One Planet Podcast · Climate Change, Politics, Sustainability, Environmental Solutions, Renewable Energy, Activism, Biodiversity, Carbon Footprint, Wildlife, Regenerative Agriculture, Circular Economy, Extinction, Net-Zero

"I live in a community. It's about 170 homes, and we're all neighbors. We have a shared mailing list. And so I'm a big fan of this small experiment. You know if I need a 30-foot ladder to inspect my roof. I'm not going to go buy it to use it once. We have this circular economy and sharing. If I make too much food, I just post it and ask my neighbors, Hey, is anybody interested in this? So I think that on a small scale, I see it happening much more.I'm lucky I work in a community where I've known my neighbors for a long time, but I can see why it would be more difficult in big cities or in places where people do not communicate. So how do you create these communities? Because once the community exists, it's just like a tool. Once you have the community, these behaviors actually happen naturally. And if you look at how human beings evolve as tribes, when there's a small number of people, there’s much more sharing. And people are much more careful with their actions. They want to share because then they can share back. So that is why I think the importance of doing things in a small experiment and then think, Okay, how do we scale it up in a large way? But you also have to start small and see if you can actually export it.”Alberto Savoia was Google’s first engineering director and is currently Innovation Agitator Emeritus, where, among other things, he led the development and launch of the original Google AdWords. He is the author of The Right It: Why So Many Ideas Fail and How to Make Sure Yours Succeed, a book that provides critical advice for rethinking how we launch a new idea, product, or business, and gives insights to help successfully beat the law of market failure: that most new products will fail, even if competently executed. He is a successful serial entrepreneur, angel-investor and an expert practitioner in pretotyping and lean innovation. He is based in Silicon Valley where he teaches his uniquely effective approach to innovation at Google, Stanford. He has also taught and coached many Fortune 500 companies, including Nike, McDonald’s, and Walmart, as well as the US Army.www.albertosavoia.com https://harperone.com/9780062884671/the-right-itwww.creativeprocess.info www.oneplanetpodcast.orgInstagram @creativeprocesspodcast

Alberto Savoia was Google’s first engineering director and is currently Innovation Agitator Emeritus, where, among other things, he led the development and launch of the original Google AdWords. He is the author of The Right It: Why So Many Ideas Fail and How to Make Sure Yours Succeed, a book that provides critical advice for rethinking how we launch a new idea, product, or business, and gives insights to help successfully beat the law of market failure: that most new products will fail, even if competently executed.He is a successful serial entrepreneur, angel-investor and an expert practitioner in pretotyping and lean innovation. He is based in Silicon Valley where he teaches his uniquely effective approach to innovation at Google, Stanford. He has also taught and coached many Fortune 500 companies, including Nike, McDonald’s, and Walmart, as well as the US Army."I live in a community. It's about 170 homes, and we're all neighbors. We have a shared mailing list. And so I'm a big fan of this small experiment. You know if I need a 30-foot ladder to inspect my roof. I'm not going to go buy it to use it once. We have this circular economy and sharing. If I make too much food, I just post it and ask my neighbors, Hey, is anybody interested in this? So I think that on a small scale, I see it happening much more.I'm lucky I work in a community where I've known my neighbors for a long time, but I can see why it would be more difficult in big cities or in places where people do not communicate. So how do you create these communities? Because once the community exists, it's just like a tool. Once you have the community, these behaviors actually happen naturally. And if you look at how human beings evolve as tribes, when there's a small number of people, there’s much more sharing. And people are much more careful with their actions. They want to share because then they can share back. So that is why I think the importance of doing things in a small experiment and then think, Okay, how do we scale it up in a large way? But you also have to start small and see if you can actually export it.”www.albertosavoia.com https://harperone.com/9780062884671/the-right-itwww.creativeprocess.info www.oneplanetpodcast.orgInstagram @creativeprocesspodcast

