The Power of Collective Climate Action with Tradewater's Jenny Morgan

Ready to unearth some mechanisms behind combating greenhouse gases and climate change? Join me in this enlightening conversation with Jenny Morgan, a passionate environmental justice advocate, and Market Development Manager at Tradewater. We dive straight into Tradewater's remarkable work in managing halocarbons and methane equivalent to a staggering 6.7 million metric tons of CO2, and the profound impact this has on our environment.

The episode takes a fascinating turn as we brave the choppy waters of cancel culture, greenwashing, and greenHUSHING. We break down how these controversial topics shape climate discourse and the cascading effects they have on brands like Windex and Nature Valley. Striking an optimistic note, we reveal how you can be a catalyst for change, starting with the power of your dollar. Then, we peel back the layers of the complex task of plugging orphaned oil and gas wells and the environmental hazards posed by leaking methane.

No stone is left unturned as we delve into the transformative power of collective action in curbing climate change. We share inspiring stories from Tradewater's impactful initiatives in Ghana and the courageous individuals on the frontlines of environmental conservation. The conversation takes a serious turn as we reflect on the ramifications of the Supreme Court's decision to lift federal protections for the majority of our wetlands. We round up the episode with a detailed discussion on B Corp certification, the insidious influence of greenwashing, and the potential of collective action to make a tangible difference in the fight against climate change.

Learn more at https://tradewater.us; Drawdown Solutions Library | Project Drawdown, and Giving Green | High-impact climate giving.

Dirigo Collective Website

Transcript

Jenny Morgan: 0:04

Climate risk is everyone's risk. It's business risks, it's humanity's risk, it's livelihood risk. It's not. It's going to make everyone's lives more challenging.

Benn Marine: 0:19

Welcome to Impact Chats, a responsibly different podcast sharing conversations with industry leaders, leveraging business as a force for good. Team. Welcome to another episode of Impact Chats. I'm really excited for this one. On today's show, our guest is Jenny Morgan, an environmental justice advocate and a market development manager at Tradewater. Tradewater is a certified B Corp offering climate solutions with permanency, and you'll learn more about what that is in just a moment. Today, tradewater has collected, controlled and destroyed halo carbons and methane equivalent to more than 6 million metric tons of CO2. In our conversation, we unpack the work that Tradewater is doing, how it works and serves a planet, and how we all need to be celebrating winds, large and small, that support our home planet. Jenny, super excited to have you on the show To jump in. I'd love to hear a little bit about Tradewater and what brought you to Tradewater.

Jenny Morgan: 1:37

Sure. So Tradewater is a company that is targeting non-CO2 greenhouse gases specifically, and so these greenhouse gases have a really high potency. They have a global warming potential in the thousands the various chemicals and substances that we're looking to prevent from entering the atmosphere so they warm the planet quite quickly and by eliminating them permanently or permanently stopping them from leaking, we can have a huge impact on climate change. For me personally, I worked at a large tech organization and I was looking for climate solutions that had that immediate gratification that I wanted to see. I had gone through a bit of a professional and personal experience where there were wild fires, covid, I had two little kids under three and it was a lot, two big dogs I mean, the list can go on living life, but under the circumstances that we weren't experiencing beforehand, and I felt like it was a time for me to really start doing something and I wanted to go beyond what I had been doing when having multiple receptacles in my kitchen and trying to sort things appropriately. I wanted to take it a step further.

Jenny Morgan: 3:00

I heard about Tradewater on a podcast. I really liked that. It's clean, you find gas, you destroy it permanently, it's gone forever and the impact is completed and I really liked how clean and immediate that solution was and I was really looking for something like that to kind of give me some hope at the time. And we worked together as partners for a few years and then I jumped at the chance to join the team full time. So now I've been here for a little over a year.

Benn Marine: 3:29

That's amazing, and so I'm so curious to better understand, and for our listeners to better understand, the permanency piece of this. So when you say, like destroy those gases, so we're talking about gases that are trapped somewhere.

Jenny Morgan: 3:45

Yeah, so there's three types of substances that we target specifically. One are halo carbons, and that's split into two groups refrigerants and halons. So refrigerants are coolant they would be any type of appliance that needs to manage its temperature and then a halon is a fire suppressant. Now, a halon is typically used in situations where water is not a good solution to prevent or stop a fire. So a data center, a museum, anywhere where they wouldn't want to spray a bunch of water somewhere, they would be using this type of fire suppressant because it's not water-based.

