Net Hero Podcast – With Sumit Bose

Is Wall-E about to clean up?

A little robot gets a personality, falls in love and saves the polluted world by repopulating plant life, cheered on by obese human blobs.
If you've never seen it do so, Wall-E is a pixar classic and a film I have loved watching with my kids (and without them) again and again. The premise is clear we need robots to show us the folly of treating the planet as a waste bin. Great fiction or is it?
This week on the net hero podcast I spoke to Carling Spelhaug from AMP Robotics. They are using AI powered droids to improve the efficiency of recycling centres by teaching robot grabbers how to collect a range of reusable products. It's a way of working faster and more accurately, so is their robot Wall-E's grandad and the start of what's to come to help clean up our world?
Listen in or watch on our youtube channel and please follow the net hero podcast on social media.

District heating much more than hot air?

Hot air! As we get towards autumn we need lots of it to keep our homes and workplaces warm. But could the real gamechanger be under our feet?
District Heating is a concept that goes back to the Romans and ancient Chinese, yet its main use has been the last century or so in America. We’ve all seen movies with steam coming out of street vents, in fact most apartments in US cities use communal heating.
But it’s never really caught on here and even in Europe, it’s confined to the nordics in the main. But now it’s being lauded again as a ‘new way to net zero’, so can it work to help us decarbonise heat? I speak to Rob Thornton who heads up the International District Heating Association, to talk hot air, pipes and community heat.
Listen in or watch the video below and keep subscribing to our channels and follow us on social media. If you want to be featured on the podcast get in touch.

Green business isn’t new!

Sumit Bose speaks with Julia Hailes who advocated working with business for environmental change back in the 80s. 
She co-published the Green Consumer Guide in 1988, which kick started environmental consumerism and she made the bold step to say working with business was important if we are to really protect the planet.
Is Julia happy or disappointed with our progress four decades on? Does environmentalism need government to regulate to kick business into action and did she ever think net zero would become a mainstream issue? We talk through all this and more.
Please remember you can now watch the podcast too and please follow the #netheropodcast on social and subscribe to our channels.

Our girl goes green!

Join us in this special episode as we sit down with our former colleague and eco-warrior, Mahin Khan, for an inspiring conversation about her incredible journey towards a net-zero future in Pakistan! 🇵🇰
Mahin Khan, a true trailblazer, has taken her passion for sustainability to new heights. From our office discussions to founding her own net zero-related company, she's making waves in the environmental sector. Don't miss out on this thought-provoking conversation that will leave you motivated to take action for a sustainable future!
Subscribe to stay updated with our inspiring content. Share this with your friends and family to spread the word about Mahin Khan's incredible work and inspire others to join the net zero movement.
Together, we can make a difference!
📢 Connect with Mahin Khan:
Carbon Wise: https://www.instagram.com/carbonwise.pk/
Mahin Khan: https://www.instagram.com/ecomindedmahin/
#NetZero #Sustainability #Pakistan #Inspiration #Entrepreneurship #EnvironmentalChange #GreenFuture #Podcast #Interview #EcoWarrior

Finally a pint that’s good for the planet!

Beer, ah. Homer Simpson doesn't get much right but when it comes to a nice cold or as we prefer here in the UK, warm, beer, he's spot on.
But did you know your pint isn't as good for the planet as you might think? I was surprised as, after all beer is water and some kind of cereal, with a dash of yeast, all natural stuff, so I didn't consider it's carbon footprint apart from the packaging it comes in.
Well that's all changed after this podcast with Dr Roland Pahl-Dobrick who works for the Pall Corporation and is in charge of brewing, his quest to make the cleanest pint we can. Listen in to find out how.

The truth about emissions?

Now this is a tricky one, ask most people and you think that a diesel car is the most polluting thing on the road. And an EV has no emissions at all.
But is that the whole truth? Nick Molden runs Emissions Analytics an independent testing body, that measures not just tailpipe emissions but all the emissions coming from a car.
That includes the particles from tyres to the embodied carbon needed to make both an ICE car and an EV.
What I discover during our chat really changed my mind about how we see ‘clean transport’ and what we must do to get to the ultimate aim of net zero transport but at an affordable equitable level.
Maybe, the cult of the EV isn’t right and there are other answers too?
What do you think? Do listen in and let me know and let’s try to have a sensible debate, as I fear there are some very stubborn voices out there who  see the EV as the only panacea for clean transport! Keep subscribing!

SBTI pointless for most?

We’ve all seen the rise of Science Based Targets (SBTI) as the measure of how net zero a company is.
Lots of big companies prove their ESG credentials by signing up to the targets and measure their emissions reductions success against them. That’s all well and good if you have a department of trained specialists to track everything but what about the vast majorities of businesses?
More than 95% of businesses are SMEs and mid sized companies, who will always fail against the absolute standards of SBTI, because as they grow their net emissions often increase with turnover.
So is there a better yardstick for them? I spoke to Chris Hocknell from consultancy Eight Versa who believes carbon intensity metrics are a far better methodology for most business.
I tend to agree, listen now and please sign up to our newsletter and subscribe to the podcast.

Do or do not! Who is actually moving to net zero?

This week I speak to Dr Jan Rosenow, someone I respect very much, who has been looking for years at the state of sustainability and net zero.
He is Director at the Regulatory Assistance Project and has been studying the picture across Europe and wider, when it comes to progressing towards our 2050 target.
I put it to him there is a global divide on net zero and we explored what nations are doing to show their real commitment to cutting emissions. It's a great podcast as Jan takes me through the picture for the global south and then who's doing what in Europe, including us!
Please listen in and subscribe to our new look Net Hero newsletter with plenty of good stuff. Keep downloading and sharing.

NHP – Net Zero polarisation, will it scupper our future?

Are you net zero enough? And if not does that make you a heretic?
That’s the question that is the subject of this podcast where I speak to Marc Cortez, green energy businessman and author. Net zero has become a mainstream topic lately and there seems to be a narrative that you need to do it now and only one way, that is electrify everything using renewable power.
Anyone with any other views, however helpful in cutting emissions, is branded a fossil fuel/nuclear/hydrogen empathiser and worse. So why are we now in a world particularly in social media, where even if we have the same goal, there is such division in the net zero narrative?
Marc and I debate this and I am sure some reading this and listening in, will not agree with what’s said, however I think it’s a debate, a reasoned debate, we need to have, so please listen in!
Any thoughts get in touch nethero@futurenetzero.com

NHP - Water water everywhere lots to grow!

This week's podcast is one of the ones I love. An entrepreneur with a vision to do something radical, to help the planet and us.
Charlie Paton and his colleagues have been working for two decades on creating agricultural solutions for arid lands using seawater! Their seawater greenhouses, which can be made of canvas not just glass, use desalinated sea water to bring barren deserts into life.
The water condenses and using the desert winds evaporated over special panels, allow plants to grow using transpiration and humidity, instead of vast amounts of direct soil watering. It's brilliant stuff and deserves success.
Check the video below to see this in action and listen in to the podcast, as we discuss how water stress is the next big frontier in the net zero struggle.