Where does corporate hesitancy to speak up about environmental values actually come from?

In this episode, we sit down with Paul Hendricks, Executive Director of The Conservation Alliance, a coalition of more than 270 businesses, from outdoor brands to brewers to banks, that pool their money and their voices to protect wild places across North America. Paul knows the work from both sides of the table, spending eight years leading social and environmental impact at Patagonia, then building advocacy and philanthropic programs at Rivian, where he brought the company into the Alliance as a member before stepping in to lead it.

Neil and Paul get into why the outdoor economy rarely shows up on a balance sheet, even though it shows up on the balance sheets of every brand that depends on public lands.

Dive into the episode to hear Paul make the case that mission-driven companies talk too much about impact and not enough about economics, and explain why brands that go quiet on their values during a political moment pay for it later.

CONNECT WITH PAUL & THE CONSERVATION ALLIANCE

The Conservation Alliance: https://conservationalliance.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conservationalliance

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-conservation-alliance
Paul on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-hendricks-14a8563/

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Save Public Lands: https://www.savepubliclands.us

Cherry Republic:https://www.cherryrepublic.com

The River of Doubt by Candice Millard: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/114422/the-river-of-doubt-by-candice-millard/9780307575081/

Bonfire Burritos, Golden, CO.: https://bonfireburritos.com

For our 2nd episode of Season 2, Neil is joined by Austin Whitman, CEO and co-founder of The Change Climate Project, the nonprofit behind The Climate Label and the Business Emissions Evaluator.

Austin has spent more than two decades building markets for clean energy and carbon, including a stint selling carbon credits to spring breakers in grad school. He co-founded the organization in 2019 as Climate Neutral, alongside Jonathan Cedar of BioLite and Peter Dering of Peak Design (who joined us in Season 1). They dive into why Austin’s team doesn’t certify “hopes and dreams,” and what it means to measure money already spent instead of a pledge for 2050.

Take a listen to learn what most brands get wrong when marketing their climate impact, plus what gets lost between a sustainability team doing excellent work and a marketing team that never hears about it.

Follow Austin & The Climate Change Project

• The Change Climate Project: https://www.changeclimate.org
• On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/changeclimate

Austin’s Mentions & Recs

• The Climate Claims Checker: https://www.changeclimate.org/climate-claims-checker
• How Climate Label certification works: https://www.changeclimate.org/how-it-works
• BioLite, co-founded by Jonathan Cedar: https://www.bioliteenergy.com
• Peak Design, co-founded by Peter Dering: https://www.peakdesign.com
• Festool: https://www.festoolusa.com
• Lodge Cast Iron: https://www.lodgecastiron.com
• The Light Eaters by Zoë Schlanger: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-light-eaters-zoe-schlanger
• Shift Key from Heatmap News, hosted by Robinson Meyer: https://shows.acast.com/shift-key
• Parish Café, Boston: https://parishcafe.com/

We’re diving into season 2 with guest Adam Hiner, CEO and co-founder of Pacha, an organic, gluten-free bakery making bread and tortillas from just two simple ingredients: sprouted buckwheat and sea salt. Adam takes us through his unique serial entrepreneurship journey across San Diego's food scene—from pioneering organic catering and farm-to-table dining to founding Boochcraft, California’s first hard kombucha brand.

Neil and Adam get into the realities of modern brand building, discussing how to balance various stakeholders without sacrificing mission or commercial growth. Adam also shares how Pacha utilizes the Purpose Pledge framework to operationalize company-wide strategy, and why purpose serves as the ultimate internal fire that sustains an entrepreneur through the darkest challenges of business.

Links & Resources

• Follow Adam and Pacha
  • Pacha Website: https://livepacha.com
  • Pacha Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/livepacha
  • Adam Hiner LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamhiner/

• Adam's recs & mentions
  • Boochcraft: https://boochcraft.com
  • Trilogy Sanctuary: https://www.trilogysanctuary.com
  • One Step Closer (OSC): https://osc2.org
  • The Purpose Pledge: https://www.purposepledge.org
  • Soil Carbon Initiative (SCI): https://www.soilcarboninitiative.org
  • This Is Strategy by Seth Godin: https://sethgodin.com
  • The Future is Peace by Aziz Abu-Sarah and Maoz Inon: https://www.azizabusarah.com
  • GOODONYA Cafe: 1051 S Coast Hwy 101, Encinitas, CA 92024