The Oblique Life Podcasts

Oblique Spotlight on Sustainability is our commitment to focus and discuss some of the most pressing issues we need to overcome and solutions we need to adopt in order to shift our planet from 'self destruct mode' to 'sustainability mode'. Every session we will invite different guest speaker(s) that can explore a specific topic and open a discussion with our members to help further our understanding and opportunities in the sustainability and impact space. For our next session we will be focusing on eliminating food waste with guest speaker Heather Lynch, Sustainability Manager at Oddbox. Between 33-50% of all food produced globally is never eaten, and the value of wasted food is worth over $1 trillion. What’s more, it is fruits, vegetables, roots and tubers that have the highest wastage rates of any foods. It is for this reason that companies like Oddbox are so important within wider food systems as they work to reduce this wastage, whilst directly solving some of the key inefficiencies that have existed for decades between all major stakeholders involved. During this session of Oblique Spotlight on Sustainability, we will be exploring these themes in more detail and reflect on some of the key factors that we should all consider to help reduce the environmental and social impacts of food wastage. About Heather Lynch Heather is the Sustainability Manager at ODDBOX and is responsible for driving ODDBOX’s sustainability agenda. She was involved in the B Corp certification process (ODDBOX became a certified B Corp in July this year) and in developing a personalised way of measuring the impact of the food saved, based on the composition of fruit and veg in every box we send, so that each customer can understand what impact they've had by purchasing an Oddbox. Before joining ODDBOX, Heather was a consultant in the Sustainability and Climate Change at PwC, working on impact assessments for investors and managing large international development programmes and organisational transformation projects. About Oddbox ODDBOX is London's largest sustainable fruit and vegetable subscription box that fights food waste. Working directly with growers, we offer an alternative to the strict supermarket cosmetic specs and take this totally edible produce, which has been rejected because they’re too small, too big, slightly misshapen, not the ‘perfect’ colour or surplus to requirements at a price deemed fair by growers. Using only recyclable boxes to make sure every possible aspect of our business is helping the planet, we then deliver straight to your door. We then donate up to 5% to local charities like City Harvest and The Felix Project to fight food poverty with food waste. We want to inspire people to eat more sustainably, through rescuing great tasting seasonal fruit and veg.

In this session our focus was on plastic. Plastic in many ways is the symbol of the fight we face to save our planet. A material that has become omnipresent but causing so many issues and challenges to our environment. In this session we will be exploring this material, briefly touching on why it is such problem but focussing more on how we can live in a plastic free planet. These are all big and important questions which is why we invited Sian Sutherland, Co-Founder of a Plastic Planet....

COVID 19 has changed our world in many ways, and as it stands the only solution to get us back to some state of normality (whatever this looks like) is a vaccine. However the rapid rate at which we are developing a vaccine for COVID 19 is causing concern, with big questions about their safety, ethics of production and testing, the role that the pharmaceutical industry plays in this and what future side effects could be. Earlier this year Bill Gates was accused of illegally trialling vaccines...

In this focussed in on carbon markets and climate change. Carbon markets are one of the most contentious parts of the Paris Agreement on climate change, offering a way to dramatically reduce the volume of emissions globally. However are carbon markets actually the solution or another loophole for the big polluters to just pay their way to adding more CO2 to the atmosphere? Secondly how can we create more efficient and transparent markets so we can efficiently trade carbon? These are all big...

Oblique Spotlight on Sustainability is our commitment to focus and discuss some of the most pressing issues we need to overcome and solutions we need to adopt in order to shift our planet from 'self destruct mode' to 'sustainability mode'. Every session we will invite different guest speaker(s) that can explore a specific topic and open a discussion with our members to help further our understanding and opportunities in the sustainability and impact space. For our next session we will be...

In this session we invited one of the individuals that played a role in actually putting together the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Åsa Skogström Feldt is the Manager of IKEA Social Entrepreneurship BV. She has a combination of business and NGO background. She was previously the global President and CEO of The Hunger Project in New York as well as has been the CEO of The Hunger Project Sweden. In between that, she worked at IKEA of Sweden to establish a social...

In this session we invited Kieran Day (Group Director) at Elewana Collection, Cheli & Peacock Safaris and Life & Land Foundation to discuss the importance of educating local communities to support conservation, the future of tourism in East Africa and how we can drive economic growth by empowering local communities. About the Speaker Kieran Day is a group director of the Elewana Group of Companies which includes Elewana, Afrika, Cheli & Peacock Safaris, Sopa Lodges, SkySafari and the Land &...

This session we looked at how to support and achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4, Quality Education. Education should be a right for all individuals and is crucial in helping the world break through poverty and inequality, however how do we actually deliver it and what type of education is actually needed. To help us explore we invited the incredible and inspiring team from Nigerian Charity, Slum 2 School. Slum2School is a volunteer-driven development organisation transforming the society...

