"If we can make nature an investable asset class then all of a sudden the big asset owners of this world can start to make a 2% allocation."

In this week's episode I was joined by fellow geographer Robert Gardner. In this episode, he shares his unique journey from navigating hyperinflation in 1980s Argentina to reshaping the world of finance through environmental restoration.

Drawing on childhood lessons in currency and a career spanning Deutsche Bank to asset management, Rob shares what he has learnt, and put in his book Freedom, about financial literacy.

He introduces listeners to his latest venture, Rebalance Earth, which aims to make nature an investable asset class, transforming ecosystems like moss wetlands and oyster reefs into financial infrastructure. The conversation explores how investing in nature can build climate resilience, drive biodiversity, and offer solid returns, all while redefining what we value in our financial systems.

Rise Awards: https://riseawards2025.awardstage.com/#!/home

Rebalance Earth:

https://www.rebalance.earth/

Contact: daisy.moll@sustainabletimes.co.uk

"If you are that ambitious generalist, that wants to actually do things and build quickly, then start-ups are for you"

In today's episode of Profit Meets Purpose I was joined by Peter Wood from the Graduate Guide. 

We spoke about all things working in the startup world, the doors it can open, the ambition it can spark, and the opportunity to work on something real, fast, and with influence.

This one’s for anyone thinking about joining the startup world, and why it might be the best decision you make.

We discuss how his podcast turned into a company, why you have absolutely nothing to lose by asking Google to come on your non-existent podcast, and why thinking about your skills is often more useful than trying to pick a perfect job title.

Peter shares why being a bit of a generalist is actually a strength, how graduates can bring real value to early-stage companies, and what it means to back yourself even when you’re not 100% sure how it’ll work out.

We also touch on:

• How to get hired by a startup

• Why curiosity gets you further than confidence

"Mitsui O.S.K have invested £2m, they are a stamp of credibility, a sign we are headed down the right path” 

This week, Profit Meets Purpose sat down with Archie, co-founder of Carnot Engines, to explore their groundbreaking approach to engine technology. By drawing on historical thermodynamic principles and reimagining them for the modern era, Carnot Engines is pushing the boundaries of fuel efficiency and innovation.

In our conversation, we delve into the critical role of partnerships with universities, governments, and investors, during a company’s early stages. We go into the potential impact of doubling fuel efficiency, and consider why venture capital funding may not always be the right fit for research and manufacturing-intensive startups, where longer return periods extend beyond the typical VC investment horizon.

Contact: daisy.moll@sustainabletimes.co.uk

Website: www.sustainabletimes.co.uk

“I believe the wording of the question was design a product to change the world”

Millions of people still live without reliable energy. When David James left his career in finance, he didn’t go traveling or set out to “find himself.” Instead, he poured everything into turning his passion project into a business with real impact, one that contributes to achieving SDG7: universal energy access.

His company, Iris Solar, is redefining renewable energy with a patent-pending design that’s 40% more efficient than fixed panels. It’s lightweight, cable-free, and built for effortless, plug-and-play use—ready to scale.

In today’s episode, I sit down with David to learn more about the technology he’s created, why he chose to leave finance to pursue this mission, and how Iris Solar could grow in the coming years.

Iris Solar LinkedIn: 

https://www.linkedin.com/company/iris-solar-technology/posts/?feedView=all

Contact:

daisy.moll@sustainabletimes.co.uk

Website:

https://www.sustainabletimes.co.uk/

“We spent all our investment on a school bus”

Ed Lewis-Pratt and Will Chapman are the founders of Roarsome. A children’s clothing wear brand designed to get kids back outside. 

In this episode, we discussed how a simple dinner conversation about blending practicality with fun in children's wear ignited the entrepreneurs' best idea yet. Why spending their first raise on a big yellow school bus was a unique and necessary turning point. Plus they delve into the importance of building a brand that you can proudly get behind.

If you would like to see Roarsome pitch at the EIS forum on 24th April there are still tickets available Here.

Website: https://www.sustainabletimes.co.uk/

Contact: daisy.moll@sustainabletimes.co.uk

“The thing I’m most excited for is bringing together a great group of people and showing them that they can do something and make an impact… showing them that it is possible…it will be a pleasure to work with them”

Munraj and I discuss his love of engineering, his conviction that building a successful startup begins with the right team, and how the construction sector will evolve over the next 25 years. 

