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Sustainability In Your Ear

Sustainability In Your Ear

Von: Mitch Ratcliffe
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 Mitch Ratcliffe interviews activists, authors, entrepreneurs and changemakers working to accelerate the transition to a sustainable, post-carbon society. You have more power to improve the world than you know! Listen in to learn and be inspired to give your best to restoring the climate and regenerating nature.Copyright 2025 Internet Media Strategies Inc. Management & Leadership Wissenschaft Ökonomie
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  • The Net Zero Accelerator's Colin Mangham on Nature's Rules for Building A Sustainable Infrastructure

    The Net Zero Accelerator's Colin Mangham on Nature's Rules for Building A Sustainable Infrastructure
    Feb 23 2026
    We already have the technology to decarbonize buildings, and many pilot projects have shown it works. So why hasn’t progress toward net zero moved faster? Colin Mangham believes it’s because we’re still using outdated business models to promote new solutions. Colin is the Chief Experience Officer at the US Green Building Council California and leads its Net Zero Accelerator, the first program focused only on net-zero innovation for buildings. Since 2019, the accelerator has helped over 100 companies in a six-month program that stands out by putting real technology pilots into actual buildings with dedicated partners, then tracking the results. This approach has led to more than 60 pilot projects in California and beyond, providing the proven results that founders and investors need to move forward. Colin offers a unique mix of experience to this field. He has served as Chief Marketing Officer at four growing companies, co-founded and led Morpho Energy, which helps put unused commercial rooftops to work for solar, and he is a certified biomimicry specialist, which shapes what he teaches founders. He often thinks about beavers, which are keystone species that create habitats for others by building their own homes. As he tells entrepreneurs, “This thing that you’re creating, it should also create better living environments for the people and the neighboring organisms all around you.” It’s an approach that applies systems thinking to business strategy, leading to companies that differ from the typical Silicon Valley disruptors.

    To learn more about the Net Zero Accelerator, visit NetZeroAccelerator.org. Learn about the US Green Building Council of California at USGBC-CA.org.
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    51 Min.
  • CurbWaste's Mike Marmo Is Building the Waste Logistics Layer of the Circular Economy

    CurbWaste's Mike Marmo Is Building the Waste Logistics Layer of the Circular Economy
    Feb 16 2026
    The U.S. waste management industry moves more than 290 million tons of municipal solid waste each year. This is a potential trillion-dollar market, but much of the work still relies on paper tickets, clipboards, and spreadsheets. About 10,000 independent haulers handle a large share of collection and materials transfer in the U.S. In this business, a single truck costs $300,000, and profits depend on efficient routes. Most haulers do not have access to the digital tools that other logistics industries have used for years. Mike Marmo, CEO and founder of CurbWaste, is building a new operating system to change this. His goal is to create the data foundation needed for the circular economy to work. He is a fourth-generation waste industry professional who started his career as a scale operator at a family transfer station in New York and sold a hauling business in 2021. Since then, he's built CurbWaste into a platform serving more than 150 haulers in 40 states. Its CurbPOS system for transfer stations tracks inbound and outbound materials with scale integration. It generates automated LEED diversion reports and Recycling Certification Institute-certified documentation; the per-load, per-material chain-of-custody data that extended producer responsibility programs need, as seven states now require producers to fund and document the recycling of their packaging.

    Mike made a simple but important point: "Waste is being created when it's being manufactured." The waste management industry reflects the economy and could become the base for a circular supply chain that keeps materials in use. Mike compares this to Amazon, which learned about buyer behavior and then built warehousing, freight, and delivery systems around that knowledge. The waste industry can do something similar. By tracking what is produced, where it goes, and where it ends up, haulers and new operators can work together on a shared digital system that gives full visibility of materials. Mike calls this the "waste meter," and he thinks an AI-powered circular economy could be in place within 10 years. Accenture research estimates that the circular economy could add $4.5 trillion in economic output by 2030, a number supported by the United Nations Development Program. Right now, investment is far below what is needed to reach that potential. CurbWaste is working to build the transparency needed to connect collection and vision, helping turn a fragmented industry into a circular supply chain. To learn more, visit curbwaste.com.
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    42 Min.
  • The Ocean Conservancy's Dr. Erin Murphy Documents the Lethality of Ocean Plastics

    The Ocean Conservancy's Dr. Erin Murphy Documents the Lethality of Ocean Plastics
    Feb 9 2026
    Each year, over 11 million metric tons of plastic end up in the ocean, which is like dumping a garbage truck full of plastic every minute. For years, we’ve known that marine animals eat this debris, but no one had measured exactly how much plastic it takes to kill them. Dr. Erin Murphy, who leads ocean plastics research at the Ocean Conservancy, is the principal author of a major study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Her team analyzed more than 10,000 necropsies from 95 species of seabirds, sea turtles, and marine mammals worldwide. Earth911’s summary describes this critical study, which found lethal plastic thresholds that could change how we view the plastic crisis.

    The study measured how deadly different types of plastic are to sea life, which makes the results especially useful for policymakers. Each finding suggests a clear policy action, such as banning balloon releases like Florida has done, banning plastic bags as in California’s SB 54, or improving how fishing gear is marked and recovered. Still, Erin points out that focusing only on certain plastics is not enough. Her team found that even small amounts of any plastic can be dangerous. As she says, "At the end of the day, there is too much plastic in the ocean," and we need big changes at every stage of the plastics life cycle, from production to disposal.

    There's encouraging evidence that interventions work. Communities in Hawaii conducted large-scale beach cleanups and saw the Hawaiian monk seal population rebound. A study published in Science confirmed that bag bans reduce plastic on beaches by 25 to 47%. And Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup, now in its 40th year, removed more than a million plastic bags from beaches last year. These actions address a parallel crisis in human health that is building from the same pollution source. Most of the microplastics now found in humans and around the world began as the same macroplastics that are killing puffins and turtles. As Erin puts it, "I do view this all as part of the same crisis."

    You can read the full study at pnas.org and learn more about Ocean Conservancy's work at oceanconservancy.org.
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    44 Min.
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