The Forward Minds

Meet Yara Akkari, founder of Open Spaces, a bi-annual print magazine about art, nature and travel. Yara has traveled all around the world but more specifically has been focusing on unique journeys, the outdoors and land art. Land art by its nature is quite mysterious and mystical, as you can only experience it if you actually go and see it. Images will never render reality. It has been around since the 1960s but in recent years, with environmental issues being center staged, the question whether land is still relevant is coming up. Stay tuned for more. 

Our oceans sustain all life and is a solution to some of the planet's biggest problems. It provides every second breath we take, captures 30% of human-made carbon emissions and regulates the climate system.42% of the world's population is under 25 and young people are the change engine at the heart of the Ocean Generation movement. Ocean Generation makes Ocean Science simple: climate change, resource extraction, pollution, coastal development and daily Ocean use are the five main human-threats our Ocean faces. At OG, they make understanding them, and what we can all do about them, accessible. To do that, they use multi-media channels and popular culture. Ocean Generation's mission is to ensure an Ocean positive future where we understand the importance of a healthy Ocean. OG translates Ocean science into engaging content and practical actions. Brad, their head of Strategic Development tells us more.

Meet Viola Stancati, founder of Casa Parini, a brand of luxury bed linens 100% made from hemp. Hemp is a supercrop: from medicines to textiles, to building insulation, hemp fibres absorb CO2 that can be made into sustainable products that benefit people and planet.When it comes to textiles, hemp has thermoregulating properties, hemp textiles keep you cool in warm weather and warm in cool weather.Let's discover this amazing super plant with Viola Stancati.  

Meet Laura Harnett, founder of Seep, a company creating cleaning products made from sustainable and renewable materials. Seep products are 100% plastic free, compostable or fully biodegradable. Laura tells us all about her journey from working in product driven companies to being an entrepreneur. We also dive into plastic, waste and greenwashing when it comes to recycling.  

Meet Luc Berlin, founder of Miigle +, a tech company focusing on social impact, currently building the world's largest database for socially responsible brands and using artificial intelligence to get them in front of customers who care about their mission.Miigle+ is an AI enabled app that helps you discover, shop and support social impact products and sustainable brands making the world a better place.Prior to founding Miigle, Luc spent the past 10 years leading digital marketing initiatives and revenue growth for B2B and B2C companies in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.Luc wants to re-engineer consumerism into a force for good by empowering people to be conscious consumers and brands to be better producers.

A former 20-year vegetarian, Glen Burrows is now the co-founder of the Ethical Butcher, a disruptor in the industry only offering quality, ethically sourced meats online from regenerative sources. Meat has long been demonised for our health or the environment. We're going back to the basics with Glen, a meat 101.  Tune in to hear about how introducing meat in his diet solved his health issues, why an omnivorous diet where products are picked carefully is not bad and actually good for the environment. Glen also tells us how to navigate the world of grass-fed, pasture-fed and free-range. If you want to know about meat, this is the episode you need to listent to!   

In 2021, the website Cult Beauty saw a 300% increase in searches for mushroom-based skincare and supplements. Customers are seriously interested in the benefits of fungi and mushrooms are making their presence in many products from supplements to chocolate bars. More and more brands are answering this need in terms of wellbeing with mushroom-powered products. Enters Wunder Workshop, a company that harvests the power of regeneratively grown plants for the ultimate wellness rituals. We are welcoming Zoe, co-founder of Wunder Workshop where we discuss the adaptogens and their health benefits, holistic healing, the importance of our soil and the future of mycelium in the world of fashion and more.

Meet Douglas McMaster, the 'climate-forward chef behind the world's first zero-waste restaurant, a true pioneer, well-known throughout the hospitality industry for his innovative & ethical practices. The newest manifestation of his work Silo, the London restaurant that opened end of 2021, is a living, breathing, working example of Douglas's vision: a sustainable food system for the future.McMaster has been awarded the 50NEXT award in 2021, a list of people who are shaping the future of gastronomy.  Formed through robust research and analysis by 50 Best and the internationally renowned Basque Culinary Center, it showcases a diverse global selection of bright young minds who have turned their ideas into reality. Hear all about Douglas' vision and hopes for the future and dive into Silo! 