"Actually, awareness doesn't help. We are on the campaign to produce a desire for that transformation. Information is useless unless it's empowering. And of course, it has to be factual. If it's not factual, then it's going to be found out, and it also has to be relevant because otherwise, it's irrelevant. But if it's just relevant, it actually may just be counterproductive because if people see it as relevant but not empowering, they will use their brain to fight it. So that's why I think awareness campaigns don't work. We can only work on motivation, helping people to find a greater desire to get there, to say, yeah, that's what I want. A sense of agency that they say I can do something about it. Also, a sense of curiosity because we really don't know how to get there eventually.So, it takes a bit more than just awareness and that's what we learned a bit painfully, obviously, over the last 30 years or painfully because in the beginning we just thought, Oh, why don't people just measure how many planets we have compared to how many we use? And once they see the number, it would be very obvious to them. So we were the first to start to - and still are I think - the main accounting approach to compare directly how big human activities are compared to what the planet can renew.”Mathis Wackernagel is Co-founder and President of Global Footprint Network. He created the Ecological Footprint with Professor William Rees at the University of British Columbia as part of his Ph.D. in community and regional planning. Mathis also earned a mechanical engineering degree from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Mathis has worked on sustainability with governments, corporations and international NGOs on six continents and has lectured at more than 100 universities. Mathis has authored and contributed to more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, numerous articles, reports and various books on sustainability that focus on embracing resource limits and developing metrics for sustainability. Mathis’ awards include the 2018 World Sustainability Award, the 2015 IAIA Global Environment Award, being a 2014 ISSP Sustainability Hall of Fame Inductee, the 2013 Prix Nature Swisscanto, 2012 Blue Planet Prize, 2012 Binding Prize for Nature Conservation, the 2012 Kenneth E. Boulding Memorial Award of the International Society for Ecological Economics, the 2011 Zayed International Prize for the Environment (jointly awarded with UNEP). He was also selected as number 19 on the en(rich) list identifying the 100 top inspirational individuals whose contributions enrich paths to sustainable futures.www.footprintnetwork.orgwww.footprintnetwork.org/toolswww.overshootday.org/power-of-possibility/www.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.orgInstagram @creativeprocesspodcast

Mathis Wackernagel is Co-founder and President of Global Footprint Network. He created the Ecological Footprint with Professor William Rees at the University of British Columbia as part of his Ph.D. in community and regional planning. Mathis also earned a mechanical engineering degree from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Mathis has worked on sustainability with governments, corporations and international NGOs on six continents and has lectured at more than 100 universities. Mathis has authored and contributed to more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, numerous articles, reports and various books on sustainability that focus on embracing resource limits and developing metrics for sustainability. Mathis’ awards include the 2018 World Sustainability Award, the 2015 IAIA Global Environment Award, being a 2014 ISSP Sustainability Hall of Fame Inductee, the 2013 Prix Nature Swisscanto, 2012 Blue Planet Prize, 2012 Binding Prize for Nature Conservation, the 2012 Kenneth E. Boulding Memorial Award of the International Society for Ecological Economics, the 2011 Zayed International Prize for the Environment (jointly awarded with UNEP). He was also selected as number 19 on the en(rich) list identifying the 100 top inspirational individuals whose contributions enrich paths to sustainable futures."Actually, awareness doesn't help. We are on the campaign to produce a desire for that transformation. Information is useless unless it's empowering. And of course, it has to be factual. If it's not factual, then it's going to be found out, and it also has to be relevant because otherwise, it's irrelevant. But if it's just relevant, it actually may just be counterproductive because if people see it as relevant but not empowering, they will use their brain to fight it. So that's why I think awareness campaigns don't work. We can only work on motivation, helping people to find a greater desire to get there, to say, yeah, that's what I want. A sense of agency that they say I can do something about it. Also, a sense of curiosity because we really don't know how to get there eventually.So, it takes a bit more than just awareness and that's what we learned a bit painfully, obviously, over the last 30 years or painfully because in the beginning we just thought, Oh, why don't people just measure how many planets we have compared to how many we use? And once they see the number, it would be very obvious to them. So we were the first to start to - and still are I think - the main accounting approach to compare directly how big human activities are compared to what the planet can renew.”www.footprintnetwork.orgwww.footprintnetwork.org/toolswww.overshootday.org/power-of-possibility/www.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.orgInstagram @creativeprocesspodcast

"I think it's really interesting how we humans are a massively cooperative species. That's why we dominate the world to the extent that we do. We're very good at working together and stories and metaphors are a lot of what drives us to work together, that drives us towards goals. So that's why I thought it was very important to push against the metaphors that have informed so much of our culture for the last couple of hundred years.So we have the idea of survival of the fittest, not directly from Darwin, that argued that the growing human population would outstrip the earth's resources and there would inevitably be death and weakness in parts of the population. And Darwin had read Malthus and took that idea of progress through struggle and the weeding out of weaker members by the harsh exigencies of nature, and that was how he came up with his theory of natural selection. Those are phrases that have stuck with our society, and I think our thinking about how nature works and how we work.So those are phrases that came out of science that affect the culture. And the culture, of course, affects science in terms of what we push science to ask for, what we tell science we want to know about the world. And I'm hoping that the new crop of scientists who are looking at all of these cooperative relations among living things - how that holds together ecosystems, how that determines how species can survive - that that new crop of scientists will inform and reform the metaphors that we use, the stories that we tell ourselves about how nature works, how we work, how the culture works. That's what I'm hoping will happen."Kristin Ohlson is the author of Sweet in Tooth and Claw: Stories of Generosity and Cooperation in the Natural World. Her other books include The Soil Will Save Us: How Scientists, Farmers and Foodies are Healing the Soil to Save the Planet, and Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil. Olson appears in the award-winning documentary film Kiss The Ground, speaking about the connection between soil and climate. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Smithsonian, Discover, New Scientist, Orion, American Archeology, and has also been anthologized in Best American Science Writing, and Best American Food Writing. www.kristinohlson.comwww.patagonia.com/stories/sweet-in-tooth-and-claw/story-123959.html www.oneplanetpodcast.orgwww.creativeprocess.infoInstagram @creativeprocesspodcast

