Footprint Coalition's "Downstream Channel" is an exploration of the environmental challenges created by our industrial footprint led by Robert Downey Jr. and his co-host and Footprint Managing Director, Rachel Kropa. Together, they'll talk through some of the most pressing environmental issues facing the planet and enlist a panel of experts (including executives and founders from some of Footprint Coalition Ventures' portfolio companies) who are finding ways for us to walk a little lighter on the world's stage. Each episode includes a brief but informative overview of issues, a mystery box containing surprises related to the theme of the week, quotes to encapsulate the topics up for discussion and featured interviews with fascinating guests.
Robert Downey Jr. and Rachel Kropa discuss GEODESIGN with Sandeep Ahuja. The co-founder of Cove.Tool, Ahuja has developed software and services that use geospatial data to provide architects and developers with the most sustainable and energy efficient options for commercial building design. The technology has been used in over 11,000 projects in 22 different countries.
Robert Downey Jr. and Rachel Kropa discuss GEODESIGN with Jack Dangermond and Ryan Perkl. As the co-founder of ESRI, Dangermond has spent the last 30 years building a business that everyone from architects and urban planners to city, state and national governments use to understand and monitor the world. His colleague, Ryan Perkl is the head of the company's Geodesign and green infrastructure practice. Hear from how GEODESIGN can reshape the world for the better by building with nature instead of building over it.
Robert Downey Jr. and Rachel Kropa discuss GEODESIGN with Bran Ferren. As the former President of research and development at Walt Disney Imagineering, Bran Ferren helped to bring movie magic into the real world. Now as the co-founder and chief creative officer of Applied Minds, Ferren is working on designing and building the future through partnerships and projects with car companies like General Motors, technology companies like Google, defense companies like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. Hear how GEODESIGN can reshape the world for the better through making a better built environment.
In Downstream's third episode, FootPrint Coalition's own Robert Downey Jr. and Rachel Kropa explore the concept of geodesign and how we can harness technology to build better buildings and cities for a more sustainable future. Downey and Kropa take a walk through history and examine new technologies that architects and urban planners are using to make construction more integrated with the natural world. Through conversations with experts like Bran Ferren, the founder of Applied Minds and former head of Disney's Imagineering; Jack Dangermond, the pioneering innovator and co-founder of the geospatial mapping company ESRI; and Sandeep Ahuja, the co-founder of the new architecture and software design startup, Cove.Tool; Robert and Rachel learn about how to integrate nature and design to reduce carbon emissions in our built environment.
Robert Downey Jr. and Rachel Kropa discuss MEATLESSNESS with Eben Bayer, an entrepreneur who's spent nearly 14 years proving the power of the humble mushroom as the world's FIRST truly functional food. As the chief executive and founder of Ecovative Design, Bayer has made replacements for foam packaging, lamps and furniture, leather materials and importantly meats like bacon from mighty mushroom mycelia. Hear how the fungus among us could be just the thing to feed the world.
Robert Downey Jr. and Rachel Kropa discuss MEATLESSNESS with Tracye McQuirter, an American public health nutritionist, vegan activist, author, and speaker. An advocate for plant-based diets, McQuirter is the author of "Ageless Vegan" and "By Any Greens Necessary" and is focused on making veganism accessible to all. Her latest initiative is 10,000 Black Vegan Women, a free online resource providing nutritional guidance and support to black women who experience the highest rates of preventable chronic diseases in the country. Keep an eye out for Tracye McQuirter this July, as she has some big news to share about the 10,000 Black Vegan Women movement!
Robert Downey Jr. and Rachel Kropa discuss MEATLESSNESS with Isha Datar, a pioneer in cellular agriculture— the developing field of making animal products without raising or slaughtering animals. Datar's served as a leader for multiple organizations in the revolutionary industry. She co-founded Perfect Day, which produces milk without cows, and Clara Foods, which makes eggs without chickens. Currently, Datar serves as executive director of New Harvest, a non-profit research institute building the field of cellular agriculture.
In Downstream's second episode, Robert Downey Jr. and Rachel Kropa tackle humans' relationship with meat, and the impact that has on our planet. Downey and Kropa contemplate a future of meat that doesn't rely on livestock farming with Isha Datar, a leading voice in cellular agriculture; break down the environmental, ethical, and dietary impact of modern-day meat consumption with public health nutritionist and vegan trailblazer Tracye McQuirter; and learn how current meat alternatives are evolving from Eben Bayer, the founder and CEO of the mushroom-based meat startup, Atlast.
Robert Downey Jr. and Rachel Kropa discuss WASTE with Daniel Carraway, a leading authority on biopolymer development and commercialization. As co-founder and CEO of RWDC Industries, Carraway is leading the movement to create sustainable alternatives to plastic. Today, RWDC is producing Solon™, a PHA material that is 100% bio-based and biodegradable. Carraway's lifelong passion for the environment and natural processes and systems gives him a unique perspective, fueling his groundbreaking work with biopolymers. Over the course of his career, he has invented and commercialized more than a dozen new bio-based polymers.
Robert Downey Jr. and Rachel Kropa discuss WASTE with Leland Melvin, a world-class athlete, astronaut, and educator. Following two successful missions on the Space Shuttle Atlantis, Melvin was appointed head of NASA Education and served as the co-chair on the White House's Federal Coordination in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S.T.E.M.) Education Task Force. Currently, he is championing STEM education as the national spokesperson for Base 11, a workforce accelerator that is empowering students, early STEM career adults, and STEM entrepreneurs on their pathway to success in Next Frontier industries.
Robert Downey Jr. and Rachel Kropa discuss WASTE with Juliet Schor, a highly decorated professor of sociology at Boston College whose research focuses on consumer culture, time use, and environmental sustainability. Schor is the bestselling author of The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure and Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture.
In the first episode Robert Downey Jr. and Rachel Kropa tackle trash.Through conversations with the celebrated academic and author of "Born to Buy", Juliet Schor; astronaut and former Detroit Lion, Leland Melvin; and serial entrepreneur and inventor Daniel Carraway, Downey and Kropa talk about the social forces that created our culture of consumption; ways to rethink our relationship to stuff; and how technology can help reduce the plastic waste that's polluting our oceans and contributing to the greenhouse gas emissions causing global warming.
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