Podcast

Neelam Sharma: The Black Panther Party, Food Justice, and Self-Reliant Communities

Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good. 

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Our guest today is Neelam Sharma, Executive Director of Community Services Unlimited (or CSU), which is a non-profit organization based in South Los Angeles, CA.

CSU was founded in the 1970’s by the Southern California Chapter of the Black Panther Party. CSU’s mission is to foster the creation of communities actively working to address the inequalities and systemic barriers that make sustainable communities and self-reliant life-styles unattainable.

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In Ryan Honeyman's interview with Neelam, they discuss a variety of topics, including:

  • Neelam’s upbringing in India and in London

  • Her early involvement with activism and her work cofounding a chapter of the Black Panther Party in London in the 1980s

  • Her visit to CSU in the mid 1990s and eventual move to Southern California

  • CSU’s latest project launching the Village Market Place, a social enterprise that was designed to complement their education and training programs, and meet the growing demand for good (affordable, beyond organic, culturally appropriate, exploitation free) food in South Los Angeles.

For folks who are interested in learning more, please visit www.csuinc.org to check out the amazing work CSU is doing in South Los Angeles. You can also follow CSU on Twitter, @CSUINCLA.

LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.

Ryan Honeyman is a Partner at LIFT Economy and author of The B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as a Force for Good (Berrett-Koehler Publishers). You can follow Ryan on Twitter @honeymanconsult or email him ryan@lifteconomy.com.

Aaron Fairchild: Rooting Into Perennial Impact Under One Green Canopy

Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good. 

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Aaron Fairchild serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Green Canopy Homes.  With over 25 years in real estate construction, development and lending, Aaron has a deep understanding of residential & commercial finance, residential construction, and energy efficiency.  A third generation lender, entrepreneur, and a graduate of the University of Washington’ Executive MBA program, Aaron is an experienced fund manager, developer, and thought leader in corporate culture and mindfulness development.  Aaron is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer from Gabon, Africa where he built schools and homes for teachers.  A two-term board member of Washington Environmental Council, he currently serves on the boards at Master Builders Association and Enhabit.

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Charles Eisenstein: Awakened By A New and Ancient Story That We’ve Known All Along

Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good. 

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Charles Eisenstein is a teacher, speaker, human being, voracious reader, and writer focusing on themes of civilization, consciousness, money, and human cultural evolution. His books (see Resources section below) as well as his other essays and blog posts, and other media have generated a vast online following.  He speaks frequently at conferences and other events, and gives numerous interviews on radio and podcasts. Born in 1967, Charles graduated from Yale University in 1989 with a degree in Mathematics and Philosophy. He currently lives with his wife and children in Asheville, North Carolina.

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Some highlights from Ryan’s interview with Charles include:

  • Enumerating anecdotes of the rapid ecological & economic destruction during the past half century while reframing how we think about scaling solutions for complex, adaptive, living systems – especially with regard to solutions for addressing climate change like regenerative agriculture

  • Charles talks about his forthcoming book: Climate: A New Story

  • Charles models using the framework of story & narrative to enroll people into a more harmonious paradigm, juxtaposing and contrasting the conditioned behavior that derives from the stories we believe

  • Examining the “war on evil” story we’re often told as an explanation for the cause of racism that invites us into a judgemental position that shut out relevant data points and how we might replace this perforated story by examining deeper underlying conditions and create the conditions for a more compassionate story to arise

 

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LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life. 

Ryan Honeyman is a Partner at LIFT Economy and author of The B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as a Force for Good (Berrett-Koehler Publishers). You can follow Ryan on Twitter @honeymanconsult or email him ryan@lifteconomy.com.

Keba Konte: Red Bay’s #BlackCoffee

Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good. 

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Now rooted in Oakland, CA, Keba Armand Konte was born and raised in San Francisco. He is an artist, food entrepreneur and man of the community. His artwork has been published widely and exhibited in museums and galleries internationally. He is the co-founder of Guerilla Cafe, the founder of Chasing Lions Cafe and the Founder/Roaster for Red Bay Coffee – an investee of LIFT Economy’s Force For Good Fund. In his spare time he enjoys aquaponic gardening, judo and making vegan waffles for his family.

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Some highlights from Ryan’s interview with Keba include:

  • Keba illustrates his colorful journey from the heyday of Haight-Ashbury in SF to his first career choice as a photographer – notable works from the 90’s independent hip hop scene: Boots Riley & The Coup, E-40, Master P, Too Short, 2-Pac, etc, with spreads in magazines like Rolling Stone, The Source, etc – transitioning in the early 2000’s to a career as a critically-acclaimed visual artist with unique documentary-style pieces & installation, conceptual, and interactive art (see Resources below to see Keba’s photography & art) which ultimately led Keba to co-found Guerilla Cafe as a hub for culture, art, and coffee vibes.

