Archives: Episode

3: Spot Detergent – Eco-Friendly On a Budget

Sustainable products are priced out of reach of most Americans. They cost the consumers more due to a variety of reasons – higher costs of inputs and innovation, demand is higher than supply and sometimes…just because.. people are willing to pay more. If we are on this global journey to make our world sustainable we need each and everyone on board. Our guest on this episode Reid Edgar, Owner of Spot Detergent is committed to making his sustainable products accessible to everyone. His #ecofriendly laundry detergent sheets cost 12.5 cents per load and are comparable with conventional laundry detergents and clean just as well. Spot detergent sheets are made in Sweden with a plant-based formula that is paraben, phosphate and 1-dioxane free. The product has plastic free packaging and since the detergent sheets weigh around 90% less than liquid detergent it reduces their transportation carbon footprint substantially. Their sheets are environmentally-friendly but without the traditional “eco” price markup. With Spot’s unique entry to market strategy by targeting Dollar Stores and large discount stores like TJMaxx and Marshalls their green product will reach consumers who are often left out by sustainable brands. Learn more in the latest episode of Mindful Businesses.
#ecofriendly #sustainability #zerowaste #gogreen #climatechange #spotdetrgent #mindfulbusinesses #sustainableliving #sustainableliving #ecofriendlydetergent

https://spotdetergent.com/
https://mindfulbusinessespodcast.com/

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Sustainable Materials
3: Spot Detergent - Eco-Friendly On a Budget
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11: Ryan McPherson – University of Buffalo Climate Action Plan

Today we talk with Ryan McPherson, Chief Sustainability Officer at University of Buffalo. He heads the Climate Action Plan at the university. The University has the goal of climate neutrality by 2030. They plan to achieve this goal by having 10 strategies to achieve it. Strategies such as “Not all electricity is created equal”, “Waste not”, and “putting a price on pollution”. These goals were driven by the availability of sustainable solutions, policy changes and by students demanding immediate action. These are actions for other universities and corporations to emulate. Learn more about these goals will be achieved in our latest episode.

https://www.buffalo.edu/climate-action.html

https://mindfulbusinessespodcast.com/

#sustainableuniversity #solarfarms #reducefoodwaste #greenelectricity #electrifyingcommute

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Thought Leaders
11: Ryan McPherson - University of Buffalo Climate Action Plan
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19: Suta – Woven Uninterrupted Simplicity

This episode was originally aired on February 18, 2020

Today we revisit an episode where we talk with co-founders Sujata and Taniya (Su and Ta) who decided to quit their well-paying jobs and put their hearts and souls into spreading love through traditional hand-woven sarees. They have a family of 1400 weavers. The process of weaving every saree is a celebration of centuries of tradition and the authenticity of Indian arts. Suta strives to preserve the art of generational craftsman, guaranteeing them a living wage and bringing their products to the urban markets. Learn about their journey in this episode.

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Mindful Businesses
19: Suta - Woven Uninterrupted Simplicity
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1: Palm Straw – Biodegradable Plant Based Straws

The firsts in our lives have a special place in our life experience. May it be the first job, first business venture, first car and even your first podcast episode. Today we wanted to re-air on the 4 year anniversary, our first episode Palm Straw. It was a startup in 2019 which my mentor at that time Dora Lutz I suggest that I reach out to. This startup with such a simple sustainable idea and product did not make it through the pandemic, but nevertheless valuable sustainable lessons were learnt and shared in this early episode.

This episode was previously aired July 22, 2019
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The environmentally conscious you doesn’t want to use plastic straws, but paper straws dissolve in your drinks. Here is the answer for you: Palm Straws! In this episode we talk to Palm Straw co-founder Dave Mash about their bio-degradable plant-based​ straws.

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Mindful Businesses
1: Palm Straw - Biodegradable Plant Based Straws
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110: Junobie -Eco-friendly Reusable Breast Milk Storage Bags

As formula companies’ productions are limping back to normal, after the recall, a question some people ask is why can’t mother “just” switch to breastfeeding their infants. As most mothers know that it is not that easy to make that switch. Breastfeeding a baby can be hard – it needs support from the family, spouse, pediatrician and most importantly the medical community. Breast milk can be stored up to four days in the refrigerator giving the mothers some flexibility to return to work or even sometimes even share some of their milk with other mothers. This breast milk needs to be stored in a safe, convenient, and long-use product. Our guest in this episode, Nickey Ramsey, Founder & CEO of Junobie does just that, empowering women with a convenient pouch made of silicon. Learn more in this episode of Mindful Businesses.

