120. Taking Business Net Positive with Paul Polman & Andrew Winston
Outrage + Optimism: The Climate Podcast
Persephonica
4.7 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 14 October 2021
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For the first time ever, we are all in-person bringing you this episode from the TED Countdown Summit in Edinburgh! TED Countdown is an event that officially kicked off on 12th October and encompasses four days of inspiring talks, collaboration, connections and commitments to meaningful action for a better world ahead of COP26.
Our guest today is Paul Polman, return Outrage + Optimism guest and a celebrated business leader who made sustainability the heart of a global consumer business’ growth agenda in his former role as CEO of Unilever. He is joined by one of the most widely read, published and acclaimed writers on sustainability, Andrew Winston, to talk about the new book the two have co-authored, “Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take”.
We unpack the ways the book re-frames how business can put a lasting end inequality and climate change. Can every business be Net Positive? Find out!
Stick around for a track of epic proportions from musical guest, WACO.
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Christiana + Tom’s book ‘The Future We Choose’ is available now!
Subscribe to our Climate Action Newsletter: Signals Amidst The Noise
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Mentioned links from the episode:
Go buy Paul + Andrew’s new book: Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take
TED Countdown!
Blog (Day 2) | Twitter | Instagram
Clay Recommends - Visualizing Climate Change: An Open Call For Photography
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Thank you to our guests this week, Paul Polman and Andrew Winston!
Paul Polman
Influencer, business leader, campaigner
Andrew Winston
Writer, Adviser/Speaker on Megatrends & Sustainability, Consultant on Corporate Strategy
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Amazing music this week was from WACO!
WACO
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Spotify
You gotta see their punkishly cosmic music video for “A New Future”
They have a physical copy of their latest record for sale out on Venn Records, made from leftover waste vinyl: “Hope Rituals” - Buy It!
Sales will be donated to Beyond Gender - Please check out the work they are doing to create a fairer and safer society.
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Keep up with Christiana Figueres here:
Tom Rivett-Carnac:
Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn
Paul Dickinson:
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Okay, are we actually recording everything in silence here? No, no, I can't even start |
| 0:09.3 | recording yet. Now we're recording. Good morning. This is the world service of the BBC. |
| 0:15.2 | It's pulled to Kingston in person. Look at that. And you know who else it is? It's Clay |
| 0:19.1 | Connell. This is the first time. We have ever been together in one room. Can you believe |
| 0:25.1 | we need this podcast? Seriously, the first time in two years. I just met Paul in person |
| 0:29.5 | for the first time. Marina's here too. Marina's here. Marina's here. It is six o'clock |
| 0:33.7 | in the morning. We're in a hotel room in Edinburgh. It's Marina's play Tom Paul and myself |
| 0:38.9 | I cannot believe it in one room. It was only this kind of an event that could get this |
| 0:43.6 | level of energy at six o'clock in the morning. Marina, can you just stop filming us sitting |
| 0:47.4 | in a hotel table and come and say hello to the listeners. Please. Good morning, everyone. |
| 0:54.0 | All right. Here we go. |
| 1:09.8 | Hello and welcome to Outrage and Optimism coming to you for the first time ever with all |
| 1:14.1 | of us in one place. I'm Tom Rificanec. I'm Cristiana Figueroos. And I'm Paul Vickinson. |
| 1:18.9 | Today, we talk about the narrowing path to COP26 and what Alok Sharma has been pushing |
| 1:23.6 | the world's largest economies to do. We speak to Paul Polman and Andrew Winston, authors |
| 1:28.5 | of the new book, Net Positive. And we have music from Waco. Thanks for being here. |
| 1:43.8 | So it is extremely exciting to see you both. How nice to be together. |
| 1:48.9 | Last time we were all together, I think was in a toilet in San Francisco, wasn't it? |
| 1:52.3 | I thought we agreed we'd never talk about that. I mean, we were recording that, too. |
| 1:56.5 | And I thought I had explained that a toilet is not a room in the United States. |
| 2:01.3 | We were in a toilet. We were in the restaurant. There we go. There we go. |
| 2:05.6 | We were recording. That's not quite true, actually. We were together at the very beginning |
... |
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