Journey To Regeneration

Chris Marquis
  • 5.0 (2)
  • 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. 22h ago

    Making the Invisible Count: Natalie Nicholles from Capitals Coalition on Valuing Nature and People

    In this episode of Journey to Regeneration, Christopher Marquis speaks with Natalie Nicholles of the Capitals Coalition about a fundamental blind spot in how businesses measure performance: the value of nature, people, and communities that conventional financial accounts largely overlook. While companies increasingly collect environmental and social data, much of that information remains disconnected from the investment, risk, and strategic decisions that shape business outcomes. Nicholles explains how impact valuation can bridge this gap by translating changes in natural, human, and social capital into information that decision-makers can use. Drawing on examples from Tasmanian forestry company Forico and Brazilian cosmetics company Natura, she shows how accounting for previously invisible value can reveal new economic opportunities, expose environmental and social trade-offs, and guide changes to business models. The conversation also examines the distinction between value and price, why valuation need not mean commodifying nature or human rights, and how emerging standards could make impact valuation a credible part of mainstream finance. Ultimately, Nicholles argues that building a regenerative economy requires more than measuring harm or improving disclosure. It requires changing what businesses recognize as valuable and ensuring that the systems supporting long-term prosperity are considered in the decisions that shape their future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  2. 6d ago

    Shell It Where It Grows: Johnny Cashew and the Hidden Logic of Global Trade

    In this episode of Journey to Regeneration, Christopher Marquis speaks with Roel van de Weijer, co-founder of Johnny Cashew, about what it takes to redesign a global commodity supply chain so that more value remains where a product is grown. African cashews have traditionally travelled thousands of kilometres to Asia for processing before reaching European consumers, a system that separates farmers from markets, shifts processing jobs away from producing regions, and makes traceability difficult. Johnny Cashew has tried to build an alternative by processing cashews in Tanzania, working directly with farmer cooperatives, and creating long-term relationships across the chain. Van de Weijer explains why a seemingly straightforward idea—“shell it where it grows”—requires new approaches to logistics, working-capital finance, farmer commitments, processing capacity, pricing, and retail partnerships. The conversation also examines the tension between traceability and flexibility: deeper commitments to particular farmers and regions can improve accountability and local value creation while introducing risks that conventional commodity markets avoid by switching easily between suppliers. Van de Weijer discusses efforts to establish a living-income reference price, the importance of Lidl as an early market “firestarter,” and Johnny Cashew’s two-track strategy of using private-label production to achieve scale while using its own brand to expose the structural problems hidden inside a seemingly ordinary snack. The episode shows how creating regenerative businesses often requires changing the architecture of trade itself—who bears risk, where value is added, and whether producers remain visible within the systems built around them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  3. Oct 1

    Building for Impact: John Salzinger on Haven, Energy Access, and Mission Control

    In this episode of Journey to Regeneration, Christopher Marquis speaks with John Salzinger, entrepreneur and inventor behind portable solar lighting company Haven, about building a commercially viable solar business around the challenge of energy poverty. Salzinger explains a distinctive model in which the same product sold to mainstream retail customers is made available to NGOs at lower margins rather than replaced with a cheaper impact-market version. He discusses Haven's decision to work with NGOs and nonprofits before entering retail, using demanding humanitarian settings as both a route to impact and a proving ground for product durability. The conversation also examines one of the central tensions in social enterprise: how financing and ownership can determine whether an impact mission survives as a company grows or changes hands. Salzinger reflects on lessons from the sale of his prior solar start-up MPOWERD and explains why Haven has remained self-funded alongside a small-business loan, allowing its owners to retain control over pricing, product quality, and mission. Also explored are the unavoidable trade-offs of physical products—from manufacturing impacts and battery materials to durability, e-waste, and affordability—and why pursuing a long useful life can matter more than claiming perfection.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  4. Sep 24

    Fireclay Tile: Can American Craft Manufacturing Scale Sustainably?

    In this episode of Journey to Regeneration, Christopher Marquis speaks with Eric Edelson, CEO of Fireclay Tile, about what it takes to scale an American manufacturing business without abandoning craftsmanship, employee participation, or environmental responsibility. Edelson traces Fireclay's evolution from a struggling 19-person artisan tile company to a vertically integrated manufacturer with roughly 450 employees, explaining why the company has built its model around made-to-order production, domestic manufacturing, customized design, and employee ownership. The conversation explores a pragmatic approach to environmental improvement: rather than relying on a single sustainability intervention, Fireclay has focused on continual gains in areas such as kiln efficiency, natural-gas use, freight, packaging, production scheduling, and waste avoidance. Edelson also discusses how the B Corp framework has functioned as a tool for organizational self-assessment rather than an endpoint, and why sharing ownership can change how employees participate in value creation. The discussion then turns to Fireclay's acquisitions strategy, the shortage of skilled tradespeople, and the need to preserve and develop craft expertise through training. Taken together, the episode asks what regenerative business looks like when sustainability is embedded not only in materials, but in ownership structures, operational decisions, workforce development, and the durability of what a company produces. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  5. Sep 17

