Sustainability In Your Ear

Ten years after the Paris Agreement, the world's climate negotiators will gather in Belém, Brazil this November for COP 30, a summit many are calling a critical juncture for global climate action. After COP 29 in Baku ended with what developing nations called a woefully inadequate $300 billion annual commitment—far short of the $1.3 trillion economists say is needed—can multilateral climate negotiations still deliver the justice and transformation the climate crisis demands? And with 71% of climate finance currently provided as loans rather than grants, how is the debt crisis crushing developing countries' ability to invest in climate action?Rebecca Thissen, Global Advocacy Leader for Climate Action Network International, joins Sustainability In Your Ear to unpack what's really at stake in Belém. With a background in International Public Law and years in the trenches of climate justice advocacy, Thissen works at the intersection of finance, economics, and climate action to ensure money flows where it's needed most. She discusses the just transition work program, Brazil's controversial Tropical Forests Forever Facility, the International Court of Justice's groundbreaking ruling on climate obligations, and why only 10% of countries showed up with their nationally determined contributions. Climate Action Network represents nearly 2,000 organizations across 130 countries, making it the world's largest coalition working on climate change. You can follow their daily updates during COP 30 through their newsletter ECO at climatenetwork.org.Read a transcript of this episode. Subscribe to receive transcripts by email.

Every solar array, battery system, and EV charger installed over the past decade will eventually need to be decommissioned. Yet there's no unifying system to handle that flow of materials—no operating system for the reverse supply chain that the circular economy depends on. While Americans recycle 97% of vehicles, we recycle less than 20% of electronics, leaving valuable critical minerals like lithium, cobalt, and gold to languish in warehouses or end up in landfills. The electronics embedded in our built environment represent the richest mining scene on Earth, yet we treat these refined materials as waste rather than the valuable resources they are. Meet Alexander Olesen, co-founder and CEO of Buckstop, an urban mining company launched in early 2025 to build what he calls "the intelligence layer for the circular economy." He previously founded Babylon Micro Farms, which develops distributed vertical farming systems, and he returns to Sustainability In Your Ear to share his new mission: creating a sustainable end-of-use solution for every electronic device on Earth.Buckstop took just three months to deploy its "algorithmic assay," a method of deconstructing finished goods into their raw materials and critical minerals at scale, something that wasn't possible to do efficiently before the advent of AI. The result: asset owners can now see the granular value of their deployed electronics in unprecedented detail. The scrap value of electronics typically yields only 1-5% recovery, but resale value can reach 20-30%. For Fortune 500 companies with billions in fixed assets, that circularity delta represents enormous value currently being destroyed.Olesen's approach draws directly from his decade-long experience as an OEM manufacturing vertical farming equipment with 1,200 unique components. "Why is there no comprehensive end-of-life solution for technology assets?" he asked. Every hardware entrepreneur he knew in renewables, robotics, and distributed systems faced the same problem. Buckstop's model draws inspiration from an unlikely source: Kelley Blue Book. "Kelley Blue Book was the data stream that formalized the aftermarket for vehicles," Olesen notes. Before that standardization, people would leave cars rusting by the roadside. Today, the automotive industry is the most circular industry on the planet. Olesen believes the same transformation is possible for the electronics industry. The platform currently focuses on renewable energy infrastructure—solar panels, batteries, inverters—but Buckstop's long-term vision extends to one day tracking all electronic assets. As Olesen puts it: "If you can't measure it, you can't improve it." That measurement is where circularity begins.You can learn more about Buckstop and access the beta assessment tool at buckstop.com.Subscribe to Sustainability In Your Ear on iTunesFollow Sustainability In Your Ear on Spreaker, iHeartRadio, or YouTube

