The Responsible Edge Podcast

Charlie Martin, Host
  • 0.0 (0)
  • ENTREPRENEURSHIP
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

The Responsible Edge Podcast features conversations with leaders and founders exploring how to build better businesses in a complex, fast-changing world. Sponsored by truMRK.

  1. 3D AGO

    Why Doom-Led Climate Messaging Makes People Switch Off

    Climate communication has a problem that more data will not fix. Research from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication shows that 72 percent of Americans believe global warming is happening, but only 45 percent expect it to harm them personally. Scientific consensus messaging, the most common communication tool, can entrench scepticism rather than reduce it, particularly among those with an active distrust of scientific institutions. In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin speaks with Kim Grob, Founding Partner of Right On, a sustainability communications agency working across corporate sustainability, nonprofits, and foundations. The conversation is anchored by a University of Chicago analysis of climate communication research, which finds that value-based, audience-targeted messaging consistently outperforms consensus-based approaches. Grob's argument is direct: the sustainability sector has avoided the tools of marketing, associating them with greenwashing and overconsumption. That reluctance has been costly. "The same principles that we use across all of these different types of marketing campaigns have to be applied to our sustainability communications," she says. The episode covers how identity and ideological filters shape what audiences hear, the Great Salt Lake as a case study in aspiration-led environmental messaging, and what it would mean to shift the objects of desire rather than the structure of desire itself. "You cannot motivate someone through despair," Grob observes. The question the episode leaves open is whether the marketing playbook that built consumer culture can move fast enough, across a wide enough audience, to change it. If your work sits at the intersection of communications, sustainability, and behaviour change, this episode is worth your time. #ClimateComms #SustainabilityCommunication #ClimateMessaging #ResponsibleMarketing #BehaviourChange #TheResponsibleEdge

    39 min

  2. MAY 9

    Does OpenAI's PBC Status Mean Anything Legally?

    When OpenAI completed its restructuring as a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation in October 2025, it did not create any new mandate to publish safety metrics, disclose how outputs are generated, or give civil society organisations formal standing in governance. A public benefit corporation requires directors to consider broader stakeholder interests. It does not require them to demonstrate that they have. That distinction is the subject of this episode of The Responsible Edge. Host Charlie Martin speaks with Asher Jay, National Geographic Explorer, systems strategist, and Chief Network Architect of the Shareholder Democracy Network, about a Financial Times piece asking whether public benefit corporations can solve AI governance challenges. Jay's position is direct. "Just making it about intention and not having tangible ways to translate that into practice is a cop-out." She traces OpenAI's structural evolution from nonprofit to capped-profit entity to PBC as a case study in how governance language can travel further than governance substance. Anthropic, also a PBC, faces the same test. The conversation covers mandatory safety metric disclosure, output-level transparency, why retail proxy voting is a practical lever that currently goes unused, and why civil society should hold voting seats, not advisory roles, at AI company board level. "AI is also a privilege," Jay observes. "I don't think it reaches a vast majority that we don't even converse about." The governance question is not resolved here. Its structure is made visible. If these questions sit close to your work, this episode is worth your time. #AIGovernance #PublicBenefitCorporation #OpenAI #CorporateAccountability #ShareholderDemocracy #TheResponsibleEdge

    39 min

  3. MAY 2

    Why ESG Reporting Is Burning Out Sustainability Teams

    Most sustainability professionals inside organisations spend the majority of their time on reporting. That was not the original intent. In this episode of The Responsible Edge, host Charlie Martin speaks with Kelsey Parsons, a global sustainability consultant and former in-house sustainability officer, about what that compliance burden is doing to the people carrying it. Parsons draws on experience across corporate sustainability, media, and the maritime sector. She describes a structural pattern: professionals hired to create change end up consumed by disclosure requirements. "Every in-house sustainability person ends up working on some level of reporting," she says. The frameworks multiply. The capacity to think strategically does not expand alongside them. The conversation moves across the current ESG backlash, the divergence between organisations that are genuinely committed and those that were never serious, and what Parsons calls the "alphabet salad situation" of overlapping standards. She argues that reporting will eventually narrow and, when it does, will become more useful as a foundation for innovation rather than an obstacle to it. Parsons also reflects on sustainability in the Caribbean, where she grew up, and the gap between governmental ambition and corporate practice in emerging coastal economies. The episode closes with a direct challenge to how the sustainability function is positioned inside organisations. "I will scrap sustainability as a word and probably put in value-maker, change-maker, something like that instead," Parsons says. It is a small linguistic shift with a specific claim attached to it: that what a department is called determines whether a board treats it as peripheral or essential. Whether renaming changes the structural conditions is left, deliberately, unresolved. If these questions sit close to your work, this episode is worth your time. #Sustainability #ESGReporting #SustainabilityLeadership #CorporateResponsibility #ClimateAction #TheResponsibleEdge

