Archives: Episodes

Today on Green is Good Radio host John Shegerian is talking with Lauren Meling, Senior Digital Manager for The Climate Reality Project. Lauren uses her years of digital marketing experience to help encourage consumers to take action to help the climate and make the world a greener place.

Listen in today on Green is Good Radio as we talk with Dr. Juliette Finzi Hart, Founder & Principal Researcher at Thalassa Research & Consulting.  Dr. Hart’s primary focus is on marine and climate science research, specifically as it relates to the planning needs of coastal communities and businesses.

Tune in as Managing Director at Gensler, Barbara Bouza Gensler, discusses ways to uncover organizational and workplace design factors that influence employee wellness.

Learn how media is driven by people and enabled by technology through Purpose, with Jessica Lauretti. Purpose builds movements and new power models to tackle the world’s biggest problems.

Ride Along with us, as we interview Andrea Aponte from the Santa Monica Bike Center. Andrea is an avid cyclist and has helped others cruise their way towards a more sustainable life.

John Shegerian: Welcome back to Green Is Good and we are so honored to have with us today Lani Muelrath. She is an author, teacher and speaker, and she has just written a book called “The Plant-Based Journey.” Welcome to Green Is Good, Lani. Lani Muelrath: Thank you, John. I’m so happy to be here. John Shegerian: We’re so happy to have you. And as my listeners know, I am a full-blown vegan. I love the vegan lifestyle so to me it’s always wonderful to have a vegan thought-leader like you on the show and talking about these important issues surrounding veganism and the journey of sustainability that we all are on right now. Lani Muelrath: Well, they’re intrinsically connected. Sustainability and what we put on our plates and how we feed ourselves is critical to making a difference with sustainability. And there is more about this, too. Not just with the sustainability connection – and hopefully, we’ll have time to address this later in the call, too. John Shegerian: Yeah. Lani Muelrath: But it’s not just how you eat, but it’s making changes in a way that is sustainable and that is central to my message. John Shegerian: And that’s what I want to talk about – before we get talking about your new book. Lani Muelrath: Yeah. John Shegerian: First of all, for our listeners who want to find you, they can go to your website, www.LaniMuelrath.com. Talk a little bit about the Lani Muelrath journey. How did you even become so minded about what you eat and so minded about green and sustainability? Lani Muelrath: Yeah. Well, it’s always good to tell the story of how people come to a pathway, right? John Shegerian: Yeah. Lani Muelrath: And by the way, if people are looking for an easy way to get to my website, another way to get there is just www.ThePlantBasedJourney.com. John Shegerian: Perfect. Lani Muelrath: So everyone knows how to spell that – if you forget how to spell my name – and you’ll land there. My own journey is, actually, I have been vegetarian for like 42 years. John Shegerian: Whoa. Lani Muelrath: It’s really been forever. But long before that I was also – I grew up in a family where my parents were not vegetarian/vegan, but they had a big organic garden and my mom was very into being able to sustain the family as much as possible on homegrown food and my dad had a green thumb so that was kind of my background in what I ate. Also, we were very active. We did a lot of camping. And that is really central to my message about how movement is not only good for physical health but because of what it does for your brain. That’s a whole other topic we’ll have to get together about, again. John Shegerian: Yes. Lani Muelrath: But for myself, my journey really was focused on my weight. I struggled with my weight. I am one of those people genetically predispositioned to easily gain and have difficulty losing weight. I know a lot of listeners on your show can relate to that. And it was always a quest to find some way that I could be full without being fat, because I had this voracious appetite and I found if I just ate freely of whatever, it didn’t pan out well for my weight goals. So I struggled with that for a long time. And vegetarianism helped with that, but you know what? As long as you’re still eating some animal products and some more processed foods, it didn’t get me where I wanted to go. Being able to eliminate dairy and really focus on the whole foods made a huge difference. So that’s a big shift for me. John Shegerian: Interesting. So veganism. Lani Muelrath: I did lose 50 pounds, actually, about 20 years ago and have sustained it easily. John Shegerian: And that’s important. I only have a picture of you. I have never met you. I have a picture of you and you don’t look like you have any weight problems anymore – let’s just say that for our listeners. Lani Muelrath: Yeah. John Shegerian: Which is great. Lani Muelrath: Yeah. John Shegerian: Veganism and vegetarianism has become sort of a cool and hot topic