Read a transcript of this episode. Subscribe to receive transcripts.Turn on any faucet in America, and chances are the water meets federal safety standards. Yet Americans buy 50 billion single-use plastic water bottles annually—enough to circle the Earth 200 times if laid end to end. The bottles take 450 years to decompose, and recent research found that a single liter of bottled water can shed up to 240,000 pieces of microplastic that we ultimately consume. Meanwhile, 37% of global drinking water remains contaminated, with PFAS "forever chemicals" and lead appearing even in neighboring homes on the same street. Meet Scott Clawson, Chairman and CEO of Culligan International, the nearly 90-year-old company that's become the global leader in water services by making filtered water more accessible than single-use plastic. Under Clawson's leadership, Culligan serves 170 million people worldwide, and the company's filtration systems have helped avoid the use of 45 billion plastic bottles annually. The company has set ambitious targets: achieving net positive water impact by 2050 and cutting scope one and two emissions intensity by 40% before 2035. After completing WAVE water stewardship verification, Culligan discovered that even testing filtration equipment was wasteful, leading the company to develop dry-testing methods that eliminate water waste before machines reach consumers. The company has electrified 25% of its fleet and donated 9 million liters of water to communities in need in 2024 alone. Clawson's approach to sustainability isn't just operational—it's personal.A decade ago, while vacationing in the Bahamas, he encountered a beach covered in plastic waste. "That's when my inner balance was sparked to make sure we do more than just use our planet to make money, but let's use our planet to help it be a better place to live," he recalls. As water scarcity intensifies globally, Clawson believes the consumer holds the power: "Every time you pick something up off the shelf, you are voting. You're sending a signal to a company." His message is clear—test your water, understand what's in it, and invest in point-of-use filtration rather than contributing to the plastic crisis.You can learn more about Culligan International at culliganinternational.com.Subscribe to Sustainability In Your Ear on iTunescFollow Sustainability In Your Ear on Spreaker, iHeartRadio, or YouTube

Read a transcript of this episode. Subscribe to receive transcripts.For decades, our relationship with waste has been defined by disposability and denial. The disposability of everything from coffee cups and cigarette butts to smartphones, and the denial about where it all goes when we're done with it, means that humans generate over 2 billion tons of waste globally each year, with Americans alone throwing away 290 million tons of waste annually. The convenient fiction is that recycling solves the problem. But the reality is starkly at odds with that comforting idea, and today we explore the challenge with a recycling innovator. Meet Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of TerraCycle, who has spent over 20 years proving that what is considered impossible to recycle is really just unprofitable to recycle—by making the hard-to-recycle profitable. Terracycle has tackled some of the world's most challenging waste streams, like dirty diapers, cigarette butts, chewing gum, and composite packaging that municipal recyclers cannot handle profitably. TerraCycle now operates in over 20 countries.Even as TerraCycle proves that many materials can be recycled with the right economic model, Tom has concluded that recycling alone won't solve waste at its root cause, which led to the launch of the reusable packaging-based consumer good service Loop, which offers reusable packaging at stores in the U.S., Britain, and France. This realization led Tom to the conclusion that the waste crisis isn't just about recycling better, it's about redesigning our consumption. Historically, humans have made a mess. Every archaeological site has found waste piles, or what are called middens, alongside human settlements. However, other social species also pile up waste, as well as their dead, in middens. But we needn't bury ourselves in waste just because humans have always produced trash, as Tom explains, the economics of recycling have limited its success and at a time when we could not track and manage materials, such as during the explosion of trash during the consumer revolution of the 1950s we didn't have the logistical technology to address the many different materials in our garbage cans, but now we do from scannable codes to optical scanners that sort materials on high speed conveyor belts at materials recovery facilities (MRFs). Terracycle's pricing today reflects the cost of recycling a material when collection and sorting services, along with localized processing capacity, are not widespread. Now's the time to take that step towards circularity, a process that needs to start with companies that make what we buy. Tom shares his belief that the most powerful influence is each person's decisions at the store, which sends a vote to companies; you can send a message by opting for recyclable and reusable packaging. Learn more about TerraCycle and Loop by visiting https://terracycle.comSubscribe to Sustainability In Your Ear on iTunesFollow Sustainability In Your Ear on Spreaker, iHeartRadio, or YouTube

The global food system stands at a crossroads. Climate change is reshaping where crops can grow, trade disputes threaten supply chains, and smallholder farmers who produce much of our food often have the least power in the system. Meet Heather Terry, founder and CEO of GoodSAM Foods, and discover how the company is transforming the traditional smallhold farm model by putting people and regenerative agriculture at the heart of a growing food company. GoodSAM Foods sources 90% of its ingredients directly from smallholder farms in Latin America and Africa, eliminating middlemen and reinvesting profits into farming communities. Terry's approach is both principled and pragmatic: as climate volatility reduces crop yields globally, the companies that have built genuine relationships with farmers will have access to limited harvests. "When I'm a farmer and I suddenly have leverage, who am I going to sell that product to?" Terry asks. "It's relationships."[Terry's journey to raise $9 million in Series A funding over 18 months illustrates the disconnect between traditional investors and regenerative business models. After facing skepticism from conventional CPG investors, she found success with impact investors who understood that sustainable food systems represent the future of the industry. While GoodSAM maintains USDA Organic and Non-GMO Project verification, Terry takes a critical stance on regenerative certification labels, arguing that current systems impose Global North standards on farmers who have practiced regenerative techniques for generations. Instead, GoodSAM focuses on direct relationships and on-ground verification. Her proactive approach protected both the company and its farming partners from sudden economic shocks at a time when the U.S. food system faces mounting pressures from climate impacts and trade policy changes. "Every time you pick something up off the shelf, you are voting," Terry said. "You're sending a signal to a company."You can learn more about GoodSAM Foods at goodsamfoods.com.Subscribe to Sustainability In Your Ear on iTunesFollow Sustainability In Your Ear on Spreaker, iHeartRadio, or YouTube

