Just & Sustainable Economy Podcast

On Friday, May 13 the Department of Labor (DOL) hosted a special hybrid event, Making the Business Case for Good Jobs, with ASBN's Vice President, Carolyn Pincus and Secretary of Labor, Marty Walsh leading the discussion. Along with Carolyn Pincus and Secretary Walsh, the discussion also included three ASBN business member owners to discuss DOL's Good Jobs Initiative. Our business owners have deep expertise and the practical experience advocated for in the Good Jobs Initiative such as how private sector employers can recruit, retain, and strengthen their workforce and business performance through improved job quality, pay, and benefits.Panelists included Elizabeth Richman of EILEEN FISHER, Flequer Vera of Sustainergy Cooperative, Darren Jones of UPS, and Sandi Weaver of BA Auto Care.

“Regenerative” is one of the new buzz words right now—though many of us are not sure why it is important and how it relates to our life and work. ASBN assembled a panel of entrepreneurs, farmers, and investors who are practicing at the forefront of the regenerative organic, agriculture movement. Today, you will learn why regenerative, organic agriculture is important to the earth and its inhabitants. Further, you will have a chance to explore how you can incorporate the practice into your investment, business or educational pursuits. Held just six weeks after COVID shut down much of the US, this conversation looks the disruption in our food supply chain, and at the moment many of our organic suppliers were facing unprecedented adversity that threatened their future. If advocating for policies that advance regenerative agriculture and justice interest you, reach out to Colton Fagundes (cfagundes@asbnetwork.org) to learn more. This conversation was led by Nancy Rosenzweig (Values Aligned Capital) featuring Mark Retzloff (Co-Founder of Horizon Organic Dairy, Aurora Organic Dairy, and Alfalfa's Markets), Phyllis Van Amburgh (Founder, dharma Lea); David Barber (Co-Founder/Owner, Blue Hill; Founding Partner, Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture); Jean-Charles Morisseau (Chairman, Cleante, Ubees, and Veilleur de Nuit) on regenerative agriculture & climate change.

Today's episode features a conversation on Creating an Economic System That Works for All featuring Joel Bakan (Professor of Law, Univ of British Columbia; author and filmmaker, The New Corporation) and Rebecca Henderson (John and Natty McArthur University Professor, Harvard University) in conversation with ASBN's Co-Founder & CEO, Jeffrey Hollender.Originally recorded in December 2020.

What does it mean to choose a High Road Future for Our Economy? That's the theme of today's episode featuring Saru Jayaraman (One Fair Wage). Today's episode is as pertinent now as it was when originally recorded in the winter of 2018.

Episode 16 of the Just & Sustainable Economy podcast features a conversation with award-winning journalist, Alec MacGillis on his book Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America. Joining Alec in conversation is ASBN Co-Founder and CEO and Co-Founder of Seventh Generation, Jeffrey Hollender. Fulfillment is a A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice selection and investigates Amazon's impact on the wealth and poverty of towns and cities across the United States. Alec MacGillis's Fulfillment is not another inside account or exposé of our most conspicuously dominant company. Rather, it is a literary investigation of the America that falls within that company's growing shadow. With empathy and breadth, MacGillis demonstrates the hidden human costs of the other inequality—not the growing gap between rich and poor, but the gap between the country's winning and losing regions. The result is an intimate account of contemporary capitalism: its drive to innovate, its dark, pitiless magic, its remaking of America with every click.

Today's episode focuses on housing, specifically the intersection of home, health, and wealth. Featured guests include Joshua Pollard (President & CEO, Omicelo) and Andre M. Perry (Fellow, Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institute; Author, Know Your Price; and advisor with Known Holdings. ASBN's Just & Sustainable Economy Podcast is proudly sponsored by Hanson Bridgett, hansonbridgett.com.This interview originally took place in 2021.