nowadays. Why do you think this is becoming more discussed in the media than ever before? Lani Muelrath: I think it’s we can’t avoid the fact anymore. And because there is so much connection with media and easy accessibility to information with the environmental crisis – with the health crisis – and all of these things have made us have to advance this information that we have had for a long time. John, I’ll tell you, 40 years ago, when I became a vegetarian, it was for health, the environment and the animals. Do we have these situations today? John Shegerian: Right. Lani Muelrath: The same situation is just accelerated, but it has become more to a head and especially – just an example is the drought. We can see public messages about “turn off the faucet.” Well, turning off the faucet while you’re brushing your teeth is not going to make near as much an impact on our use of our water resources as choosing like broccoli over beef or chickpeas over chicken. Those make a bigger difference because, as we know, 50 percent of the water used in our country goes to sustaining the animal agriculture. That is not just for giving them direct water to drink but to provide them with the food that they need and all of the other things in the industry as you know. So those are all part of my journey, too. They were really important but it was really important to me to be able to find a way to manage my weight easily, too, as well as considering the environment and the animals. John Shegerian: Right. Like you said, it’s macro reasons – sustainability and making the world a better place than we found it – and these micro reasons like we all have. I’m the same as you. I’m predisposed to gain weight so to me, I started it as a way to just watch – not to become really big, to try to stay thin. Lani Muelrath: Get some kind of management on it, yeah. John Shegerian: But like you said, when you start thinking about the macro benefits of it, it’s incredible and it really is the better way to live. Lani Muelrath: Yeah. John Shegerian: Talk a little bit about your book, “The Plant-Based Journey.” Why does your book take a different approach than other books that people read about plant-based living? And give some tips to our listeners please, Lani, about how to get on the journey and how to do it in a way – as you said at the top of the show – that it will be a sustainable journey not one that would be easy to just fall off of. Lani Muelrath: Well, “The Plant-Based Journey” is different in that this is the first transition guide that is written by a teacher and a behavior change specialist. The doctors and the dieticians who have so many wonderful resources and books out there for us give us the fundamentals and the foundations of the nutrition. And they might give us ideas about recipes and meal plans and all those are critical pieces of information. But when it comes to connecting it with your reality, that is where I come in and that is where my years of struggle with this journey really informed the process, and – this is really exciting too – I have surveyed over 1,200 people who have successfully made this transition. Some of them my clients. Some of them – I also work with the Physicians Committee and it’s for responsible medicine and it’s one of their celebrity coaches. So I’ve been able to engage with many people over the years, and I said, “What is it that has made you be able to successfully transition?” Because, as you just said, we know that not everybody can – we can all respond to the directive of “here is what you should do now just go do it.” Well, nobody would need any assistance or help. We would all be radiantly healthy and ideal weights, right? John Shegerian: Right. Lani Muelrath: Where is that connection with your reality and how do you make that happen? This is why I’m really glad to speak with you today, John, because the sustainability factor is really an important piece when it comes to lifestyle change. The old way of just telling people what to do is clearly ineffective. Some people can do that, but they’re really a rare breed, aren’t they? John Shegerian: Right. Lani Muelrath: So when you want to go to that transition and sustainability – and let me give you an example. John Shegerian: Yeah. Lani Muelrath: And I really address this in depth in “The Plant-Based Journey,” and on the website you can see the endorsements for the book, which really edify and underscore this difference of the book. This is because I have done it in a very accessible and doable way. I present that there are various ways that you can go about this transition because everybody isn’t the same, but one really critical piece that has been important for people is to think of this in terms of micro-changes that you can make over time to move in a direction that you want to go. Black or white thinking right out of the gate works for some people, but for most people, it’s just a recipe for taking the backdoor out with excuses because “I can’t be perfect,” and we all seem to have that stumbling block coming in. I encourage people and everyone listening on the show – whether you are far along this journey to better health with a better diet or you’re just getting started – this is something that everyone can apply for taking the next step and that is to first find where you want to go and then breakdown to get there, what would that look like? For example – and this just happened with someone I recently worked with – she came to me and she wanted help with her weight and she knew she needed to, she had the idea that eating more vegetables and having more vegetables in her diet would help her with her weight loss goals. Her problem was that she would go through days many times without eating any vegetables. So you can see that there is a standard right there. Something very simple to work with. But for her to say, “OK, I’m going to look at this food plan; it’s essential to have 10 vegetables a day” and to expect that change overnight really requires several micro changes to happen. First, she has to find out what the vegetables are to eat, then she has to procure them, then she has to prepare them, then she has to have them with her at the right points in time whether she is eating at home or on the road or in the office. John Shegerian: Right. Lani Muelrath: So it’s really kind of an overwhelming task. And people feel silly breaking this down into small bits so for this particular person where we started was we started with “Well, let’s have two servings of vegetables a day,” and we planned exactly how she would procure that, when she would eat it and that was doable. And you know what, John? She told me about a month later, after we had progressed and she was easily eating six or seven servings a day, she said, “When you first said that, I was thinking, ‘This is silly. How can this little change make a difference?’ But now I see because we progressed from one or two a day to three a day and did it in a sustainable way.” Well, look a year down the road. Where is this going to go? John Shegerian: Right. Lani Muelrath: Far further than if you took a strict diet and said, “It’s either this or that,” and failure, again. Another important element that’s different about this approach- John Shegerian: Yeah. Lani Muelrath: Is I really pull in the importance of physical activity for making lifestyle change because of the effects it has on your brain. I have a very deep background in kinesiology and physical education, and yet it’s more than the physical fitness. It’s about opening up pathways – actually physically activity is the simplest most direct way you give muscle to the building block of the brain, which is essential for lifestyle change. You know how sometimes people feel stuck in their old behaviors and like stuck in cement? John Shegerian: Yeah, of course. Lani Muelrath: Well, you can’t get out of the cement without moving your body, which basically starts to un-cement you because of its effect on the neurons in your brain. I also really address deeply mindfulness and having mental mastery. So those sections are actually separate sections in the book – the physical activity to support lifestyle change and mental mastery to support lifestyle change. All to get you moving in the right direction. We don’t want to leave it to chance. John Shegerian: So you’re approach is holistic. It’s diet and exercise. Lani Muelrath: Yeah. John Shegerian: So for our listeners who have just joined us, we have Lani Muelrath with us today. She is talking about her new book, “The Plant-Based Journey.” You can check out Lani at www.LaniMuelrath.com or at www.ThePlantBasedJourney.com. Lani, where are we going, though? What are some other steps people can do if they’re “Oh, organic is more expensive than regular food” and “Being a vegan or vegetarian is more expensive than just buying some fast food” or other things that people do – how do you overcome some hurdles that people throw your way since you are in the business of both changing minds, hearts and bodies? Lani Muelrath: Yeah. Well, you know what I like to do, John, is really get to the heart of the matter and if someone in their mind is seeking out obstacles to change. So really a lot of these questions come from that place, and I like to meet the people at that place because all of these questions are important. Affordability is important and how you do nutrition is important. But the most important thing is just getting started with moving in the direction of getting more whole plant foods on your plate. And there are multiple resources for how to do that in a fashion that is far less expensive than eating a standard American diet. If you’re just eating fast food, then you can probably eat for a dollar a meal three times a day, and I just don’t think that anyone approaching their health and their well-being is really interested in sustaining that. People really do want to be healthy. They really do want to make these changes but they are fearful of these things. What I say – as I got back to – is, “What I behind these things?” and usually, at the core of this is this fear of change, this reluctance to let go of things as they are. And once we start exploring and