This episode is a re-air from June 7th 2023.

https://www.junobie.com/
https://mindfulbusinessespodcast.com/

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Mindful Businesses
110: Junobie -Eco-friendly Reusable Breast Milk Storage Bags
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10: The Tool Library – Borrow Tools. Build Community

The practice of manufacturing for planned obsolescence seems to be what most manufacturers in the present time follow. This means to make an item that will break down sooner than their earlier versions, lack of how-to-fix information or tutorials and even make it impossible to be repaired. The direct impact of such a philosophy increases the bottom line of the business at the cost of increasing e-waste and its impact on our planet. There needs to be a movement from a linear economy in which we take, make and waste to a circular economy. Complete circularity may be hard to achieve in all instances, repairing an item is an alternative that can reduce what ends up in the landfills. “Repair is such a low hanging fruit” says our guest Darren Cotton, Executive Director of The Tool Library.

The Tool Library is an all-volunteer nonprofit tool-lending library based on the mantra that cost shouldn’t be a barrier to fix up one’s home, grow food, or improve the community. Tools can range anywhere from hammers, screwdrivers, and shovels to power drills, circular saws, and sanders. Individuals and businesses can donate tools to the program which will then be circulated throughout the neighborhood for a small annual membership fee.Thus, people looking for an alternative to buying expensive tools that get little use now have this resource at their disposal. In addition, The Tool Library collaborates with the City of Buffalo to host once a month Repair Cafe, where volunteers help individuals repair an item that would have otherwise ended in the landfill. Learn more about this impactful non – profit organization in this episode.

#circulareconimy
#lineareconomy
#mindfulbusinesses
#repairability
#repaircafe
#righttorepair
#thetoollibrary

https://thetoollibrary.org/
https://mindfulbusinessespodcast.com/

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Repairability
10: The Tool Library - Borrow Tools. Build Community
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85: Sagent – Know What Your Network Knows

Repairing an item is an achievable and straightforward path to achieve sustainability goals. This “concept” is becoming more and more apparent with Right to Repair legislations being passed as laws in some states in the US and countries worldwide. In January 2023, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the Digital Fair Repair Act, a law that will increase the consumers ability to repair some electronics and reduce the e-wastes that end up in the landfills. In this context, we wanted to share an episode that we had aired earlier to showcase this business that in their CEO Gordon Smith’s words “we don’t manufacture – we re-manufacture.” Learn more in this episode.
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We talked with Sagent’s CEO Gordon Smith about how Sagent works to reduce the environmental impact by lowering emissions, pollution, and energy investment. They do it a) by repairing and refurbishing networks they extend the useful equipment life with telecom repair services b) by maintaining an industry-leading network test, repair, and maintenance facility. They have expert technicians who perform network repair services, system-level testing and component-level repairs and extend the life of telecom equipment. They repair more than 850,000 devices annually, across 100,000 SKUs, from over 100 manufacturers – all with a 96% yield rate and standard repair cycle time of two weeks.

They deliver equipment repair services that give insight into your network to help reduce avoidable repairs. For each repair, they capture and report on the root cause of each failure and can pinpoint the means to avoid it in the future. Their software developed specifically for network operators tracks failure data at both macro and micro levels. It monitors data failure trends by geography, site location, technician responsibility, OEM platform and specific part numbers to deliver actionable data to help prevent future incidents. Rather than recycle network assets, Sagent Insights can develop a systematic program to reuse network assets and delay additions to the e-waste stream, by recycling and disposing of components only after they have achieved maximum service life. Learn more in this episode of Mindful Businesses. This episode is a re-air from December 7, 2021.

https://sagent.net/
https://www.mindfulbusinessespodcast.com/

#digitalfairrepairact #ewaste #landfill #mindfulbusinesses #repairability #righttorepair #sagent

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Mindful Businesses
85: Sagent - Know What Your Network Knows
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109: Re – Air Pass the Honey – It’s Absurdly Good

