility, the International Court of Justice's groundbreaking ruling on climate obligations, and why only 10% of countries showed up with their nationally determined contributions. Climate Action Network represents nearly 2,000 organizations across 130 countries, making it the world's largest coalition working on climate change. You can follow their daily updates during COP 30 through their newsletter ECO at climatenetwork.org. Read a transcript of this episode. Subscribe to receive transcripts by email.

    47 分鐘

  8. 10月20日

    Buckstop's Alexander Olesen Digs Into Urban Mining

    Every solar array, battery system, and EV charger installed over the past decade will eventually need to be decommissioned. Yet there's no unifying system to handle that flow of materials—no operating system for the reverse supply chain that the circular economy depends on. While Americans recycle 97% of vehicles, we recycle less than 20% of electronics, leaving valuable critical minerals like lithium, cobalt, and gold to languish in warehouses or end up in landfills. The electronics embedded in our built environment represent the richest mining scene on Earth, yet we treat these refined materials as waste rather than the valuable resources they are. Meet Alexander Olesen, co-founder and CEO of Buckstop, an urban mining company launched in early 2025 to build what he calls "the intelligence layer for the circular economy." He previously founded Babylon Micro Farms, which develops distributed vertical farming systems, and he returns to Sustainability In Your Ear to share his new mission: creating a sustainable end-of-use solution for every electronic device on Earth. Buckstop took just three months to deploy its "algorithmic assay," a method of deconstructing finished goods into their raw materials and critical minerals at scale, something that wasn't possible to do efficiently before the advent of AI. The result: asset owners can now see the granular value of their deployed electronics in unprecedented detail. The scrap value of electronics typically yields only 1-5% recovery, but resale value can reach 20-30%. For Fortune 500 companies with billions in fixed assets, that circularity delta represents enormous value currently being destroyed. Olesen's approach draws directly from his decade-long experience as an OEM manufacturing vertical farming equipment with 1,200 unique components. "Why is there no comprehensive end-of-life solution for technology assets?" he asked. Every hardware entrepreneur he knew in renewables, robotics, and distributed systems faced the same problem.  Buckstop's model draws inspiration from an unlikely source: Kelley Blue Book. "Kelley Blue Book was the data stream that formalized the aftermarket for vehicles," Olesen notes. Before that standardization, people would leave cars rusting by the roadside. Today, the automotive industry is the most circular industry on the planet. Olesen believes the same transformation is possible for the electronics industry. The platform currently focuses on renewable energy infrastructure—solar panels, batteries, inverters—but Buckstop's long-term vision extends to one day tracking all electronic assets. As Olesen puts it: "If you can't measure it, you can't improve it." That measurement is where circularity begins. You can learn more about Buckstop and access the beta assessment tool at buckstop.com.Subscribe to Sustainability In Your Ear on iTunesFollow Sustainability In Your Ear on Spreaker, iHeartRadio, or YouTube

    35 分鐘
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4.5
（滿分 5 顆星）
20 則評分

簡介

Mitch Ratcliffe interviews activists, authors, entrepreneurs and changemakers working to accelerate the transition to a sustainable, post-carbon society. You have more power to improve the world than you know! Listen in to learn and be inspired to give your best to restoring the climate and regenerating nature.

資訊

  • 創作者
    Mitch Ratcliffe
  • 活躍年代
    2018年 - 2025年
  • 集數
    533
  • 年齡分級
    兒少適宜
  • 版權
    © Copyright 2025 Internet Media Strategies Inc.
  • 節目網站
    Sustainability In Your Ear

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