We know the impacts of the climate crisis largely fall on those who contribute the least to it: Black, Brown and Indigenous communities. We also know we need to reach net zero carbon emissions (carbon neutral), fast. The time is now for courageous business leadership to help create a future that serves people (especially those most vulnerable) and the planet. This week on the Just & Sustainable Economy podcast, we have two conversations on these very issues that will identify tangible actions on the policy, advocacy, and mitigation fronts, both businesses and individuals can do, to address the devastating impacts of climate change on our communities and biosphere by putting people and equity at the center. Today is our second conversation in the series, Centering Climate Justice in Climate Action with Dr. Ellonda Williams (B Lab), Kevin Lee (Dr. Bronner's), Valerie Red-Horse Mohl (East Bay Community Foundation & ASBN's board co-chair) moderated by Intersectional Environmentalist, Diandra Marizet.

We know the impacts of the climate crisis largely fall on those who contribute the least to it: Black, Brown and Indigenous communities. We also know we need to reach net zero carbon emissions (carbon neutral), fast. The time is now for courageous business leadership to help create a future that serves people (especially those most vulnerable) and the planet. This week on the Just & Sustainable Economy podcast, we have two conversations on these very issues that will identify tangible actions on the policy, advocacy, and mitigation fronts, both businesses and individuals can do, to address the devastating impacts of climate change on our communities and biosphere by putting people and equity at the center. Today, is our first conversation in the series, Climate & Racial Justice: The Nexus of the NEXT Economy with Ibrahim Al-Husseini (FullCycle), Xiuhtezcatl Martinez (Artist & Climate Organizer), and Donnel Baird (BlocPower) moderated by Seungah Jeong (MPOWERD and ASBN's Board Co-Chair). 

This episode was recorded at ASBN's annual conference and features Nick Tilsen (NDN Collective) interviewed by ASBN Co-Founder & President, David Levine.Nick Tilsen is a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation. Tilsen has over 18 years of experience building place-based innovations that have the ability to inform systems change solutions around climate resiliency, sustainable housing and equitable community development. He founded NDN Collective to scale these place-based solutions while building needed philanthropic, social impact investment, capacity and advocacy infrastructure geared towards building the collective power of Indigenous Peoples. Tilsen has received numerous fellowships and awards from Ashoka, Rockefeller Foundation, Bush Foundation and the Social Impact Award from Claremont-Lincoln University. He has an honorary doctorate degree from Sinte Gleska University.

Episode 11 of the Just & Sustainable Economy Podcast features ASBN board Co-Chair and Asset Allocator, Valerie Red-Horse Mohl (CFO of East Bay Community Foundation) who walks you through the innovative steps her Foundation took such as rewriting their investment policy statement requiring a priority to invest in diverse founders which eventually led to an LP allocation in Brown Venture Group (“BVG”). Dr. Paul Campbell, one of the co-founders of BVG unpacks how behavioral economics led to their innovative approach to funding and supporting BIPOC entrepreneurs and how cultural residency is leading to an increased focus on impact investing in Minneapolis. 

Today's episode of the Just & Sustainable Economy Podcast comes from our 2017 archives, featuring Labor and Civil Rights Icon Dolores Huerta of The Dolores Huerta Foundation and philanthropist, co-founder of ASBN member company Beneficial State Bank, and founder of NextGen America, Tom Steyer. The conversation was spurred by the documentary film DOLORES, which was screening in festivals at the time and premiered just a few months later. The documentary is a portrait of activist icon Dolores Huerta, who tirelessly led the fight for racial and labor justice. You can find and watch the film at PBS online by searching DOLORES documentary. 

Today's episode comes from ASBN's recent Impact Retail and Sustainable Products Summit, a special virtual event designed to support impact retailers navigate the current landscape of impact retail (e.g. ecommerce), and support them as they seek to improve their businesses, expand their impact, and enhance their leadership. This Summit was hosted in proud partnership with GoodCarts, the free ecommerce app making a difference. Post-checkout cross-promotion that works. Visit GoodCarts.co to learn more. During the Impact Retail and Sustainable Products Summit ASBN hosted over 20 investor and business experts for exclusive Q&A sessions with our members and attendees answering the burning questions of values-aligned impact retailers and sustainable products companies. And to kick off the summit, we welcomed two pioneering, leaders in the space Adnan Durrani (Founder & CEO, Saffron Road Foods) & Nancy Rosenzweig (Founder and Principal, ValuesAligned Capital). Today, we're pleased to share this exclusive interview with these two inspiring experts.