Reaforma is a climate tech startup that has developed a carbon-negative replacement for traditional cement. They harness by-products and waste, which are then transformed into valuable, sustainable materials. The construction sector is responsible for 37% of global greenhouse gas emissions, innovations like Reaforma are more critical than ever.

Website: https://www.sustainabletimes.co.uk/podcast

Contact: daisy.moll@sustainabletimes.co.uk

‘Attracting high-net worth individuals meant I could double our revenue’ 

‘Philanthropic donation is an investment into a businesses supply chain, business does not exist in an isolated bubble, the supply chain must be supported’

Alex Ritchie joined Global Giving UK just months before the onset of COVID-19. What began as a temporary maternity cover role soon evolved into her position as CEO. With an entrepreneurial mindset, Ritchie rapidly expanded the organisation, doubling its donations within the first few years. She shares insights on leading a purpose-driven business, the impact of high-net-worth individuals in philanthropy, and the importance of balancing both global and local perspectives.

Contact: daisy.moll@sustainabletimes.co.uk

Website: https://www.sustainabletimes.co.uk/all-news

'Love Island for Entrepreneurs'

Elizabeth Lee and her co-founders at Carbon Cell came together when they took part in Love Island for entrepreneur's, also known as The Imperial Enterprise Lab.

With their wealth of expertise they have developed a sustainable alternative to traditional polymer foams. In this episode, we delve into Liz’s career journey that led her to London, hear about how the founders came together and conceived their innovative idea, the urgent issue of plastic pollution, and the fascinating potential of seaweed as a game-changing solution.

Contact: daisy.moll@sustainabletimes.co.uk

Website: https://www.sustainabletimes.co.uk/all-news

Grapefruit Hummus Anyone?

Hannah McCollum founded ChicP out of frustration with food waste in hospitality and a desire to create natural, healthy snacking options.

This episode explores the journey from blending chickpeas in a kitchen to building a UK wide company. We’ll dive into the realities of fundraising for a startup, the crucial role of branding and packaging, and how to get B corp, Buy women built, and W corp certified.

Plus, we uncover what hummus gets up to at Glastonbury and ask what happened to Instagram's chocolate hummus?

Contact: daisy.moll@sustainabletimes.co.uk

Website: https://www.sustainabletimes.co.uk/

Hello and welcome to Profit Meets Purpose. We're excited to reintroduce ourselves to our audience and kick off a brand-new chapter. Get ready for an inspiring podcast that explores the future of sustainable investment, where profit and purpose go hand in hand.

“Angel investing is not just for multi-millionaires”

This episode of Profit Meets Purpose features Emma Mee, Head of Membership and Marketing at Green Angel Ventures, the UK’s largest angel syndicate focused exclusively on climate tech. With a background that spans corporate sustainability, venture building, and climate innovation, Emma brings a grounded yet urgent perspective on what it means to fund and scale technologies that will define the future.

We explore how Green Angel Ventures leverages its syndicate model to combine capital with deep sector expertise, allowing over 300 members with money but with critical due diligence and advisory input.

Emma speaks frankly about the exit bottleneck that is constraining capital recycling and slowing the growth of promising companies.

Another core theme is the cultural mismatch between startups and corporates. Emma argues that while collaboration is essential for scale, the two sides often struggle to work effectively due to fundamentally different operating speeds, expectations, and incentives.

We also discuss diversity in investment. While women make up only 14 percent of UK angel investors, Green Angel Ventures has a higher proportion at 24 percent, though Emma is clear that more work is needed. She unpacks why women often approach investment differently, what barriers remain, and why increasing female participation is not just about equity but about the long-term resilience and reach of the portfolio.

RISE Awards: https://riseawards2025.awardstage.com/#!/home

Website: https://www.sustainabletimes.co.uk/

Contact: daisy.moll@sustainabletimes.co.uk

"Our ambition is to make private markets accessible to everyone.”

In this episode of Profit Meets Purpose, Daisy Moll sits down with Harvey Knight, founder of Sustainable Times and Sustainable Wealth Group, for an in-depth conversation about growth, risk, and rethinking what it means to build a sustainable business in today’s economy.

Harvey reflects on his unconventional path from school-leaver to one of the UK’s youngest FCA-regulated directors, and why a rejected pay rise was the push he needed to walk away from corporate finance. He shares how fatherhood, a shifting global investment landscape, and a desire to leave the world better led him to launch two companies that now sit at the intersection of media, capital, and sustainability.

