Send us a text Happy Planet Wednesday! You might want to listen to this podcast before you pour yourself that cherished morning cup of coffee.... Our guest today is Etelle Higonnet, a French-born, Yale Law School graduate, living in Denmark, who set out to make coffee more environmentally friendly through her organization COFFEE WATCH. What she discovered was that environmental degradation was just the tip of the iceberg. The coffee industry is fraught with human injustices as well incl...

Send us a text Happy Planet Wednesday! If you have ever wanted to lift the veil on New England's mysterious working waterfront, this is the podcast for you. Our guest today is Bill Gerencer, a veteran of 40+ years on the New England Working Waterfront. Bill served as lobsterman commercial fisherman, fish buyer, salesperson, corporate trainer, fisheries management advisor, and in retirement, a part-time oyster farmer. I have known Bill for years as he used to buy oysters from me on behal...

Send us a text There's nothing we like more than a comeback kid. While 98% of total farm seaweed in the world comes from Asia, over the past decade, entrepreneurs in the US, Europe and Africa have been trying to change that by producing locally-grown, high-quality seaweed for their domestic markets. I've met a number of these entrepreneurs and it's not easy. Once you master aquaculture, you have to find a market, and that is proving to be a challenge. Some of these companies have gone bottom...

Send us a text Every day we see more devastating news coming out of on the wars in Gaza and the Ukraine. We see photos of cities and towns turned into piles of rubble and people who have lost their loved ones, their homes and their livelihoods. But there are other insidious ramifications of these wars that we seldom discuss. And those are the effects on the environment. To discuss this, ellie Kinney joins us this week from the UK based organization, conflict and Environment Observatory. This...

Send us a text Our guest today is Alison Cove, founder of USEFULL, a circular reuse solution that partners with college campuses to make student takeout meals a zero-waste and microplastic-free experience. With a business focused on domestic health and circularity, Alison never thought she’d be so affected by global affairs. She has navigated her burgeoning business through disruptions caused by a global pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the constantly changing tariff schedules. Alison h...

Send us a text  Today's guest is Paul Holthus. Paul is a blue economy visionary. He is the founding president and CEO Emirati of the World Ocean Council, affectionately called the WOC. Founded in 2008, long before anyone was talking about the blue economy, WOC's aim is to unite ocean industries in order to support cooperative corporate ocean responsibility. Paul discusses his path to founding the WOC, the organization's role and priorities, where are the big ocean opportunities, and th...

Send us a text Happy planet Wednesday! We are kicking off a new season, and today I'm just delighted to welcome Jason Dodier, a recognized global authority on the circular economy, biochar and decarbonization. His company, Grain Ecosystem, is an AI and data-driven solution that revolutionizes waste to energy products. They position biochar, which we'll be hearing a lot about today, as the cornerstone of carbon sequestration, community development and project financing. As though that weren't ...

Send us a text Happy Planet Wednesday! Today we travel to Rhode Island, the ocean state, where, fittingly, the blue economy is thriving. Ian Estaphan Owen, Co-Founder of JAIA Robotics didn't grow up in Rhode Island but rather coastal Wales where he became passionate about the ocean. On his road to entrepreneurship, he even did a stint with the British Royal Navy. Now a denizen of Bristol, Ian is co-founder of Jaia Robotics, a company innovating in the field of ocean surveillance ...

Send us a text I have been at this long enough by now - 61 episodes!- to see some great successes and some disappointing failures. This week's guest tells a story that's a bit of both, but he is not letting failure get in his way. Today we are heading back to Norway to meet again with Tore Enger, Founder of TECO 2030, a company that was looking to build fuel cells for the maritime industry. Tore came on the podcast two years ago as they were making fast tracks with a product and strateg...

Send us a text Today we are traveling to Chile, the birthplace of Positive Polar, a travel startup aiming to combine luxury cruises with academic research and environmental action. Positive Polar’s sustainable expedition cruises will aim to restore the whale population, amplify oceanic food production and implement high-potential climate mitigation strategies. I had the incredible privilege of speaking to both co-founders last week. Hugo Hinrichsen is a former Chilean Naval Commander, helicop...