ASBN's NEXT Economy Showcase is an opportunity to hear from high-impact, innovative businesses and investment solutions to building an economy that works for all. From early stage companies, to innovative funds, and more, the NEXT Economy Showcase features 11 investable opportunities that can accelerate our shared work towards creating a sustainable economy that is stakeholder-driven, regenerative, just, and prosperous .Presenters:1. Amalgamated Bank 2. Black Farmer Fund 3. Potlikker Capital 4. Brown Venture Group 5. Mission-Driven Finance 6. Uhusiano Capital 7. RSF Social Finance 8. Opportunity Main Street 9. SmokeFire Media 10. Angels of Impact 11. Downtown Crenshaw In this episode, you will also hear from the following ASBN investor-led initiatives:Restorative InvestingMain Street Lending: CDFIs & Community BanksTransforming Ownership for Social Justice

In the run-up to the 2020 election, ASBN was honored to host a conversation alongside the Movement Voter Project host “Let My People Vote,” a conversation between Desmond Meade of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition and Erika Alexander of Color Farm Media. As relevant today as it was just over a year ago, the dialog centered on ending the disenfranchisement and discrimination against people with convictions, and creating a more comprehensive and humane reentry system that will enhance successful reentry, reduce recidivism, and increase public safety. 

BIPOC farmers disproportionately face the detrimental impacts of institutional oppression. The agricultural players have deprived farmers of access to capital. Reparative capital is needed to build thriving businesses and shift control and power back to marginalized communities to support self-determination. Episode 6 features Mark Watson of Potlikker Capital and Olivia Watkins of Black Farmer Fund in conversation on regeneration and what systemic approaches to multi-layered impact they're deploying to address these very issues. 

Episode 5 of the Just & Sustainable Economy features leaders in the Blue Economy – Dune Lankard, Native Conservancy, Catherine O'Hare, Daybreak Seaweed, and Nick Tilsen of NDN Collection in a dialog moderated by Shaun Paul of Ejido Verde – Alaska Natives staking a claim in the state's plans to grow a billion-dollar mariculture industry. While leading fisheries are lining up for permits, the difference lies in millennia of experience in sustainable harvest and marine responsibility that inform a Native brand in indigenous-led kelp farming and processed foods.

In their seminal book 'Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take' former Unilever CEO Paul Polman and sustainable business guru Andrew Winston explode fifty years of corporate dogma. Theyreveal, for the first time, key lessons from Unilever and other pioneeringcompanies around the world about how you can profit by fixing the world'sproblems instead of creating them. To thrive today and tomorrow, they argue,companies must become “net positive”—giving more to the world than they take.This episode features Paul Polman interviewed by former CEO and co-founder of Seventh Generation, and CEO of the American Sustainable Business Network, Jeffrey Hollender in dialog on what net positive really means, and what businesses are being called to do in these times. 

The defining issues of modern society are sadly not very modern at all. The economic gap continues to grow and is troubling. However you look at it - income, wealth, race, gender—the negative impacts of climate change are creating a sustainability gap in communities of color. Gayle Jennings-O'Byrne  (Co-Founder, WOCstar Fund) joins the podcast to discuss her work reimagining BIPOC investing and innovation.

Cenk Uygur of TYT Media, Joe Sanberg of Aspiration, David Bronner of Dr. Bronner's and Kristin Hull of Nia Impact Capital joined Thulasi Sivalingam of ASBN to answer the questions, "What does it mean to take a stand as a business? What does it mean to live your values as a business?," and "What's the role of business when the future of our planet is at stake? "

Episode 1 of the Just & Sustainable Economy Podcast features two of the most important movement builders in North America in dialog on restoration and reconciliation in the context of our societies and economic systems, Karen Joseph of Reconciliation Canada and Rev. Dr William J Barber II with Repairers of the Breach and the Poor Peoples Campaign interviewed by Diane J. Johnson, Ph.D., CEO, Mmapeu Consulting.