“No Mow May…” in Buffalo and Western New York was a cooperative effort by neighbors, municipalities, and counties to stop residents from mowing their lawns for a month to help pollinators such as bees survive and help their population grow. Pollinators are an integral part of the global food supply. This episode delves into how the bee population has been affected by commercial and large scale farming practices. This summer, as we work in our gardens and pesky bee buzzes around you, if possible, take a pause to think about the role they play in our environment and food supply. Learn more about bees and beekeeping practices in this episode.
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Next time we grab a packet of honey to add to our tea – we should stop and think how a commodity so valuable and nutritionally dense is given for free. According to Douglas Raggio, founder of Pass The Honey, 70% of all honey is not pure. There is rampant fraud and honey is adulterated by blending with sugar syrups or many other methods of adulteration. In order to address this level of fraud in the industry, Pass the Honey establishes trusting partnerships directly with beekeeper suppliers so we know how our honeycomb was produced and have full traceability and transparency from beekeeper to consumer.

Fake honey, deceives consumers and floods markets with a cheap product, driving honey prices so low beekeepers are having a hard time staying in business. The beekeepers have had to find alternate sources of livelihood, such as pollination services, that require them to travel far and wide to help farmers pollinate their crops. This further causes stress to the bees and they lose 45% of their bee population every year because of this movement. Why do the farmers require this service? Learn more about this and the importance of bees in our food systems in this episode of Mindful Businesses.

https://passthehoney.com/pages/about-us
https://mindfulbusinessespodcast.com/
#regenerativeagriculture
#beekeeping
#sustainbleagriculture
#passthehoney
#nomowmay

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Mindful Businesses
109: Re - Air Pass the Honey - It's Absurdly Good
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9: Ehlers Estate – Sustainable Winemaking

With summer fast approaching, sipping a glass of wine, we wondered about the practices of vineyards – a highly competitive and commercialized industry. Around the same time we were pitched by Ehlers Estate for an interview with their General Manager and Winemaker. In our conversation with several of the mindful business leaders, we sought insights into the economics of running a sustainable and profitable business. The strategies that they use to achieve sustainability goals and still be profitable.

In this episode we talk with Laura Diaz Munoz, Winemaker and GM of Ehlers Estate about her journey from a food scientist to a winemaker and a sustainable one at that. Ehlers Estate is one of the oldest wineries in North America established in 1886 by a German immigrant Bernard Ehlers. On July 1, 2008, after three years of verifiable organic farming, Ehlers Estate was awarded organic certification from the California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF). But that was not enough – they went on to implement steps to include regenerative farming practices. Using nature to help solve nature’s problems with minimal or no intervention. Interventions whether it be in the yeast or sulphurs in their heritage wine, use of fungicide or pesticides. They employ innovative techniques to reduce water consumption during irrigation and reuse the water used in the wine making process. In addition, with the use of technology, such as sensors in the soil they can determine accurately how much to irrigate the vines, further conserving water, a scarce resource. In this enjoyable conversation with Laura Díaz Muñoz, her passion for saving the heritage vines and artistically creating wine blends that bring out the flavor and aroma of each fruit in the blend. But for me, the cherry on the top of this business is that this for – profit business is part of Leducq Charitable Trust – an international grant making organization to support research in cardiovascular disease and stroke. Learn more about this mindful business on this episode of Mindful Business.

#sustainablewines #sustainablefarming #wines #wineplague #delucqfoundation #delucq #mindfulbusinesses

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Agriculture & Farming
9: Ehlers Estate - Sustainable Winemaking
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8: Circular Design Consultants – Net Zero Homes

When Jodi Bakst and Cor Rademaker, co – founders of Circular Design Consultants had the opportunity to develop oa piece of land in North Carolina, they had the vision to make it North Carolina’s first net-zero neighborhood. They put this vision to pen and paper to create Array Sustainable Design and bring to market a twelve lot neighborhood on 60 acres, in picturesque Orange County, North Carolina. In this episode they share how their homes are energy efficient and the challenges that they faced in creating this project. They sell individual lots to buyers who can build custom homes abiding by the neighborhood’s covenants. They believe developments like their net-zero neighborhoods will be the neighborhood of the future and they are excited to be the first of its kind in North Carolina. Listen to this lively and passionate couple on this episode of Mindful Businesses.

Mentions:
Array Sustainable Living
GAF Energy
Timberline Solar
Eric Corey Freed

#netzero, #mindfulbusinesses, #solar, #GAF, #sustainabledesign, #aarayliving
https://arraysustainableliving.com/
https://mindfulbusinessespodcast.com/

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Architecture
8: Circular Design Consultants - Net Zero Homes
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