In this episode, we wrap season one 🥳 We reveal how much measurable, permanent climate impact our members will have thanks to taking part in the season. We recap on why we work in seasons and how each one supports a range of greenhouse gas removal activity. And we discuss why we believe visualising progress in seasons will help inspire millions of people to play their part in tackling the biggest challenge of our time; climate change.

And we introduce our latest tool in helping people understand the science of climate change and the policies different governments and organisations globally are putting in place to try and tackle the problem.

Watch Episode #8 now

Links

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Transcript:

Ben

Hello and welcome to Glad Tidings with me, Ben Wynn

James

And me, James McQuarrie This is the show in which Ben and I discuss the progress we've made with the amazing members of the Glad Climate Club towards cleaning up the mess we've made of our atmosphere. Upcoming in today's show, it is the end of season one. Season one has wrapped. That's very exciting. We'll More on that in a second. And we've also got news on a new podcast in addition to this one that you can listen to to help you learn more about climate science and policy.

Let's start with the really exciting news. End of season one, Ben. What does that mean?

Ben

Well, let's actually start by going back a step and explaining what seasons are. Indeed, just this morning, I was talking to one of our members who really hadn't got their heads around it. So let's do a very quick explainer on what seasons are and why we operate in seasons. So everyone knows what a season is, I think, winter, summer, autumn, spring, not necessarily in that order.

But for Glad, a season is a 12 week long period. So we don't tie them to the winter, spring, summer, because we're a global membership club. when it's winter in the UK, it's summer in Australia, for example. And so we just call them numerical seasons. We're in season one. That means we're the first 12 weeks of Glad being live as a club.

The reason we do seasons, is well there are a couple of main reasons. What we're trying to do is have as much impact as possible and we believe that it's vital that people can see the progress they're making as part of their membership, as part of their using their membership fees to deliver impact. And one of the problems with climate change is that it's almost, it's never ending. The numbers are so colossal, the targets are so far in the future, you can never really get that sense of we've done something. And so we have done something by time boxing this into 12 weeks into seasons. And at the end of the season, we actually deliver impact. So that's one reason. The other is this is a fast moving market. We're removing greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere.

There are, I saw a stat this week, think it's 500 different VC-backed within carbon removal alone. It's an emerging space, there's lots of different technologies, lots of different providers, different methods, different science, and it's evolving all the time. So we need to allow ourselves the opportunity to design these portfolios and have flexibility to change them. So we set those each season. As we've said, we're end of season one, we'd set the solutions we're going to back at the beginning of the season.

And now we're going to deploy it. And we're going to deploy 21,532 kilograms of impact.

James

Thank you so much to all the members who've made that possible.

Ben

Yeah, absolutely. So, but what is that? What does it sound like? How, how do you visualize 21,000 kilograms? 21 tons. The best way to visualize that we think is to picture a fully laden... London bus. So a double decker London bus driving around town full of people.

The weight of that is 22 kilograms, 22 tons. So pretty much the exact same amount as what we've delivered in season one. So now we get to the really awkward thing. Well, has that made a difference? What impact has that had on the big climate picture? And the reality is it's tiny. It's a tiny amount. We have to be cognizant of that. But what we believe is it's much better to have done that, to have delivered that impact, to show the world that this is possible, to have got started, because this is about

inspiring others and the way we inspire others is by saying look we have done something we've removed a London bus worth of greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere so that's our starting point and it just means the next seasons need to get bigger and bigger

James

You have to start somewhere. And I think a London bus worth of greenhouse gas is not an insignificant amount to start with. So that's a really, really good job by everybody for season one. And just to put that into context for individuals who have joined us, our membership has grown over the season. So thank you to everybody who has taken the plunge and got involved and actually taken action.

An individual paying their membership fee for the 12 weeks will be responsible for helping to remove 40 kilos of greenhouse gas. And to put that into context so we can kind of visualize it, that's roughly the size of two holiday suitcases. So if you do fly on holiday, your suitcase allowance is usually in the region of 20 kilos per suitcase. So...

Each individual joining us for a season will remove two suitcases worth of greenhouse gas, which doesn't sound like a lot on an individual basis, but when you multiply that up across hundreds and thousands and eventually hundreds of thousands and millions of people doing this every season, that very, quickly adds up over time, which is absolutely where we want to get to.

Ben

Yeah, 100%. The other analogy that sort of landed in my mind in terms of individual impact from membership fees, that 40 kilos, is the backpacker rucksack. And that's just because my 16 year old son is currently in the Peak District in the UK with a giant rucksack on his back doing his gold DoE And so if you can picture those folks, that you often see in the hills with those giant rucksacks on their back weighed down and depending on the weather, whether they've got a smile on their face or not, think, it's just very timely that when we weighed his rucksack before he went, full of all his food and clothes and everything, it was just over 20 kilograms, 23 if we put his water in there, just water bottles. So yeah, and that was heavy, believe you me. I put that on and figured I'm not gonna be walking for four days with that, but.

But yeah, it's like having one of those on the back and one on the front. That's the amount that's been removed from each member. So well done, guys.