Jenny Morgan: 4:25

But both of these substances, in a few decades ago, were created at massive scale and they were deemed incredibly harmful for the planet, not only just due to the planet, but also because they're ozone depleting, and so they were banned from production, but there's no mandate to actually destroy them. So when that phase-out period happened, there was a huge push in making as many of these substances as possible, because they wouldn't be allowed to in the future, and then, with this huge surge of supply, they were banned. And then now they're just out there in the world existing today, billions upon billions of tons of them sitting in metal canisters being used in existing appliances. And when they're done, being used, you don't have to destroy them, and so we want to come in there and actually make sure that there's an end-of-life solution provided, so that they are permanently destroyed, that they aren't used again or just thrown into a landfill somewhere and then leaked and so what does the destruction look like?

Benn Marine: 5:33

I imagine you can't burn them right, Because that would really sit into the atmosphere. How does that work?

Jenny Morgan: 5:38

Yes, so there's two types of ways that you can destroy refrigerants and halons. You can either use heat or chemical. We use heat, so basically we have a rotary kiln. It's a really large kiln where all the gas is consolidated into this one structure. It's heated to about 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit and what that does is it causes the molecules to then break down. For us to participate in the carbon market, 99.99% of these gases have to be permanently destroyed, and then that 0.01% is actually transformed into either CO2 or water, which is released into the out of the smokestack, and that's 0.01%. So there is a little bit of water and carbon that's created in the process of destroying it, but it's so minimal, especially because of not only the percentage but also the global warming potential. These gases are so nasty that having a little bit of carbon leak out in the heating process is definitely a small drip in the bucket. Compared to some of these, cfcs are 10,200, have a global warming potential of 10,000 more than carbon, so they're really highly impactful.

Benn Marine: 6:51

So I'm just thinking to really put into layman's terms that impact of that 10,000X right Like, yeah, I don't know, Is there a good kind of?

Jenny Morgan: 7:01

Yeah, so I can give you. So the other gas that we prevent is methane. So methane is 84 times more potent than carbon. So carbon has a global warming potential of one. Methane is 84. Halons are about 7,000. And then the refrigerants we destroy are a little over 10,000.

Jenny Morgan: 7:20

So there's a spectrum of some gases that we're either talking about today or some of us have heard of. If you think of one ton of a refrigerant, that's equal to 1.4 homes in the US being powered for an entire year. So it's huge. And that's just one ton, and that's the equivalency of these types of gases, and so that's really what trade water is building our business on. We're trying to take the big swings against climate change, and we can do so by targeting these gases specifically.

Benn Marine: 7:54

That's amazing and so that's also part of the. You kind of mentioned this the carbon offsetting market. Now I feel like we're in this moment in time where people talk about carbon offsetting and it's super unregulated and it's hard to know what's legit and what's not, and what's actually helping and what could be a little shady. I'm curious if you have any thoughts or advice for folks on navigating that landscape.

Jenny Morgan: 8:20

Yeah, I have a lot of thoughts on it. So there's ways that you can consider a climate benefit. You can talk about it as a carbon offset or a carbon credit. I personally have been using carbon credit a bit more, because an offset is assuming intent of the use of it they're looking to offset their emission Whereas a credit it's just, it doesn't have any of that intention built behind it or assumption built behind it. It's literally a token that represents a climate benefit. Use as as you will. But I like that just because it has a bit more. It has less of a emotional tie to it, because there's a misconception that offsets encourage the abuse of climate benefits and that's actually a misconception.

Jenny Morgan: 9:15

There was a really great study done by Silvara where they took 100 companies and they looked over, looked at them for about nine years.

Jenny Morgan: 9:26

50% of them purchased offsets and 50% didn't, and the ones that did purchase offsets decarbonized their entire organization two times the rate faster than the ones that didn't, and so you can kind of see it as a tool to influence further change.

Jenny Morgan: 9:45

It's allowing you to get those wins in while you're still trying to figure out how you are going to lower your footprint at such a massive rate that you've publicly committed to, and so they can really be used as a tool, not only for businesses, but, from my way of looking at it, they represent a climate solution, and so without the carbon market, trade, waters work wouldn't exist. That's basically how it comes down to. We're funded through that market, otherwise it would be handcuffed to a donation cycle or grants, and for us to scale this work as fast as we need to, we are reliant on the carbon market, and I can kind of go in. I love metaphors, so I can kind of go into some metaphors of what the carbon market is and what an offset is, but yeah, and you let me know when I do too many, because I will do that.

Benn Marine: 10:37

I mean, I love a good metaphor. Yeah, I feel like it illustrates things well.

