Sustainability In Your Ear

Meat production accounts for the lion’s share of greenhouse gas emissions in the human food supply. Meat represents 57% of greenhouse gas emissions generated by feeding people, according to a recent study published in the journal Nature Food. Yaakov ("Koby") Nahmias, is the founder and president of Future Meat Technologies, an Israeli company that grows meat from animal cells in bioreactors. Future Meat recently achieved an important goal, producing meat for less than $6 a pound its meat — it claims that its meat produces 80% less GHG emissions, used 99% less land and 96% less water than traditionally farmed meats.Koby discusses the potential for low-cholestorol, perfectly marbled or novel meats grown in the lab, as well as the energy and environmental issues involved in acheiving large-scale meat production that could displace traditionally grown beef, chicken, pork and seafood. The company ended 2021 by closing the largest venture investment in the history of lab-grown meat, $347 million — the funding will get them to market and help build a U.S. production facility. We may be seeing Future Meat on store shelves by 2023, he says. You can learn more at https://future-meat.com/

Maen Mahfoud, founder and CEO of Replate, uses technology to connect sources of surplus food to non-profits that can get it into the hands of people in need. Humans waste an immense amount of food because it has been difficult to move surplus produce, meat and packaged foods to the places where it can be used before it spoils. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that Americans waste between 30% and 40% of the food produced annually, some due to spoilage in the fields and transportation, but mostly because we buy and don’t use an average of 218.9 lbs. of food per person. Replate's approach to food collection is novel because it charges businesses, caterers and chain restaurants for picking up and distributing leftover food. Replate launched in 2016 and the organization has grown to include a staff of more than 50 people who provide food in cities across the country. Similar programs are operating in Europe, and the strategy may work for other local recycling and waste reduction challenges.Replate has recovered 2.7 million lbs. of food and delivered about 2.3 million meals while saving 748 million gallons of water and reducing CO2 emissions. Maen discusses the evolution of Replate, from his early efforts as a solo food rescuer to where the program can be optimized to improve food recovery and distribution while making participation more convenient for donors and recipients. He explains the California's SB 1383, which requires homes and businesses in the state to compost and route surplus food to those in need can provide a model for other states that helps divert food waste to beneficial uses. You can learn more at https://replate.org.

Wes Carter, president of Atlantic Packaging, a Wilmington, N.C.-based maker of sustainable boxes, shipping solutions, recyclable mailers, and six-pack carriers, explains the complex supply chains that feed our lifestyle. Atlantic Packaging is working to reduce its environmental impact and waste at every step between a manufacturer and the home. Listen to this wide-ranging conversation to hear how the adoption of sustainable sources of fiber in packaging and six-pack rings make these traditional sources of landfilled waste biodegrade in months instead of the centuries plastic takes.We also discuss simplifying the range of materials used in packaging and extended producer responsibility programs. Improvements in recycling collection and the growing use of "right-sized" packaging can eliminate much of the waste created by home deliveriews. Wes also shares Atlantic Packaging's analysis of how plastic films are used in the supply chain. He suggests that films reduce the need for paper and other packaging. Building on Wes' passion for surfing, the company is recently launched the A New Earth Project, a video series designed to help end ocean plastic pollution, with a global community of surfers and environmentalists. You can learn more about Atlantic Packaging at https://www.atlanticpkg.com/.

The future of the food supply can be more regional and sustainable. Stephanie Hughes recently launched Raw Bulk Foods Online, an Australian source of zero-waste foods delivered from the farm to the customer’s door. “We exist to clean up the planet [by] delivering your everyday pantry items direct from Aussie farms to your door minus all the junk,” Stephanie explained as part of the company's Kicktarter campaign. While not a sustainable choice for U.S. shoppers, because of the overseas shipping involved, Raw Bulk Foods Online is another model for regional approaches to augmenting our food supply.Now that shoppers are shifting their purchasing to foods grown nearer to home and abandoning traditional packaging for environmentally responsible alternatives, Raw Bulk Foods is a useful model for U.S. startups. Stephanie’s team spent a year developing the production and packaging processes they use, which includes a refill program that eliminates single-use waste, before they funded their launch on Kickstarter. Raw Bulk Foods Online raised seven times the $7,335 needed to start shipping food in June of this year. Crowdfunding can be a fast path for launching sustainable alternatives to traditional products and services. You can learn more at https://rawbulkfoodsonline.com/.

Zach Stein, cofounder of Carbon Collective, how to the company's Climate Index can help investors identify ESG investments that accelerate progress toward the zero-carbon economy. Investors can have influence that can reshape business practices. It takes time and energy to understand how companies are changing to reduce their environmental impact, create positive social outcomes and improved transparency and accountability. We also discuss the potential impact of the Securities & Exchange Commission's recently proposed rule that would require companies to disclose greenhouse gas emissions and climate risks with their regular finacial reporting.The Carbon Collective’s basic approach suggests divesting from 20% of companies responsible for 85% of emissions, particularly fossil fuel companies, to reallocate those that capital to climate solution companies. Their tools are open for anyone to learn from, offering insights into companies based on Project Drawdown analysis of their environmental and social performance. Carbon Collective also plans to launch managed Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) focused on climate and the social safety net. You can learn more at https://www.carboncollective.co/.