  • Keba shares how he’s always been very intentional about the political implications of where he spent his money, a values-driven skillset that transferred to business decisions which enabled him to support black/POC entrepreneurs & provide livelihoods to youth

  • Keba’s coffee enterprising began with Guerilla Cafe – which held the first wholesale coffee shop account for Blue Bottle Coffee.  Building from that success, Keba founded Chasing Lions Cafe and by structuring it to work so he would not work in the business so that he could work on the the business, he carved out the space he needed to cultivate the craft of roasting in his “Coffee Dojo,” finally launching Red Bay Coffee in 2014

  • How the often normalized systemic racism of Starbucks culture recently captured on video has brought attention to the merit, meaning, and unique value proposition of the Red Bay Coffee model, resulting in a rapid increase in demand for Red Bay Coffee shops nationwide at a time when Red Bay is already ramping up for expansion (stay tuned for new locations in LA & Philly)

 

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LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.

Ryan Honeyman is a Partner at LIFT Economy and author of The B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as a Force for Good (Berrett-Koehler Publishers). You can follow Ryan on Twitter @honeymanconsult or email him ryan@lifteconomy.com.

Nikishka Iyengar: Bolstering Entrepreneurial Ecosystems with Equitable Real Estate Development

Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good. 

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Nikishka Iyengar is a entrepreneur and strategist building the next economy. Using a whole systems approach to address social and environmental challenges, Nikishka is Founder and CEO of The Guild – a social enterprise developing co-living spaces to empower changemakers and build resilient communities. An investee of LIFT Economy’s Force For Good Fund, The Guild explores what community-led real estate development could look like, and has raised impact investment dollars to grow its model.  Nikishka is also the owner of Whole Systems Collective, an impact consulting collective helping companies innovate towards systems change. Previously, while earning her dual degree in Finance & Economics  at University of Texas at Austin, Nikishka conducted research on the socioeconomic impact of the e-waste trade in China and India, and on the social impact of microfinance with the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.  Originally from Mumbai, India before moving to Singapore and eventually to the US, Nikishka has been recognized by GreenBiz as a "30 under 30" emerging leader in sustainability.

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Some highlights from Ryan’s interview with Nikishka include:

  • How witnessing stark economic disparity in India, Singapore, & the United States has informed Nikishka’s journey in economics, finance, and social impact

  • As Nikishka helped start the sustainability & social impact consulting initiative at Deloitte, she often observed “predatory delay” (see terminology section below) and a spectrum of sincerity in the field with some being lulled into complacency thinking that addressing the issue at all was enough, while others demonstrated steadfast commitment to pushing for real systems change in the world of impact

  • How the shifting immigration landscape has shaped Nikishka’s experience and identity

  • How Nikishka’s introduction to cooperative living & decision making in college inspired her ideas to create spaces to support the local social entrepreneur ecosystem through The Guild

  • A reframe on the degree to which communities front tremendous risk with new real estate developments and how developments might be approached more equitably

 

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LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.

Ryan Honeyman is a Partner at LIFT Economy and author of The B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as a Force for Good (Berrett-Koehler Publishers). You can follow Ryan on Twitter @honeymanconsult or email him ryan@lifteconomy.com.

Nwamaka Agbo: The Road to Restorative Economics – Community Ownership & Community Governance

Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good. 

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As a restorative economics practitioner, Nwamaka Agbo brings a solutions-oriented approach to her project management consulting work with community-owned and community governed projects. With a background in organizing, electoral campaigns, policy and advocacy on racial, social and environmental justice issues, Nwamaka supports projects that build resilient, healthy and self-determined communities rooted in shared prosperity. Her current portfolio of projects includes supporting organizations and initiatives like Restore Oakland, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Restaurants Opportunities Centers United, Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, Democratizing Capital East Bay and others. In addition to her consulting practice, Nwamaka is also a Senior Fellow at the Movement Strategy Center. Prior to joining MSC, she served as the Director of Programs at EcoDistricts leading their Target Cities – a pilot program designed to support 11 neighborhood-scale sustainable urban regeneration projects across North America committed to equitable economic development. As the Director of Programs at Transform Finance, Nwamaka helped to design and launch the inaugural Transform Finance Institute for Social Justice leaders. The Institute was created to educate and train social justice community leaders about how to best leverage impact investments to deepen their social impact for transformative social change. She currently serves as an Advisory Board Member to Oakland Rising Action and a Board Member to the Thousand Currents, Center for Third World Organizing and the Schumacher Center for New Economics. She graduated from UC Davis with a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and African American Studies and holds a Master’s of Public Administration specializing in Financial Management from San Francisco State University.

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Some highlights from Ryan’s interview with Nwamaka include:

  • While in college, Nwamaka, a first generation Nigerian American, discovered the role of economics, imperialism, and colonialism in impacting the ability of communities of color to access dignified livelihoods through an international campaign to support African countries working to cancel their debt bondage to western countries

  • Inspired by community self-determination and resilience mechanisms, models, & strategies, Nwamaka’s work in restorative economics centers community ownership & community governance as a pathway to self determination

  • A review of the historic Powell Memo and how it relates to redistribution of wealth & power

  • Nwamaka shares how she had to challenge some of her own assumptions about finance and capital in her work with the Thousand Currents on the Buen Vivir Fund where collateral is based on the integrity of social rapport rather than asset-based

  • Appreciating resistance work in addition to building of the next economy

 

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LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.

Ryan Honeyman is a Partner at LIFT Economy and author of The B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as a Force for Good (Berrett-Koehler Publishers). You can follow Ryan on Twitter @honeymanconsult or email him ryan@lifteconomy.com.

