Journey To Regeneration

Chris Marquis
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Business
  • Updated Biweekly

Journey to Regeneration explores how forward-looking companies create long-term advantage by repairing the ecological and social systems they rely on. Hosted by Cambridge professor Christopher Marquis, the show features CEOs, sustainability strategists, climate innovators, and scholars who turn big ideas into actionable moves—unpacking what “net positive” really looks like, the policies accelerating the shift, and the practical hurdles leaders face on the ground. It’s a show for decision-makers who want to create resilient growth without greenwashing.

  1. 2d ago

    Rethinking Who Owns the Value a Business Creates with Hans van den Broek of The Shore

    In this episode of Journey to Regeneration, Chris Marquis speaks with Hans van den Broek, founder of The Shore, a surf school and organic café in Scheveningen, and a participant in the Netherlands’ Sleipnir network of steward-owned businesses. Van den Broek traces The Shore’s unlikely development from a tiny seasonal surf operation into a valuable year-round beach business, explaining how public permits, real estate, and investor interest forced him to confront questions about where business value comes from and who should benefit from it. Rather than sell equity and create pressure to recover the purchase price through higher margins, cheaper inputs, or reduced labor costs, he transferred the company’s capital into the Sleipnir Foundation. The structure preserves entrepreneurial autonomy while preventing the business from being sold for private gain. The conversation examines ownership as a frequently overlooked constraint on sustainability, as well as the implications of steward ownership for financing, succession, profit, and governance. Van den Broek describes Sleipnir as a form of “business permaculture,” in which independent companies share capital, advice, and practical resources while returning surplus value to the social and ecological systems that enable their success. His experience suggests that regenerative business may depend not only on changing what companies produce, but also on redesigning who owns them and where the value they generate is allowed to flow. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  2. Jul 16

    Ocaquatics, Employee Ownership, and the Ripples of Impact

    In this episode of Journey to Regeneration, Christopher Marquis speaks with Miren Oca, founder and CEO of Ocaquatics Swim School, a Miami-based company that has taught more than 3.2 million swim lessons while building a business around safety, employee development, environmental responsibility, and community access. Oca reflects on how a company she began in survival mode as a 19-year-old student evolved into a certified B Corp and, more recently, an employee-owned company through an employee ownership trust. The conversation explores what it means to build regenerative capacity in a service business with a real environmental footprint, from solar panels and pool covers to formalized employee loan programs and impact measurement. It also examines swimming as a public-safety and equity issue in Miami-Dade County, where access to lessons can shape whether children and families are safe around water. At its heart, this episode is about succession, stewardship, and redefining ROI—not only as financial return, but as the ripples of impact a business creates for workers, customers, communities, and the places it calls home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  3. Jul 9

    Ruth Andrade of Lush on Earth Care, Circularity, and Designing Business for Regeneration

    In this episode of Journey to Regeneration, Christopher Marquis speaks with Ruth Andrade, Earth Care Strategy Lead at Lush, about how one of the world’s most recognizable ethical cosmetics companies translates an aspirational purpose—leaving the world “lusher than we found it”—into operational choices across sourcing, product design, packaging, ownership, and culture. Ruth explains why Lush uses the language of Earth Care rather than sustainability, and how principles such as earth care, people care, and fair share shape its approach to business. The conversation explores Lush’s vertically integrated model, its partnerships with forest communities, women-led cooperatives, and conservation organizations, and its focus on the most material ingredients in its supply chain. Ruth also discusses the company’s closed-loop “bring it back” packaging system, their Green Hub in Poole, UK and the decision to open-source innovations such as solid shampoo bars rather than protect them as proprietary advantage. Together, the episode shows that regenerative business is not a single practice or certification, but a set of design choices about responsibility, relationships, and the long-term health of the systems a company depends on. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  4. Jul 2

    Hans Stegeman on Making Money Work for System Change

    In this episode of Journey to Regeneration, Christopher Marquis speaks with Hans Stegeman, Chief Economist and Group Director of Impact and Economics at Triodos Bank, about the role finance can play in transforming the economy rather than simply greening the status quo. Drawing on his journey from conventional economics and Rabobank to Triodos, Hans argues that money is never neutral: it is always a social relationship, shaping what gets built, scaled, protected, or phased out. The conversation explores Triodos’ dual mission to “finance change” and “change finance,” including its focus on the real economy, impact-first lending, exclusion of harmful sectors such as fossil fuels and fast fashion, and efforts to influence broader banking practice through coalitions, advocacy, and new financial system visions. Hans also challenges the limits of mainstream sustainable finance, arguing that ecological and social boundaries require an economy less dependent on growth and more oriented toward wellbeing, resilience, and sufficiency. At a time when many sustainability commitments are under pressure, this conversation reframes finance not as a technical service industry, but as one of the central arenas in which the future of business, society, and regeneration will be decided. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  5. Jun 25

