Akhila Kosaraju, the Founder of “What If Design” shares essential design and communication strategies to help organizations focused on social and environmental issues effectively scale their impact, secure funding, and build trustworthy brands.

Lead designer Monica Mecchella emphasizes that "waste is a design flaw," highlighting the critical role of responsible design in sustainability.

With approximately 80% of a product’s environmental impact determined during the design phase, Monica explores why fewer than 10% of products meet sustainability standards, and shares her top 10 principles for enhancing sustainability and circularity.

She also discusses the influence of Colour, Materials, and Finishes (CMF) on product development, and advocates for integrating nature into design processes, while also examining how AI is transforming design today.

Laura Shape is a pioneer in environmental fine art, who transforms invasive species into compelling artworks to raise awareness about ecological crises. As the first artist to engage the public on this issue through art, Laura discusses three specific invasive species — the Burmese Python in Florida's Everglades, invasive Carp in the Mississippi River Basin, and the Lionfish in Caribbean reefs — and their detrimental impact on native ecosystems.

She highlights her collaboration with INVERSA Leathers, emphasizing the role of creativity in environmental solutions and the importance of protecting biodiversity. This episode explores the challenges and opportunities in managing invasive species while celebrating the power of art to inspire change.

A passionate polar activist and climate journalist, Grace Cordsen explores the importance of sustainable travel in the Arctic and Antarctic, emphasizing how to minimize environmental impacts while maximizing benefits for the places we visit.

As the Explorers Club develops its first sustainable policy to honour over 121 years of exploration since it was founded in 1904, Grace reflects on wildlife encounters, the intersection of art and environmental management, and the role of advocacy in climate awareness.

In this episode, Joey Li, CEO & Co-Founder of Leiho, shares her journey in running a purpose-driven business for homeless and underserved communities.

She discusses her diverse upbringing across Hong Kong, Singapore, LA, and London, the challenges of social enterprises, and the importance of purpose in entrepreneurship.

The conversation covers co-founding dynamics, obstacles for female founders, funding strategies, work-life balance, and the need for creativity and adaptability in Leiho's future.

With ESG and sustainability in mind, we explore the importance of embracing feminine energy in leadership and how it contrasts with traditional masculine models that often prioritise individualism and pressure.

Join us as Lis Best, an Executive Coach and Founder of the Girls Club Collective, shares insights on the balance of these energies, highlighting the benefits for personal fulfilment and our collective ability to tackle pressing global challenges.

In this episode featuring Dr. Stephen Ambrose, a renowned fauna ecologist with over 40 years of experience, he discusses the urgent issue of the 6th mass extinction, emphasizing the need for wildlife preservation and the importance of early education about nature.

Dr. Ambrose shares insights from his journey, the threats facing wildlife, animal adaptability, the significance of keystone species, the debate on reviving extinct species, and urgent conservation priorities. This episode is essential for anyone passionate about wildlife conservation and understanding fragile ecosystems.

In our final episode of Season One of the Shades of Life Podcast, we welcome Poppy Mason-Watts, Chief Growth & Impact Officer at WaterBear, often dubbed as “The Netflix of Nature”.

Discover the major changes coming to the platform in 2025 as it celebrates its 4th birthday, connecting millions of imperfect activists through impactful documentaries, and the exciting opportunities it will offer to everyone — from NGOs to individuals!

In this podcast episode, Siri Østvold shares her experiences from an expedition to the Great Garbage Patch in the North Pacific Ocean, where the crew measured microplastic pollution in one of Earth's most remote areas.

Despite being 1,000 miles from land, they discovered alarming traces of humanity, as the ocean is expected to have more plastic than fish by 2050. Join us as Siri recounts the challenges faced by eXXpedition's all-women crew, led by renowned ocean advocate, Emily Penn, in their mission to uncover the realities of plastic pollution.

Ed Pycraft and Emilie Østergård Jaspers are the visionary Co-Founders of Star Seed, a pioneering regenerative waterless skincare brand.

Star Seed stands out in the beauty industry with its commitment to regenerative living. This innovative luxury skincare brand is a great business case example of what can be done when you take a staple product like an everyday beauty cream but create formulations and practices rooted in sustainability and regeneration to restore and replenish (our skin and soils) rather than deplete.

Can “One Week” & The Power of Community Transform the Status Quo into Climate Action? That’s what the people behind “The Week” have set out to do… and it’s working!

