The NatureBacked Podcast

Gunter Pauli, a speaker frustrated with the green economy, talks about the potential and benefits of the blue economy. He discusses using waste from coffee production for mushroom farming, the importance of local materials and collaboration, and the potential of using weeds for bioplastics. He also highlights the invention of stone paper and the need for storytelling and engaging children to spread the message of the blue economy.

Finnish biotech startup Enifer's guest, Simo Ellilä, shares how they are revolutionizing the production of mycoproteins from paper industry by-products. They discuss the strong demand from the pet food sector and their plans to enter the human food market. Researchers have shown that Enifer's PEKILO mycoprotein is better for farmed fish than soybeans. Enifer aims to announce their first factory location soon.

Adamas One, one of the pioneers in the lab-grown diamond business, is expanding production and pushing not-mined diamonds in new sectors, said founder and CEO Jay Grdina."Three goals and tasks: factory running at full production, complete the build-out of our new factory; semiconductors technology sector - really going to charge and take the lead on that; as well as get our jewellery line out there and launch stuff," Grdina said.The company owns the original 32 manufacturing patents for lab-grown diamonds, a sector which has taken a massive chunk of the North American diamond market over the last few years, and which is set to be increasingly important for the global semiconductor industry.The diamond mining industry is known for environmental and social problems. In some countries proceeds from diamond sales have been used to finance wars, creating a 'blood diamond' name. One of the latest environmental (and social) disasters occurred in the diamond mining town of Jagersfontein in South Africa last fall."People that traditionally might not have gone and bought a mined diamond, whether it's eco reasons or social reasons, or other reasons. We give them an alternative, where they can avoid those atrocities or mindset issues that they have, and come over and buy an environmentally conscientious diamond," Grdina said. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kausal, which provides local governments with a software platform for tracking and implementing sustainability measures targets German-speaking markets and North America with fresh seed funding of 880,000 euros from an investor consortium including Innovestor and Spanish impact fund Zubi Capital."For us, the biggest milestone is to show that this is really scalable on different markets and not sustained in Finland, for instance," co-founder Sonja-Maria Ignatius said in the NatureBacked podcast. Ignatius, an ex-Helsinki climate specialist, and her co-founders set up the company to make sure Helsinki keeps its promises to become carbon neutral. Once the service was launched, other cities followed. Kausal currently works with over 40 cities, including San Diego and Zurich.The focus is set clearly on the public sector, even though the platform could be adapted for corporate use."It was a very natural step as all the founders had experience within the public sector," Ignatius said."It's true that the sale cycles can be long sometimes. But on the other hand, city governments are very reliable, they pay their bills. Also, once you have gotten in, and you have this in their budget, they are not going to be every year like, Hey, do we want this or not, but they are also very sticky as customers," she said. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a wide-ranging discussion with Simona Simulyte on the sidelines of the Impact Day festival in Tallinn we talked about: How she took over her father's car component business at the age of 12 and launched environmentally friendly springs for breaks Early days of startup entrepreneurship in Lithuania, emphasizing the importance of diversity and impact How she launched the ChangemakersON network, a community for tech for good products, by leveraging traditional business experience and partnerships Her work in startups and sustainability highlights the importance of doing things for the right reasons rather than just for appearance or marketing ESG reporting helps expose greenwashing by measuring and documenting criteria, but companies need to be transparent and set clear agreements. regenerative organizations and decentralized business models the importance of listening to intuition and following nature's lead in business. Despite trying to copy nature, we've already made copies of nature before and are now returning to sustainable innovation. How small businesses should adopt a life-centric business model, prioritizing uniqueness and cooperation over competition. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

German startup The Ocean Package seeks to benefit from Europe's tightening regulations that support the re-use of e-commerce packaging materials, such as plastics that the company uses to make its shipping material."Our solution, the most important thing behind The Ocean Package, is that we have to find a way to clean up our world and to create a cleaner world for tomorrow. Because there won't be a tomorrow if there are no companies like us," said Joshua Linn, co-founder of The Ocean Package.The Ocean Package is a Munich-based startup that operates in several markets, aiming to make e-commerce more environmentally friendly and sustainable. To achieve this, they designed reusable packaging made of recycled polypropylene, some of which is collected from areas where it could have ended up in the ocean."We are mainly focusing on rivers and on post-consumer waste, where it could end up in the ocean. So we are kind of the waste management where there is no waste management. With real ocean plastic, you never know how long it has been in the water, how damaged it is by UV rays, by the sea salt." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the wide-ranging discussion with Greta Monstavice we covered how Katalista Ventures supports entrepreneurs to create positive change. Startups accelerated through the programme are in 15 countries, with 69 startups accelerated, and 15 more in the pipeline. Early-stage startups are supported in scaling and understanding their business model, with a focus on impact and sales integration. The host, Tarmo Virki, and Greta Monstavice discuss the structured and unstructured nature of a startup programme, with a focus on the benefits and challenges of different approaches. Katalista Ventures offers tailored programs with chief mentors and flexibility to address the specific needs of each startup. Greta Monstavice reflects on her personal experience in startup acceleration and sustainability in Lithuania, discussing the ecosystem's lack of resources and opportunities. Details on the next two programmes Katalista is planning to launch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the episode Puro.Earth founder Antti Vihavainen takes the listeners to a deep dive into carbon removal space.Vihavainen tells us about the different types of carbon removal projects that Puro.Earth is working with, biochar, direct capture, and enhanced rock weathering. He also discusses the challenges and opportunities in the carbon removal industry, and how Puro.Earth is helping to create a more sustainable future."We are never going to get to net zero, or at least not during this century, unless we do radical action reduction as well. So that is the first and foremost priority," Vihavainen said in the episode. If you are interested in learning more about carbon removal and how you can support this vital work, listen to this episode of the NatureBacked podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Biodiversity is the diversity of life on Earth, and it is vital for our planet and our well-being. But how do we know if we are having a positive or negative impact on biodiversity, and how can we improve it?In this episode of the NatureBacked podcast, Tarmo Virki spoke with Zoe Peden, partner at Ananda Impact Ventures, an investment firm that supports innovative solutions for biodiversity conservation and restoration.Zoe shared her insights on why biodiversity is important, the challenges and opportunities of measuring and verifying biodiversity impact, and how one of her portfolio companies, NatureMetrics, is using the environmental DNA method to provide accurate and reliable data on biodiversity in various ecosystems.She also discussed some of the lessons learned from the carbon market, and how to avoid some of the pitfalls and risks that have plagued the carbon credits system.If you want to learn more about Zoe's work and vision, listen to the full podcast episode or subscribe to the NatureBacked newsletter on LinkedIn for more stories about the people changing the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the episode, we deep-dived into saving the old forests with Rimante Paulaskaite-Digaitiene from the Sengire Fondas (The Ancient Woods Foundation), which aims to acquire the first 100 hectares of old forests in Lithuania by the end of this year and leave them for nature."So the organisation was founded in 2020 aiming to protect the last remaining forest plots of old-growth forests, the last remaining biologically very valuable forest plots, like fragments, and don't do anything with that, meaning leaving it to nature to develop naturally. So it really becomes the real old-growth forest," she said."It may seem that it's not much, especially when you sit near the computer and look at the data, look at the Excel, but when you get to those forests, you understand what you're doing, understand why you're doing that. And it seems a lot easier to understand when you get there," she said.The foundation was launched after "Sengire", a nature documentary Mindaugas Survila shot over many years, became an unexpected hit in Lithuania and abroad.The movie is available through Vimeo's on-demand service. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices