The Impact Equation

In this episode, Rafi sits down with Claudine Blamey, Chief Sustainability Officer at Aviva. Claudine’s story starts far from the boardrooms of British business. She arrived in London from Tehran as a child, speaking no English. That experience shaped a mindset that has stayed with her throughout her career: nothing is forever, and even the most complex situations can be navigated. Three decades later, Claudine has helped shape sustainability strategy across sectors – from sustainable buildings at British Land to aviation’s first net-zero strategy at easyJet, and now climate and nature strategy at Aviva. In this conversation, she reflects on how her early experiences of migration shaped her resilience and leadership; why insurers have a unique role in managing and pricing climate risk; the growing reality that parts of the UK could become uninsurable due to climate impacts; Why nature restoration could become a major global asset class; And, how sustainability leaders are shifting from ambition-setting to systemic change. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode we're joined by Summer Kennedy for a special episode looking back at our first series with Fast Forward. In this series, we’ve featured three amazing entrepreneurs backed by Fast Forward, a trailblazing accelerator backing tech nonprofits solving urgent, global problems at scale. Summer quite literally drives Fast Forward forward; shaping the strategic vision and building the systems that get the organisation there. Her path to leadership has been anything but linear: from teaching first grade in Oakland to spearheading tech-for-good initiatives, Summer’s career proves that the most impactful journeys don’t follow a straight line. We reflect on three conversations with Fast Forward investments - Sunny Patel of Vector Cam, Alysia Garmulewicz of Materiom and Michelle Brown of CommonLit. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode we're not joined by Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, but a pioneer on forests, agriculture and food security who has worked all over the world, from Tibet to Yemen and Colombia. With roots in social justice and anti-poverty campaigning, Ed cut his teeth in efforts around debt, poverty, and development with organisations like Oxfam and the wider Make Poverty History movement before joining the then Prince of Wales – now King – to drive high-level work on forests, sustainable agriculture, and climate through his International Sustainability Unit. Since then, Ed has become a driving force in the world of sustainable food, nature and climate, helping drive the work of the World Resources Institute and advising the Food and Land Use Coalition and its push to transform how the world grows and eats.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lord Simon Case served four British Prime Ministers as head of the UK's civil service from Boris Johnson in 2020, to Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer. Lord Case held the most senior civil service role just as the government hit a run of shocks: Brexit implementation, Covid, war in Europe, economic turbulence, and rapid technological change. In this episode, he’s candid about what it feels like at the centre of crisis decision-making, and why government too often drifts into a self-obsessed “bubble” that’s disconnected from daily life. He also shares what gave him hope: meeting frontline civil servants, and seeing what changes when power and money are tied to real places. We talk about Barrow Rising; a place-based partnership bringing central government, local government, industry and community together around the long-term transformation of Barrow-in-Furness. What does it take to turn billions of public spend next door into better health, education, and opportunity? And can Barrow become a blueprint others can borrow from? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alyssa Gilbert sits in a rare seat in UK climate innovation: translating world-class science into ventures that can survive the messy reality of markets, regulation, pilots, and procurement. In this episode, Alyssa shares what Undaunted at Imperial College London looks for at the earliest stages, why credibility and communication matter as much as the tech, and what actually helps founders move from “tested in a lab” to “traction in the market”. We also get into the built environment: waste-to-materials, energy management, and the very real barrier of being “the first” in a traditional sector. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is the first in our series with Save the Children Global Ventures, the impact investment arm of Save the Children, backing bold entrepreneurs tackling some of the world’s toughest challenges. In the first episode of the series, we’re joined by Fred Carpinteiro, Founder and CEO of Amparo Prosthetics, a company reimagining prosthetic care for people with limb loss across the world. Amparo is delivering lifetime prosthetic care across 6 continents, using smart technologies to dramatically improve comfort, fit, and user experience for lower-limb prosthetic users. With over 6,000 patients fitted in more than 45 countries, and products now used in 250+ clinics worldwide, Amparo is quietly building one of the most globally distributed prosthetic care platforms.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In our latest episode of The Impact Equation, we’re joined by Dominic Hofstetter and Ivana Gazibara from the Transcap Initiative, an NGO focused on developing and scaling systemic investing. Most of us start with a pool of capital and ask: what can this money do? Dominic and Ivana flip it: start with the challenge, diagnose the system, then “reprogramme” how money flows to multiple initiatives at once, so capital can actually shift outcomes, not just fund isolated projects. We talk about why “single-asset” investing struggles to deliver systems change, why place-based investing is close (but not always transformative), and their big idea: the “financial backbone”; an actor designed to orchestrate coalitions across philanthropy, public finance, investment capital, insurance and corporate commitments. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we go deep into chemistry and mining with Paul Needham, CEO of ARCA, a company using carbon mineralisation to turn mine waste into giant, permanent carbon sponges. In 2025, Arca signed a 10-year deal with Microsoft to remove 300,000 tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere. Certain rocks naturally react with CO₂, pulling it out of the air and locking it away forever as stone. ARCA has found a way to massively accelerate that natural process, transforming mining tailings from an environmental liability into a climate solution. Paul's no stranger to scaling impact: he previously built Simpa Networks, bringing pay-as-you-go solar to hundreds of thousands of people in rural India. In this episode we learn about scaling pay-as-you go solar in India and how carbon mineralisation turns mining waste into carbon removal at scale.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Carbon markets tend to trigger strong reactions. For some, they’re a vital bridge - a way to fund climate action at scale while the harder work of reducing emissions catches up. For others, they feel like a distraction, or worse, a way of outsourcing responsibility. So rather than arguing for or against them, we wanted to ask a different question: What would it take for carbon markets to actually work - with credibility and scale? In our latest Impact Equation roundtable, we brought together three people working on different parts of the system: Alastair is focused on data and transparency, Shannon is building projects on the ground, and Erika is making the sector investable for serious capital. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if the way we think about money is fundamentally wrong? In our latest episode of The Impact Equation, Rafi and Adam sit down with Hans Stegeman, Chief Economist at Triodos Bank - one of the few banks where sustainability isn’t a bolt-on, but the organising principle. Hans’s central critique is this: we haven’t just chosen economic growth - we’ve hard-wired it into everything. Our markets, financial returns, debt system, pensions, and public budgets all depend on the assumption that the economy must keep expanding. The problem is that this version of growth is material by design, and material growth always comes with ecological and social costs. His argument isn’t that progress is bad - it’s that we’ve confused progress with GDP. No amount of “green” investing can fix a system that structurally requires ever-greater extraction, consumption, and future growth just to stay standing. So what does he want to change? Hans calls for an economy, and a financial system, that is less dependent on growth, and that fundamentally success ought to be measured in wellbeing, resilience, and social outcomes, not just economic output. In this episode, Hans challenges us to question our assumptions and what we’ve accepted as “just how the world works”. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, GSG Impact CEO Elizabeth Boggs Davidsen joins the show to share her journey from being mentored by Madeleine Albright to leading global efforts in impact investing. Drawing on her formative years working in conflict zones like Sudan and Afghanistan, Elizabeth explains how those experiences shaped her belief that traditional aid isn't enough and that we need new models to drive change. She dives into her work pioneering a $1 billion "blended finance" fund in Latin America and her time in the Biden administration, before looking ahead to the 2026 launch of the "Impact Economy Index"—a new tool designed to spark a "race to the top" for countries prioritizing people and the planet. It’s a fascinating look at how capital can be a force for good, wrapped in some great advice for anyone starting a career in social justice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This podcast episode features Gaia Vince, a trailblazing journalist, broadcaster, and award-winning author, discussing the profound intersections of climate change and human migration. In this episode, Rafi explores Vince’s career shift from science journalism to documenting the "front lines" of our changing planet, culminating in the urgent thesis of her latest book, Nomad Century. You can buy her book here: https://amzn.to/49b8ltk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Across the previous seven episodes of The Impact Equation, we spoke with Charlotte O'Leary, Nick Wise, Lucy Heller, Stephen Cowan, Lord Browne, participants in the Mining Roundtable, and Tiffany Yu, exploring how lasting impact is built at scale across finance, oceans, education, cities, energy, extractives, and disability rights. Together, these conversations examined the tension between idealism and pragmatism, showing how commercial rigour, financial ingenuity, and institutional design are essential to sustaining impact; why policy alone is insufficient without deep cultural and mindset shifts; and how leaders must commit to the long game amid political, economic, and social volatility. From pensions as a powerful lever for climate action, to AI-driven enforcement against illegal fishing, inclusive urban growth, realistic energy transition pathways, responsible mining for clean energy, and reframing disability through culture rather than charity, the episodes collectively argue that systemic change happens when values, incentives, technology, and human dignity are deliberately aligned - and relentlessly pursued over time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Rafi is joined by Tiffany Yu—a fierce disability advocate, entrepreneur, and changemaker whose work is reshaping how the world understands disability. As the founder and CEO of Diversability, Tiffany has built a thriving global community empowering disabled voices and fostering real inclusion. From a life-changing injury in her childhood to becoming a powerful force on the global stage, including speaking at the World Economic Forum and authoring the groundbreaking book "The Anti-Ableist Manifesto," Tiffany’s journey is one of resilience, vision, and transformative impact. In this episode, we’ll hear how she’s smashing stereotypes, forging change, and challenging us all to build a disability-inclusive world. Check out her book here: https://amzn.to/4qeCFKi Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode on The Impact Equation, we dive into one of the biggest tensions of the clean energy transition: the world wants an affordable, renewable future - yet achieving it requires a massive increase in critical minerals like copper, lithium, nickel and cobalt. So how do we mine what we need responsibly, safely and sustainably?To explore this, we bring together Ro Dhawan (CEO, ICMM), Kirsten Hund (Director of Climate & Nature, Vale Base Metals), and Professor Tim Biggs (Camborne School of Mines). We discuss why the energy transition is impossible without new mines, the trade-offs around coal and critical minerals, the innovations reshaping the sector, the rise of nature-based and “circular” mining, and why trust and social licence will ultimately decide the industry's future. A challenging, timely, and essential conversation for anyone who cares about climate, energy or the materials that underpin modern life. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lord John Browne was born just after the war in Hamburg to a Hungarian mother who survived Auschwitz and a British father who was a professional soldier. His parents met because his father needed an interpreter; she spoke six languages because, as she said, “in Hungary no one spoke your language, so you learned many.” From that unlikely beginning came a child who travelled the world, was pushed into self-sufficiency, and absorbed the lessons of survival, resilience, and ambition. From that childhood, he rose from a university apprentice at BP to its Chief Executive - leading the mega-mergers that turned it into a global super-major. And in a defining moment, he became one of the very first oil CEOs to say publicly that climate change was real, urgent, and demanded action from his own industry. Long before “net zero” entered the mainstream, he acknowledged the scientific risks, committed BP to measuring and reducing its emissions, and put Beyond Petroleum on the map - a deeply controversial move at the time that forced competitors, regulators, and investors to rethink the role of big energy in the transition.Since leaving BP, Lord Browne has shifted from running hydrocarbons to funding the transition beyond them, co-founding BeyondNetZero to back high-growth companies in decarbonisation, efficiency, advanced materials, and climate technology. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is our second live podcast at EdCity, with our friends at Ark. Stephen Cowan, Leader of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, has been a force in local public service since 1998, when he was first elected as councillor for Grove Ward. Since becoming Leader in 2014, he’s driven some of the most ambitious, people-centred policies anywhere in the UK - from free adult social care, to free breakfasts for every primary school child, to an industrial strategy that’s brought billions in investment into the borough. And where better to have this conversation than at EdCity - the £150 million regeneration project jointly shaped by Ark and H&F Council. EdCity blends new schools, affordable homes, community spaces and innovation hubs, standing as a living example of what bold public-third sector partnership can achieve. This is a fascinating, live, and candid conversation with a leader determined to change the world - starting with a small bit of West London. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The first of two podcasts recorded live at EdCity. We kicked it off with an amazing guest, Lucy Heller, CEO of Ark and the architect behind one of the most influential education transformations in the UK. Ark began in 2002 with a bold ambition: change life chances for children who need it most. Under Lucy’s leadership, that ambition has become a movement — growing from a single turnaround school to 39 schools, 30,000+ pupils, and a network of 20+ ventures reshaping the wider education system.In this live conversation, we go into: Lucy’s unexpected path into education, the original spark behind Ark, what really drives school improvement, how Ark scaled impact across communities without losing its soul, and what the future of education looks like. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we speak to Nick Wise, Founder & CEO of OceanMind, an organisation using AI and satellite analytics to protect our oceans. Nick is a pioneer in applying advanced technology to build more sustainable food systems, tackle illegal fishing, and bring transparency to some of the world’s most complex supply chains.Before founding OceanMind, Nick spent his career at the intersection of internet security, satellites, and data, and it was during his time at the UK’s Satellite Applications Catapult that a partnership with leading NGOs opened his eyes to the scale of illegal fishing - and the potential of AI to fight it. OceanMind now works with governments, industry, and NGOs globally, bringing visibility to an often hidden world. In this episode, we dive into: How AI and satellite data can protect vulnerable marine ecosystems; The hidden risks inside global seafood supply chains; What it takes to deliver measurable impact where sustainability, technology and international policy collide. Listen in for a fascinating, urgent conversation about the future of our oceans. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.