Jenny Morgan: 10:42

Yeah, so I talked about how carbon credit is like a token, so it's basically like a gift card that represents a value of some sort. So you can have a $100 gift card at McDonald's, you can have a $100 gift card at a Michelin star restaurant. They're going to give you different outcomes, but $100 is $100. And so that's kind of how the tokens of climate benefits look, and then those companies or individuals that hold said tokens or these gift cards can then show that they've got you know, that they've got stake in this type of solution. You mentioned that there's a bit of scrutiny behind it. I think, just because one, there's that misconception that it is being abused. I personally don't think that that is the majority at all and like that Silvera study proved that it's not. But yes, there have been some bad actors that are greenwashing or, you know somewhat, you know, enhancing the actual benefit that they're providing to the planet and communities. But overall, that isn't the behavior that's being committed by the average industry, the average business, the average individual.

Benn Marine: 11:56

That makes no sense and it actually brings up a question for me. I remember the last time we spoke you had mentioned a really great example I thought of how canceled culture can kind of play into this a bit right. And we've seen this with some of the brands we work with like having been fearful in sharing their impact journeys and their impact stories because of the fear of backlash. And to your point, it sounds like I mean these folks, even if they're still on their learning journey, they're making the right steps in there and that impact is of great value.

Jenny Morgan: 12:30

I'm curious your thoughts on that kind of canceled culture within offsetting yeah, so we all have heard of greenwashing, which is a company that's stating things about their product or service and talking about it in a way that's you know, not true, or is you know, encouraging customers to think a different way. They're putting a green leaf on something that actually doesn't represent renewal in agriculture at all. They've just slapped it on from a marketing standpoint. But there's also green hushing, which is this fear of scrutiny. So there's organizations that are silently committing to climate projects and solutions, but doing it silently because they're fearful of being scrutinized. So they want to do good work, but they're keeping it quiet because they're afraid of any sort of public backlash there's. With that type of behavior.

Jenny Morgan: 13:30

We are living in a place of fear, and I know that we don't have a lot of time, so everyone's feeling a bit overwhelmed with this problem.

Jenny Morgan: 13:39

It's global, it's massive, it's confusing, but when we operate in fear, we cannot innovate, we can't learn from our failures and we don't feel compelled to share our successes and celebrate one another, whether for failing boldly or succeeding, and without that, we will continue to divide, separate. You know, I've seen this kind of Super Bowl mentality within climate too, whereas people are like attached to their solution like they are to their sports team, and I think we should look at it as a sport. It's everybody's doing. If everyone's doing really good work and they're working really hard, then that's something that we should feel excited about. Yes, we might have a bit more of a pull towards a certain solution just based on our own life experiences, but overall, all solutions should be celebrated. I'm in non-CO2 gas, but that doesn't mean that I love biodiversity, I love going in hikes and protected forests, and so it can be both. We don't have to divide on what solution we are and then stay in that camp, like we do sometimes with sports.

Benn Marine: 14:51

That makes a lot of sense. I'm curious do you have any advice or caution for folks that maybe are quick to judge if a company is to be more public in their journey?

Jenny Morgan: 15:03

Yeah, a prime example of one is Windex. Windex had a label that said I know what they fixed it to, but they had said something about how they were taking ocean plastic out of the ocean and using this recycled bottle to make recycled plastic, and they were scrutinized because of that claim. In reality, they were actually getting plastic from landfills that were ocean bound, but they weren't actually in the ocean. So should we be mad at Windex for taking plastic out of a landfill, which will end up ultimately going into the ocean and using the plastic and making new bottles, or should we be celebrating that? And I'm in the camp of celebration Now? Do we want to encourage more clarity? Do we want to continue pushing for progress? Of course, and hold people accountable, but when you point fingers like that, it makes Windex would say well, why even do it? We wouldn't have even had this publicity before and we don't have to do that. People would have bought our product no matter what.

Jenny Morgan: 16:19

We didn't have to do this, so why should we? So it's really dangerous when we get emotional and angry as our first response or speak before we have a tea or something and calm down for a minute and take a minute to learn more. That's another thing. We all don't have time to do this investigative research into every company to find out, and so these headlines are basically how we're learning and they're poised to anger or incite strong emotions, and we have to be really careful about how we are engaging in that fourth estate with media or any sort of content you're consuming.

Benn Marine: 17:03

That makes no sense. It's really maybe challenging all of ourselves to assume best intent and to maybe provide feedback to these organizations that, if we have questions, maybe providing some of that context to them.