Morgan Simon: Transformative Principles & Practices Yielding REAL IMPACT Returns

Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good. 

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Building bridges between finance and social justice, Morgan Simon is a widely-recognized leader in impact investment, influencing over $150 billion in investment capital over the past seventeen years.  Morgan co-leads Candide Group, which supports two clients, including members of the Pritzker family on behalf of the Libra Foundation. She is also co-founder and chair of the non-profit Transform Finance.  Morgan previously served as the founding CEO of Toniic, a global network of impact investors, and as the founding executive director of the Responsible Endowments Coalition. She has worked with the United Nations in Honduras, in corporate reform with ForestEthics, and in domestic microfinance with the Women's Initiative for Self-Employment. She currently serves on the boards of the Restaurant Opportunity Center, The Working World, and CARE Enterprises. A graduate of Swarthmore College, Morgan serves as an adjunct professor at Middlebury College's graduate school program. She lives in the Bay Area and is the author of “REAL IMPACT: The New Economics of Social Change.”

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Some highlights from Ryan’s interview with Morgan include:

  • Morgan’s path to shift economic systems to be more just, moving from activism in immigrant communities in downtown LA to shareholder activism through university endowments to work in impact investing through a constellation of leading finance & social justice organizations

  • A review of the 3 Transformative Finance Principles intended to democratically guide and inform non-extractive impact investments and how they are applied in practice as a tool to center impact in every asset class for systemic transformation

  • How picking out eggs at the grocery store relates to investment decisions

  • Balancing the mindset & practices of financial return with the mindset & practices of impact return

  • The genesis of Morgan’s book, the coupling of ethical principles with impact investment, and asking the right questions as the field rapidly scales

 

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LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.

Ryan Honeyman is a Partner at LIFT Economy and author of The B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as a Force for Good (Berrett-Koehler Publishers). You can follow Ryan on Twitter @honeymanconsult or email him ryan@lifteconomy.com.

Bettina von Hagen: Blending Capital & Worldviews That See the Forest for the Trees

Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good. 

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Bettina helped launch Ecotrust Forests and joined Ecotrust Forest Management (EFM) as CEO in 2008. Bettina has spent the past 15 years working to promote economic viability, social equity, and environmental health in the Pacific Northwest with a particular focus on forestry. A former commercial banker, Bettina has over 20 years of experience in banking, impact investing, and fund management. She also has significant expertise in emerging markets in ecosystem services, particularly the forest carbon market, where she is involved in developing markets and protocols for high-quality forest carbon projects at the state, regional, and federal levels. Previously, Bettina was Vice President at Ecotrust for forestry programs and for the Natural Capital Fund, a $20M fund which invests in key businesses and initiatives in the conservation economy. Prior to joining Ecotrust in 1993, she was a vice president and commercial lender at First Interstate Bank of Oregon and has been a Member of Environmental Advisory Board of Wells Fargo & Company since March 2006. She currently serves on the board of Forest Trends. Bettina has an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BA from the University of the Pacific.

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Some highlights from Erin’s interview with Bettina include:

  • The origin story of Ecotrust & Ecotrust Forest Management and the blended capital approaches to addressing complex ecological challenges

  • How unlike early U.S. conservation approaches that divorced people from the land, Ecotrust brings an approach that integrates conservation w/ community needs in ways that advances conservation while advancing livelihoods (ie: 100% of the landscape matters & 100% of people matter)

  • Ecotrust’s creation of a for-profit bank that targeted enterprises enhancing ecological and social outcomes – a bank that grew into and was acquired by Beneficial State Bank, carrying the same original intention

  • Ecotrust describes their worldview & style of forestry as the 5 R’s – Rotation, retention, reserves, resilience, relationships – suggesting practices that foster regional forest systems which yield greater value and health, rather than narrowly managing for a single commodity like timber

  • Ecotrust’s deep involvement & relationship w/ tribal communities from elevating indigenous worldviews to repatriating ancestral lands and other natural resources

 

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LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.

Erin Axelrod is a Partner at LIFT Economy, helping to accelerate the spread of climate-beneficial businesses, specializing in businesses that address critical soil and water regeneration. She is an avid ecologist, grassroots organizer and regularly forages for wild food in her home in rural Sonoma County.  You can follow Erin on Twitter @erinaxelrod or email her erin@lifteconomy.com.

Arjan Stephens: Cereal Entrepreneurs Leave Soil Better Than They Found It

Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good. 

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Arjan Stephens serves as Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Nature's Path. Arjan was named one of Business in Vancouver’s ‘Top 40 under 40’ in 2012. He’s the second generation of the Nature’s Path organic foods company, a business he says was “founded on a hope and a dream and a $1,500 loan”, and is still driven by those same values 30 years later, now it’s turning over $300m a year and selling into over 50 countries. One of Arjan’s main purposes is to move the world away from zombie-like consumerism and encourage consciousness, especially with food. He believes our forks and wallets are the most powerful tools for change, and organic agriculture is the catalyst that will transform the world for the better. Arjan received his bachelor’s degree in History from Queen’s University and an MBA from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.