    Norrsken House Brussels and the Politics of Building a Regenerative Economy

    In this episode of Journey to Regeneration, Christopher Marquis speaks with Sophie Dembinski, Head of Norrsken House Brussels and former policy lead at Ecosia, about how climate action moves from individual companies into wider systems of capital, policy, technology, and market design. Drawing on her background in international relations, European policy, and climate entrepreneurship, Sophie reflects on the Paris Agreement as a turning point in her career, Ecosia as an example of mission-locked regenerative business, and Norrsken’s work connecting founders, investors, thinkers, and policymakers across Europe and beyond. The conversation explores why governance and ownership structures matter, how Brussels can help clean tech entrepreneurs gain access to European institutions, and why policy should be understood not only as a constraint on innovation but as a force that creates markets. Sophie also discusses the current shift from sustainability as hype to climate action as resilience, infrastructure, competitiveness, and energy security. At a time when climate ambition faces political and economic headwinds, this episode shows why regenerative business depends on ecosystems that can connect solutions to power, capital, and demand. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  6. Jun 18

    Retrofitting Real Estate for Regeneration with Basil Demeroutis of FORE Partnership

    In this episode of Journey to Regeneration, Christopher Marquis speaks with Basil Demeroutis, Managing Partner of FORE Partnership, about why real estate must be understood not simply as a financial asset class, but as a powerful system shaping environmental outcomes, social life, and long-term value. Drawing on his background in engineering, finance, and impact investing, Demeroutis explains how FORE Partnership uses retrofit, low-carbon design, and social impact as drivers of both sustainability and commercial performance. The conversation explores projects such as TBC London, where the team reused pre-war steel and challenged assumptions about the value of older buildings, and One Poultry, a Grade II listed landmark being reimagined as a model for heritage-sensitive decarbonization. Demeroutis also reflects on the complexity of real estate supply chains, the role of innovation mapping, the limits of certification, and the policy changes needed to make retrofit financially attractive at scale. Together, the discussion reframes buildings as living parts of urban systems—places where carbon, capital, labor, community, and culture intersect—and shows why the future of regenerative business will depend not only on new construction, but on transforming what already exists. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  7. Jun 11

    Louisa Ziane of Toast Brewing on Turning Bread Waste into Circular Business

    In this episode of Journey to Regeneration, Christopher Marquis speaks with Louisa Ziane, co-founder of Toast Brewing, a UK-based craft beer company that uses surplus bread to replace virgin barley in the brewing process. Drawing on her background in accounting, sustainability consulting, marketing, and food-system advocacy, Ziane explains how Toast grew from an experimental project into a circular business model designed to reduce waste, engage consumers, and support charities working to fix the food system. The conversation moves beyond the familiar language of sustainability to examine the operational realities of regeneration: supply-chain traceability, technical brewing challenges, supermarket requirements, investor alignment, and the difficulty of competing with linear businesses when environmental externalities remain unpriced. Ziane also reflects on Toast’s collaborations with bakeries, sandwich manufacturers, major breweries, and COP26 partners, showing how small companies can influence larger systems through shared purpose and practical experimentation. At its heart, this episode asks what it takes to make circularity not just an inspiring idea, but a commercially viable and culturally compelling alternative to wasteful business as usual. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  8. Jun 4

    Tim Christophersen on Restoring Our Relationship with Nature

    In this episode of Journey to Regeneration, Christopher Marquis speaks with Tim Christophersen, author of Generation Restoration and a leading voice in global ecosystem restoration. Drawing on more than two decades of experience across the European Commission, IUCN, the UN Environment Programme, and now Salesforce, Christophersen argues that the nature crisis is fundamentally a relationship crisis. The conversation explores why modern economies have treated nature as a commodity, how natural capital accounting and nature-related financial disclosures can help but remain insufficient, and why companies must move beyond carbon tunnel vision to understand their dependence on forests, water, biodiversity, and landscapes. Christophersen discusses Salesforce’s nature-positive strategy, the evolution of the Trillion Trees Initiative into the Forest Future Alliance, the role of the voluntary carbon market, and the need for public-private partnerships capable of restoring ecosystems at scale. At its core, the episode reframes regeneration as more than a technical agenda: it is a shift in perception, accountability, and reciprocity between business and the living systems on which it depends. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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About

Journey to Regeneration explores how forward-looking companies create long-term advantage by repairing the ecological and social systems they rely on. Hosted by Cambridge professor Christopher Marquis, the show features CEOs, sustainability strategists, climate innovators, and scholars who turn big ideas into actionable moves—unpacking what “net positive” really looks like, the policies accelerating the shift, and the practical hurdles leaders face on the ground. It’s a show for decision-makers who want to create resilient growth without greenwashing.

Information

  • Creator
    Chris Marquis
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    47
  • Copyright
    © Chris Marquis