Kristin Ohlson is the author of Sweet in Tooth and Claw: Stories of Generosity and Cooperation in the Natural World. Her other books include The Soil Will Save Us: How Scientists, Farmers and Foodies are Healing the Soil to Save the Planet, and Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil. Olson appears in the award-winning documentary film Kiss The Ground, speaking about the connection between soil and climate. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Smithsonian, Discover, New Scientist, Orion, American Archeology, and has also been anthologized in Best American Science Writing, and Best American Food Writing. "I think it's really interesting how we humans are a massively cooperative species. That's why we dominate the world to the extent that we do. We're very good at working together and stories and metaphors are a lot of what drives us to work together, that drives us towards goals. So that's why I thought it was very important to push against the metaphors that have informed so much of our culture for the last couple of hundred years.So we have the idea of survival of the fittest, not directly from Darwin, that argued that the growing human population would outstrip the earth's resources and there would inevitably be death and weakness in parts of the population. And Darwin had read Malthus and took that idea of progress through struggle and the weeding out of weaker members by the harsh exigencies of nature, and that was how he came up with his theory of natural selection. Those are phrases that have stuck with our society, and I think our thinking about how nature works and how we work.So those are phrases that came out of science that affect the culture. And the culture, of course, affects science in terms of what we push science to ask for, what we tell science we want to know about the world. And I'm hoping that the new crop of scientists who are looking at all of these cooperative relations among living things - how that holds together ecosystems, how that determines how species can survive - that that new crop of scientists will inform and reform the metaphors that we use, the stories that we tell ourselves about how nature works, how we work, how the culture works. That's what I'm hoping will happen."www.kristinohlson.comwww.patagonia.com/stories/sweet-in-tooth-and-claw/story-123959.html www.oneplanetpodcast.orgwww.creativeprocess.infoInstagram @creativeprocesspodcast

"The circularity, of course, has existed in nature for a long time. Actually, nature's circularity is by evolution. There is no plan, there is no liability, and there are no preferences. It's simply the cycles such as marine tides, CO2, and water cycles, plants and animals, and basically by evolution,  the best solution wins. Also, there is no waste. Dead material becomes food for other animals or plants. Now, early mankind survived by depending on these local natural resources sharing a non-monetary chaotic symbiosis dominated by nature, then poverty or necessity-based society changed when humankind used science to overcome shortages of everything. In other words, the Anthropocene. With nuclear energy, petrochemicals, metal alloys, we became independent from nature, but we overlooked the fact that these new manmade anthropogenic resources or synthetic resources were unknown to nature, so nature could not deal with them. And that means that we, humankind, has to take responsibility for it."Walter R. Stahel is the Founder-Director of the Product-Life Institute (Switzerland), the oldest established consultancy in Europe devoted to developing sustainable strategies and policies. He is Senior Research Fellow at the Circular Economy Research Centre, Ecole des Ponts Business School and Visiting Professor in the Department of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Surrey. He is also a full member of the Club of Rome. He was awarded degrees of Doctor honoris causa by the University of Surrey, l’Université de Montréal, and the 2020 Thornton Medal of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. He is the author of The Circular Economy: A User’s Guide.www.product-life.orgwww.routledge.com/The-Circular-Economy-A-Users-Guide/Stahel/p/book/9780367200176www.oneplanetpodcast.orgwww.creativeprocess.info Instagram @creativeprocesspodcast

