The Net Zero Business Podcast

This is the first of 10 special episodes to mark the publication of my guide 10 Rules for Corporate Sustainability where I sum up the lessons I have learnt delivering Sustainability over the last 25+ years. In this episode, I talk through Rule 1: Understand the business case as it applies to your business (the emphasis on the last bit cannot be under emphasised).Click here to download 10 Rules for Corporate Sustainability

This week on the Net Zero Business Podcast, I talk to business coach, author and professional jazz bassist Gerald J Leonard. We talk about:• Business lessons from the world of music• Pivoting to Sustainability through customer demand• How neuroscience guides our decision making and how it can help deliver Sustainability• Selling Sustainability in turbulent political timesMake sure you listen to the end for a snippet of Gerard's single, Vertigo. You can hear all his music, including the recent Beatles on Bass EP, on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/artist/05YHiJl8BdEfq6M7AQKLYyThis episode is brought to you by Terra Infirma Ltd - helping you reach Net Zero08a536548433821006f238dd09063f70e9017b46

This week, I go on a bit of a rant about three fallacies that afflict Net Zero and the low carbon transition. These are:The Not Me Guv FallacyThe 1% FallacyThe Relatively Good FallacyDo you recognise any of them?The Net Zero Business Podcast is brought to you by Terra Infirma Ltd - Bringing Sustainability to Life - we can turbocharge your Net Zero programme!

Emma Fletcher is one of those quite extraordinary people whose ability to get things done is unparalleled. She led a community project to develop a 100 home zero carbon heat network in her village in her spare time. This in turn attracted the attention of Octopus Energy founder Greg Jackson who offered her the role of Low Carbon Homes Director, and when they say 'low carbon', they're not talking about tinkering around the edges!Here's what we discuss:How Octopus is effectively a data companyHow the Kraken platform allows Octopus to disrupt the energy marketThe home retrofit challenge and how Octopus takes inspiration from Formula 1 to bring down costsThe evolving economics of low carbon homesOctopus's mission to build 100,000 zero carbon/zero bills homesThis episode is brought to you by Terra Infirma Ltd - Bringing Sustainability to Life

If you listen to the press and pundits, you'd think ESG investing is dead as a doorknob. But what's the reality? In this week's episode, I catch up with Georgia Hall, ESG & Investment Director, Listed Infrastructure at Maple-Brown Abbott, to help us separate the signal from all that noise. Here are some of the things we cover:What is ESG investing and is it really in decline?How stranded high carbon assets are a genuine risk to investorsWhy the US is highly unlikely to see a 'coal rush' no matter what President Trump thinks.Key growth areas for ESG investingHow the added scrutiny of the ESG sector is shaking out the greenwashThe Net Zero Business Podcast is brought to you by Terra Infirma Ltd - bringing Sustainability to Life

Don is almost certainly the first ordained minister I've had on the Net Zero Business Podcast, he's also a Sustainability consultant whose core audience is small business owners in Mid West USA – ie likely Donald Trump voters. For me, as an atheist, this was a fascinating and sometimes deeply philosophical discussion of personal values, business and our relationship with nature. Don's humanity, wisdom and insights should be an inspiration to us all.The Net Zero Business Podcast is brought to you by Terra Infirma Ltd - bringing Sustainability to Life

This week on the pod, I discuss a simple precondition of sustainable behaviour in the public and/or employees – you have to make it easy for people to do what you want them to do. That might sound obvious, but in practice being green is often made rather difficult. I give three examples from my life and career that make the point, plus ways to discourage us green behaviour – and how to identify those barriers.The Net Zero Business Podcast is brought to you by Terra Infirma Ltd - bringing Sustainability to Life

This week on the pod, I'm joined by Marga Hoek, entrepreneur, investor, and author of The Trillion Dollar Shift and Tech for Good. The former book sets out the trillion dollar investment opportunity presented by the Sustainable Development Goals while the latter looks at the Sustainability opportunities set out by innovations such as AI, blockchain and robotics. We discuss these two topics along with Marga's collaboration with Imagine5 on storytelling to inspire change for good, creating a triumvirate of planks to build the bridge to Sustainability. "We are playing a new game with old rules" is just one quote from Marga which I will be musing on for a very long time.This episode is brought to you by Terra Infirma Ltd - bringing Sustainability to life.

In this fascinating chat with Rachel Ward, Sustainability Manager at the Royal Veterinary College, London, I think we cover more issues than any other episode - not surprising given the wide variety of activity at the College: teaching buildings, 400 student rooms, a veterinary hospital and a farm with 200 head of cattle. Here's a taste of what we cover:Facilitating reuse between generations of students and charitiesLow carbon anaesthesiaSmart bins to boost recycling ratesSustainable agriculture: biodiversity, soil carbon and climate adaptationUsing quirky stories to capture people's imaginationsBecoming hedgehog friendlyDecarbonising listed buildings and using novel building technologiesMy only regret about this episode is bringing it to a close – Rachel kept providing more and more insights, so I should have kept things going...The Net Zero Business Podcast is brought to you by Terra Infirma Ltd – Bringing Sustainability to Life