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Sustainability In Your Ear

Sustainability In Your Ear

By: Mitch Ratcliffe
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 Mitch Ratcliffe interviews activists, authors, entrepreneurs and changemakers working to accelerate the transition to a sustainable, post-carbon society. You have more power to improve the world than you know! Listen in to learn and be inspired to give your best to restoring the climate and regenerating nature.Copyright 2025 Internet Media Strategies Inc. Biological Sciences Earth Sciences Economics Leadership Management & Leadership Science
Episodes
  • Sustainability In Your Ear: Author Kelsey Timmerman's Journey to Find Farms Regenerating Earth

    Sustainability In Your Ear: Author Kelsey Timmerman's Journey to Find Farms Regenerating Earth
    Aug 18 2025
    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.
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    47 mins
  • Sustainability In Your Ear: USEFULL's Rob Kutner On Easing Reuse Adoption With Plastic Buy-Backs

    Sustainability In Your Ear: USEFULL's Rob Kutner On Easing Reuse Adoption With Plastic Buy-Backs
    Aug 11 2025
    The scale of our plastic waste crisis is staggering: the U.S. alone uses over 100 million plastic utensils every day, most of which are used once and tossed into landfills where they'll persist for centuries. From ocean pollution to overflowing campus dumpsters after lunch rush, single-use packaging defines modern food service—but universities and businesses are under mounting pressure to embrace sustainable alternatives. Tune in to a conversation with Rob Kutner, Chief Revenue Officer at USEFULL, which offers a practical solution to food service waste: a reusable takeout container system designed for the high-volume and fast pace of college cafeterias. USEFULL's latest move challenges throwaway culture head-on with a plastic buyback program that pays institutional cafeterias to ditch disposables and go reusable.

    The company has already made waves at universities like the University of Pittsburgh, Emory University, and the University of North Carolina Wilmington, achieving a remarkable 99% return rate for their containers. The economics are compelling. Rather than asking institutions to absorb the cost of switching to sustainable packaging, USEFULL creates financial incentives by purchasing a cafeteria's existing plastic inventory, removing the sunk costs barrier and providing immediate value to cafeterias ready to make the transition. USEFULL built an ecosystem to improve the convenience of reuse, developing tracking systems, POS integration services, and local washing and inventory management to solve the campus reuse challenge. The timing couldn't be better. As Bain & Company recently reported, ROI has become the driving force for growing adoption of sustainable practices. As companies recognize the threat to future business performance represented by the take-make-waste economic model, USEFULL demonstrates how simple steps, not grandiose plans for revolution, can create tractable, attractive, and profitable paths to reduced waste. You can learn more about USEFULL's reusable packaging system and their expanding campus network at https://usefull.us/
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    40 mins
  • Sustainability In Your Ear: Carbon Direct Chief Scientist Julio Friedmann on the Path to Carbon Removal

    Sustainability In Your Ear: Carbon Direct Chief Scientist Julio Friedmann on the Path to Carbon Removal
    Aug 4 2025
    The scale of our climate challenge is staggering: humans have pumped 1.6 trillion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the air and oceans since 1750, and we're adding another 40 billion tonnes every year. Even with dramatic emissions reductions, we're still on track to blow past 1.5 degrees of warming, the Paris Accord target first breached in 2024. Tune in to a conversation with Dr. Julio Friedmann, Chief Scientist at Carbon Direct. This carbon management company partners with Fortune 500 companies such as Microsoft, JPMorgan Chase, and American Express to transform net-zero commitments into science-backed action plans. After a career that began as a researcher at ExxonMobil and included service at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Columbia University's energy policy center, and running advanced energy programs in the Obama administration's Department of Energy, Julio brings unique expertise to the intersection of massive climate challenges and current technological capabilities.

    As companies work toward 2030 and 2050 carbon goals, the question isn't whether we'll need massive carbon removal—it's whether we can deploy it fast enough and fairly enough to matter. The recent $100 million XPRIZE Carbon Removal awards highlighted the diversity of approaches being pursued, with natural solutions like enhanced rock weathering using basalt and azomite soil, and biochar applications to farmland dominating the winners. But how do these technologies stack up against the hype? Friedmann provides a realistic assessment of where Direct Air Capture, ocean alkalinity enhancement, and other carbon removal approaches stand today. Carbon Direct's team of 70+ scientists changes the conversation with corporate clients about their carbon strategies, providing the scientific firepower to offer hard feedback about what's needed to preserve the markets, supply chains, and revenue streams companies depend on. You can learn more about Carbon Direct's work and explore their library of climatetech reports at https://www.carbon-direct.com/
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    53 mins
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