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Some highlights from Kevin’s interview with Arjan include:

  • How Nature’s Path integrates their values throughout their supply stream, supporting over 120,000 acres of organic production internationally and sourcing local where feasible

  • Understanding that the organization is not just there to serve the customer but to serve all who are part of the organization, Nature’s Path demonstrates their care for their people by offering great benefits and work environment that includes spaces to garden or meditate

  • Nature’s Path recently met their goal to become Zero waste certified in all facilities (only cereal company to do this)

  • An example of “corporate venturing,” the Seed to Sprout program at Nature’s Path has invested in three organic food companies to support entrepreneurs

  • Arjan shares his thoughts on going beyond organic farming toward regenerative organic farming

 

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LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.

Kevin Bayuk works at the intersection of ecology and economy where permaculture design meets next economy organizations intent on meeting human needs while enhancing the conditions conducive to all life. He is a co-founder and  partner with LIFT Economy, the Senior Financial Fellow at Project Drawdown and a founding partner of the Urban Permaculture Institute.  You can follow Kevin on Twitter @kevinbayuk or email him kevin@lifteconomy.com.

Deval Patrick: Bain Capital’s Double Impact Fund

Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good. 

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Politician, civil rights lawyer, author and businessman, Deval Patrick joined Bain Capital in 2015 and is a managing director of the Double Impact business.  He is the only African American to have served as governor of Massachusetts, served from 2007 to 2015 and was re-elected in 2010. A member of the Democratic Party, Patrick served from 1994 to 1997 as the United States assistant attorney general for the civil rights division United States Department of Justice under President Bill Clinton where he worked on issues including racial profiling and police misconduct. He attended Harvard College and Harvard Law School, where he was president of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. After graduating, he practiced law with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and later joined a Boston law firm, where he was named a partner, at age 34. Deval is the author of two books, A Reason to Believe: Lessons from an Improbable Life, and Faith in the Dream: A Call to the Nation to Reclaim American Values.

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Some highlights from Ryan’s interview with Deval include:

  • The two guideposts that have informed Deval’s career: 1) Doing something in our time that leaves something better for those behind us; & 2) No matter what the job is, never leave your conscience at the door

  • Deval expresses his frustration that philanthropy and government have been letting business off the hook and he sees impact investing in part as a way to address this

  • Deval’s observation that politics punishes failure, so it’s no wonder that we don’t see a lot of innovation in that arena

  • Bain Capital’s choice to not create their own impact metric tools but to use B Lab’s GIIRS, a commonly recognized impact metric tool that allows for more direct comparison

  • Balancing impact & financial return and challenging the notion that there must be a  tradeoff between the two, Deval poses the question, “why would you trade return for impact if you don’t have to?”

  • An exploration of exit innovation and alternative exit strategies like worker-ownership

  • The growing trend led by millennials whereby businesses have to actually stand for something meaningful in order to remain relevant

 

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LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.

Ryan Honeyman is a Partner at LIFT Economy and author of The B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as a Force for Good (Berrett-Koehler Publishers). You can follow Ryan on Twitter @honeymanconsult or email him ryan@lifteconomy.com.

Sandra Kwak: #WeStandWithHaiti & #4thWorld as U.S. Solar Energy Policy Erodes

Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good. 

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Executive strategist and systems thinker, Sandra Kwak is applying disruptive innovation to create a regenerative future. Before launching 10Power, she scaled AutoGrid from prototype to a global brand, creating automated intelligence out of big data from the smart grid. Prior, as Co-Founder / President / COO of energy efficiency company Powerzoa, she brought building management hardware and software tools to market. Sandra has also served as CEO of a software company producing the world’s first mathematically lossless video codec. She worked at Pacific Gas & Electric implementing the ClimateSmart program and has consulted with clients including Mitsubishi, the Transamerica Holding Company, and The San Francisco Foundation. Sandra has an MBA in Sustainable Business from Presidio Graduate School and a BA in Political Science and Visual Art from Emory University.  10 Power is an investee of LIFT Economy’s Force for Good Fund.

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Some highlights from Andrew’s interview with Sandra include:

  • Sandra describes how part of her inspiration for creating 10Power grew from her observation that concerted efforts to elevate social equity was missing from CleanTech sector as thousands lack access to electricity and all that affordable electrical infrastructure affords

  • With Haiti importing most of its energy, Sandra enumerates emerging opportunities for solar in Haiti including building virgin, state of the art infrastructure and innovative financing to increase affordability

  • Sandra laments Trump’s imposition of tariffs on solar panels, counterproductively backsliding U.S. energy policy as Haitian President Jovenel Moïse boldly removes tariffs entirely from solar panel imports with promises of rapidly electrifying Haiti with renewable energy

  • Deriving much of her hope and inspiration from youth, Sandra offers advice to anyone wanting to make a difference in CleanTech or in general, advising us to treat every experience as a learning experience, to find or create the conditions that enable us to thrive, and to elevate positive solutions

  • As they continue recognizing, investing in, and scaling solutions, 10Power will be raising a fund later this year (subscribe to LIFT Economy’s monthly newsletter to stay tuned for opportunities to support!)

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LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.

Kevin Bayuk: Our Journey to an Economy that Works for the Benefit of All Life

Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good. 

