2nd Renaissance with Anders Sörman-Nilsson – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Today on the 2nd Renaissance I sit down with Kwala ethical investment app co-founder and Gunditjmara woman, Dr Patrice Newell. We decode what the western world can learn from ancestral and age-old wisdoms of sustainable land management, the cross-fertilisation of agricultural management to the world of investing, what she has learnt about agriculture and investings as an active organic farmer and entrepreneur, how she ‘farms with her ancestors watching’, the rise of regenerative agriculture and biosequestration, and how her passion topic of biochar may play a role in Project Drawdown, and why an ethical investment app may be one small step towards a more equitable tomorrow in alignment with the UN SDGs.

A few words on pedigree…

An Aboriginal Australian with a PhD in alternative energy, Dr. Newell was honoured with an Order of Australia for her services to agriculture and the environment. Patrice is a farmer, best-selling author, bee-keeper, podcaster, academic and environmental advocate. Dr Newell produces certified organic food on her 10,000 acre property.  Australia’s poor response to our climate emergency has triggered the creation of kwala as a simple tool to help people invest directly in companies that take climate change and social equity seriously and address the 17 UN Sustainability Goals. The Kwala app enables micro-investments in global companies addressing the environmental, social and technological challenges of today. Her latest book is Who’s Minding the Farm in this Climate Emergency.

Quick disclosure: Make sure you do your own research and speak to your financial advisor to see whether sustainable investments is for you. This is not a product plug. I found the conversation with Dr Patrice Newell illuminating and her lived experience an incredible pretext to her finding herself at the intersection of of Sustainability and Fintech and trust you will too.

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In this episode of the 2nd Renaissance, Danish architect Lasse Lind pays a visit to the Thinque studio. Lasse’s specialisation is in the Circular Economy and Sustainable Architecture, and we sit down to explore some of their marquee projects like the new Sydney Fish Markets and, Denmark’s and Australia’s design love affair, what Lasse means by circular, behavioural and digital designs, how sustainable architecture can help lower the emissions of the construction industry which is currently responsible for 1/3rd of the world’s emissions, biomimicry, closed-loop circularity, GXN’s canary in the coal-mine, Lasse’s design mentors and inspirations, and how Lasse’s childhood in Danish nature has shaped his aesthetic, use of light and power-generating materials. It was an illuminating conversation and it opened my eyes to how sustainable form and function can not only beautify our urban environment, but also make a significant environmental contribution when our buildings - in the words of Lasse - become cognitive…

A few words on pedigree…

Lasse Lind is an architect and partner at GXN and 3XN architects in Copenhagen, where he is Head of Consultancy. He studied in Prague, Damascus and at the Royal Danish Academy – Architecture in Hovedstaden, and specialises in sustainability and the circular economy in the construction industry. He also teaches as a guest lecturer at the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg.

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Today on the 2nd Renaissance, I sit down in the Thinque studio with Mike Hanley. Mike founded the Content Engine in 2019 to work with ambitious organisations to amplify and scale the impact of their communications through quality content. He is also the former head of Digital Communications at the World Economic Forum.

We look at how content and digital nutrition can help change the world and create signal in the noise. We talk about sustainable content strategies, equitable business, what he learnt at the World Economic forum, and how to create memorable memes that change hearts and minds. Mike is an old mate and client of mine, and it was great to have him in the studio while he was on a hiatus in Sydney away from his current home in Geneva, Switzerland - and to co-create digital nutrition. 

As Head of Digital Communications at the World Economic Forum for 8 years, he built the team that turned the Forum into the largest owned media publisher in the world. A graduate of the London School of Economics and the London Business School, he has been working to produce the world's best content with some of the world's top organisations for 25 years. The vision at the Content Engine is to become the world’s most advanced content agency, combining technology and art for effective communications.

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In today’s episode of the 2nd Renaissance, I sit down for a conversation with Ronni Kahn - the founder of OzHarvest - to decode the issue of food waste, food rescue, and the environmental impacts of the current food system - and what we can do to innovate ourselves out of social and environmental injustice. We also talk about Ronni’s spiritual journey, yoga and meditation at Bondi Beach, and what she learnt about creating social impact in Soweto, South Africa.

Ronni Kahn AO is a social entrepreneur and founder and CEO of food rescue charity OzHarvest. Ronni is a passionate advocate and activist renowned for disrupting the food waste landscape in Australia. She appears regularly in national media, serves in an advisory capacity to government and is a sought after keynote speaker. Her mission to fight food waste and feed hungry people is supported by some of the world’s finest chefs. Ronni is an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) and was named Australian Local Hero of the Year. Her journey is the subject of a feature film,  Food Fighter and her memoir, A Repurposed Life, has recently been published.

Ronni describes herself as an accidental activist, but I think as you will find in today’s story, there is something very intentional and purposeful about her journey. I left this conversation feeling like Ronni had reached into my heart and soul and I think you will find she has a similar effect on you.

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In today’s episode of the 2nd Renaissance I sit down with Nicky Sparshott - CEO of Unilever Australia and New Zealand to decode Unilever’s sustainability journey - from its origins in Victorian England, to its more recent Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, to Compass and Unilever ANZ's journey to becoming a Certified B-Corp.

We uncover the basis for the commercial, social and planetary success of Unilever’s innovation formula and how purposeful brands prosper. I love how generously Nicky shares her leadership and sustainability insights, and how our viewers and listeners can adapt this to fast-track their own transformation journeys towards a more sustainable - and prosperous future.

