Episodi

  • Supply Chain Resilience Starts in the Soil: A Conversation with Salar Shemirani, CEO of Regenified

    Supply Chain Resilience Starts in the Soil: A Conversation with Salar Shemirani, CEO of Regenified
    Jan 20 2026
    In this episode of Journey to Regeneration, host Chris Marquis speaks with Salar Shemirani, co-founder and CEO of Regenified, about the difficult work of making “regenerative” mean something concrete in food and agriculture. Shemirani traces his shift from corporate finance to soil health after watching the documentary Kiss the Ground, and explains why he sees regeneration less as a fixed endpoint and more as a question of continuous improvement on whether a farm is adding to its landscape or extracting from it. Together, they explore the tension between rigor and scale: why binary certification models can remain niche, what it would take to build credible on-ramps for the current 99% of conventional acres, and how Regenified’s “6-3-4” framework attempts to ground claims in measurable ecosystem processes. The conversation also connects regenerative verification to business fundamentals, including risk, accountability, and supply chain resilience in the face of climate extremes, while asking what it would mean for markets to reward real progress without turning regeneration into another box-checking exercise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
    Mostra di più Mostra meno
    30 min
  • “Rescue, Transform, Donate”: Rethinking Circular Business with Elvis & Kresse

    “Rescue, Transform, Donate”: Rethinking Circular Business with Elvis & Kresse
    Jan 10 2026
    In this episode of Journey to Regeneration, Christopher Marquis speaks with Kresse Wesling, co-founder of Elvis & Kresse, about what it really takes to build a circular business that treats waste not as an inevitability but as a design failure. Wesling reflects on how encountering mountains of end-of-life industrial materials, beginning with decommissioned fire hoses, pushed her toward a model anchored in “rescue, transform, donate,” where product design, longevity, and shared value are built into the operating logic rather than added on later. The conversation explores why circularity cannot be reduced to recycling, how businesses can “sell better” through repair and resizing instead of simply selling more, and what it means to move beyond harm reduction toward a regenerative frame that prioritizes long-term system function. They also discuss the realities of collaborating with large brands, the role of policy tools like extended producer responsibility, and how to shift whole industries toward durable, accountable models that do not depend on perpetual waste. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
    Mostra di più Mostra meno
    30 min
  • Market-Driven Regeneration: How Yerba Madre’s Business Model Delivers Net Positive Impact

    Market-Driven Regeneration: How Yerba Madre’s Business Model Delivers Net Positive Impact
    Jan 6 2026
    In this episode of Journey to Regeneration, Christopher Marquis speaks with Ben Mand, CEO of Yerba Madre, about what it means to build a truly regenerative business. Ben introduces Yerba Madre’s model of market-driven regeneration, explaining how commercial success is used to deliver tangible benefits to Indigenous farmers, forest ecosystems, and supply chain partners across South America. The conversation explores living wages, biodiverse shade-grown agroforestry, third-party certifications, and why regeneration must extend beyond farming into governance, incentives, and value chain relationships. Ben also reflects on his own background in conventional agriculture and food manufacturing, and how those experiences shaped his conviction that business must move beyond sustainability toward systems that actively improve over time. Together, the episode offers a pragmatic blueprint for how regeneration can be embedded into how companies operate, grow, and lead. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
    Mostra di più Mostra meno
    30 min
  • Regenerating Forests and Farms: Conservation Finance with Paul Young of Conservation Resources

    Regenerating Forests and Farms: Conservation Finance with Paul Young of Conservation Resources
    Dec 16 2025
    In this episode of Journey to Regeneration, Chris Marquis talks with Paul Young, CEO of Conservation Resources, about what it means to treat forests and farms as living systems rather than extractive assets. Drawing on his background in timber and alternative investments, Paul explains how Conservation Resources built a model that partners with conservation groups and ecologists to meet return targets while protecting high-value habitats. The conversation then widens to regenerative agriculture, native pollinators, and why healthier ecosystems become lower-risk, higher-value assets over time. Paul also shares his view on soil carbon and emerging biodiversity credits, the role of smart policy in making nature investable, and why, even with high tech advances like GIS, drones, and traceability tools, he still prioritizes “natural intelligence” in the field to generate hard evidence that regeneration is simply a better business model.’ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
    Mostra di più Mostra meno
    33 min
  • Shifting Cocoa Farming From Exploitation to Regeneration