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Our dearly beloved co-founding member of the LIFT Team, Kevin Bayuk's has his roots in entrepreneurship, having spent nearly a decade starting and growing technology companies, and activating projects and organizations that regenerate healthy ecosystems and socially just and joyful environments. After immersing himself in all aspects of starting and growing companies, Kevin focused his attention on learning about and teaching eco-systemic design. Nowadays Kevin merges his experience in business with his experience in permaculture to help businesses care for people while enhancing the earth.  

Kevin also serves as the Senior Financial Fellow at Project Drawdown developing the business case to address climate change through existing practices and technologies. He frequently teaches classes, workshops, does public speaking, facilitates meetings, plans events and provides one on one mentoring as a founding partner of the Urban Permaculture Institute San Francisco. Kevin has helped design and start food security gardens and public learning experiences intent on reminding people that we, too, are nature.

Kevin has raised millions of dollars to capitalize business operations, led teams of more than 30 employees, and can speak well to the benefits and pitfalls of raising capital and the many paths of growing a business. He loves spreadsheets and loves to dig into operating models. One investor of Kevin’s last technology company said, “Kevin oozes strategy.”

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Some highlights from Ryan’s interview with Kevin include:

  • Kevin recounts his process of shifting away from a worldview overwhelmed by proliferation of problems/suffering to one where he recognized countless opportunities to solve problems and inspire a movement of solutions

  • How the genesis of Kevin’s interest in business & economy as powerful lever for social change grew from observations that much suffering is rooted in our system of economy that informs our cultural norms and identities

  • A leisurely stroll through LIFT’s long term vision, from LIFT 1.0 to LIFT 5.0 and how the LIFT Team balances cynicism and optimism on the path to realizing our vision

  • Some resources from which the LIFT Team derives inspiration

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LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.

Ryan Honeyman is a Partner at LIFT Economy and author of The B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as a Force for Good (Berrett-Koehler Publishers).  You can follow Ryan on Twitter @honeymanconsult or email him ryan@lifteconomy.com.

Ahmed Rahim: Steeped in the Spirit of Hospitality at Numi Tea

Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good. 

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Ahmed Rahim is Founder of Numi Inc. and serving as CEO and Chief Alchemist.  Before starting Numi in 1999 with his sister, Reem, Ahmed lived & worked in Europe for ten years. In the early part of the 1990's, Ahmed lived in Paris working as a professional photographer focusing on architecture and fashion, with works published in international trade and fashion journals including Elle, Prague Post, and Velvet. He spent nearly two years photographing the Middle East in places such as Iraq and Morocco. Ahmed eventually returned to Europe, this time ending up in the German Alps, continuing his photography in the music scene there where he performed as well. After a year Ahmed relocated to Prague, spending the next six and a half years there in filmmaking and photography. Towards the end of his stay in Prague, Ahmed was asked to help create and design teahouses. He then became a partner in a teahouse helping to expand and grow the business, and developed a deep love and interest in teas culminating in the creation of Numi's unique blends. Numi pioneered the introduction of teas such as Rooibos (red tea), Lemon Myrtle, Honeybush, Dry Desert Lime and others that were popular in Europe, but completely unknown in the United States. Ahmed is fluent in English, Arabic, French, German and Czech. He studied BA in Psychology and Theatre, from New York University, and has studied Film at various universities in Prague and in Paris.

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Some highlights from Kevin’s interview with Ahmed include:

  • The story of how Numi differentiated itself from a seemingly saturated market by offering the purity of real ingredients and replicating success from other bioregions, introducing teas that had experienced success in European markets

  • Ahmed describes Numi’s core operating principles and how they result in beneficial social and ecological impact that scales as the company grows

  • Numi’s foundation and their work creating Waldorf-inspired schools in Oakland, supporting local nonprofits, and advancing clean water and other beneficial impacts internationally

  • Ahmed’s coalition building that brings together leaders in the sustainable food world to collaborate and create a larger beneficial impact

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LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.

Kevin Bayuk works at the intersection of ecology and economy where permaculture design meets next economy organizations intent on meeting human needs while enhancing the conditions conducive to all life. He is a co-founder and  partner with LIFT Economy, the Senior Financial Fellow at Project Drawdown and a founding partner of the Urban Permaculture Institute.  You can follow Kevin on Twitter @kevinbayuk or email him kevin@lifteconomy.com.

Regan Pritzker: Teaching, Learning, & Tipping the Scale Toward A Just Transition

Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good. 

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Regan Pritzker is an elementary school teacher and mother of three, whose long sought-after quest for work and family balance led her to the unlikely profession of being a long-term substitute teacher at a San Francisco independent school. Mostly filling in for teachers on maternity leave, she is referred to affectionately as their resident “teaching doula." When not teaching, she is active as a school volunteer. She holds a master’s degree in Developmental Education, a Spanish bilingual teaching credential from University of California at Berkeley, and a bachelor’s degree in Art History from Stanford University. She sits on the boards of the Libra Foundation, a family foundation dedicated to enhancing the human rights movement locally and globally, and co-chairs the Bay Area Advisory Board of New Leaders, working to improve public education through transforming leadership.