Walter R. Stahel is the Founder-Director of the Product-Life Institute (Switzerland), the oldest established consultancy in Europe devoted to developing sustainable strategies and policies. He is Senior Research Fellow at the Circular Economy Research Centre, Ecole des Ponts Business School and Visiting Professor in the Department of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Surrey. He is also a full member of the Club of Rome. He was awarded degrees of Doctor honoris causa by the University of Surrey, l’Université de Montréal, and the 2020 Thornton Medal of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. He is the author of The Circular Economy: A User’s Guide."The circularity, of course, has existed in nature for a long time. Actually, nature's circularity is by evolution. There is no plan, there is no liability, and there are no preferences. It's simply the cycles such as marine tides, CO2, and water cycles, plants and animals, and basically by evolution,  the best solution wins. Also, there is no waste. Dead material becomes food for other animals or plants. Now, early mankind survived by depending on these local natural resources sharing a non-monetary chaotic symbiosis dominated by nature, then poverty or necessity-based society changed when humankind used science to overcome shortages of everything. In other words, the Anthropocene. With nuclear energy, petrochemicals, metal alloys, we became independent from nature, but we overlooked the fact that these new manmade anthropogenic resources or synthetic resources were unknown to nature, so nature could not deal with them. And that means that we, humankind, has to take responsibility for it."www.product-life.orgwww.routledge.com/The-Circular-Economy-A-Users-Guide/Stahel/p/book/9780367200176www.oneplanetpodcast.orgwww.creativeprocess.info Instagram @creativeprocesspodcast

"I think one of the things that we're trying to do is just, again, I think some firms come out and they go to the farmers and say, "You have to change all these things right now. If you're going to cut out your fertilizers, cut out your pesticides. Stop tilling your land." And the farmer's head explodes, right? They're like, "I can't change all that. I still have to feed my family, right? I still have to make a living on this thing." So, we kind of focus on the smaller incremental changes. You know, planting a crop like alfalfa that's in the soil for four or five years and brings some stability to the ground and fixes nitrogen back into the soil is really important, right? So that's a huge benefit for the farm. You know, farming with cover crops, again, a living root in the soil year-round is really important to keep the soil structure together and stop that erosion. And then it works better in no-till situations. So I think we're going to get there. Just, right now I think sometimes you like swing that pendulum in too far to one direction and then you lose all the people you hope to bring along the way. And that's where, when I was at Syngenta in the venture capital group, I always felt like I could help be that voice of the farmer. Now the group I'm with, we're all farm kids. We're all people that know what it's like and know how to talk to these important people in our ecosystem here. And so you know, I think we've got a chance to really make it work because we understand the language they're speaking and have solutions that are important for them. And at the end of the day, they have to make money, right? I think we sometimes forget that - no different than all of us - we have to feed our families. We have to do work that is important, but also if we're busking on the side of the road to feed our family, then we're probably...it's going to be tough, right?"Colin Steen is CEO of Legacy Agripartners. He has had a lifelong career in agriculture, spending over 25 years with Syngenta in a variety of commercial leadership and Venture Capital roles before joining Legacy Seed Companies (now Legacy Agripartners) in July 2020. His prior experience in running Golden Harvest Seeds has given him a deep understanding of the needs of the U.S. farmer. Colin grew up on a grain and cattle farm in Weldon, Saskatchewan, and holds a B.S. in Agriculture from the University of Saskatchewan and an MBA from the University of Guelph.https://legacyagripartners.comwww.oneplanetpodcast.orgwww.creativeprocess.info

Colin Steen is CEO of Legacy Agripartners. He has had a lifelong career in agriculture, spending over 25 years with Syngenta in a variety of commercial leadership and Venture Capital roles before joining Legacy Seed Companies (now Legacy Agripartners) in July 2020. His prior experience in running Golden Harvest Seeds has given him a deep understanding of the needs of the U.S. farmer. Colin grew up on a grain and cattle farm in Weldon, Saskatchewan, and holds a B.S. in Agriculture from the University of Saskatchewan and an MBA from the University of Guelph."I think one of the things that we're trying to do is just, again, I think some firms come out and they go to the farmers and say, "You have to change all these things right now. If you're going to cut out your fertilizers, cut out your pesticides. Stop tilling your land." And the farmer's head explodes, right? They're like, "I can't change all that. I still have to feed my family, right? I still have to make a living on this thing." So, we kind of focus on the smaller incremental changes. You know, planting a crop like alfalfa that's in the soil for four or five years and brings some stability to the ground and fixes nitrogen back into the soil is really important, right? So that's a huge benefit for the farm. You know, farming with cover crops, again, a living root in the soil year-round is really important to keep the soil structure together and stop that erosion. And then it works better in no-till situations. So I think we're going to get there. Just, right now I think sometimes you like swing that pendulum in too far to one direction and then you lose all the people you hope to bring along the way. And that's where, when I was at Syngenta in the venture capital group, I always felt like I could help be that voice of the farmer. Now the group I'm with, we're all farm kids. We're all people that know what it's like and know how to talk to these important people in our ecosystem here. And so you know, I think we've got a chance to really make it work because we understand the language they're speaking and have solutions that are important for them. And at the end of the day, they have to make money, right? I think we sometimes forget that - no different than all of us - we have to feed our families. We have to do work that is important, but also if we're busking on the side of the road to feed our family, then we're probably...it's going to be tough, right?"https://legacyagripartners.comwww.oneplanetpodcast.orgwww.creativeprocess.info