We sat down with Bianca, founder of sustainable brand Del Moment and with over 10 years of experience in the fashion industry, Bianca tells us about her journey from launching a bespoke tailored agency for boutique labels globally to her own brand a couple of years later.Stay tuned while we learn in details what we need to build a sustainable fashion brand as well as the challenges and successes that came up along the way.Our show notes are packed with links and extra information. Find them on the podcast section of our website.Follow The Forward Lab on Instagram @theforwardlab 

For the 1st episode of Season 2, we sat down with  Skye Gyngell, is an Australian chef who is best known for her work as food editor for Vogue, and for winning a Michelin star at the Petersham Nurseries Cafe. Skye is now one of Britain's most respected and acclaimed chefs and has her own restaurant Spring which has often been noted as one London's most sustainable and beautiful places to dine.Stay tuned as we discuss her focus on food waste in her restaurant and why biodynamic farming is the way to go.  Our show notes are packed with links and extra information. Find them on the podcast section of our website.Follow The Forward Lab on Instagram @theforwardlab

This week we sat down with Steve Barron, a filmmaker best known for directing the music video ‘Billie Jean' for Michael Jackson and ‘Take On Me' for a-ha. More recently, Steve took over 50 acres of farmland, in an effort to contribute something good to the world. After much research and thought, his contribution turned out to be organically farming hemp. At his Margent Farm in Cambridgeshire, Steve was able to build his farmhouse, a carbon-negative building, constructed from the hemp grown in the surrounding fields.Stay tuned to learn how Steve Barron built his house from hemp, the perils of farming and how hemp might the innovation material of the future!Our show notes are packed with links and extra information. Find them here.Follow The Forward Lab on Instagram @theforwardlab

Today we sat down with Tessa Clarke, the co-founder of OLIO, an app that connects neighbours with each other and with local businesses so that surplus food can be shared and saved, instead of being thrown away. Whether this is food nearing its sell-by date in local stores, bread from the bakers or groceries in the fridge - simply open the app, add a photo, description when the item is available for pick-up and you're done! OLIO can even be used for non-food household items too. Stay tuned to learn about her ‘lightbulb' moment of creating the app, the challenges she's faced since its launch in 2015, followed by the company's many successes and growth. Our show notes are packed with links and extra information. Find them here.Follow The Forward Lab on Instagram @theforwardlab

We sat down with Amanda Ho, to discuss how regenerative travel goes beyond sustainability. Amanda is the co-founder of Regenerative Travel, a booking platform with a collective of independently owned eco-luxury boutique hotels. It aims to connect travellers with places that are ‘rooted in community and actively advance efforts that enable people, nature, and culture to thrive'. Regenerative Travel hosted the Travel Summit 2021 in September. Ho believes that the travel industry can serve as a catalyst for change, generating economic, social, and environmental wealth. The summit brought together thought leaders and emerging innovators to discuss practical solutions for the industry's greatest challenges and tools to unite travel with conscious consumers' desire to do good. Stay tuned to learn about the world's most planet-friendly booking platform and the destinations you should be adding to your bucket list! Our show notes are packed with links and extra information. Find them here.Follow The Forward Lab on Instagram @theforwardlab

On today's show, we're joined by Molly Hart, founder of HIGHR Collective, a clean beauty brand that offers organic lipsticks, which are also 100% carbon neutral. Hart began her career as a make-up artist before moving into digital marketing where she gained a unique perspective on sustainability.Lipsticks are the most invasive cosmetic, and Molly aims to deliver radical transparency into the products, processes, and raw materials.Keep listening to learn more about the beauty industry and how HIGHR Collective has managed to create a completely carbon neutral product with a transparent supply chain. Our show notes are packed with links and extra information. Find them here.Follow The Forward Lab on Instagram @theforwardlab

