mindfulbusinesses

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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8: Circular Design Consultants - Net Zero Homes
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113: Re- Air Trustrace – ​​Platform For Product Traceability

We talk with Shameek Ghosh, co-founder of Trustrace a platform that brings traceability and transparency to the fashion brands such as #Adidas, #Decathalon, and #FjällRaven. It all started when one of his coworkers/friend decided to return to India from Sweden to take over his ancestral property. His friend was dismayed at the destruction that the fashion industry had caused to the lands owned by his family for three generations in Tirupur, Tamil Nadu, India. When they started to talk to leading sustainable brands in Sweden to see if they collaborate with factories in India, they were hesitant to work with companies 1000s of miles away as they wouldn’t be able to control the products and quality. After talking to these brands they developed a B2B SaaS platform that empowers fashion and textile brands to fully understand and take responsibility for the social and environmental impact of their supply chains. The company is the one-stop platform for brands aiming to solve major challenges of sustainability, compliance, and transparency in the supply chains. They track transactions and scope certificates in a standardized, digital format using an AI-driven platform. Brands can get granular visibility into the chain of custody and gather evidence needed to meet compliance requirements. And furthermore they can see the status of the materials and goods as they move through the supply chain. Learn more about this fascinating AI driven platform on this episode of Mindful Businesses.
https://trustrace.com/
https://mindfulbusinessespodcast.com/
#Mindfulbusinesses #Saas #Traceability #trustrace #supplychain

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Mindful Businesses
113: Re- Air Trustrace - ​​Platform For Product Traceability
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7: Loop And Tie – Gifting That Gives Back

Receiving a gift makes people happy, incentivizes and motivates employees, and builds corporate morale. Businesses give gifts for various reasons – a promotion, to say thank you, reaching a milestone or even”just because”. The businesses try their level best to match the gift to the employees tastes. That can be a daunting task for the gifter. Loop and Tie aims at making corporate gifting intentional, sustainable and an opt-in gift experience. They have observed that with the opt-in gifting, the receiver can choose the gift of their liking. It helps businesses send unique, elevated gifts that help your brand stand out — and make a difference doing it. Loop and Tie are the first and only carbon regenerative gifting platform. For every gift shipped, through their land restoration and regenerative agriculture initiatives make a net positive carbon impact. Their gifts are thoughtfully sourced from independent creators, makers, and artisans. They even have a gift-it-forward capabilities that allow the receiver to support charities, non-profits, or causes that matter most to them. Learn more about giving sustainable from the Founder and CEO of Loop and Tie, Sara Rodell on the latest episode of Mindful Businesses.
https://www.loopandtie.com/
https://mindfulbusinessespodcast.com/

#sustainablegifting, #mindfulbusinesses, #loopandtie, #Carbonpositive, #corporategifting, #gifting #employeemorale

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USA
7: Loop And Tie - Gifting That Gives Back
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6: Our Sustainable Home – Eric Corey Freed; Foundation and Windows

The cement industry puts out 8% of the world’s CO2 emissions, but having said that, it is very durable and technically made with natural materials. As we go along this journey to build a sustainable home, we look into options to reduce the consumption of cement and therefore concrete in our home. We delve into the techniques to build a strong and dry foundation or basement that can withstand the upward ground water pressure and the thrust from the ground on the side walls with minimal cement consumption. A sustainable house begins with a good system to envelop the home to minimize heat loss and energy consumption. Besides insulation and construction techniques we look to windows and how they can help us in creating a tightly sealed home. A well-designed and thought-through window placement design can also help us with solar gain and create desired airflows in the home reducing costs of heating and cooling the home. What are the factors to consider when selecting a foundation or window technology? We learn more from our expert Eric Corey Freed, LEED Fellow Principal, Director of Sustainability at Cannon Design on this episode of Mindful Businesses.

https://www.cannondesign.com/people/eric-corey-freed
https://mindfulbusinessespodcast.com/

#sustainablehome #oursustainablehome #mindfulbusinesses #U-Values #Rvalues #superiorwalls #triplepanewindows #tiltandturn #cementindustry #greenhome