answering those questions and addressing the real problems that are underlying all of these kinds of little distractions on the outside, then we can make some positive progress with micro changes. John Shegerian: Got you. And for our listeners, also, they can actually go to your website and they can hire you to work with them during this transformation, during this journey. Is that correct? Lani Muelrath: Yeah, I do coaching along with speaking and my writing, and there are multiple free resources, John, I really want to point out to people. John Shegerian: Please. Lani Muelrath: To kind of connect with this holistic approach. For example, I have a free special report that went up just a couple of weeks ago and it specifically goes into some of the steps for specific change, and it’s called “Four Steps To Halt Creeping Weight Gain And Feel Better In Your Clothes Today,” and most people can relate to the creeping weight gain thing, but that’s a 10-page free download that actually has the four steps of change that I go through in “The Plant-Based Journey” so people can really get a taste. There is also a 40-page download excerpt of the book itself. Dr. Colin Campbell who wrote “The China Study” – as we all know – wrote this wonderful preface and Dr. Neil Bernard in the foreword, and then there is my introduction and you get introduced to the steps of the journey as I have them in the book. This is unique in that it is broken up into five specific steps that everyone who is successful on this journey goes through. It’s kind of fun because you can find yourself somewhere along the way. John Shegerian: And people can buy your book on www.Amazon.com, www.BarnesAndNoble.com, in good bookstores all across the country, correct? Lani Muelrath: Yeah. It’s in preorder right now. But here is another bonus. On the website at www.LaniMuelrath.com, I have preorder bonuses. I’m very excited to give back. I really want to advance this message that has been my – that’s how I work. I really want more and more people to benefit from this so for preorders on my website there are bonus gifts. There is the weight loss chapter of the book as a free instant download once you preorder because she is officially releasing in September. John Shegerian: Got you. Lani Muelrath: And there is a whole list of preorder bonus gifts so you can go anywhere – you can go direct to Amazon and then just a receipt over to an email that is on that bonus gift page on my site. So I’m really about giving away. There are a lot of resources here. John Shegerian: That’s awesome. We’re down to the last two minutes or so. I want to leave that open for you to share your best tips for or listeners to live a better life – whether they go fully vegan or vegetarian or just partially. Give some other thoughts to our listeners that they can integrate into their lifestyle. Lani Muelrath: Well first is I invite everyone to listen to that awakening. And that is the first step on “The Plant-Based Journey,” as I’ve described it. John Shegerian: Yeah. Lani Muelrath: And everyone has either heard something, read something or talked to someone who has awakened this desire in them to move in this direction of plant-based eating and away from our consumption of animal products and processed foods, which really comprises more than 90 percent of the American diet. I suggest people to listen to that. And as you move forward and go into the next stages – the next stage is “scout” where you find out what the fundamentals are and then you become a “rookie” and you learn how to practice these things. But watch how you move through these processes. As an adult it’s very hard for us to learn new things. We feel like we should know it all or we know how to do it, but if we give ourselves the room to explore and experiment, and have compassion with ourselves for learning a new process, and get out of this black or white thinking like “I either fail or a success,” this is where the beauty of micro changes come in. So to everyone listening, I just invite you, what is one simple thing that you could do today – whether it’s eating another vegetable, another piece of fruit, taking a five-minute walk that you didn’t take yesterday. What is one thing that you can do to move yourself in the direction of radiant health and whole food plant-based eating and moving? John Shegerian: That is pretty great stuff. And for our listeners out there, I say the first thing is to order your new book “The Plant-Based Journey.” Lani Muelrath: Well, thank you for that, yeah. And as I said, there is so much available right away. Right off the bat, you can get some free downloads, so yeah, don’t hesitate. September will be here before we know it anyway. John Shegerian: September will be here. But beyond that go to your website. I have been on your website and your website is just amazing and full of great information that our listeners should go to. So your website is www.LaniMuelrath.com or www.ThePlantBasedJourney.com. Lani Muelrath, you are making the world a better place and are truly living proof that Green Is Good. Lani Muelrath: Thank you.