Every summer, the same devastating story repeats across America: lakes that families have cherished for generations suddenly turn toxic green. Half a million people in Toledo lose their drinking water when Lake Erie blooms with poison algae. Or, Florida's red tide costs the state billions in lost tourism. But some of the most damaged bodies of water in America are getting a cleanup. Meet Dr. Mark Heilman, Vice President of Environmental Restoration and Advocacy at SePRO, whose two decades of water restoration work have brought 1.4 million acres of polluted lakes and wetlands across North America back to life. Mark's team achieved a 42% reduction in harmful phosphorus levels and protected $300 million in annual tourism revenue at Moses Lake, Washington.When phosphorus from fertilizers and runoff enters our waters, it acts like Miracle-Gro for algae, creating massive blooms that choke aquatic life and produce toxins that cause liver damage, neurological problems, and even death. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency assessments show the number of overly productive lakes with poor water quality is increasing. Harmful algal blooms are becoming more frequent and intense. Perhaps most striking is Heilman's noting that even benign-seeming weekend lawn care directly contributes to this crisis: a bushel of grass clippings that reach a waterway contains about a tenth of a pound of phosphorus, the same amount found in a box of Miracle-Grow fertilizer. When dumped into a waterway, those clippings can grow up to 50 pounds of algae. Heilman explains that treating a lake is like "performing surgery on an entire ecosystem," a process that involves a comprehensive assessment of water quality, community engagement, and multi-year management programs. The climate crisis is intensifying these challenges as warming water temperatures favor cyanobacteria growth, while invasive species like hydrilla—what Heilman calls "disturbance specialists"—exploit changing environmental conditions to establish footholds and outcompete native species. Yet he remains optimistic about prevention: "It's easier to prevent, takes less resources and investment to prevent them than to actually try to resolve them once these problems are in the environment." You can learn more about SePRO's restoration work at sepro.com.Subscribe to Sustainability In Your Ear on iTunesFollow Sustainability In Your Ear on Spreaker, iHeartRadio, or YouTube

Solar and wind have become the cheapest sources of power in human history, but political headwinds threaten to derail the fastest energy transformation ever recorded. At this crucial juncture, how do we ensure America doesn't surrender its technological leadership in clean energy to nations more willing to embrace the future? Meet Bill McKibben, legendary environmentalist and author whose four decades of climate writing have shaped our understanding of the environmental crisis. His latest book, Here Comes the Sun, argues that we're standing at the hinge of history. In 2024, 92% of new global electricity generation came from renewables, and the U.S. saw greater gains, at 96% of new generation capacity. McKibben, founder of 350.org and Third Act, believes we can fundamentally reshape how civilization powers itself if we look forward to energy abundance rather than backward to fossil fuel scarcity.The numbers are stunning, but the transition isn't guaranteed. McKibben warns that while the adoption of renewable energy is inevitable due to economic forces, it may not occur quickly enough to prevent catastrophic climate change. That's why he's organizing Sun Day, a national day of action on September 21st, designed to drive renewables out of the "alternative" category once and for all. Once solar panels are installed, McKibben explains, "the sun pleasantly delivers the energy for free over and over and over and over again." That's a paradigm shift from buying energy as a commodity that could reshape not just our power grid, but geopolitics itself. While partisan politics may divide Americans on climate change, polling shows both conservatives and liberals support solar power—albeit for different reasons. His conservative neighbors embrace energy independence and self-reliance, while liberals appreciate the environmental benefits. "Even humans are going to be hard pressed to figure out how to start a war over sunshine," McKibben notes.You can learn more about Bill McKibben's work at BillMcKibben.com and Sun Day events at Sunday.Earth. "Here Comes the Sun" is available on Amazon, at Powell's Books, and in local bookstores.Subscribe to Sustainability In Your Ear on iTunesFollow Sustainability In Your Ear on Spreaker, iHeartRadio, or YouTube