Send us a textProscovia is a Kenyan entrepreneur who wears many hats. She is founder of Samaky Hub, an organization that empowers women and youth in Africa's aquaculture sector by offering strategic planning, operational guidance, and marketing support to their ventures. Proscovia is also an African Food Fellow, the Kenyan Program Manager for the Irish aquaculture venture hub, Hatch BLUE, and a writer for the US industry rag, The Fish Site. Proscovia aims to grow the African aquaculture marke...

Send us a text Happy new year to all and welcome back to our first episode of 2025! Our guest this week is an entrepreneur who excels at building market strategies. Heather Myers of Spark Number 9 has created her own methodology for getting the market segment answers entrepreneurs so desperately need. An important distinction is that her method relies on observable behavior, not on surveys. Heather's own business has flourished and was even the subject of a Harvard Business ...

Send us a text Happy Planet Wednesday! This will be our last podcast until 2025 and I want to thank you for tuning in this year! It's been an exceptionally interesting journey for me and I hope you've been enjoying the podcasts. If you have feedback, please do not hesitate to share it. This week we head to New Jersey to speak to Philipp Stratmann, CEO of Ocean Power Technologies. Followers of penny stocks may recognize the name. They are a public company listed under the ticker OPTT. Mind...

Send us a text Happy Planet Wednesday! And to American followers, Happy Thanksgiving! During the US presidential debates, we heard a lot about the nearly five million unit housing shortage in the US. While this needs to be addressed urgently, it won't be good for the climate. Traditional building activity accounts for up to 40% of the world's carbon emissions. Our guest Nick Farmer is president of Opal Build, a Maine company whose mission is reduce the carbon footprint in homebuilding....

Send us a text Happy Planet Wednesday! This week we are hopping across the Atlantic to speak to serial Dutch innovator Wietse van der Werf. Wietse's current venture, Sea Rangers, is a social enterprise that trains youth from underprivileged backgrounds in the maritime trades. Aspiring sea rangers learn while working on ocean conservation missions that are performed from carbon-footprint free sailing research vessels. Wietse is excited to bring back the maritime trades in the Neth...

Send us a text Happy Planet Wednesday! I was tempted to call this week’s episode “Unhappy Planet” because in it we grapple with what happens when your startup doesn’t go as planned. When I learned that Courtney Boyd Rey shuttered her seaweed startup AKUA, I reached out to see if she would come on the podcast. Given that over 90% of startups fail, and even 75% of those backed by venture capital do as well, I wanted to address the issue head on. By many measures AKUA was a g...

Send us a text In this episode of the Happy Planet Podcast, host Abigail Carroll interviews Slater McLean, co-founder of Oliver Charles, a sustainable sweater company. Slater discusses the significant environmental impact of the fashion industry and how Oliver Charles is addressing these issues using natural materials like yak wool and seaweed-based fibers. The company employs an innovative 3D knitting process to eliminate waste. Oliver Charles also relies on an on-demand manufacturing model ...

Send us a text In this podcast episode, I welcome Damien Demoor, a French engineer and ocean innovator based in France, who introduces his company, Greenov, and its groundbreaking product, the Subsea Quieter. Demoor discusses the significant threat of underwater noise pollution caused by maritime activities, detailing its detrimental effects on marine life, including mammals, fish, and ecosystems. He explains how their solution, developed in partnership with a leader in naval defe...

Send us a text Innovative Fish Feeds: Reducing Aquaculture's Environmental Footprint In this episode of the Happy Planet podcast, I speak to Alessandra Romano, the entrepreneur behind Ittinsect. Allessandro discusses his novel aquaculture feed supplements derived from insect proteins, which aim to accelerate fish growth with lower environmental impacts. The conversation explores the inefficiencies in traditional fish feeds, the environmental benefits of insect-based alternatives, and th...

Send us a text In this podcast episode, Abigail interviews Benjamin, founder of Azul Bio and participant in the Ocean Pitch Contest by the Sustainable Ocean Alliance. The discussion focuses on Benjamin's startup, which aims to save coral reefs from extinction caused by ocean warming. Benjamin explains the importance of coral reefs for ocean life and human livelihoods and describes Azul Bio's innovative solution: coral microbiome boosters. These boosters enhance the heat tolerance ...