Jenny Morgan: 17:16

Yeah, I mean you should definitely ask questions and do your research and again, I know that's a lot to ask, but we're kind of in that space where we do need to be selective and use our dollars. That's a huge way of influencing change. We can see a lot of organizations making significant changes. You know Nature Valley has a multi-layer wrapper for their peanut and chocolate bars and they've just now made it one substance which can make it recyclable. When there's two substances it makes it really challenging to recycle, and so now it's one wrapper type, one material. But you have to go into your grocery store to turn it in, unless you have a Ridwell or some sort of TerraCycle or a service that you pay for. Otherwise they'll provide it for free at your grocery store.

Jenny Morgan: 18:07

Huge uproar about how this is putting all of the stress onto the buyer, and I personally just know it took them years to develop that type of wrapper that can keep your candy bar in the way that you or your fitness bar, whatever we want to call it. It's still deliciously chocolatey. But however you want to keep it safe from transport, we have to have materials right now to keep it from just being a melted blob when it gets to your house, and so we should be encouraging that. Keep going. We're excited Be able to, when you go grocery shopping, have a little tissue box, recollect your wrappers and bring them in. So that type of behavior is really influencing change and we should keep celebrating that so that it keeps happening, especially at the rapid scale that we can see it today.

Benn Marine: 18:59

Absolutely. I love that. I'm curious circling back to trade water a little bit and destruction of those gases. I'm so curious how do you identify and locate where those gases are before they're released into the atmosphere?

Jenny Morgan: 19:12

Yeah, so we have the ozone depleting substances and then we also have methane. So we have basically found it through relationship building and trust. So a lot of it is word of mouth. So, for the ozone depleting substances, we get emails from individuals, organizations, countries, governments that have a stockpile of these gas HVAC companies. We'll let us know hey, we have a stockpile of these gases. We have zero way of destroying them and we've heard that you can. Can you help us? And then we will connect with them. If you are a homeowner that's discovered a can of freon in your garage, you can email us and we work with FedEx. You can literally FedEx it to our warehouse and we'll destroy it for you.

Jenny Morgan: 20:05

So we've really opened up our business to everyone and made it very accessible. I would love it if we could have some sort of I mean, there are heat maps out there that can show different types of emissions within specific regions, but it's not like a metal detector where we can go out and try to find it that way. I would love that. That would be amazing. But we've established ourselves as a really trustworthy and respectable ally for those that are looking to do the right thing, and so we're operating in 13 different countries.

Jenny Morgan: 20:38

Now we're on track to destroy 22 million tons by 2027, or prevent them if it's our methane work, and so we're really scaling this quite quickly, which is exciting for the oil wells. So we plug orphaned oil and gas wells that are leaking methane. So that's what that project is, and we're basically partnering with states on landowners that have been completely abandoned by anyone and everyone. There's no solvent entity that can help them plug these wells, and the states don't have funding to plug all of them, and so we will be working with states to help identify where these wells are. We establish great relationships with the landowners and then plug them for them. So how does?

Benn Marine: 21:25

that happen. The plugging of wells, I mean, do these landowners, are they like, hey, there might be oil here? I'm going to drill in my backyard and, oops, that didn't work out Like I'm just so curious, how does that? I'm sure that's how it works, yeah.

Jenny Morgan: 21:39

So, basically, a typical hypothetical scenario is that an oil and gas company has identified oil along a basin and they have reached out to landowners along said basin, and so they then contact the landowner. The landowner leases out their property to this oil and gas company. They drill, the oil and gas company is determined that the gas is too dirty, and what that means is there's hydrogen sulfide typically in it. It's very costly to separate that from gas and oil, and so they'll then abandon that well, and they can either sell it off, or there's various ways that they can no longer be responsible. They might sell it off to a very small oil and gas company that then goes bankrupt, and then the landowners then left with this whole.

Jenny Morgan: 22:33

Methane is really nasty. It can get in the water soil. It causes respiratory illness in the communities where they're leaking. You can't utilize that land. So there's a lot of other reasons, in addition to the harm to the planet, why we should be plugging these. There is some federal and state funding allocated to plug them, but there's so many of them it would be hundreds of billions of dollars and that budget has not been signed yet. So right now we are making sure that we're filling in the gap of those that won't receive help from anyone else.

Benn Marine: 23:10

And what does that plugging look like? Are you pouring concrete or is it a complicated process?

Jenny Morgan: 23:16

Yeah, it's basically cement and a cast iron top, and then the land is then restored to its rightful state so they can actually utilize the land after.

Benn Marine: 23:25

So then it's totally contained, completely safe for farming or whatever. However they want to use it.