The carbon removal industry stands at a crucial crossroads. While cutting emissions remains essential, avoiding catastrophic warming now requires pulling billions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere permanently. But as this nascent field grapples with questions of legitimacy, scalability, and accountability, a critical challenge remains: How do we build the infrastructure needed to track, verify, and certify that carbon has actually been removed and stays removed? Meet Hannes Junginger-Gestrich, CEO of Carbonfuture, a company helping define the monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) infrastructure that could transform carbon removal from scattered efforts into a functioning ecosystem. Launched five years ago, Carbonfuture has emerged as what CDR.fyi describes as "the largest facilitator of durable carbon removal" by volume. The company's digital platform integrates data across the carbon removal life cycle, connecting diverse approaches like biochar, enhanced rock weathering, and direct air capture with buyers seeking to meet climate commitments. "We are probably more the crowd, the ground keepers in a stadium that makes sure that everything is provided properly," Hannes explains, using a sports analogy to describe their role: "We are the ground keepers in a stadium [who ensure] the players have a playing field that's in shape and no one gets hurt, and the audience can come and they pay their tickets and have a good experience."The MRV infrastructure becomes crucial as corporate demand for verified carbon removal grows and trust becomes currency. One of the most interesting aspects of the conversation centers on balancing data confidentiality with transparency needs, particularly when collecting data along industrial value chains from agricultural residue producers to biochar processors to end users. Perhaps most telling is Junginger-Gestrich's unwavering commitment to scientific rigor over short-term economic gains: "We never had to trade off between rigor and allowing a not so good project on our platform for economic reasons. We always lean to the scientific and rigorous side." This philosophy has guided Carbonfuture's work with leading buyers like Microsoft, helping develop increasingly sophisticated approaches to carbon removal verification. While Junginger-Gestrich expresses concern about delayed emission reductions globally, he remains optimistic about carbon removal scaling: "I think we will be on the path to the gigatons by 2040 for sure." His vision emphasizes ecosystem thinking over vertical integration, aiming to drive down costs while creating network effects that could accelerate the entire field. As governments worldwide grapple with climate policy, the monitoring, reporting, and verification systems companies like Carbonfuture are developing now may well determine the success of our collective effort to reverse climate change. You can learn more about Carbonfuture at carbonfuture.earth.

