Grow Everything Biotech Podcast

55. Nature Healing Nature -- Faster. Allonnia's Nicole Richards Replay

Dec 15, 2023

44:05

Welcome to this weeks recap of Grow Everything, where we take a deep dive into the fascinating world of soil health and the incredible power of engineering organisms. Karl and Erum are joined by the amazing Nicole Richards, a 28-year veteran in the chemical space and CEO of Allonnia. Nicole shares her valuable insights on how biology can be harnessed to solve some of our biggest challenges and transform waste into valuable resources. We discuss the exciting new lab in Brooklyn, which has been generously funded by city and state money, as well as sustainable birthday boxes and event swag made from bio-based materials. Lastly, we learn about Allonnia's groundbreaking work in extracting rare earths from mine waste sites and using biology to treat contaminants. Tune in to hear from a true expert and discover how you can get involved in this exciting field!

Grow Everything brings to life the bioeconomy when hosts Karl Schmieder and Erum Azeez Khan share stories from the field and interview leaders and influencers in the space. Life is a powerful force and it can be engineered. What are we creating?

Learn more at ⁠www.messaginglab.com/groweverything⁠

Topics Covered:

00:00:00 - Recap of Previous Episodes and What’s Coming Up
00:00:45 - Meet Allonnia: The Company that is Accelerating Nature’s Ability to Heal Itself
00:01:30 - What are ‘Forever Chemicals’ and Why Should We Care?
00:03:04 - Nicole Richards: The CEO of Allonnia and a Chemical Engineering Veteran
00:04:51 - How ‘Forever Chemicals’ are Affecting Our Health and Environment
00:07:45 - The Innovative Solutions that Allonnia is Developing to Tackle Chemical Pollution
00:10:01 - How Allonnia is Working with Polluted Sites to Restore Them
00:17:51 - The Partnership Between Allonnia and Ginkgo Bioworks
00:19:47 - Nicole’s Journey from Chemical Engineering to Biotech
00:21:49 - How Biology is Changing the Chemical Industry
00:24:10 - How Allonnia is Serving Different Customers and Industries
00:27:20 - How Our Choices Impact the Amount of Waste We Generate
00:29:15 - How We Can Shift Our Consumption Habits to be More Sustainable
00:31:03 - How Nicole Joined Allonnia and Became its CEO
00:32:09 - How Allonnia is Growing and Evolving Rapidly
00:33:52 - How Allonnia is Envisioning the Future of Landfills and Waste Management
00:37:19 - Nicole’s Closing Thoughts and Future Goals
00:37:58 - Karl and Erum’s Reflections on the Interview