In this episode, we talk to Daniel Guntschnig, whose fascinating background allowed him to shift his focus and co-found one of the leading innovators in the bio-based sustainable materials industry, Polyola.
Read MoreIn this episode, we shine the spotlight on Álvaro Castellanos Caro, a finance expert from Madrid, whose insatiable curiosity for science has led him to venture into the realm of sustainable entrepreneurship.
Read MoreJoin us on the second part of our podcast coverage of the renowned World Bio Markets conference in The Hague. In this episode, we continue to bring you insights and interviews with industry experts who are driving change in the realm of renewable material technologies and their applications.
Read MoreIn this episode, Plastic. Climate. Future. had the privilege of partnering with the renowned World Bio Markets conference in The Hague, where experts from various fields come together to discuss the latest advancements in renewable material technologies and their applications. Join us as we share live impressions from the conference and highlight key interviews with industry leaders who are driving change towards a more sustainable bio-based future.
Read MoreIn this thought-provoking discussion with Plastic Climate Future, John Bessant extends our understanding of managing innovation, AI, and circularity, providing insights that are as deep as they are enlightening. Tune in to get a whole new perspective on innovation, and how it shapes our world.
Read MoreAlex Thielen is a psychologist by training who ventured into creative writing. He has a passion for conveying information in nice stories - which is highly needed in a technical sector, such as plastics, and also became the reason why he joined Bioplastics Magazine in the first place.
The magazine started as a family business and was founded by Alex's father, who is a chemical engineer. After 18 years in operation, the magazine has established and publishes six issues per year. Each issue features two focus points that highlight inspiring stories from the bio-based plastic value chain, researchers, and start-ups.
Despite its name, Bioplastics Magazine does not solely focus on promoting bioplastics. The magazine recognizes that other technologies that support circularity are equally important, as long as they are backed by scientific evidence. In this podcast episode, we discussed opinions and perspectives on bioplastics. Whether it is bad, what the term actually implies, and why it could be confusing sometimes. We also talked how the challenges faced when delivering information, including the factors which affect them (such as location and system), and importantly, we also learned what bioplastics are.
PS: They even published a bioplastics basics book in 6 languages, which you can find HERE
Find out more about Bioplastics Magazine at www.bioplasticsmagazine.com/en/ and feel free to contact Alex via LinkedIn.
In this podcast episode, we’ve had the pleasure to speak to Charles Dimmler, who is the Co-founder and CEO of Checkerspot. Having a passion for both history and biological sciences, Charles believes that economy and business can drive impactful societal change. After working as a junior investment banker and holding management positions in biotech companies, he decided to build Checkerspot, a biotech company with a sustainable mission.
Checkerspot develops renewable material technologies from bio-based sources - mainly algae. They use the power of biology to design production processes for renewable materials that replace petroleum-based chemicals, such as polyurethanes. Moreover, they empower product designers with knowledge and access to not only more sustainable material solutions but also performance features that expand their possibilities beyond commodity materials. They are committed to scale their technologies through practical applications just like, for example, developing bio-based materials that can improve the performance of skis!
We also delved into the topic of scalability and asked whether how innovative bio-based materials can fulfil the demand for their traditional petroleum-based counterparts. Once more, it became clear that there is no one-size-fits-all solution, and it's essential to explore synergies between innovations and synergies to existing technologies
Find out more about CheckerSpot at https://checkerspot.com/ and feel free to contact Charles via LinkedIn.
Roy Brooks’ journey into the sustainable materials space is a very unconventional one. He started his career in the media and advertisement industry before shifting to the IT sector and finally developing a passion for sustainable material alternatives as a solution to minimize our challenges with plastics. This passion led Roy to provide a data model that helps the industry to qualify such alternative material solutions and accelerate their uptake by the industry. That’s how CirQulor was born - a resource hub for planet-friendly alternatives.
CirQulor aims to provide insights and published data on the whole supply chain, including economic, environmental and societal aspects specifically for sustainable and bio-based material alternatives. We spoke with Roy about how having reliable data and a science-based taxonomy helps to tackle greenwashing and gain trust, scale commercialization and production, raise awareness, and even in getting investments. CirQulor believes that with data, it will be possible to escalate the growth of sustainable alternative materials.
In this podcast episode, Roy also took us on his journey of developing CirQulor, together with its co-founder, and explained the importance of data, and the story behind their purposeful start-up. Check out this controversial and inspiring discussion, which shows the importance of science-based dispute and alignment.
Find out more about CirQulor at https://cirqulor.com/ and feel free to contact Roy via LinkedIn.
Paul MacDonald is one of the founders of World Bio Markets, a leading international event that connects the bioeconomy community and drives the commercialization of sustainable bio-based material solutions. Paul entered this sector as a B2B event expert when running some of the world’s largest food exhibitions - with lots of players from the packaging sector.
With World Bio Markets (WBM), Paul’s goal is to address the need for a fast scaling of bioeconomy solutions and bring brand owners, investors and solution providers together. To achieve a larger impact with the focus on commercialization, WBM matches the right stakeholders by organizing one-to-one meetings to encourage commercialization and grow the bio-based sector. This also leads to the intention of World Bio Markets in serving the entire value chain of stakeholders within the bioeconomy sector.
In this podcast, we also discussed the importance of a trustful scientific dialogue and a stronger communication of science based facts to the business world. As a community enabler, Paul told us more about the strategy behind “Storytelling for Scientists” - and, importantly, about the amazing program of the upcoming event in May this year (2023) in The Hague, in the Netherlands. Definitely worth checking it out and registering here: https://www.worldbiomarkets.com/
Find out more about World Bio Markets at https://www.worldbiomarkets.com/ and keep updated with the latest news about bioeconomy here https://worldbiomarketinsights.com/. Feel free to contact Paul via LinkedIn.
Marcus Eriksen is the co-founder of 5 Gyres, a US-Based non-profit organization that focuses on research, consulting and active engagement in tackling the problems of plastic solutions. 5 Gyres uses education and community-based science to drive and inform local, scalable reuse models. By engaging key stakeholders in identifying the sources and potential solutions of problematic plastics in their own communities, we can work together to drive more equitable solutions. Far too often, local policies are set without engaging the communities that will be most affected, which can lead to challenges with implementation.
Marcus is a marine scientist, who also lectures on marine conservation, especially the impact of plastics on the world's oceans, breaking down the complexity of stakeholder objectives and identifying common ground and actionable solutions. He's led more than 20 expeditions through the 5 Gyres Institute exploring and researching the world's oceans.
As the co-founder of LEAP LAB, he also lectures on biophilia, and the role of art, science and self-reliance in achieving urban resilience.
In this podcast, Marcus told us about the birth of 5 Gyres and how he started studying the sources of plastic pollution on expedition journeys to collect scientific data, publish reports and journals, and collaborate with companies to create change and advocate. We discussed the power of policy and enforcement to achieve systemic change, and how they get involved in it.
Find out more about The 5 Gyres Institute at https://www.5gyres.org/ and feel free to contact Marcus via LinkedIn.