The Week is a powerful initiative inviting friends, family, colleagues, or community members to come together and watch three climate-related documentaries over the course of a week.

Robb Ryerse, the US Program Director at The Week, tells us how they are designed to take us through a U-shaped journey and why people describe them as a life-changing “before & after” experience.

How to scale your business for net positive impact with People + Planet centred design and marketing? We are answering this question with Marie Geneste, Co-Founder of The C Collective, a consultancy on a mission to help entrepreneurs amplify their people- and planet-friendly solutions by crafting exceptional customer experiences.

Whether you’re a traditional business looking to transition toward resilience and positive impact or an existing impact start-up striving for greater competitiveness in the marketplace, this episode is for you!

Millions of children experience hunger every day and following World Food Day last week, we’re raising awareness of this issue but also solutions with Thérèse Nichols, the Founder of OnePlate.

OnePlate is an extraordinary global charity that partners with foodies, chefs, cafés, and restaurants to fund sustainable food projects in Africa and Asia, helping to nourish and nurture children in great need.

Thérèse reminds us that while a single plate may seem small, it holds the potential to change a child’s whole future and create hope where there was none before.

The Arctic is critical for the health of our planet, but under a changing climate, this fragile ecosystem is gradually collapsing.

A new expedition led by explorer and ecopreneur, Keith Tuffley just crossed the legendary Northwest Passage navigating through the 6 Arctic Tipping Points to capture breakthrough data that could revolutionize our understanding of climate change and biodiversity loss.

Discover the story of their 115 days at sea and the Northwest Passage Ocean Science Expedition's urgent call to action for climate impact.

Discover 8 Trailblazing Global Artists - inspiring “Creative Voices” driving social and environmental awareness through extra-ordinary art projects.

Our Editor curated and hosted our first Webinar: "Creative Voices". Featuring 8 leading global artists from multi-cultural backgrounds, we talked about how art can address diverse social and environmental topics from the refugee crisis to mental health and wellbeing or wildlife and biodiversity loss.

Sometimes the best ideas are the most simple. Imagine removing the incommensurable amount of toxic invasive plant species from our lakes and lands and in turn it creates a new source for worldwide economic development.

This was the genius business idea of Sydney Rodman, the CEO of Green Revival, a young company specialising in unlocking more plant biomass to decarbonize supply chains and solve the invasive plant crisis.

Not only does Green Revival provides an affordable solution to develop the bioeconomy, it also helps solve so many issues from wildfires to biodiversity collapse and aims to create a renewed connection between humanity and plants.

Tamara Kahutia is a wonderful youth climate activist from Kenya. Following in the footsteps of Greta Thunberg, she is passionate about taking action on climate change, spreading the word about how it affects mental health, and making sure women's voices are heard.

Despite the Global North being mostly responsible for it, the impacts of climate change are global and the Global South faces unique challenges that make it particularly susceptible to the adverse effects of the climate crisis in ways that differ from the Global North. Tamara shares with us how it is affecting her country.

Can you gain 100k new followers overnight with AI? This is what happened to AI Artist, Tanja Schalling who shares with us the incredible story of how she went viral from one second to the next.

In a complete turn of events, she explains how she saw her followers surge to over 100k all of a sudden, receiving thousands of messages and hundreds of work requests from all over the globe, from governments to art galleries and more!

In our conversation, we explore the positive power of AI and how using it as a tool can transform your life.

Meet the Emmy-Award winner who is aiming to elevate the role of the arts in global dialogues to drive the sustainable development goals. Lisa Russell is an Asian American Emmy-winning filmmaker, storyteller, and arts curator working in the United Nations space for the past 20 years.

This September, she is launching the "Arts for the Future" Festival in NYC and globally, coinciding with the UN Summit for the Future, UNGA and NYC Climate Week. This artist-led festival is dedicated to amplifying the voices of artists and cultural workers in global sustainability discussions. Discover more about it.

The global advertising industry is worth a staggering $1.7 trillion, yet only a minuscule fraction of that budget is spent on shifting consumers away from climate-harmful consumption patterns and toward influencing consumer behaviour for positive change.

We are exploring this topic with Freya Dumasia, a Senior Advertising Strategist at BBDO, one of the biggest global advertising agencies headquartered in New York City.

A representative for Ad Net Zero US, Freya also created Climate Circles, a pioneering hub gathering advertising strategists over brunch (a must in NYC!) to brainstorm how they can amplify sustainable messaging and drive the industry toward impactful climate solutions.