What if Earth is developing a planetary collective intelligence emerging from the convergence of ecological crisis, new global information systems, and the data-crunching capabilities of artificial intelligence? This provocative question drives economist Topher McDougal's book, Gaia Wakes: Earth's Emergent Consciousness in an Age of Environmental Devastation. On this episode of Sustainability In Your Ear, explore McDougal's sweeping theory that our planet may be in the early stages of developing what he calls a "Gaiacephalos"—a planetary consciousness that could fundamentally reshape humanity's role in the global ecosystem. McDougal opens his book with a striking metaphor from Star Trek: The Next Generation, where the Enterprise's computer systems flicker into sentience, its emerging "personality" acting out disagreements in the holodeck that nearly destroy the ship. That episode, McDougal argues, mirrors our current moment. As environmental devastation accelerates and technologies become increasingly networked, we may be witnessing the birth pangs of a planetary intelligence that could guide us toward survival or react chaotically to the damage humans have caused.Building on James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis, which views Earth as a self-regulating living system, McDougal explores the profound and unsettling implications of Gaiacephalos. What is humanity's role? Noting a paradox in human development, that societies have become increasingly peaceful at the expense of massive environmental degradation, McDougal discusses how concepts like "progress" and "free will" might change in a world governed by an emergent planetary intelligence. Drawing on ancient myths—from Hopi legends to the Tower of Babel—McDougal uses traditional stories as lenses for understanding global transformation. Throughout our conversation, he repeatedly references the work of René Descartes and how his mind-body split has defined Western thinking since the Enlightenment. He argues that this mechanistic view prevents us from understanding emerging systems holistically—whether we're talking about AI, collective intelligence, or planetary consciousness. We keep separating the physical system that performs calculations from the experience of thought itself, missing the integrated whole. Consequently, becoming "indigenous to our times" offers a path forward. Rather than appropriating Indigenous ways of life, he suggests we need to learn how to live fully in relationship with our current systems and places. True indigeneity means understanding our role within larger systems and, as the apex predator currently destroying the ecosystem we depend on, being thoughtful about our interactions within that system.What if Earth is developing a planetary collective intelligence emerging from the convergence of ecological crisis, new global information systems, and the data-crunching capabilities of artificial intelligence? This provocative question drives economist Topher McDougal's book, Gaia Wakes: Earth's Emergent Consciousness in an Age of Environmental Devastation. On this episode of Sustainability In Your Ear, we explore McDougal's sweeping theory that our planet may be in the early stages of developing what he calls a "Gaiacephalos"—a planetary consciousness that could fundamentally reshape humanity's role in the global ecosystem. McDougal opens his book with a striking metaphor from Star Trek: The Next Generation, where the Enterprise's computer systems flicker into sentience, its emerging "personality" acting out disagreements in the holodeck that nearly destroy the ship. That episode, McDougal argues, mirrors our current moment. As environmental devastation accelerates and technologies become increasingly networked, we may be witnessing the birth pangs of a planetary intelligence that could guide us toward survival or react chaotically to the damage humans have caused.Building on James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis, which views Earth as a self-regulating living system, McDougal explores the profound and unsettling implications of Gaiacephalos. What is humanity's role? Noting a paradox in human development, that societies have become increasingly peaceful at the expense of massive environmental degradation, McDougal discusses how concepts like "progress" and "free will" might change in a world governed by an emergent planetary intelligence. Drawing on ancient myths—from Hopi legends to the Tower of Babel—McDougal uses traditional stories as lenses for understanding global transformation. Throughout our conversation, McDougal repeatedly references the work of René Descartes and how his mind-body split has defined Western thinking since the Enlightenment. He argues that this mechanistic view prevents us from understanding emerging systems holistically—whether we're talking about AI, collective intelligence, or planetary consciousness. We keep separating the physical system that performs calculations from the experience of thought itself, missing the integrated whole. McDougal's concept of becoming "indigenous to our times" offers a path forward. Rather than appropriating Indigenous ways of life, he suggests we need to learn how to live fully in relationship with our current systems and places. True indigeneity means understanding our role within larger systems and, as the apex predator currently destroying the ecosystem we depend on, being thoughtful about our interactions within that system.Gaia Wakes poses challenging questions about whether we're building toward a benign planetary intelligence or heading toward dystopian risks. McDougal doesn't offer easy answers, but he provides a framework for thinking about how technological trends—from AI and smart infrastructure to global information networks—might be assembling the components of a planetary brain. The book is part speculative theory, part analytical deep dive. It challenges readers to think beyond traditional boundaries between nature and technology, individual and collective intelligence, human agency and planetary systems. You can learn more about Topher McDougal and his work at https://tophermcdougal.com/. Gaia Wakes is available on Amazon, Powell's Books, and at local bookstores. 

The scale of agriculture's environmental impact is staggering. According to the EPA, agricultural runoff is the leading cause of degraded water quality in rivers and streams. Today's farming practices lead to 1.70 billion tons of U.S. topsoil annually, and agriculture produces 31% of human greenhouse gas emissions. Tune in to meet Kelsey Timmerman, author of the new book, Regenerating Earth, from Patagonia Books, who faces a heartbreaking reality shared by many rural families: he can't let his children swim in the pond near their Indiana home because of agricultural contamination. Rather than accept environmental degradation as inevitable, Kelsey embarked on a global journey to find farmers and communities who prove there's another way. From standing barefoot in traditional Hawaiian kalo patches to protecting cattle from lions alongside Maasai warriors in Kenya to discovering how chocolate could save Brazilian rainforests, he found regenerative agriculture practices that build soil, sequester carbon, and challenge everything we think we know about farming. Kelsey's story revolves around systems thinking that connects everything from chloroplasts to mycorrhizal fungi with how we eat. He argues that industrial agriculture leads to farmers being farmed by corporations, trapping them in debt to buy chemically treated seeds, fertilizer, herbicides, and fungicides. His journey uncovered regenerative practices rooted in Indigenous and traditional farming practices combined with cutting-edge soil science. Farming can be more profitable for farmers who heal the land. The solutions aren't new. They're already in hand but largely ignored or forgotten because they require attention to nature's complexity rather than simplifying life to fit profit margins. Regenerative thinking starts by approaching problems through the same lens that nature does, by putting everything to use and accounting for all positive and negative impacts while treating nothing as waste to be discarded. For consumers, this means understanding that grocery choices ripple through complex ecological networks, with practical steps starting at farmers markets and supporting farms that regenerate rather than degrade the land which you can find using the Farm Map at https://regenerationinternational.org/. You can learn more about Kelsey's work at kelseytimmerman.com and Regenerating Earth is available on Amazon, Powell's Books, and local booksellers.Subscribe to Sustainability In Your Ear on iTunesFollow Sustainability In Your Ear on Spreaker, iHeartRadio, or YouTube