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Some highlights from Ryan’s interview with Regan include:

  • Regan’s journey in aligning her family’s impact investing portfolio with their family values and Libra Foundation’s stated mission

  • Challenging the assumptions & structures of our financial system and traditional investing that have created the problems we’re working to solve

  • Value systems that prioritize giving that’s motivated, not for personal recognition, but selflessly and discretely elevating the benefit of others

  • The Working World’s work building a financial cooperative toward regenerating localized self-determination & community-controlled ownership & power through transformative investment

  • Morgan Simon’s leadership in impact investing through Transform Finance, Candide Group, and her new book: Real Impact: The New Economics of Social Change

  • Centering women & people of color as a locus for transformative systems change through authentic relationship building & learning from Movement Generation’s work toward a just transition

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LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.

Ryan Honeyman is a Partner at LIFT Economy and author of The B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as a Force for Good (Berrett-Koehler Publishers). You can follow Ryan on Twitter @honeymanconsult or email him ryan@lifteconomy.com.

Leah Hunt-Hendrix: Building the Next Economy in Solidarity with Resistance Movements

Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good. 

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Leah Hunt-Hendrix has her doctorate from Princeton University in Religion, Ethics and Politics. Born and raised in New York City, she has spent the past decade at the intersection of theory and practice, combining a study of moral philosophy and democratic theory with research around the world in grassroots organizing and social movements. She has lived and worked in Egypt, Syria, and Palestine, where she focused her research on the effects of international aid and development, and the history of popular protest. She is the co-founder of Solidaire, an organization that provides support for social movements.

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Some highlights from Kevin’s interview with Leah include:

  • How economic justice intersects with racial justice, how economic democracy & political democracy intersect, and how Solidaire brings philanthropic support to these spaces with a vision for inclusive populist movements that tie these threads together

  • Leah summarizes Movement Generation’s 3-stage process for advancing & solidifying systemic/structural change

  • Leah shares examples of her work advancing the cooperative economy & climate justice

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LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.

Kevin Bayuk works at the intersection of ecology and economy where permaculture design meets next economy organizations intent on meeting human needs while enhancing the conditions conducive to all life. He is a co-founder and  partner with LIFT Economy, the Senior Financial Fellow at Project Drawdown and a founding partner of the Urban Permaculture Institute.  You can follow Kevin on Twitter @kevinbayuk or email him kevin@lifteconomy.com.

Mary Waldner: Holding On To Your Vision Even When VC’s Make You Go Crackers

Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good. 

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Mary Waldner holds a Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology and is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.  She practiced as a psychotherapist for 26 years, helping others to manifest their truest selves so they could live full, happy lives. But when Mary was 43, a chiropractor figured out she had celiac disease.  After cutting out all gluten, she was happier and more energetic than she’d ever felt.


To make her dietary transition easier, Mary began baking gluten-free goodies so she’d never feel deprived.  They had to be organic and gluten free, but if they didn’t taste indulgent, that was a deal-breaker. Along the way, she realized my crackers also fed people’s hunger for something authentic and truthful in this processed and fortified world, so along with Dale Rodrigues, she co-founded Mary's Gone Crackers in 1994.  Mary is a Member of the Organic Trade Association and the Celiac Sprue Association.

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Some highlights from Kevin’s interview with Mary include:

  • Mary’s tragic experience learning the hard way battling deceptive investors that stifled the vision and wanted to liquidate the value of the company’s essence, yet Mary stuck it out and eventually triumphed

  • Mary shares challenges with maintaining the impact of the business while feeling the growing pains of scaling so rapidly

  • Mary advocates strongly for worker ownership and for weaving in similar considerations at the outset of a business before investors can preclude those possibilities

  • Mary underscores the value of knowing your market, while thinking what or who we want to be in service to and trusting our own intuition when anticipating people’s needs and what might be value to them

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In addition to listening on B the Change, you can listen/subscribe to Next Economy Now on iTunes, Overcast, Stitcher, or your favorite podcasting platform.

 

Help these ideas reach more ears by clicking HERE to rate Next Economy Now on I-Tunes & by sharing on social media.


Kevin Bayuk works at the intersection of ecology and economy where permaculture design meets next economy organizations intent on meeting human needs while enhancing the conditions conducive to all life. He is a co-founder and  partner with LIFT Economy, the Senior Financial Fellow at Project Drawdown and a founding partner of the Urban Permaculture Institute.  LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life. You can follow Kevin on Twitter @kevinbayuk or email him kevin@lifteconomy.com.

Liesel Pritzker Simmons: Blue Haven Initiative

Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good. 

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Liesel Pritzker Simmons is Co-Founder and Principal of Blue Haven Initiative.  As an investment strategist, she oversees their portfolio focused on holdings that generate competitive financial returns while addressing social and environmental challenges. The portfolio spans asset classes, from traditional equities and direct investments to philanthropic programs.

Liesel co-founded Blue Haven with her husband, Ian Simmons. Together, they systematically assessed their portfolios based on environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) criteria and financial performance. Together, the restructured portfolios became the foundation of Blue Haven, one of the first family offices created with impact investing as its focus.