In this wide-ranging conversation, Harvey discusses:

• Why he separated his media and investment arms—and how that decision sharpened both missions

• How he’s using SPV platforms and technology to democratize access to private markets

• What investors really want in the sustainability space (even if they don’t call it that)

• His hands-on leadership style and how he’s managing two companies with distinct identities

• What makes an early-stage sustainability startup investable—and what instantly turns him off

• His role as a judge in the Sustainable Founder Awards, and what he’ll be looking for in standout entries

• The importance of storytelling, founder self-awareness, and leading from the front

Whether you're a founder navigating early growth, an investor looking for credible impact, or simply curious about where the future of sustainable business is headed, this episode offers clarity, candour, and big-picture thinking.

If you are a sustainable or innovation founder looking for investment or recognition, register for the RISE awards here.

“Don't Do What We Did!"

On the latest episode of Profit Meets Purpose, Paul Finch from Growth Studio sat down with me to unpack what it really takes to build and back startups in the age of the climate crisis. 

With over 79 programs delivered, 1500 startups supported and partnerships with 22 corporates, including Amazon and the Crown Estate, Growth Studio now acts as a matchmaker between big organisations and the startups they want to back.

That often means stepping in as a translator. “A corporate might want a startup, but they won’t pay them for 120 days,” Paul shrugs. “And a startup might want the validation, but it could completely derail their longer-term growth.”

Paul talks about how Growth Studio evolved from a growth hacking agency into a purpose-driven accelerator, and the critical role they now play in helping early-stage companies lay strong foundations.

We discuss why so many startups need help with the basics, not just growth, and how storytelling, founder mindset, and team dynamics can make or break a business. We also dive into the triple planetary crisis, why sustainability must be commercially viable, and what actually makes an accelerator succeed.

Oh, and why vibes matter. A lot.

Are you a sustainable founder or startup seeking recognition, visibility, and the chance to win a prestigious award?
The RISE Awards celebrate purpose-driven innovation and give a platform to those shaping a better future.

Gain media exposure. Amplify your impact. Join a community of like-minded leaders.

Find out more and apply here:

https://riseawards2025.awardstage.com/#!/home

Growth Studio: https://www.growthstudio.com

Sustainable Times: https://www.sustainabletimes.co.uk

Contact: daisy.moll@sustainabletimes.co.uk

"The climate movement has alienated itself"

What happens when the climate movement meets entrepreneurial energy and a surfboard or two?

In this episode of Profit Meets Purpose, we speak with Will, co-founder of Blue Earth Summit, the bold event that’s redefining what it means to bring purpose and capital together. Born in Bristol and now based in London, Blue Earth isn’t your typical sustainability conference. It’s a space where outdoor culture meets serious investment, where founders pitch barefoot, and where deals are struck over shared values, not just spreadsheets.

Will shares how the summit is helping founders access funding, why the climate space must welcome every voice, including banks and fossil fuel investors, and how storytelling, adventure, and connection can turn good ideas into world-changing solutions. We talk about the importance of access to nature, building inclusive networks, and why framing climate as an opportunity, rather than a crisis, is essential for scaling real impact.

Blue Earth Website: https://blueearthsummit.com/

Sustainable Times Website: https://www.sustainabletimes.co.uk/

Contact: daisy.moll@sustainabletimes.co.uk

They dropped out of Oxford, got into Y Combinator, and now they’re building an AI tool that could reshape the enzyme industry.

Ligo Biosciences is a startup building generative deep learning models to design enzymes - nature’s powerful catalysts that make chemical reactions faster, cheaper, and more sustainable. Ligo’s mission is to design new enzymes to expand their use throughout the chemical industry. 

Currently, most enzymes are engineered using “directed evolution,” a Nobel Prize-winning but labor-intensive method that mimics natural selection in the lab. It involves mutating DNA sequences, testing thousands of variants, and gradually refining the results. The process can take months and cost millions.

Ligo wants to change that. “AI lets us skip the guesswork,” Ed says. Instead of random mutations, their models should be able to simulate, predict, and design enzyme structures.