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Bonus Episode:

"Into the Virtual Ether" Dave Anderson, Digital Evangelist and Host of Podcast Tech Seeking Human. In today's Bonus Episode of the 2nd Renaissance, I welcome back digital evangelist Dave Anderson into our physical Avalon Beach Studio to talk about digital minds and analogue hearts, and how important deep and meaningful, digital nutrition is an age of clickbait and how organisations need to re-think transformative events as we enter the virtual ether of the Metaverse. We also discuss how technology became our only lifeline during the pandemic, Scandinavian interior design, and geek out about the podcasting equipment. I always love sitting down with my good mate Dave Anderson and tuning into his analogue heart and future-oriented digital mind.

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Today we have a very special guest on the 2nd Renaissance. Not only is Ed 
Coper one of my best friends from my high school days in Canberra, but as a young immigrant I also fondly recall a feeling I had that if a then young Ed Coper emerged onto the political scene in the future, Australia would become a more progressive, more inclusive, more enlightened and future-fit society. In a sense, he has now firmly stepped into that hopeful prophecy and arrived with a bang. 

We do a deep dive into the somewhat dark world of the Disinformation Age, which Ed has masterfully canvassed in his book ‘Facts and Other Lies’, and how leaders and entrepreneurs can a. design a better future story and b. utilise the tools of the digital age to win the hearts and minds to create enlightened ground swell-movements in an ethical fashion.

Ed is a leading communications expert and was on the front lines when the internet collided with democracy, growing Australia's first online political movement GetUp to quickly amass more members than every political party combined. 

He powered Change.org's global expansion into over eighteen countries and pioneered techniques to bring politics into the digital age, and has been behind the scenes of many of the last decade's most prominent social movements. He has advised campaigns on every continent except Antarctica, and high-profile changemakers from Malala and Greta Thunberg to Richard Branson. 

Ed founded the New York-based Center for Impact Communications, which has led efforts to safeguard US elections from disinformation and overcome vaccine hesitancy. Ed also founded a New York City creative agency that serviced multiple Nobel Peace laureates, political and social leaders to scale their social impact. His groundbreaking campaigns have raised hundreds of millions of dollars for causes, won landmark social change and have featured in several museum exhibitions. Ed is based in Sydney and is director of the Populares communications agency and recently master-minded the rise of the climate activists in the successful Teal Independent Movement. 

In some ways today’s show was just an excuse to reconnect with Ed face to face, but I am sure you will find this chat as enjoyable and rewarding as I did.

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This week we speak with John Elkington - one of the wise elders and founders of the global sustainability movement. The Evening Standard named John among the ‘1000 Most Influential People’ in London, describing him as “a true green business guru”, and as “an evangelist for corporate social and environmental responsibility long before it was fashionable”. A CSR International survey of the Top 100 CSR leaders placed John fourth: after Al Gore, Barack Obama and the late Anita Roddick of the Body Shop, and alongside Muhammad Yunus of the Grameen Bank.

John was a faculty member of the World Economic Forum from 2002-2008 and a visiting professor at Cranfield University School of Management, Imperial College and University College London (UCL). He has served on over 70 boards and advisory boards. John has won numerous awards and is the author or co-author of 20 books. John’s Cannibals with Forks in 1997 popularised his ‘Triple Bottom Line’ concept and laid the foundations for sustainable business strategy. He coined the terms environmental excellence, green growth, green consumer, and People, Planet & Profit. The 20th book was published in April 2020: Green Swans: The Coming Boom in Regenerative Capitalism (Fast Company Press). 

John co-founded the strategy firm, Volans (a Certified B Corp), to span the yawning divides between what the sustainability industry was doing and what needs to be done. As the company enters its second decade, John is on a mission to “10X” Volans’ impact, by integrating future thinking, sustainability and innovation into corporate strategy. Tune in as we uncover humanity’s grand challenges, and the entrepreneurial opportunities in fixing them.

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This week we speak with Swiss-German futurist, Gerd Leonhard. We investigate what is the meaning of ‘The Good Future’, why ‘Green is the New Digital’, the fact that the pandemic was a test run for climate change and how to re-design capitalism to ensure it is future-fit - and ultimately what the cost of inaction on climate change is. In 2016, Gerd published the book Technology vs. Humanity, a manifesto for digital rights and an investigation into the many areas of life currently impacted by technology disruption without regulation or policy. His Open Letter to the Partnership on AI was published in the British magazine Wired in October 2016, calling on technology leaders at IBM, Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Amazon to embrace digital ethics in the emerging era of cognitive automation. Emphasizing a European tradition of humanist values and philosophy, Leonhard pursues a path of technological balance as evidenced in earlier eras such as the Italian Renaissance, which perhaps makes him the perfect guest on the 2nd Renaissance. 

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This week we speak with Sarah Wilson - author, minimalist and philanthropist. Sarah is a New York Times and #1 Amazon bestselling author, founder of IQuitSugar.com, and former editor of Australian Cosmopolitan magazine. She campaigns against consumerist waste, and her latest book is This One Wild and Precious Life, a book about connecting to what is important, living a values-led life, and designing a better future for ourselves and our children. We explore climate change driven pre-traumatic stress disorder, why 3.5% of the population needs to rise up in non-violent protest to drive meaningful climate action, the green shoot case for climate optimism, and how to get 12 meals out of one organic chicken and much more. Tune into this manifesto for action and call to arms with Sarah Wilson. 

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