    Shifting Cocoa Farming From Exploitation to Regeneration
    Dec 9 2025
    In this episode, host Christopher Marquis is joined by Douglas Lamont, CEO of Tony’s Chocolonely, the Dutch chocolate company born when journalists exposed widespread child labour in West Africa’s cocoa fields and set out to prove a fairer model was possible. Douglas breaks down how Tony’s rebuilt its supply chain around five core sourcing principles—paying a living-income price, long-term contracts, full traceability, strong farmer cooperatives, and improved farming practices—and how these have dramatically reduced child-labour risks, lifted farmers out of poverty, and cut incentives for deforestation. The episode also dives into Tony’s Open Chain Initiative, which invites other brands to adopt the same ethical sourcing model in pursuit of a 5% market share tipping point for industry-wide change. Douglas discusses Tony’s mission-lock structure, the UK’s Better Business Act, and how stronger company law and bold leadership can shift businesses from extractive to regenerative models. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
    Mostra di più Mostra meno
    40 min
  • Reimagining Accountability: The Future of the B Corp Movement

    Reimagining Accountability: The Future of the B Corp Movement
    Dec 2 2025
    In this week’s episode, host Christopher Marquis is joined by Chris Turner, Executive Director of B Lab UK, to discuss the evolution of the B Corp movement and what it reveals about the changing expectations of business in the 21st century. They explore the rise of B Corps in the UK, now numbering around 2,700 companies employing more than 200,000 people, and consider insights from B Lab UK’s Take 10 report, which brings together evidence on how certified companies are approaching environmental and social performance. Chris outlines the aim of the Better Business Act, an initiative to amend the UK Companies Act so that every company has a legal duty to align shareholder interests with those of workers, communities, and the environment. He also reflects on the updated global B Corp standards and what raising the bar for responsible business may mean worldwide. In this episode, we cover: How B Lab UK has grown and how the B Corp community has evolved Key findings from the Take 10 report The goals of the Better Business Act and why governance reform matters How updated B Corp standards and assurance processes aim to strengthen accountability Why conversation, expectation-setting, and community play a central role in driving change Together, the discussion offers a thoughtful look at how governance, standards, and collective action might help embed environmental and social purpose more deeply into the DNA of business. Take 10: Celebrating 10 Years of the UK B Corp movement: https://bcorporation.uk/act-and-learn/campaigns/10-years-of-b-lab-uk/ Introducing B Impact: A better way to measure and manage impact: https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/programs-and-tools/b-impact/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
    Mostra di più Mostra meno
    44 min
  • Shaping Sustainable Choices

    Shaping Sustainable Choices
    Nov 25 2025
    In this week’s episode, host Christopher Marquis is joined by Ellen Jackowski, Chief Sustainability Officer at Mastercard, to explore how the company is experimenting with ways to support more sustainable consumer choices. Positioned within a payments network that reaches 150 million merchants and billions of cardholders, Mastercard has a vantage point on everyday spending that can help inform how incentives and information are designed. They discuss a recent pilot at University College London, created with Rewild, that linked item-level purchases to emissions data and offered rewards for lower-carbon food options. Early findings suggest that such incentives can influence purchasing decisions, offering useful insights into consumer behaviour. Ellen also highlights practical trials, from reusable cup systems in European cities to tap-and-go transit technologies, that aim to lower friction for more sustainable actions. A key theme throughout is Mastercard’s inspire, inform, enable framework, including tools like the Carbon Calculator and campaigns with public figures such as Gareth Bale, which seek to address the “say–do gap” by matching clearer information with convenience and rewards. Together, these examples demonstrate how practical tools can facilitate a transition from sustainable intentions to more sustainable everyday choices. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
    Mostra di più Mostra meno
    41 min
  • Driving Regeneration Through Chocolate

    Driving Regeneration Through Chocolate
    Nov 18 2025
    In this episode, Professor Chris Marquis is joined by Keith Bearden, CEO of Alter Eco, a pioneering chocolate company that supports smallholder cacao farmers—typically working 12–15 acre plots in Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, and Peru— in transitioning away from risky monocultures toward dynamic agroforestry systems. By interplanting cacao with limes, mangoes, passionfruit, avocados, plantains, and even new coconut plantings in the DR, these farmers are building diversified incomes and more resilient ecosystems: deeper roots that tap groundwater in droughts, richer soils, cooler canopy cover, and higher yields over time. Keith also explains the cooperative structures and hands-on agronomy support that make this shift possible and why financing is essential when you’re asking farmers to cut out a third of existing cacao and wait years for new trees to mature. He reflects on Alter Eco’s long-standing commitment to accountability, as an early B Corp (since 2009) and climate neutral company (since 2010), and its use of Fair for Life to pay roughly 30% premiums that reach farming families. Keith leaves listeners with a grounded call to action: that every purchase is a vote, and that choosing chocolate rooted in responsibility, farmer partnership, and ecosystem health can help transform an industry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
    Mostra di più Mostra meno
    30 min