Jenny Morgan: 23:30

Yeah, that's why it's really complex to do it, which is why a lot of oil and gas companies have walked away, because some of these wells are in really bad shape. Not only do they have that hydrogen sulfide in them, but some of them are cracking. So it's really important that it's done properly, so that it not only stops leaking from the top, but it doesn't ever leak from the sides or into the water or soil. So it's typically going below water level and then you're making sure that it's fully sealed on all sides.

Benn Marine: 24:00

That's amazing. That is really, really cool. I'm curious what have you seen and I feel like maybe we touched on this a little bit, but I'd be curious, what have you seen hold people back from investing in carbon offsets?

Jenny Morgan: 24:13

People, I would say as an individual, it seems somewhat out of your scope. I would say this applies to organizations too. You kind of think inward first. What can I do here, which is very positive? You should definitely be taking steps into I call it decarbonizing, but lowering your footprint internally. That's a great place to start. So you might buy a terra cycle or redwell or find ways to grow produce in your backyard. You might have fun things that you want to try to lower your footprints. Switch out light bulbs, stuff like that, go solar.

Jenny Morgan: 24:56

Depending on everyone's budgets, it all looks different and then offsets kind of seem as if another step. And for individuals it's really important because if we're funding this type of work, we're contributing to the success of the planet and the success of the communities within it, and this market can do things that you'll never be able to do. The layman can't just go and plug an oil well that's leaking thousands of tons of methane a year, but we can fund that work. So you can look at it as a way of contributing to climate goals, because climate risk is everyone's risk. It's business risks, it's humanity's risk, it's livelihood risk, it's not. It's going to make everyone's lives more challenging and by working together to solve it, we can really have a huge impact. And then, with organizations, they're just trying to figure out where their funds should go. And again, I just think you expedite your abilities to succeed by funding these types of projects that have high impact and then also working on ways to lower your footprint in the way that you can.

Jenny Morgan: 26:09

Today, aviation we all know that there's biofuel out there, but it doesn't. It can't be used in the way that we need it to be today. So while we're waiting for that, innovation to start, offsets is a great opportunity for airlines to contribute to climate positivity and then also innovate to improve their industry overall.

Benn Marine: 26:31

That makes a lot of sense. I'm curious thinking about maybe a business owner that's listening and has never bought carbon offsets and they're like cool, sold. I'm in, I definitely want to measure and offset my carbon footprint, but they're kind of overwhelmed with where to start. How do you recommend people get started and kind of take those first few steps into the carbon offsetting world?

Jenny Morgan: 26:54

Yeah. So at Tradewater we have some calculators for individuals and businesses. So I'm assuming this is a small business, since they're able to go ahead and move forward with calculating it themselves. They don't have a sustainability team or something, and so before they may hire a consultant or something, they just kind of want to understand what their footprint is. So if you go to Tradewater's website, tradewaterus, you can see an offset now button. If you click that, there's four calculators there a business calculator, household, travel and events and it's free and you can just simply put some numbers in. Most of them you can get off the top of your head, but then some you might need to look at your expenditures for the year and then it'll calculate an estimated emissions for whatever you're entering, and then, if you'd like to offset it, you can then move forward by working with us.

Jenny Morgan: 27:46

If you also want to learn more just about solutions out there today, I highly recommend Project Drawdown. They have a book, but they also have their website that outlines the top solutions available today. There's no delay. It's something that you could join in on right now. They have partners that you can see that are doing the work that has the biggest amount of impact. Tradewater was just referred to as the emergency brake solution by Project Drawdown, so what we can do to actually pull that brake for climate change. But there's so many others that are represented there that have amazing benefits. Giving Green is also a website that highlights really high quality carbon credits and climate projects, so that would be another resource. So I would start at those three sites that would kind of give you an understanding of where the problems are and where my dollar would be most effective.

Benn Marine: 28:42

That's amazing. Thank you for that. I'll make sure all those land in the show notes are for folks too, so they can easily click through them. I'm curious thinking about carbon offsetting and environmental protection and environmental and climate justice. I'm curious your thoughts, and I was actually really excited to see this. I know in our kind of pre-production workflow of the podcast we have like what are you most excited to talk about? And you had mentioned being really excited about how to stay vigilant and focused on collective climate action, and so I'd be curious to hear from your perspective what that looks like and how people can participate.

Jenny Morgan: 29:20

I am constantly inspired by those that are doing the very best that they can and learning on how they can continue to improve their own practices and then support others. There's so many organizations that are just doing such incredible work and it's really inspiring. If you speak to anyone, however you get to the conversation, there might be some differences in opinion, but when you come down to it, everyone collectively is looking to live their best life in the environment that they are in and that their family members and friends and loved ones and favorite animal, all of those things and so I really value seeing that diversity represented and just being able to have a mutual understanding that we're all somewhat in it together. There's a lot of connectivity. It makes the world feel really small and that we do have a lot of power.