Today, on The Forward Minds podcast, we spoke to the co-founders of Kimai - a Belgium-based jewellery brand that focuses on lab-grown diamonds. Sidney Neuhaus and Jessica Warch grew up together in Antwerp, also known as the diamond capital of the world, before relocating to London. It was here where they solidified their passion for sustainably-sourced jewellery and launched the lab-grown diamond brand, Kimai. Neuhaus and Warch joined us to discuss the impact of mining and how lab-grown diamonds are physically and chemically identical, and without the negative social and environmental impact. Kimai was launched in 2018 and has successfully cut out the mines and middlemen for a more transparent and sustainable process from design to delivery. Our show notes are packed with links and extra information. Find them here.Follow The Forward Lab on Instagram @theforwardlab

Biophilica is at the intersection of nature, design and science. Meet founder Mira Nameth, the designer who tells us how we are just at the beginning of a plant revolution where we will see an explosion of green chemistry.The leather industry represents $50bn and has extreme environmental and human impacts. Vegan leather known as PU and PVC do have a lower water and carbon footprint but they still have traces of plastic.Enters TreeKind, the first material created by Biophilica, a plastic-free, carbon-neutral vegan leather made from green waste - leaf, twigs, grass...Our show notes are packed with links and extra information. Find them here.Follow The Forward Lab on Instagram @theforwardlab

Did you know that every second, the equivalent of a rubbish truck load of clothes is burnt or buried in landfill. The average number of times a garment is worn before it ceases to be used has decreased by 36% compared to 15 years ago. We now produce around 100 billion garments a year, and of this total fibre input that is used for clothing, 87% ends up landfilled or incinerated. Meet Christina Dean, fashion waste warrior and the founder of Redress, a Hong Kong-based NGO that works to reduce fashion waste. Former journalist, Christina is the co-author of Dress With Sense and the host of documentary series, Frontline Fashion.In this episode, we talk about Christina's work at Redress, The R Collective and the Redress Awards. Christina shares her feelings about the fashion industry, we discuss circularity and stay tuned to get her tips on how to be more conscious with your clothes.Our show notes are packed with links and extra information. Find them here.Follow The Forward Lab on Instagram @theforwardlab

For the last episode of Season 1, our founder Joy sits with the inspiring Wilson Oryema - poet, curator and activist, about how art can be used to harness change and move towards a more sustainable world. Wilson is an advocate of a more sustainable fashion industry, and uses his voice to inspire a whole new generation of people to think differently about the impacts they can make. He is a Co-Founder of Regenerative Futures, a Social Change Initiative, and Surface Tension, a platform centred around realising the positive potential of materials. He also explores his interests through various mediums, including, text, image, film, and more. This includes the recent documentary “How Toxic Are My Clothes?”. As well as, his books of poetry on the topic, “WAIT” and “haha”.

Today we're talking about the rental revolution with By Rotation founder, Eshita Kabra-Davies. In case you don't have it downloaded already, By Rotation is the UK's leading peer-to-peer fashion rental app. It focuses on building a strong community of rotators and allows you to get a new garment guilt-free. Let's find out more about Eshita and why sharing really is caring when it comes to the environment.

Today we're joined by Amy Christiansen who founded the socially conscious fragrance house Sana Jardin in 2017. If you've been asking yourself if perfume could ever be sustainable? Well, we have the answer for you. Sana Jardin is built upon an alternative business model ‘Beyond Sustainability', developed by Amy herself. The brand upcycles waste products from perfume production and empowers female flower harvesters in the supply chain to become ‘micro entrepreneurs'. Let's jump right in and discover more about Amy's incredible career, and how Sana Jardin is contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Based in Los Angeles, Dittmer is an international sustainable brand consultant and fashion stylist. She passionately champions ‘impact-forward' fashion, transparency and inclusivity, while always finding the best sustainable brands out there.Stay tuned as we discuss everything from finding the right values to more conscious shopping habits...Our show notes are packed with links and extra information. Find them here.Follow The Forward Lab on Instagram @theforwardlab