Josh Weber, cofounder and executive chairman of nZero, a Nevada company that tracks Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions for large organizations, explains the complexities of tracking corporate greenhouse gas emissions. Tracking emissions is the first step toward business taking responsibility for the previously unacknowledged environmental and social costs of delivering products and services. It will be some time before this information is widely available in useful form for consumers and citizens to help make decisions about the products or services they buy or the government policies they support. nZero’s technology, along with those of other emerging carbon tracking tools, is a critical piece of the environmental puzzle we each need to understand.A study by the non-profit As You Sow of the 55 largest companies in the U.S. found that only three, Microsoft, PepsiCo and Ecolab Inc, earned an A-level grade; Google and Apple received B and B- grades, respectively, and most of the rest, 84% of companies are flunking out of the race to head off climate change. Carbon tracking is mostly restricted to Scope 1 and 2 emissions, the direct and indirect emissions associated with power used by a company. MSCI Research reported in September 2020 that only 18% of the firms it follows are reporting their scope 3 emissions — we’ll explore why these emissions are difficult to track. You can find out more at https://nzero.com/.

Dan Smythe, vice president of retail and hospitality at EPAM, an influential technology and business strategy consultancy, discusses the findings of the Consumers Unmasked 2 survey, which examined changing spending habits and sustainability preferences during the pandemic. He reports that people are actively considering companies’ environmental and social impacts when making purchasing decisions. For example, 46% of survey respondents said they buy sustainable products when the choice is available. Respondents also showed growing sophistication about corporate sustainability and social performance. Listen to a discussion of last year's survey results to hear how consumer concerns are changing.EPAM is telling its clients to design shopping experiences that demonstrate honesty and transparency, now among the most important issues for shoppers. Rising interest in sustainainability and a willingness by 39% of respondents to buy used products to reduce their environmental impact, points to a sea change in the priorities of companies that want to keep their customers in the Climate Crisis Era. You can learn about EPAM at https://www.epam.com/.

Erin Levine, Resource Recovery Manager at World Centric, a Rohnert Park, Calif.-based manufacturer of 100% compostable tableware and food packaging, joins Mitch to discuss California’s mandatory composting law, SB 1383. After passage in 2016, the new law, known as the Short-lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Strategy, went into effect after five years of preparation on January 1, 2022. SB 1383 requires all businesses, apartment and condo buildings as well as individual homeowners in California are now required to compost food waste, and the law also aims to reduce by 20% the current surplus of edible foods sent to landfills. It is a game-changing move and raises many questions about the compostability of everyday products purchased in the state.We’ve had WorldCentric on the show several times because of the company’s socially-driven mission and focus on reducing use of unrecyclable materials. They contribute a minimum of 25% of their profits to grassroots community organizations and environmental projects each year and pioneered the Certified B Corporation movement in business. In this episode, we dig into composting: What can be composted? How can composting collection can be improved? What are the different approaches to home and industrial composting we need to understand in order to send compostables to the right place for processing. What composting labels to look for, including the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI) label. You can learn more about World Centric at https://www.worldcentric.net/.

David Katz, founder of Plastic Bank, shares his vision for a regenerative society built on grassroots recycling programs that help low-income regions build resilient communities. The Vancover, B.C., startup compensates more than 30,000 plastic recyclers in the Philippines, Indonesia, Brazil, and Egypt. To date, Plastic Bank has stopped over 99 million pounds of plastic waste - the equivalent of more than 2 billion plastic bottles — from entering the world's oceans, and the pace of it collections is accelerating. The people who collect plastic are paid for the material they deposit at more than 511 Plastic Bank branches. Katz's team has partnered with more than 200 companies, including Procter & Gamble, HelloFresh, L’Oreal and Coca-Cola, to create circular economies in plastic packaging.Their next goal is to capture 10 billion bottles, which still represents only 1.7% of the 583 billion produced in 2021, according to Euromonitor. David explains that a shift in mindset from extractive ownership to regenerative stewardship can break the economic mold and bring prosperity in regions where so much valuable material currently is treated as waste. Plastic Bank uses a blockchain-based data collection and reporting system that helps collectors track their earnings and which provides transparency and traceability for the plastic captured. Plastic Bank works with plastic recyclers to convert the collected bottles into SocialPlastic, a raw material for making new products. They sell plastic #1, #2 and #4 to industry to recover their costs. You can learn more about Plastic Bank at https://plasticbank.com/.

Mitch Ratcliffe sits down with Newday Impact Investing CEO Doug Heske to start a two-part ESG investing conversation how to invest to help the future generations meet the unique challenges of the climate crisis and global competition. More than 1.8 billion youth around the world are readying themselves to take their place in their economies and communities. But as we know, today’s challenges are more technologically and intellectually difficult than the ones their parents and grandparents faced. They can be ready for great achievements with the right tools and support, and Doug identifies the companies working to engage with youth around the world.Youth, especially in Africa, need to become skilled at regenerative agriculture, the restoration of the planet and providing equitable access to food, water and other resources. They'll also need new tools to collaborate remotely to solve global problems, and the mental health services necessary to survive and thrive despite eco-anxiety. Today, we’ll walk through a list of stocks to consider if your priority is education and youth empowerment, including Zoom (NASDAQ: ZM), Atlassian (NASDAQ: TEAM), Chegg (NYSE: CHGG), Stride (NYSE: LRN), 2U (NASDAQ: TWOU), Talkspace (NASDAQ: TALK), Atai Life Sciences (NASDAQ : ATAI), and Compass Pathways (NASDAQ: CMPS). You can learn more about Newday Impact Investing's sustainable development equity portfolio at https://newdayimpact.com/.