Jenny Morgan: 30:22

Climate change isn't. It's massive and complicated, but I would say it's most complicated because it requires that kind of collective pursuit and action. And that's where it makes it complicated. But we're not out there scratching our heads wondering how to work our way out of it. We all know it's just. What are we willing to do and how quickly are we willing to do it? How much resources do we plan on allocating towards it, but it's not a head scratcher. No one's like man. I wonder how we're gonna get out of this. It's not, it's we know, and so I love seeing that understanding and more and more people coming together and organizations coming together to do that work. I think it's really inspiring and that's what keeps me going every day. I mean, there's people cheering us on that need us and want to join in and are dependent on us.

Benn Marine: 31:20

Absolutely. I'm curious do you have any favorite projects or favorite moments that have really touched you and inspired you?

Jenny Morgan: 31:28

Yeah, me personally. I like to see doors opened. And so, for Tradewater, I loved our project in Ghana. That was our first international project where we destroyed refrigerants. There we partnered with a local refrigerator company. They were recycling old refrigerators and we were decommissioning, helping decommission those refrigerators, take the refrigerant that's in the back of the unit and then destroying them, and that was actually the first project of its kind to ever be done in Africa entirely, and so that was really inspiring. And then now we're completely international and so that was a breaking down the door and expanding. Also, our first collection of wells that we plugged.

Jenny Morgan: 32:18

That was a new project type for us. It required our expert and the team. Kasey is just incredible, really intelligent and just a great relationship builder, and so she formulated such strong bonds with the landowners that basically no one was helping, and then we've come in to really partner alongside them, and so that was really inspiring to see that be completed too. I mean there's so many cool things though. There's a company that makes frisbees out of old plastic for disc golf and stuff Like they. Just you know, I mean there's just so many cool things like that happening. My husband's working with a company that is using mushrooms to help trees grow faster and withstand more climate catastrophes, and so I mean people are doing really cool stuff. So I think breaking down doors is what I like to hear. I mean, I'm literally getting some chills right now. I love that.

Benn Marine: 33:16

I love that too. Oh my gosh, that's amazing. And I think I recently found that disc golf company. I can't remember the name off top of my head, but such cool stuff, such super, super cool stuff. Speaking of kind of opportunities to take action, I did notice on your LinkedIn you posted about the EPA removing federal protections for most of the country's wetlands.

Jenny Morgan: 33:40

Chris, if you want to speak a little bit to that and its significance, yeah, I think this is what illustrates how we cannot hang our hat on nonprofits or business or the government. We can't hang our hat on just one. So in this scenario, we can't hang our hat on the government saving us. I think we're all really hopeful that someone's gonna just sweep in and just make it all go away, and it's disappointing when we can't plant our way out of this situation or we can't be saved by a political official. So it can be tough when that happens, but there are so many really cool grassroots initiatives going on with that specific example. So basically, what the Supreme Court has said is that it's a state mandated problem how they protect their wetlands, and the reason that was stated is because wetlands, the only ones that would be protected, are the ones that are attached to large bodies of water, and that's like a very small percentage of wetlands.

Jenny Morgan: 34:50

Lots of wetlands are on their own, but they provide drinking water, agriculture, they prevent flooding, they prevent additional catastrophes from happening, they support wildlife, so they are very important to not only the environment but also just our personal wellbeing.

Jenny Morgan: 35:12

If you're only in it for yourself, it also is a wall against issues and supporting your food sourcing and everything and your drinking water, and so by not protecting these wetlands anymore and leaving it up to the states, you are losing your ability to keep ourselves safe and that was a failure, in my personal opinion, for people and communities.

Jenny Morgan: 35:44

It's we're not doing justice to the basic human right of food and water and livelihood, I mean, and the leaving up to the state example that is being pushed around in a lot of different threats against rights, it's just really dangerous. You know, now it's we're one world, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. And so if you know Washington protects, but then California doesn't I'm just loosely stating states then it doesn't matter. These are all intersected bodies of water that all influence each other more than we even know. I mean, we don't even know all of the intricacies of nature. A book just came out about how trees talk to each other and stuff. I mean there's a lot going on that we are not privy to and we should respect that.

Benn Marine: 36:39

Yeah, absolutely, and I think to even further emphasize the point of pushing it back to the states, it also can divide up resources that can be used in support of these important protections too, right? Because now, instead of everybody across the country pooling together to make these advancements, it's divides it up.