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6: Our Sustainable Home - Eric Corey Freed; Foundation and Windows
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107: FabScrap – Recycling and Reusing Textile Waste

Today we revisit a conversation with FabScrap about the textile waste that ends up in landfills and how they try to reduce this phenomenon. This episode is a re-air from May 17, 2023
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Majority of the conversation around fashion waste revolves around finished products that end up in the landfill. But around 12 % that is around 6.3 million tonnes per year is sent by brands to the landfill in the design and development stage. These would be sample booklets with swatches and unused fabric rolls and prior to Fabscrap they ended up in the landfill. We talk with Jessica Schreiber CEO and founder of FabScrap, a non-profit whose 80% of earned income comes from service fees and fabric sales. They receive service fees from brands to Fabscrap to pick up their textile waste, similar to when they pay for recycling or trash pickup. They do this with an army of volunteers, almost 100 unique ones per month and their staff in Brooklyn and Philadelphia. Their staff take extra precautions to assure brands that their copyrighted materials are shredded and don’t reenter the market. Fabscrap also sells the fabrics to quilters, sewing enthusiasts, fashion students and assuring nothing that is picked up by Fabscrap goes to the landfill. With the long-term goal to influence habit and policy they create impact reports that they share back with their brands – how much and what fabric they picked and how was it sorted and if reused or not. Jessica believes that this makes the brands internalize the cost of their waste and may help them reevaluate and optimize their design and planning process. Learn more about this first of its kind initiative and organization on this episode of Mindful businesses.

#textilewaste
#mindfulbusinesses
#sustainablefashion
#fabricwaste
#fabscrap
#sustainablefashion

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107: FabScrap - Recycling and Reusing Textile Waste
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119: RheEnergise – High Density Hydro

Energy systems need to decarbonise to prevent climate change. There are many solutions to generate energy without using fossil-fuels, but renewable sources of energy are intermittent, depending on how long the sun shines, number of windy days per week – leading to a mismatch between supply and consumer demand. Energy needs to be stored to match the demand with the supply. Presently energy produced is stored in hydroelectric pumps by pumping it up and releasing it as demanded. RheEnergise is bringing innovation to pumped energy storage, with a solution called High-Density Hydro®. They use a fluid with 2.5x the density of water, that means they can generate 2.5 times the energy generated by water and they can be installed on small hills instead of mountains. This opens up a number of feasible locations to store this energy – sites where you are not dependent on rainfall or a water source and hills instead of mountains. Learn more of this fascinating invention that will help us decarbonize energy production from Stephen Crosher, CEO of RheEnergise.

This episode is a re-air from November 29, 2022

#energystorage, #decarbonising, #sustainablenergy, #renewableenergy, #mindfulbusinessses
https://www.rheenergise.com/
https://mindfulbusinessespodcast.com/

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119: RheEnergise - High Density Hydro
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125: Savesorb – Save Time, Money and the Environment

Oil spills in our world where engines are omnipresent are almost inevitable. Larger accidental spills on land and water have catastrophic effects on the environment, plant and animal life. Ironically some of the industrial spill clean-up solutions often used may not always be eco-friendly. SaveSorb is a totally natural, sustainable plant material. Using sphagnum peat moss in a proprietary method, it is dried, sieved, blended and pH balanced to create the most effective absorbent of hydrocarbons (oil based compounds) and chemicals available.

SaveSorb absorbs almost all hydrocarbons, chemicals and their vapors. It encapsulates them within its molecular structure and will not leach contaminants into the environment, even under pressure. SaveSorb is very safe to handle. In its natural state it partially absorbs the fumes, making it useful for cleaning up small spills containing flammable liquids.