Liesel is also Co-Founder of IDP Foundation, a private Chicago-based foundation focused on achieving universal primary education. There, she helped create the IDP Rising Schools Program, which leverages microfinance networks to empower nearly 450 low-cost private schools—established and managed by local entrepreneurs—in some of the least-developed regions of the world.

Liesel, an engaging and sought-after speaker on impact investing and Next-Gen investors, serves on for-profit and nonprofit boards and investment committees of organizations including ImpactAssets, Synergos, Toniic, Eco-Post, and The ImPact, a network of families committed to the conscientious stewardship of wealth.

Liesel attended Columbia University in New York City, where she studied African History. She lives in the Boston area with Ian and their daughter.

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Some highlights from Ryan’s interview with Liesel include:

  • Liesel’s journey from being a childhood movie star to cultivating interest in the economics of poverty and sustainable international development to becoming an early trailblazing impact investor

  • Leisel shares the backstory behind Blue Haven’s relationship with B Lab

  • An exploration of the Blue Haven’s nimble and diversified portfolio with a special look into their investments in Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Leisel challenges all of us to ask the organizations that manage our investments what kind of impact investment options they have available and how they measure impact because even if they don’t have good answers, asking demonstrates the demand they need to justify making impact options available

 

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 You can listen/subscribe to Next Economy Now on iTunes, Overcast, Stitcher, or your favorite podcasting platform.

 

Help these ideas reach more ears by clicking HERE to rate Next Economy Now on iTunes & by sharing on social media.


Ryan Honeyman is a Partner at LIFT Economy and author of The B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as a Force for Good (Berrett-Koehler Publishers). LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @honeymanconsult or email him ryan@lifteconomy.com.

Sasha Kramer: Restoring Soil & Healthy, Dignified Livelihoods

Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good. 

SUBSCRIBE & RATE us on iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, or anywhere you find podcasts!

**Special Announcement:

Next Economy MBA

The Next Economy MBA is a nine month course for entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs who want to learn key business fundamentals (e.g., vision, culture, strategy, and operations) from a regenerative, Next Economy perspective.

Dr. Sasha Kramer is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL). Dr. Kramer is an ecologist and human rights advocate who has been living and working in Haiti since 2004. She received her Ph.D. in Ecology from Stanford University in 2006 and co-founded SOIL that same year. SOIL is a non-profit that uses ecological principles to address the basic human rights issues of sanitation, food and access to a healthy environment. SOIL’s current work focuses on developing social business models for the provision of household sanitation in vulnerable urban communities in Haiti. While Sasha spends the majority of her time living and working in Haiti, she is also a global advocate for the recycling of nutrients in human waste, helping others implement sustainable sanitation projects and inspiring people around the world to participate in the sanitation revolution. Dr. Kramer has been recognized as a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, an Architect of the Future with the Waldzell Institute, a Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year and an Ashoka Fellow.

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Some highlights from Erin’s interview with Sasha include:

  • Taking a public health problem and transforming it into an environmental solution and, in the process, creating livelihood opportunities in the sanitation sector with a mix of both private and public sector support rather than taking the traditional humanitarian aid approach

  • SOIL’s pilot project designing and modeling a replicable sustainable financial model after experiencing hard learned lesson transcending the assumption that exists across the sanitation sector and development sector in general, that if you introduce the technologies or infrastructure to solve a problem, the ongoing maintenance will take care of itself or be done by volunteers

  • Why composting human waste and soil fertility is an important solution in the face of climate change

  • The challenges in creating a financial model around something like sanitation that should be a basic human right and how SOIL has navigated those challenges

 

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You can listen/subscribe to Next Economy Now on iTunes, Overcast, Stitcher, or your favorite podcasting platform.

 

Help these ideas reach more ears by clicking HERE to rate Next Economy Now on iTunes & by sharing on social media.


Erin Axelrod is a Partner at LIFT Economy, helping to accelerate the spread of climate-beneficial businesses, specializing in businesses that address critical soil and water regeneration. She is an avid ecologist, grassroots organizer and regularly forages for wild food in her home in rural Sonoma County. LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life. You can follow Erin on Twitter @erinaxelrod or email her erin@lifteconomy.com.

Sara Day Evans: Making America Regenerative Again

Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good. 

SUBSCRIBE & RATE us on iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, or anywhere you find podcasts!

**Special Announcement:

Next Economy MBA

The Next Economy MBA is a nine month project-based learning course for entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs who want to learn key business fundamentals (e.g., vision, culture, strategy, and operations) from a regenerative, Next Economy perspective.

Sara Day Evans, Founding Director for Accelerating Appalachia and Co-Founder of Prosperity Collective, is a sixth generation Kentuckian, and has worked with communities and small businesses across the southeast for over 20 years. She’s served over 300 communities and small businesses in economic development, entrepreneurship and environmental protection and leveraged over $250M in funding in service to the southeast and Appalachian region. She was awarded a presidential commendation from Bill Clinton for her work in the health and livelihood of women living in Appalachian Kentucky through her clean water efforts.

With degrees in Geology/Hydrogeology and a background in water law, she was instrumental in developing Kentucky’s groundwater protection programs and later developed Kentucky’s first ongoing solid waste management fund, resulting in an 85% reduction in illegal dumping and a 25% increase in recycling. She served western North Carolina’s hardest hit counties by developing sustainable economy plans that fit with the people and place of the region and created North Carolina’s Green Economy Resources Directory.

