Straight Talking Sustainability

In this action-packed solo episode of Straight Talking Sustainability, host Emma Burlow delivers exactly what sustainability-conscious listeners have been asking for: five straightforward switches that make the biggest dent in your personal carbon footprint, complete with referral codes, money-off promotions, and practical bonus links worth £332 to remove every excuse for inaction.Top 5 Carbon‑Cutting Hacks1. Switch Bank 💰🌍One of the biggest instant switches you can make - though it’s rarely included in carbon footprint tools!£10k saved in a high‑street bank (e.g. HSBC, Barclays) = over 2 tonnes CO₂The same amount with Nationwide or the Co‑operative Bank = less than 0.5 tonnes CO₂Bonuses:Nationwide: £175 switch bonusCo‑op Bank: £100 switch bonusResources:MotherTree’s Carbon Emissions Bank League Table (June 2023)Bank.Green – find ethical & sustainable banks near you2. Switch to Renewable Electricity ⚡🌱One of the first and most impactful steps:Cuts dependence on imported fossil fuelsReduces carbon emissionsSupports the transition to a greener grid📊 In the UK, renewables in the national grid have grown from 14% to 41% in just one year.Resources:UN & Carbon Brief: Five reasons why switching to renewables is smart economicsOctopus referral link: £50 credit3. Switch OFF or DOWN 🔌❄️Small changes at home = big savings.Smart meters: save £50+ per year and give real‑time control over energy usePrinciple: If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage itInsulation: pays for itself quickly once you start tracking usageThermostat: set to 18°C (WHO guidance for healthy adults; slightly higher for very young/old)

In this career-focused episode of Straight Talking Sustainability, host Emma Burlow sits down with Nick Valenzia, co-founder of Leafr (the world's largest marketplace for sustainability skills), to unpack the brutal realities facing sustainability professionals today: unclear career pathways, exhausting job searches, and the dangerous myth that passion alone will get you ahead.Nick reveals how Leafr was born from his own frustrating experience trying to freelance in sustainability after his master's degree, unable to find a single platform connecting independent consultants with companies needing short-term expertise. Despite launching with an "embarrassing website" (his words), the platform snowballed because it solved a real friction between supply and demand, now connecting over 2,000 vetted experts with hundreds of companies across three continents at approximately one third the cost of traditional consultancies.The conversation tackles the uncomfortable truth that "sustainability professional" isn't actually a meaningful job title. As Nick puts it: "What is a sustainability professional? I've yet to see a good definition. We all know what doctors do, but sustainability covers everything from carbon accounting to biodiversity to materials innovation to solar panels in space. There's not that much linking them apart from this higher mission to help the environment."Emma and Nick explore why this creates impossible confusion for people trying to build careers in the space, with no clear door to walk through and no obvious progression from five years' experience to ten years' experience (unlike law, medicine, or accounting where pathways are well established). The sector's rapid evolution means traditional markers like "ten years' experience" become meaningless when regulations like biodiversity net gain only launched last year.Drawing on Cal Newport's book "Be So Good They Can't Ignore You", Emma challenges the sustainability sector's obsession with passion over mastery. She argues that telling someone "it's great you're so passionate about this" is actually dangerous advice, both financially and professionally, because passion doesn't convince others of your expertise and won't help you get funded by CFOs who care about compliance risk and customer acquisition, not moral arguments about emissions.Nick provides the episode's most practical advice for career progression: "Get good at selling it and framing it in terms the rest of the company will understand. If you want to convince the CEO and CFO why your programme should be funded, just saying 'we need to cut our emissions' unfortunately isn't going to cut it. What cuts it is saying 'we risk being fined if we don't comply with this regulation' or 'we'll win X percent more customers because we know they want this.'"The episode systematically explores the skills gap from both sides of Leafr's marketplace: companies that don't know what they need (let alone how to scope projects, set budgets, or determine which regulations affect them) and professionals who can't find work despite thousands applying for the same roles. Nick explains how Leafr's AI tools help companies at that critical first stage, mapping out what potentially affects them and what they need to do, freeing up budget to shift from compliance investment to innovation and reduction investment.Emma and Nick dig into quality assurance in a sector flooded with new entrants, where AI might give someone a few years' head start in appearing competent without actual depth of experience. Nick reveals Leafr's four-step vetting process (written application, skill-level self-assessment with expert-level interviewing, referrals and case studies, behavioural and competency assessment, plus ongoing performance monitoring) that's led to zero unhappy clients to date despite hundreds of projects.The conversation addresses

In this game-changing solo episode of Straight Talking Sustainability, host Emma Burlow reveals the counterintuitive strategy that's transforming how organisations achieve climate action: forget trying to convince everyone and focus on activating just 25% of your workforce to create unstoppable momentum.Emma unpacks the frustrating paradox facing sustainability professionals everywhere: if 80% of UK adults care about climate change (DESNZ 2025) and 73% of businesses say they're prioritising net zero (Net Zero Business Census 2025), why does driving action feel so impossibly difficult? The answer lies in understanding tipping points, social norming, and the critical mass needed to shift organisational culture from apathy to action.Drawing on behavioural psychology research from the University of Pennsylvania, Emma explains how social change movements (from Me Too to Black Lives Matter) achieve transformation when approximately 25% of a community actively engages. This isn't about awareness or concern (that's your 80%), this is about people willing to bring sustainability into their work conversations, decisions, and daily actions without being asked.The episode challenges the exhausting approach most sustainability professionals are taking: picking off individuals one by one, hunting for ambassadors, playing the long game of incremental change. Instead, Emma advocates for strategic activation of your critical 25% (one in four people in any meeting room) who then naturally lead the remaining 75% through social norming and peer influence.Emma shares a powerful case study from the housing sector where training just 50 to 60 people (around 25% of a 200-person organisation) over five to six months created a complete cultural transformation. The shift wasn't about hitting carbon targets immediately but about transitioning people from "somebody else's target, I'll get on with my job" to "I'm behind this target, this is what I do to contribute, and I've got loads of ideas." The organisation moved from having virtually no one able to articulate their net zero strategy to ensuring every meeting with four or more people included at least one carbon-literate advocate who would naturally raise sustainability considerations.The episode systematically dismantles three persistent myths: that you need 100% buy-in to succeed, that targets automatically equal action (spoiler: there's a massive target-action gap), and that individual champions alone can create the momentum needed for transformation. Emma argues that whilst your 1% to 2% early adopters might be important sparks, they never achieve critical mass without a deliberate strategy to activate the broader 25%.Emma introduces the concept of the "messy middle" (the 60% to 80% of your organisation between the 10% to 20% who are already committed and the 10% to 20% you'll likely never convince). This messy middle is where your 25% lives, and Emma provides practical frameworks for identifying them through three strategic lenses: roles where climate action has the most impact (facilities, supply chain, commercial, finance), teams that interact with key stakeholders (marketing, sales, customer-facing roles), and individuals already showing quiet interest regardless of their position.The episode explores why the value-action gap persists despite high levels of concern, examining how busy professionals who genuinely care about climate change remain silent because they assume others don't care and fear looking like "the social pariah" who disrupts business as usual. Emma explains how this creates a vicious cycle where everyone waits for permission and social norming that never comes, resulting in organisations with strong ambition, brilliant strategies, and even budgets that still feel like they're dragging their people through sustainability rather than being driven by them.Drawing...

In this inspiring and deeply personal episode of Straight Talking Sustainability, host Emma Burlow sits down with Ben Luger, Marketing Project Specialist at Ecosurety, to explore how volunteering can be the secret weapon for engaging people in climate action whilst simultaneously improving mental health and building stronger communities. Ben's journey from delivering carbon literacy training to establishing a thriving community tree nursery in just 12 months demonstrates how individual action, when channelled through community organising, creates exponential impact without the overwhelming time and energy drain that most people fear.Ben traces his volunteering journey back to an unexpected source: delivering carbon literacy training for the packaging sector. Whilst training others about the causes and impacts of the climate crisis, he found himself experiencing increasing climate anxiety despite making personal lifestyle changes (not flying, barely using a car, cutting meat consumption, sustainable banking). The deep dive into climate science that carbon literacy demands created an "itching urge" to do more, which reached a tipping point at the Blue Earth Summit in 2024.After two days of talks, panels, and workshops, Ben felt simultaneously enlightened and frustrated by what he describes as an "echo chamber of the same people coming together to talk about it." The breakthrough came during a session called Reasons To Be Cheerful featuring inspiring community activists including Speech Debelle (who launched Black Fish to connect Black communities with fishing and nature) and No Ven (who transformed a community garden whilst escaping years of abuse). Two days after that talk, Ben was writing emails to launch his own community tree nursery project.What makes Ben's story particularly powerful for sustainability professionals experiencing burnout is how he found an existing community organisation (Rooted Chippenham) rather than starting from scratch. By approaching an established Community Interest Company with an existing volunteer base of 30 people, polytunnel, and governance structure, Ben could piggyback on infrastructure whilst contributing his marketing and communications skills. The group launched a crowd funder with match funding and hit their initial target within 24 hours, ultimately raising nearly three times their goal (£4,300) by the campaign's end.The conversation explores why volunteering works where other engagement approaches fail. Ben describes discovering an "extended family" of like-minded people on his doorstep who share the same worries, anxieties, and motivations. This social connection creates energy rather than draining it, transforming what could feel like another burden into something people actively look forward to. Emma relates her own volunteering experiences (parkrun, local library, helplines) and reflects on how people outside the volunteering world consistently underestimate the benefits whilst overestimating the time commitment.Ben candidly discusses how volunteering has become his antidote to climate and biodiversity crises, particularly during a difficult year when grief from his father's death resurfaced a decade later. His GP prescribed nature, which led Ben to recognise how local nature-based projects offer something uniquely cleansing and energising. Now running both the tree nursery (growing around 1,000 trees annually for free distribution to local residents) and community bat walks, Ben describes feeling "unburdened" compared to the anxiety that previously consumed him.For workplace applications, Ben explains that whilst Ecosurety offers three volunteering days annually (with corporate sponsorship for his projects), only about one third of employees across organisations typically use these days. The challenge is not lack of...

In this landmark anniversary episode of Straight Talking Sustainability, host Emma Burlow celebrates one year of the podcast by revisiting the most impactful moments from five extraordinary guests who have shared their hard-earned wisdom over the past 12 months. After nearly 30 years in the sustainability sector, Emma knows that we simply do not have time to keep knowledge locked away, which is why she launched this podcast to democratise sustainability expertise and make connections across industries, backgrounds, and experience levels.This bumper compilation episode features powerful excerpts from conversations with industry leaders, changemakers, and thought leaders who are actively transforming how we approach climate action, carbon literacy, sustainable living, and systemic change. From heavy industry decarbonisation to personal behaviour change, from ambitious climate action to managing eco-anxiety, these voices represent the breadth and depth of sustainability challenges and solutions.Nicola Jones, Market Business Development Manager at Tata Steel UK, shares insights from the frontlines of industrial transformation, revealing how a £1.25 billion investment in electric arc furnace technology will deliver an immediate 90% carbon reduction when it comes online in 2027. Her perspective dismantles the myth that heavy industry resists climate action, demonstrating instead how customer Scope 3 emissions requirements are driving rapid change. Nicola explains why companies that fail to decarbonise will lose customers within five to ten years, making sustainability not just ethical but essential for business survival.Briony Pete, Director at The Circular Life, explores the critical importance of mindset in sustainability work, tackling imposter syndrome, overwhelm, and the burnout that sustainability professionals frequently experience. She introduces practical frameworks for understanding where people are on their sustainability journey (from closed to leadership-ready) and emphasises the power of meeting people where they are rather than expecting everyone to jump to expert level immediately. Her insights about moving from judgement to curiosity offer a roadmap for more effective sustainability communication.Andy Middleton, Co-Founder of Do Good Faster, brings a provocative perspective on ambition and long-term thinking. Drawing on his experience taking 200,000 people safely through potentially dangerous outdoor adventures, he argues that we are facing a "big volume class five rapid" as a species, yet most people have not even looked at the river or understand the terminology. He challenges the notion of being "realistic" by arguing that true realism means preparing for the threats and opportunities ahead with appropriate urgency and scale.Jen Gale, Author of The Sustainable(ish) Living Guide, offers candid reflections on managing climate anxiety whilst doing advocacy work, the power of reaching mainstream audiences rather than preaching to the converted, and why influence often creates unseen ripples that advocates may never witness. Her work with schools, veterinary practices, and the Sustainable(ish) community demonstrates how embedding sustainability conversations in trusted community institutions can create exponential impact.Phil Korbel, co-founder of the Carbon Literacy Project, explains how carbon literacy training has become one of the most powerful tools for closing the gap between net zero targets and actual action. With examples ranging from AutoTrader (a FTSE 100 company driven by employee demand) to the British Plastics Federation, Phil demonstrates that carbon literacy works across all sectors by giving people the emotional engagement and practical agency to act on climate knowledge they may already possess intellectually.Throughout...