Amy Wilson is a consultant on commercial marketing strategies to early-stage startups (or, as her LinkedIn page puts it: "Venture Lead/Portfolio CCO/CMO & Advisory Board Member for Startups & Scaleups ? Fundraising Support ? Founder Mentor ? Ethical Investor"). This episode is a little different. The vast majority of the Innovation for Sustainability interviews are with someone who is working on sustainability directly and exclusively. Amy tries to bring her environmental and activist beliefs into her work, but that isn't always possible. One of the things we explore is the challenge ..read more

Dr Anna Birney is CEO (Chief Executive / Enabling / Evolving Officer) of The School of System Change, which enables personal and collective agency to cultivate change in the world with a multi-method approach to systems change learning - with networks, organisations and individuals (Anna's LinkedIn, Medium and Twitter). This episode is a little unusual. We dive into the Multi-Level Perspective ('MLP'), one of the leading theories of system transition which we teach in the module (here for the Wikipedia explanation). MLP has been used in academic research for the last decade or so. However, th ..read more

Molly Webb is Founder of Energy Unlocked, an energy market accelerator focused on new market entrants achieving a low cost, renewable, resilient energy system, and Co-Founder of  PeerCo, a platform which boosts carbon impact for businesses through digital Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (Molly on LinkedIn). We cover (amongst many things!): -How the Energy Unlocked cam out of Molly's work at the Climate Group, and her diagnosis of the challenges for innovating in energy. -How Energy Unlocked is a market accelerator, not a business accelerator. Molly is focussing on the conditions t ..read more

Sarah Goodenough is Head of Policy at Climate Policy Radar (CPR), a "startup using data science and AI to build tools that unlock global climate law and policy data. Open data, open source, not-for-profit." CPR are right at the cutting edge of the application of AI to climate law and policy. We cover: -How CPR grew out of the Grantham Research institute on Climate Change and the Environment at LSE, building out from a project on the Climate Change Laws of the World. -The approach of CPR to build tools that open up the messy black box of climate laws, policies and case law globally, helping d ..read more

Paul Miller (LinkedIn, personal website)  is Managing Partner and CEO of Bethnal Green Ventures, which is "Europe’s leading early-stage tech for good VC". Note that at about 33 minutes there are some pauses because our internet connection went down. Our conversation covers how to run a 'Tech for Good' VC, including having a selection process that works, and investing in ambitious, leading-edge companies. Some specifics: -Some of the Venture Capital (VC) jargon, like: 'early stage', 'managing partner', 'general partner', and 'limited partner'. -The structure of funds in a VC firm. -BGV ..read more

Steve Waygood is Chief Responsible Investment Officer at Aviva Investors (Steve's corporate page and LinkedIn). He has been a crucial player in the rise of sustainable finance in the UK over the last 20 years. Our conversation covers: -The role of insurance companies in finance, and their particular interest and leverage on sustainability. -No one anywhere in the world understands the whole of finance. -Many ESG funds are trying to beat the market ('maximise alpha'), on the assumption that an ESG perspective gives you superior information or insight. (The alternative is to change the market ..read more

David Hunter is Senior Counsel at Bates Wells, a purpose-driven law firm (David's corporate page and LinkedIn). David has a specialism in purpose-led organisations, including on fiduciary duty, social impact bonds and governance. Bates Wells itself was the first UK law firm to become a B-Corp, the certification scheme on for-benefit organisations, and has long been an advocate for purpose-led organisations. Our conversation covers a lot of what Indy Johar of Dark Matter Labs calls the 'boring revolution' -- the vital work of getting legal and governance regulations and practice to align with ..read more

Stuart Wilkinson is Assistant Director, Innovation & Engagement at the University of Oxford (his university page, LinkedIn), and a Fellow of Reuben College. He works across the university, trying to create impact from the research that academics do. That ranges from helping a new technology to be launched as a start-up, through to getting results from humanities research into policy. Our conversation covers: -The tensions between curiosity-led research (which can yield utterly unexpected uses) and challenge-led research (which is aimed at a particular problem). -The role of knowledge exch ..read more

Alison Ward (LinkedIn, Twitter) is the CEO of CottonConnect, which helps global brands source more fairly and sustainably by creating more robust, resilient and successful raw material supply chains. Our conversation covers: -Just how complex the cotton supply chain is, with cotton traded 10 times once it leaves the farmer. -How it takes time to turn an innovative concept into real impact. CottonConnect has a 10 year journey from working with just 1,251 female farmers to now reaching well over 300,000 farmers across Bangladesh India and Pakistan. -Being a CEO of a social enterprise has to com ..read more

Innovating for Sustainability series is back  after an unintentional summer break with a great interview. Adam Parr is an Oxford-based barrister researching law, enterprise, and the environment (website, wikipedia, academic bio). His 30-year career has encompassed finance, law, industry, and sport. Since 2012, Adam has helped build a number of companies as a VC investor and founder. He chairs Oxford Semantic Technologies (an AI technology business), Cheesecake Energy Limited (a heat storage business) and Homeland Conservation, a charitable trust dedicated to accelerating action on climat ..read more