James

Just for our international listeners there, "DoE" is the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme, which is a UK rite of passage for teenagers. They go out and do hard tasks in order to get a qualification that says they've taken part. I think it's all social projects, right? And they do outbound stuff and they do some volunteering and they just make the world a better place.

Ben

Yeah, yeah, fantastic thing. I remember doing it when I was a kid and it got me my first job. So there you go.

James

Ah, maybe that's a story for another episode perhaps.

So the big question on everyone's mind is probably what happens next. So season one has now wrapped, we are closed, and we know how much impact we are going to have. So the next stage in the process is to actually go ahead and purchase that removal. So that's what we'll be working on in the next week or so.

you will be able to track the progress of those purchases and the impact that they have on the season one page on our website. Visit Season One, and you will forever be able to see the progress that we're making thanks to all the efforts of everybody involved in season one. And that leads us to Season Two, which is coming up very shortly.

Ben

Yeah, so we're straight in really. Obviously we don't just stop at season one, we roll straight into two. So what does that mean? Well, it means that we're trying to get season two to be bigger than season one. Season two, we've locked in the greenhouse gas removal methods that we're gonna be using. We'll dive into the details of that, why we chose them, et cetera, I think in another episode. So watch this space, that will be coming soon. But with that locked, as members join, as businesses come on board, as businesses choose to boost their impact, all of those things, they're all now contributing to season two's total, which of course, add season two to season one, you get the grand total that maintains there on the website and will continue to increase. And yeah, as James, just to echo what James said really, thank you to everyone. Thank you to everyone who's become a member.

We just need more of you. So tell a friend. That's probably the most impactful thing you can do.

James

Absolutely, if you think through, you can be a member, have that 40, as individuals, have that 40 kilos impact every season that you are a member with us. If you want to double that impact, the best way to do that is to get someone else to join us and for them to have that impact as well. So you can influence a lot more than just that 40 kilos by convincing your friends, family, colleagues, et cetera, to come and get on board and become part of the club.

I promised to talk about a new way that you can learn about climate science and policies. So when Ben and I started Glad, we realised that we needed to do a lot of reading and go really, really deep on all of the climate science documents that we could find, the scientific papers that been written, government policies around climate change, etc. And we realised that those documents are quite dense, intense things to read, and it was taking a lot of time to do so.

And we discovered an AI tool that allowed us to turn those documents into conversational podcasts. And we've been using those podcasts as a way of accelerating our learning in this space over the last few months. And we realized that if it was helping us, maybe it would help others as well. So we've shared this podcast for everybody now. So go and have a look for Breaking Down Climate Pollution, an AI generated podcast from us, folks at Glad.

and you too can learn more quickly, hopefully. So it saves you having to read through those hundreds and hundreds of pages of documents, gives you a really, really good overview of the topics and the context of those topics as well. And I don't know about you, Ben, but I've certainly found it a much, much better way for me personally to learn a lot about this space.

Ben

Yeah, it just makes it accessible. And that's what I think we all need to be doing much more of within the world of climate. So you're right, we've shared it, we've made it available. What we've also been doing is sharing it with a few of the sustainability people that we're connected with. So people we've met along this journey, just to get their feedback. And that's been really interesting because...

A lot of people have found it useful, which is great to hear. We sort of knew that would happen because we found it was a great tool. But the bit that made me smile is people that couldn't work out which bit was the AI. Now you've done the intros to those, James, so I'm not sure whether they're saying you come across like AI or whether they're saying the AI is so good that they couldn't tell that it's computer-generated.

So the format is a female and a male having a discussion about whatever topic and we should talk on some of what some of those topics are.

James

We've got things like beyond value chain mitigation, what that means, how that works for companies. There are scientific papers in there around things like ocean alkalinity and acidification. There are episodes around the EU policy on methane capture.

Yeah, there's a really, really good range of topics. And actually, if there's anybody listening or watching who would like us to feed in a very specific document or scientific paper or policy document into the podcast in order to benefit from listening, we're very open to doing so. So share your ideas for what future episodes of that podcast we should be producing for you and helping you on your learning journey too.

Ben

I think that brings us to a close really. Anything else for us to add James?

James

I think we should absolutely reiterate again, thank you to all the members for the success of season one. It's been fantastic watching people join us and come on this journey with us and become members of the club. The ask as always at the end of these episodes is if you're on the fence, you haven't quite pulled the trigger yet, please do join us. Join us in season two. Let's continue building this momentum and continue having this impact on the climate.

If you can't join us just yet or have already done so, please share what we're doing with your friends and family and colleagues so we can grow that impact together. And finally, if you're listening or watching and haven't done so yet, please do follow this podcast. Even maybe give us a like and that will help others discover what we're doing and find more about how we can all work together to fix climate change.

Ben

Absolutely. So this is all about momentum. It's about building from where we are now. We've done season one. We're into season two. Follow us on the journey. And for us, it's so motivating to have you with us. So thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. Thank you for being a member. And until next time.

James

See you then, bye bye.

Ben

Cheers, James.