Jenny Morgan: 37:03

Yeah, yeah, and I'd also argue that I don't think a and again, I want to make sure that I'm very open and supportive of all beliefs, but I would be very surprised if red states, as an example, don't want to protect their drinking water. I, if that was just a simple question asked, I would assume that a high majority would want safe drinking water, and that is something that is. We should continue to use our voice in all the ways possible. Right now, that might not be through our Supreme Court, but that can be through the communities we fund, the work we do, the knowledge that we have. We do still have power. Sometimes it varies, but we always have power in some form or fashion.

Benn Marine: 37:56

Absolutely, Absolutely, and I think that's important to emphasize. That, like not to lose hope that there are still pathways to create change. For sure, I'm curious what are trade waters, future goals and aspirations in the field of greenhouse gas reduction and carbon offsetting?

Jenny Morgan: 38:13

I'm really excited about just different ways to scale this work. We're international, we have regions of the globe reaching out to us all the time. We have kind of a waiting list for lack of a better word of areas where we've targeted these types of gases being leaked and we can prevent them from doing so. Also, with the oil wells and everything, there's a million plus orphaned oil wells in the US alone, so expansion and scale is really important, and so that's definitely top of mind. I'd also say innovative ways to attach to brands.

Jenny Morgan: 38:52

I think that we're really respectful of how businesses are still trying to figure out. They know that this climate risk is posing problems to their business, have already have or could and so they're trying to kind of figure out where they are in this ecosystem. And so we've done some really cool things, one being we have this pennies for the planet option for companies that have lots of transactions on their site. So if they tack on a penny, for example, over time it's going to have a huge environmental benefit, but no one's really putting the dollars forward to cover the cost. So that's been really fun. Just a lot of different ways to really make it personal for companies and individuals to want to get involved. So that's where we're at is. There's a lot of these types of gases out there, so we've got our hands full, but it's been really fun to find ways that make it make sense for whomever is asking.

Benn Marine: 39:57

That's really cool. I'm curious are there any innovative technologies or strategies that you're all exploring to kind of further enhance that mission and goal?

Jenny Morgan: 40:08

We have some cool gadgets those are. There's definitely a lot of things that are out there that you can measure wells that are leaking quite quickly. I actually just learned that you can pour a little bit of soap on a well and a refrigerant container or an ozone depleting substance container and if it starts to bubble a little bit, that's how you could cheat to see that it's leaking, because it's bubbling a little bit. But that's not how we're not pouring soap over everything to find out if it's leaking, but it's a good quick test to find out if you've got a problem. And then we've got tools that help us gain more information.

Jenny Morgan: 40:48

But I mean, who knows? Limited resources is definitely an issue we have about. We have under 10 destruction facilities under within the entire globe and that can pose a lot of issues because it's difficult to transport ozone depleting substances across country lines, and so having more places to destroy these gases would be really effective and encourage more to get involved and then just continue to find efficiencies would be definitely the goal. But right now we're just looking to keep our heads above water with how much work we've got.

Benn Marine: 41:29

That makes a lot of sense For folks that are inspired by your work. What are some practical steps that they can take to support similar initiatives or make a positive impact on climate change?

Jenny Morgan: 41:42

Yeah, I would definitely look at project drawdown. If you're just interested in climate solutions, the book outlines the top 100 solutions in actual impact and in that order, and then the website has that content as well. But I would definitely say that if anyone's looking for high impact solutions that have been proven as a way to solve climate change, I would definitely look there. We have a ton of blogs and articles that are out there, a lot of stories that we've done with other publications to like BBC and National Geographic. So there's a lot of cool content on our site. But if anyone's just climate curious project drawdown, I would definitely say it's the first stop and then the sustainable development goals. That's also really fun to look at. They highlight the 17 different ways that the UN is looking to achieve climate and community equity overall, and you can kind of see all of the different initiatives and who's representing them, who's pushing them forward. You can also feel inspired by how much progress they've made too. So I would say those are really good resources if you're just starting out, absolutely.

Benn Marine: 43:02

We literally just did a mini series all about the SDGs. We did an episode about each goal. Yeah, it was super fun, I mean, and that work. It was so inspiring just to see here's the goal and here's a progress that's been made Like I don't know. It's so exciting to see people really coming together around impactful goals that are literally changing the planet and people's lives. It's cool stuff for sure. Also, you guys are certified B Corp, so I'm so curious. I'd love to hear about why that's something that you all pursued in the first place and why it's so important to you all.