    When Growth Becomes Climate Strategy: Caroline Reid on Oatly and Food-System Change

    In this episode of Journey to Regeneration, Christopher Marquis speaks with Caroline Reid, Senior Director of Sustainability at Oatly, about what it takes for a company to move from reducing its own environmental footprint to challenging the system in which it operates. Drawing on more than fifteen years of sustainability work at IKEA and an engineering background, Reid contrasts the efficiencies available within an established business model with Oatly's effort to shift consumption away from higher-impact dairy products. She explains why Oatly views conversion rather than additional consumption as central to its climate impact, and how the company uses consumer surveys, sales volumes, and life-cycle assessments to calculate avoided emissions while keeping those claims separate from its own corporate footprint. The discussion examines Oatly's early adoption of product-level climate labeling, the Climate Solutions Framework, and the tensions that arise when conventional emissions targets are applied to growing companies whose products are designed to displace more carbon-intensive incumbents. Reid also describes Oatly's approach to regenerative agriculture, including working through mills as leverage points across crop rotations and collaborating with other food buyers to support farmers. The result is a wider discussion about how companies can identify the places where they genuinely have influence—across consumer culture, supply chains, finance, and industry standards—and use business growth not simply to sell more, but to accelerate a transition toward a lower-impact food system. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  6. Sep 10

    Helen Crowley on Moving Business From Less Harm to Nature Positive

    In this episode of Journey to Regeneration, Christopher Marquis speaks with Dr. Helen Crowley, Co-Founder and CEO of Nature Matters, a conservation biologist whose career has taken her from field-based biodiversity work with the Wildlife Conservation Society to corporate sustainability leadership at Kering and, more recently, nature-focused advisory and education. Crowley explains why addressing biodiversity loss requires companies to look beyond operational footprints and understand how decisions about materials, sourcing, and supply chains shape ecosystems far from corporate headquarters. Drawing on her work on Kering’s pioneering Environmental Profit and Loss account, she discusses how natural-capital measurement can become a tool for prioritization and change rather than simply another disclosure exercise. The conversation examines cashmere sourcing in Mongolia as a case study, where evidence of land degradation led not to abandoning the material but to work on regenerative grazing, herder livelihoods, animal husbandry, and wildlife protection. Crowley also reflects on the responsibilities and opportunities of luxury companies, the relationship between nature-positive strategies and long-term resilience, and the limits of sustainability approaches built primarily around reducing negative impacts. Through her work at Nature Matters, she argues for bringing ecological complexity, scientific understanding, and compelling storytelling back into business decision-making. The result is a broader argument for regeneration: companies need to understand where they depend on and affect nature, then move from minimizing damage toward actively improving the systems on which both business and society depend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  7. Sep 3

    People First in the Age of AI: How Vebego Turns Employment into Social Impact

    In this episode of Journey to Regeneration, Christopher Marquis speaks with Ton Goedmakers, CEO of Vebego, a third-generation family-owned facility-services company employing around 40,000 people, about what it means to build social inclusion into the operating model of a business. Goedmakers discusses Vebego’s commitment to creating meaningful work for people who face a “distance to the labor market,” and its ambition to increase their share of the company’s workforce from around 10 percent today to 30 percent by 2030. The conversation explores why inclusion depends on much more than recruitment: managers need to recognize and develop overlooked potential, clients must value social outcomes, and public policy can either enable or constrain new employment models. Goedmakers also explains how Vebego has worked to quantify the wider societal value created by bringing people into employment, challenging conventional measures of productivity and business performance. A theme of the discussion is the importance of kindness as a business strategy, which Goedmakers distinguishes from niceness by emphasizing honesty, accountability, and a willingness to enter uncomfortable conversations. Finally, he considers the implications of AI, automation, and robotics for lower-skilled and labor-intensive work, arguing for technology that supports people rather than simply displaces them. The conversation offers a broader view of regenerative business in which work itself can become a means of rebuilding participation, dignity, capability, and social value. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  8. Aug 13

    Steward Ownership: Redesigning Business for Long-Term Purpose

    In this episode of Journey to Regeneration, Christopher Marquis speaks with Esther Welles, co-founder of We Are Stewards, an organization advancing steward ownership as a new approach to business governance and long-term purpose. Steward ownership challenges the assumption that companies must ultimately be controlled by financial owners seeking maximum returns. Instead, it separates voting rights from economic rights so that control remains with people committed to protecting the company’s mission. Esther explains why ownership structures are often overlooked in sustainability discussions, even though they determine whether regenerative commitments can survive changes in leadership, investment, and market pressures. The conversation explores examples including Patagonia, Bosch, Novo Nordisk, and steward-owned companies in Denmark and the Netherlands, as well as different models such as foundation ownership, shareholder foundations, and golden shares. Esther also discusses the challenges entrepreneurs face when transitioning ownership, the importance of mission-aligned investors, and the need to educate lawyers, financial advisors, and other ecosystem actors about alternative ownership models. The discussion highlights a broader question for regenerative business: if companies are meant to create long-term value for society and the planet, how should ownership itself be redesigned to support that purpose? 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
    57
  • Copyright
    © Chris Marquis