Ligo’s breakout moment didn’t come from a product launch, it came from a stand on open science. When DeepMind released AlphaFold3 without sharing the source code in Nature, Ligo took matters into their own hands. They rebuilt the model and published it openly online. In this time they also found errors that prevented reproducibility and were quick to connect with the scientific community over the fact that this was the reason it is so important to publish the code. 

The move sparked a wave of support from the scientific community, drew investor attention, and went viral. 

The team reflects on their journey so far, the opportunities Silicon Valley unlocked, and how they’re leveraging AI to solve real-world problems.

Ligo Website: https://www.ligo.bio/

Ligo Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ligo-biosciences/posts/?feedView=all

Sustainable Times Website: https://www.sustainabletimes.co.uk/

Contact: daisy.moll@sustainabletimes.co.uk

“The first rule of business is to make a profit.”

In this episode of Profit Meets Purpose, I sit down with Terry Hewett, an experienced entrepreneur turned successful investor. Terry has an extensive portfolio of companies on whose boards he serves and is the founder of Copper Bottom Investments. With decades of experience working alongside a wide range of founders, he knows what it takes to make it  and has a sharp eye for spotting those who will stand out.

This episode is a must-listen for our founder community, a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the mindset of the investors you're aiming to attract.

We talk about Terry’s journey from engineering to founding, and selling, a major marketing agency, and how those experiences have shaped his approach to helping businesses grow and raise investment. He shares lessons learned from navigating mergers, acquisitions, and the ever-evolving investment landscape, as well as his perspective on why founders need to be coachable and why realistic valuations are critical.

Terry dives into the current investment climate, from the risks of greenwashing in sustainability to the potential pitfalls of AI investing, and why building commercially viable solutions is more important than ever. We explore why the UK’s entrepreneurial spirit still gives it an edge globally, and why thinking internationally is crucial for startups today.

This is a must-listen for anyone who wants real-world advice on raising smart capital, staying adaptable as a founder, and building a business that’s profitable and purposeful.

Contact: ⁠daisy.moll@sustainabletimes.co.uk⁠

Website: ⁠https://www.sustainabletimes.co.uk/⁠ 

“There's a huge shortage on the CORSIA credit market, there's a shortfall of 240 million carbon credits.”

Aqualibre is a climate startup redefining the future of carbon credits. They are pioneering plastic recovery and pyrolysis technologies to combat climate change at its roots.

Anthony walks me through Aqualibre’s transformative projects in Bangladesh, the UK, and South Africa, highlighting their work on plastic credits, sustainable aviation fuels, biochar production, and the development of pioneering carbon credit methodologies.

He shares his expertise on the complex world of carbon credits, shedding light on why not all carbon credits are created equal. Anthony also dives into the greenwashing pitfalls that plague the sector and how Aqualibre’s insurance-backed, patent-driven approach offers a trustworthy, science-first model.

From his background in mining resources for corporations to launching a climate impact business with community-first values, Anthony explains how Aqualibre is building a scalable, long-term solution, one that uplifts local economies while delivering measurable environmental results.

Anthony will be in attendance at the Sustainable Times EIS event this Thursday if you wish to take this discussion further. 

Some tickets remain for tomorrow’s event: https://investeis.sustainabletimes.co.uk/eisforum

Contact: daisy.moll@sustainabletimes.co.uk

Website: https://www.sustainabletimes.co.uk/ 

“We said we want to dedicate our lives to helping solve climate change and have as big an impact as we possibly can.”

Understanding the problem is the first step needed to solve it. 

Zevero is a carbon accounting platform designed to empower businesses striving to become more sustainable. It helps them identify where meaningful change can be made. The idea was born when founder George recognised a critical gap in the market. He saw that companies were either relying on cheap, inaccurate data or paying a premium for consultants. Zevero offers a smarter, more accessible alternative, giving businesses clear insights into their environmental impact and actionable paths to improvement.

George shares how educating people is one of the most rewarding experiences and tells me what it’s like to watch once-skeptical clients become sustainability advocates, even taking the stage to speak at industry events.

Zevero has worked with many global challenger brands in the FMCG and consumer-goods industries, including MOTH, DEYA, Gipsy Hill, among others. Zevero operates in the UK, Europe, Japan, U.S., Australia, and Asia-Pacific countries. 

Zevero Website: https://www.zevero.earth/

Website: www.sustainabletimes.co.uk

Contact: daisy.moll@sustainabletimes.co.uk

George LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgewade-zevero/