Jenny Morgan: 43:40

Yeah, so I joined right when we were appending B Corp. I actually had a B Corp consulting company as well before I joined, and so I was very familiar with the community. And then I love trade water because we had partnered together for years. And then when I joined I had found out that we were appending B Corp and I just wasn't privy to that information beforehand and so that was just. I felt like I had. I remember just like floating around my house for a week just because I had struck gold in the employment that I, luckily, am attached to now.

Jenny Morgan: 44:16

But we live and breathe our values. I mean, technically we could have kind of stopped and said, well, we were saving the planet, we were doing enough. And I love that we as a small organization are continuing to just prove that profitability and purpose are they can be the same, they can live among each other and support each other. And so I mean that's just been so inspiring. And, yeah, it's just been so great to be a part of the community on this side of the relationship by being a member of this community, and the scale and impact that the global community has had just over the last 10 years has been just so inspiring. So I love that we're still learning.

Jenny Morgan: 45:09

I mean, again, we could throw our hands up and say we've done it, we're good, we don't have to improve, and you can see companies that are the most admirable businesses, and then you see that they're looking at how they're going to improve next year and it's just really cool. I mean, that's what life's all about. You have a great day. You should celebrate that. And then what are you going to do tomorrow? Because not in a way of pressuring, it's exciting, it's limitless, and so that really is something that we live and breathe as a value, and others in the community too. But if you go to a champion's retreat or anything for B Corp, I mean it's like therapy, it's the most incredible experience. The businesses and people are living, breathing the values.

Benn Marine: 46:03

Absolutely, absolutely. I'm so curious. So, where you were a B Corp consultant before your work here, how did you find your way into the B Corp community and what has it meant to you?

Jenny Morgan: 46:15

I wanted. So me personally in my career path, I decide I want to do something I apply to that job. I don't get it because I don't have any experience in it. I continue to learn that lesson and then I just throw my hands up and I say, whatever, I'm just going to do it. And that's basically how I've gotten every single role.

Jenny Morgan: 46:36

I wanted to work at a tech company, and so then I started volunteering for diversity and tech nonprofit and then I met a bunch of people and got hired. And then I wanted to work in environmental services. So then I just started bringing environmental services onto my company where I worked, and then I then was able to jump ship and get closer to the work. And same with the B Corp community. I knew about it, but I really wanted to find out how we can improve industry, because there's just so much opportunity there and it touches everyone. Everyone is connected to business as a customer, as an employee, as a stakeholder, shareholder, however you want to slice it and so I really feel and have seen that it is a tool that can influence change, and so I got the B Corp handbook and took some online courses and did the help people walk through their impact assessment and it's been really fun.

Benn Marine: 47:40

Amazing, amazing. I love that. Any final thoughts or parting wisdom you want to share with folks, yeah.

Jenny Morgan: 47:46

So I had a quote that I've really liked, and it's applicable to business, but it's also applicable to really anyone.

Jenny Morgan: 47:53

But it is profit, for business is like oxygen for a person If you don't have enough of it, you're out of the game.

Jenny Morgan: 48:01

But if your life is about breathing, you're really missing something. And that quote has really resonated with me personally, because it's not black and white of how we divide up our time and if we're only focusing on one goal, we're going to miss so many others. That will slow us down and it makes it harder because you're going to be tracking a few different metrics now, but the holistic representation of your success is so much wider, and I think that that is something that keeps me going. I mean, if you're just focused on the one thing, even if personal wise, if I'm only focused on getting my to-do list done, yeah, I've had a great day of to-do lists, but I didn't experience life at all, and so I see that apply to really anything, and so I would encourage those that have been kind of had a tunnel vision about whatever that may be grow it. I say include climate impact and personnel impact and community impact into that, and you'll see your world just expand beyond your belief.

Benn Marine: 49:54

We're also cooking up some exciting new content for you all in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for a whole new show coming to this responsibly different podcast channel. Dear Go Collective's president, david Gogell, is going to be hosting this new show called Emerging Hope, where he will be having conversations with businesses in the tech space and emerging markets that are leveraging business to solve some of society's biggest challenges. Subscribe to Responsibly Different to be the first to know when it drops. Thank you for all the ways you are showing up in your life. You are rippling out in more ways than you will ever know. We appreciate you. Be well and until next time, be responsibly different. This content is made possible by Dear Go Collective, a media consultancy on a mission to turn consumers into activists, one purchase at a time. To learn more about Dear Go Collective, visit the link in your show notes. This episode was produced by Brittany Angelo and yours truly, ben Marine. Music was licensed from B Corp certified Marmoset Music. To access more resources, visit responsiblydifferentcom.