SaveSorb is available as a loose product in bags and in a variety of manufactured products from Spill Kits, absorbent mats and socks. Listen to the world renown jockey turned entrepreneur, Ronnie Ebanks who seized the opportunity when he was introduced to this “miracle-product”.

https://savesorb.com/
https://mindfulbusinessespodcast.com/

#oilspill #sustainablesolutions #ecofriiendly #ecofriiendlycleanup #sphagnumpeatmoss #mindfulbusinesses #savesorb

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Sustainable Materials
125: Savesorb - Save Time, Money and the Environment
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123: Honnold Foundation – Expand Solar Energy Access to Marginalized Communities

The risk assessments that governments and corporations make to encourage marginalized communities and uplift them, have themselves become a hurdle to the assistance that they wish to provide. Honnold foundations wishes to fill that gap by partnering closely with nonprofits in a space where their needs are too small for governments and not profitable enough for businesses. The Honnold Foundation was founded by professional rock climber Alex Honnold in 2012. After a rock climbing expedition around the world, he decided to focus his giving on solar energy – as it was so tangible.

They engage and collaborate with these communities to expand equitable solar access. The Honnold Foundation is a proud partner with community-based organizations all over the world who are using solar energy to improve lives and reduce environmental impact. They partner with communities in Africa, Americas, Asia and in the Native American communities in North America. Native Renewables empowers Native American families to achieve energy independence by growing renewable energy capacity and affordable access to off-grid power. To learn more about this truly mindful and giving philanthropy listen to Emily Teitsworth, Executive Director of Honnold foundation, in our latest episode.

https://www.honnoldfoundation.org/
www.mindfulbusinessespodcast.com

#solarenergy #marginalizedcommunities #mindfulbusinesses #honnoldfoundation

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Energy
123: Honnold Foundation - Expand Solar Energy Access to Marginalized Communities
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122: Reactive Surfaces – Bringing Surfaces To Life

Most US elementary school students learn about photosynthesis in their science class. The process is very simple – chlorophyll in the leaves and green stems absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen back into the atmosphere. It is nature’s elegant way of capturing carbon dioxide. Carbon cycle is where humans and human activities put out carbon dioxide and processes such as photosynthesis absorb it. But when the NET carbon dioxide into the atmosphere exceeds what is absorbed – that to the extent of 30 – 50 gigatons of carbon dioxide, then we have a problem on our hands. Observing and learning from nature our guests Beth McDaniel, President and Dr. Steve McDaniel, CEO and Chief Innovation Officer of Reactive Surfaces try to replicate the carbon capture process in nature in their solution. They have created coatings that can be applied to surfaces to capture carbon – just like nature does it with leaves and stems. Using polymeric materials thinly spread on a surface, adhere to the surface and then cured. These surfaces when exposed to sunlight, will photosynthesise, capturing and fixing carbon, using the photosynthetic process to carbohydrate. To learn more about this truly fascinating solution listen to our latest episode of Mindful Businesses.

Mentions:
Embassy Row Project – Envirotech Pre – accelerator
Xprize
Musk Foundation

#climatechange #carboncapture #carbonsequestration #mindfulbusinesses #reactivesurfaces #photosythesis #learnfromnature #sustainablematerials
https://reactivesurfaces.com/
https://mindfulbusinessespodcast.com/

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Sustainable Materials
122: Reactive Surfaces - Bringing Surfaces To Life
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121: Ocean Recovery Alliance – Environmental Engagement

We have this love-hate relationship with plastic. It is versatile, durable, light-weight and used in a multitude of applications. How do we recover and give this plastic a second life or third life?

Today we have with us Doug Woodring, Founder and Managing Director of the Ocean Recovery Alliance – Bringing Creative Surprise to Environmental Engagement. Ocean Recovery Alliance is focused on entrepreneuring programs to reduce plastic pollution, both on land and water, by creating strategic solutions for governments, industry and communities which lead to long-term, hands-on business practices that engage. They purposefully design programs to educate, build awareness and provide solutions which inspire positive societal change at the community, national and international levels. We learn more about their initiatives such as their global app that crowd sources and alerts authorities about trash on land along waterways. They have worked with cosmetic companies such as LUSH to help them look at their products and how they can reduce the plastic – for instance by eliminating glitter from all their products. Learn more of such efforts by the non-profit Ocean Recovery Project on this episode.

Mentions:

Ricron Panels

Lush Cosmetics
https://www.oceanrecov.org/
https://mindfulbusinessespodcast.com/

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Impact
121: Ocean Recovery Alliance - Environmental Engagement
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