    36 min

  4. APR 23

    Construction Contracts vs the Circular Economy

    Circular economy is one of the clearest ideas in sustainable construction. Close material loops, reuse existing structures, extend the life of assets. The business case has been made. So why does it stall in practice? In this episode of The Responsible Edge, Charlie Martin speaks with structural engineer Amira Damji, Director of Additive Sustainability, about the structural and contractual reasons circular construction struggles to become the default in the UK built environment. The conversation examines the incentives governing developer behaviour, the fragmented nature of construction contracts, and the limited ability of smaller firms to push against client briefs. It looks at why sustainability teams cluster around the largest players, why reclaimed material remains more expensive than virgin supply, and why regulatory levers such as VAT reductions would help but not solve the problem. Amira argues that designers, contractors and producers should remain accountable for what they build long after handover. "We have responsibility of the end of life." The current system is organised in the opposite direction. Responsibility ends cleanly at every contract boundary. "Someone's contract ends and someone's contract begins." The episode also covers the language of "asset maintenance" as an alternative framing to circular economy, the role of perception in what a sector treats as valuable, and the observation that large regulated projects outperform smaller ones on sustainability because compliance requires it. A conversation about where the built environment is structurally misaligned, and what it would take to close the loop. Listen to the full episode now. #CircularEconomy #BuiltEnvironment #EmbodiedCarbon #StructuralEngineering #sustainableconstruction #retrofit

    38 min

  5. APR 17

    Why Climate Action Fails at the Checkout

    Climate communication is often treated as a messaging problem. This episode examines why that assumption may be flawed. The discussion centres on a widely shared article arguing that climate messaging should become more human, more local, and more relevant. While this addresses tone, it may overlook a more fundamental constraint: timing and incentives. “It’s very difficult to think about the climate if you can’t pay the bills.” Ben Wynn, co-founder of Glad Climate, argues that behaviour is shaped less by understanding and more by immediate benefit. His model reframes climate participation through financial savings rather than moral appeal. “Save money, and you’ll help save the climate.” The episode explores how Glad uses brand marketing budgets to fund consumer savings, which in turn support greenhouse gas removal. It also examines a broader issue in corporate climate strategy: the gap between reducing future emissions and addressing accumulated impact. “You can’t call yourself responsible if you’re not trying to clean it up.” This is a discussion about incentives, not messaging. It considers whether climate action depends less on persuasion and more on how participation is designed. Listen to understand where current approaches fall short and what may need to change. #ClimateCommunication #BehaviourChange #SustainabilityStrategy #ESG #ResponsibleMarketing

    38 min

  6. APR 12

    Can Payments Change How We Spend?

    Consumers transact daily with limited visibility into who they are buying from. At the same time, trust in institutions is fragmenting, and information is abundant but contested. In this episode, Raja Darbari, co-founder of Ample, explains how payment data can be used to surface sustainability signals at the point of transaction. His model integrates merchant-level data into banking apps, translating complex information into simple labels. He describes the problem directly: “No one knows all the time to do the research or verify those claims.” He also frames the ambition in restrained terms: “It’s to give people the right information so they can make informed decisions.” The conversation explores the limits of that approach. Cost and convenience still shape behaviour. Trust remains fragile. “The only shortage is credibility,” he says, pointing to a landscape shaped by greenwashing and synthetic content. There is no claim of resolution. Instead, the discussion examines whether visibility can influence behaviour at scale, and what happens when responsibility shifts from institutions to individuals. Listen to understand how payments, data, and trust intersect in a fragmented information environment. #SustainabilityData #Fintech #Trust #ConsumerBehavior #ESG

    31 min

  7. APR 2

    Why Office Furniture Waste Still Exists

    Office furniture waste is not a materials problem. It is a system problem. In this episode, Dr Greg Lavery explains why large volumes of usable office furniture are still discarded every day in the UK. Decisions are driven by lease cycles, procurement incentives, and design trends rather than asset life. Greg is founder of Rype Office and a member of the UK Circular Economy Taskforce. His work focuses on replacing new furniture demand with remanufactured supply that matches new in performance and appearance. He traces the issue back to an early engineering experience. A power station designed for decades had waste systems planned for seven years. “That’s not the right answer,” he says. Today, the same misalignment appears in office interiors. Furniture is replaced at lease end regardless of condition. Global supply chains add cost and risk, yet disposal remains the default. Greg explains how remanufacturing works in practice, including material restoration, design integration, and cost outcomes. He also outlines why adoption remains slow. “If your bonus… depended on selling more new stuff, of course you’re incentivised to sell more new stuff.” The conversation examines where incentives block change, how government procurement is beginning to intervene, and why individual decision-makers remain central to progress. Listen to understand why circular models exist, but have not yet displaced the linear system. #CircularEconomy #BuiltEnvironment #Sustainability #SupplyChains #Procurement

    39 min

  8. MAR 25

    Why Ethics Disappears Under Leadership Pressure

    In this episode of The Responsible Edge, Pablo Lloyd examines why ethics often fails in real business environments. The common explanation is lack of time. Leaders are under pressure, dealing with targets, and moving quickly. Ethics is seen as an additional burden. Pablo challenges that directly. The issue is not time. It is how leadership is defined. Drawing on his experience as a CEO, he describes operating at speed where “the world is coming at you.” In that environment, anything treated as optional disappears. He reframes ethics as a decision tool rather than an added responsibility. “This is actually a tool to help the stress become bearable.” When used properly, ethics reduces the number of viable options and clarifies decisions. The episode explores how this works in practice, why it creates internal friction, and why there is no single standard that resolves it. This is a discussion about how leaders actually make decisions under pressure, and what changes when ethics is part of that process. #BusinessEthics #Leadership #DecisionMaking #CorporateResponsibility #Strategy

    48 min
See All (163)

About

The Responsible Edge Podcast features conversations with leaders and founders exploring how to build better businesses in a complex, fast-changing world. Sponsored by truMRK.

Information

  • Creator
    Charlie Martin, Host
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    163
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Charlie Martin, Host
  • Show Website
    The Responsible Edge Podcast

You Might Also Like