She’s particularly proud of the program she developed and implemented to install clean energy systems on farms in western NC’s high-unemployment counties while also training high school and community college students in clean energy installation.  In 2011, Sara Day co-founded the social enterprise Prosperity Collective and inspired by the textile, farming, forest products skills of Appalachians, the expanding world of social entrepreneurs and investing for good, she launched Accelerating Appalachia in 2012 to serve nature-based businesses in Appalachia and beyond.

For most of her life, Sara Day has been a singer/songwriter and guitarist, performing and also producing exceptional house concerts for good causes. Her most profound influencers are her parents, her children and her lifelong friends, Wendell and Mary Berry.

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Some highlights from Erin’s interview with Sara include:

  • How Accelerating Appalachia approaches accelerating the regenerative economy by connecting “basic needs businesses” and by bridging the urban-rural divide

  • Leveraging the strategy of supporting businesses who are the customers of farmers to apply more regenerative business practices in order to more exponentially incentivize farmers to adopt more regenerative farming practices (ie: via generating a greater demand for regenerative sourcing to influence regenerative farming)

  • How conservation practices/policies without applying proactive regenerative practices/policies is insufficient to meet our current climate crisis

  • A description of a smattering of some of the lovely enterprises Accelerating Appalachia works with in food, fiber, and other nature-based enterprises (see “Organizations” below)

 

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You can listen/subscribe to Next Economy Now on iTunes, Overcast, Stitcher, or your favorite podcasting platform.

Help these ideas reach more ears by clicking HERE to rate Next Economy Now on iTunes & by sharing on social media.

Erin Axelrod is a Partner at LIFT Economy, helping to accelerate the spread of climate-beneficial businesses, specializing in businesses that address critical soil and water regeneration. She is an avid ecologist, grassroots organizer and regularly forages for wild food in her home in rural Sonoma County. LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life. You can follow Erin on Twitter @erinaxelrod or email her erin@lifteconomy.com.

Frederick Schilling: Holding It Down for Smallholder Farmers at Big Tree Farms

Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good. 

SUBSCRIBE & RATE us on iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, or anywhere you find podcasts!

**Special Announcement:

Next Economy MBA

The Next Economy MBA is a nine month project-based learning course for entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs who want to learn key business fundamentals (e.g., vision, culture, strategy, and operations) from a regenerative, Next Economy perspective.

Frederick Schilling founded Dagoba Organic Chocolate in 2001 and sold to The Hershey Company in 2006. He currently serves as partner/co-ceo of Big Tree Farms, a sustainable/organic supply chain company based in Indonesia. They develop supply chains for value added exotic and premium commodities/ingredients that are sold into the international organic/natural/specialty markets.

 

Big Tree Farms’ products include: coconut palm sugar, cacao/chocolate, coconut water concentrate, exotic peppercorns, Balinese sea salt, exotic & rare honeys, cashews, moringa and other ingredients for the raw food market. In 2007, he co-founded AMMA, with Diego Badaro and Luiza Olivetto, a vertically integrated artisan chocolate company located in Salvador, Brazil; the first premium artisan chocolate company in Brazil that is fully integrated from farm to finished product. While primarily focused on the South American market, the specialty chocolate products will be available to the international market. AMMA Chocolate was voted “Product of the Year” by O Estado Sao Paulo, in Brazil, for 2010 and have won numerous awards since then.


Frederick was founder/CEO of Big Tree Climate Fund, which he has since decommissioned during the recession of 2008.  BTCF was a carbon sequestration project developer and marketer of Fair Carbon™; holistic carbon credits that balance social & environmental aspects of carbon market project development.  The projects that BTCF developed generated greenhouse gas emission reduction credits, which we sold into the voluntary emission offset market in the US, Europe, Indonesia and Brazil, to businesses or individuals. The revenue generated from the selling of these credits was used to further the development of other projects, while 10% was given to the Big Tree Community Fund, which went to the communities in the zones where our projects existed.

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Some highlights from Kevin’s interview with Frederick include:

  • Overcoming perception of business as the root of all evil to realizing it can be used as a force for good

  • The rippling beneficial impact of empowering women through supply stream decisions

  • Big Tree Farm’s voluntary choice to steer clear of harmful agrochemicals prioritize their environmental and social mission along with their economic goals

  • How Frederick finds a sense of fun in viewing business as a puzzle

 

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You can listen/subscribe to Next Economy Now on iTunes, Overcast, Stitcher, or your favorite podcasting platform.

 

Help these ideas reach more ears by clicking HERE to rate Next Economy Now on iTunes & by sharing on social media.


Kevin Bayuk works at the intersection of ecology and economy where permaculture design meets next economy organizations intent on meeting human needs while enhancing the conditions conducive to all life. He is a co-founder and  partner with LIFT Economy, the Senior Financial Fellow at Project Drawdown and a founding partner of the Urban Permaculture Institute.  LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life. You can follow Kevin on Twitter @kevinbayuk or email him kevin@lifteconomy.com.