Oblique Spotlight on Sustainability is our commitment to focus and discuss some of the most pressing issues we need to overcome and solutions we need to adopt in order to shift our planet from 'self destruct mode' to 'sustainability mode'. For our fourth session, we discussed how to find the companies of the future, what impact really is and how to bring corporate and startup together. We were also joined by guest speaker Evan Patronik, Director of Venture Selection for Unreasonable Group...

Oblique Spotlight on Sustainability is our commitment to focus and discuss some of the most pressing issues we need to overcome and solutions we need to adopt in order to shift our planet from 'self destruct mode' to 'sustainability mode'. Every session we will invite different guest speaker(s) that can explore a specific topic and open a discussion with our members to help further our understanding and opportunities in the sustainability and impact space. For our third session, we were...

For our second session, we will have guest speaker Ameer Virani, a sustainable tourism development professional with experience managing sustainability for large tour operators in Southeast Asia, and advising local and international NGOs on their sustainable tourism projects across Southeast Asia and India. He recently co-founded Tourism In Need, an awareness and fundraising campaign to support sustainable tourism organisations in Asia that are struggling to do their important social and...

Description:Oblique Spotlight on Sustainability is our commitment to focus and discuss some of the most pressing issues we need to overcome and solutions we need to adopt in order to shift our planet from 'self destruct mode' to 'sustainability mode'. Every session we will invite different guest speaker(s) that can explore a specific topic and open a discussion with our members to help further our understanding and opportunities in the sustainability and impact space. For our first session,...

The Oblique Business Breakfast offers members of The Oblique Life the chance to engage in thought-provoking discussions regarding the future of business, whilst getting the chance to connect with other like-minded members. This week the the Circular Economy and we were privileged to invite Akshay Shah, Group Managing Director of SILAFRICA Kenya as the special guest. Our discussions will offer attendees insights into the following: -An overview of key trends and predictions made by industry...

Even before countless jobs were put at risk by COVID-19 and the impending collapse of the global economy, job security has been on the top of many people’s minds for quite some time now. With businesses across every industry racing to implement automation, AI and other technologies aimed at both increasing efficiencies and decreasing overheads in the long term, you wouldn’t be blamed for feeling some uncertainty regarding the security and direction of your own careers. For this reason, this...

This month the theme is Open Data, using tools like blockchain to enable & empower individuals at local levels. With Guest Speaker, Lawrence Lundy’s experience and expertise, this month we’ll discuss the importance of ‘Open Data’, what tools we need to develop and how we should approach data at different scales to positively influence society and the environment. Lawrence is Partner and Head of Research at Outlier Ventures, a deep tech accelerator and venture fund focused. He pioneered the...

5G has been a topic that has been making headlines over the last couple of months, but more often than not for the wrong reasons. Despite the views that various sceptics share however, the opportunities that this next generation mobile connectivity can unlock is truly an exciting prospect and has the potential of revolutionising a number of different industries globally. Therefore for this month’s Oblique Business Breakfast, hosted by The Oblique Life’s Founding Partner Shonil Sumaria, and...

This month’s Pages podcast, centred around our theme of the month: The State of Society, features Shanay Shah and Freddie Stuart. Shanay is an Oblique Life Member, working in cybersecurity. He brings experience and understanding of the impact of technology on society and security. Freddie is the producer of openDemocracy's new ourVoices podcast - a series discussing some of the most important structural economic problems of the world today. He is also the presenter of the TWT FM podcast,...

This month’s Pages podcast, centred around our theme of the month: The Future, features Andrew Steigerwald. Andrew is a scientist and former US policy advisor currently serving as the editor-in-chief of 1440 Daily Digest, a popular daily news brief. Listen to this podcast to hear him discuss the relationship between technology, policy and people and how essential they all are in shaping the future of our civilisation. It's a really interesting conversation interlaced with years of experience...

This month’s Pages podcast, centred around our theme of the month: Time, featured Katya Shkolnik. Katya is a nuclear physicist turned artist who now uses her knowledge of relativist theory and quantum physics to inspire her artwork. Her artistic pursuit is driven by thoughts on matter and time. Listen to this podcast to hear her discuss the relationship between time and space and how she translates her research into the density of time, and how each of us experience time onto her canvas. She...

This month’s Pages podcast, centred around Prejudice, our theme of the month, featured Peter Kelly J, a former Royal Marines Commando and entrepreneur of company Imployable, Susan Kabani who is a female tech founder and the mind behind company Ugenie, a business which empowers those who sit outside of the white, male homogeny within the working world and Priya Ghai, a designer of belonging, equity and inclusion who facilitates learning programmes, design processes, and products for clients...