On today's show we're joined by Oyuna Tserendorj, the founder and creative director of heer eponymous brand. Known for architectural silhouettes and uplifting hues, Oyuna uses one soft, natural fibre in particular: Mongolian cashmere. Cashmere, the ‘diamond of fibres', represents 4bn of the 60bn global luxury market. The demand keeps on growing creating a vicious circle that is weakening Mongolia's cashmere supply while wrecking its natural environment. Keep listening to learn why cashmere is so precious and why protecting its supply chain is essential. Go to www.theforwardlab.com for the shownotes Follow The Forward Lab on Instagram @theforwardlab

Today we meet Laura Roso Vidrequin, a former buyer for Net a Porter and Moda Operandi who launched Kids'Oclock, an online platform focused on recycling clothing for babies from birth up to 10 years old. Between the ages of 0-3 years, kids get through around 8-10 sizes. This means that approximately 90% of their wardrobe is rarely used, sometimes untouched. When we consider the huge waste problem that exists in fashion, it would be ridiculous to ignore childrenswear as a contributing factor. Tune in to dive with us into the very promising world of second-hand clothing and the fashion industry's shift into a more circular economy. Go to www.theforwardlab.com for the shownotes Follow The Forward Lab on Instagram @theforwardlab

Following the motto “what goes around, comes around,” KanKan is working to reduce single-use plastics in the home by taking refills mainstream. Today we sit down with Eliza Flanagan, the brand's co-founder to discuss why refill is the future! Go to www.theforwardlab.com for the shownotes Follow The Forward Lab on Instagram @theforwardlab Created with vegan and natural formulas, KanKan's products are all conveniently canned, ready to be cracked and poured into luxurious ‘Forever' bottles. Let's discover the pros of aluminium and what role the personal care category can play in a circular economy.

Today we're asking the question: ‘how do you turn trash into treasure?' Joining us to explain is Genia Mineeva – the founder and creative director of sustainable accessories brand Been London. Passionate about zero waste design, circularity and supporting local makers, she believes in both innovation and the art of collaboration. Stay tuned as we find out more about her label's use of recycled materials and what challenges fashion still needs to overcome for a better future. Go to www.theforwardlab.com for the shownotes Follow The Forward Lab on Instagram @theforwardlab

Meet Anna Brightman, co-founder of Upcircle, an exciting beauty brand with a positive impact. Upcircle collects used coffee grounds (and other very exciting by-products) from coffee shops throughout London to produce sustainable skincare products. Discover how they are turning your morning coffee into amazing beauty products while saving 80 tonnes of coffee grounds from going to landfill and how breaking into beauty requires constant improvement as well as a strong focus on never compromising on your values. Go to www.theforwardlab.com for the shownotes Follow The Forward Lab on Instagram @theforwardlab

Meet Vanessa Barboni-Halik, founder of sustainable fashion brand, Another Tomorrow. Modern sustainable luxury at its best, Another Tomorrow focuses on: conscious foundational clothes, education, and providing a platform for discovery, action and activism. Today, Vanessa tells us about her switch from finance to fashion, and how the boundaries are there to be pushed when it comes to what responsible and ethical materials can achieve. Go to www.theforwardlab.com for the shownotes Follow The Forward Lab on Instagram @theforwardlab

Today we're chatting to the “Queen of Thrift” herself: Bay Garnett. The first to include vintage pieces in luxury shoots, Bay is an esteemed stylist, editor, author and creative director with over two decades worth of experience in the world of fashion. Taking a break from her own podcast ‘This Old Thing', she joins us to talk about her vintage debut with ‘Cheap Date', her amazing on-going work with Oxfam and what she thinks the future of vintage will look like. Go to www.theforwardlab.com for the shownotes Follow The Forward Lab on Instagram @theforwardlab

For the launch of Season 1 of The Forward Minds podcast, we are joined by sustainable travel expert, Juliet Kinsman: writer, consultant and Condé Nast Traveller's first-ever Sustainability Editor. Juliet is also the founder of Bouteco, a luxury consultancy boutique and the author of ‘The Green Edit: Easy Tips for the Eco-Friendly Traveller'. She shares with us today how positive change is possible, without being too radical. Go to www.theforwardlab.com for the shownotes Follow The Forward Lab on Instagram @theforwardlab