John Shegerian: Welcome back to Green Is Good and we are so honored to have with us today David LaVance. He is the CEO of Integrated Environmental Technologies. Welcome to Green Is Good, David. David LaVance: Well, thanks, John. I appreciate that. John Shegerian: We are so honored to have you on. And before we get going here we’re going to share with our listeners the website for Integrated Environmental Technologies, which I’m on right now. So if our listeners want to go onto it and follow along, it’s www.EcoTreatments.com. David, before we get talking about what exactly you do at Integrated Environmental Technologies, can you share with our listeners a little bit about the David LaVance story leading up to you being the CEO there? David LaVance: Sure. All my life I’ve been involved with life sciences companies. Most of them have been in the biotech or medical device areas, but I’ve been able to be associated with several really good ones. I don’t know if you remember lithotripsy, but this is the technology that crushed kidney stones with shockwaves eliminating a very terrible surgery – kidney surgery for kidney stones – then most recently, I’m finishing up a 14-year tour of duty with Hologic, which is a women’s health care company. Hologic is a really fantastic company, and it is the one that developed the 3D mammography that has now gotten so much attention. So in most of my career, I’ve been involved with medicines or with medical devices but very interested in other things relating to life sciences, and that’s what drew me to IET – or Integrated Environmental Technologies. John Shegerian: And how long ago did you become their CEO? David LaVance: I joined originally as a board member almost four years ago, and then some time during that first year, I became the CEO. John Shegerian: Got you. All right. Got it. So can you explain to our listeners – now, again, I am on your website. It’s a beautiful website, lots of great information on it. Our listeners should go there; it’s www.EcoTreatments.com. From the boss’s mouth – from the CEO’s mouth – what is Integrated Environmental Technologies? David LaVance: Integrated Environmental Technologies is first and foremost a life sciences company that specializes in treating the environment and health issues in new and environmentally friendly ways. So in particular, we are out to get what is probably one of the great dangers for all people and that is bacteria. So we all know that bacteria affect us in food and in health- John Shegerian: Yeah. David LaVance: And interestingly, in the environment, particularly in the oil and gas area. John Shegerian: Wow. And I would never – it’s so interesting when you bring that up that way. I would never associate bacteria with oil and gas. I would associate it with doctors’ offices, hospitals but never with oil and gas. Can you explain a little bit about that interrelationship, and how and why that came to be, and what your solution looks like? David LaVance: Sure. Well, our solution itself is a clear watery substance. The molecule is in there. The molecule is hydrogen, oxygen and chlorine, which is dubbed a “hypochlorous acid” – not “hydrochloric,” but “hypochlorous” acid – and what it does is it kills bacteria on contact. And the relationship between, say, health and the oil and gas industry is, in health we all know about things like MRSA and pneumonia and other bacteria that really hurt people. John Shegerian: Yeah. David LaVance: And obviously, we’ve been dealing with antibacterial agents for years. What we mostly don’t know as laypeople is bacteria also are involved in other things. You can imagine, for example, a lot of bacteria on ships at sea. Well, in the oil and gas industry bacteria feed on the oil and the gas. So there are two major kinds of bacteria – aerobic and non-aerobic bacteria. Aerobic means they live above the surface of the Earth and use oxygen just like we do and anaerobic use other chemicals down under the Earth. Our focus has been, how do we eliminate these bacteria so they don’t do harm to the environment? John Shegerian: So in your evolution as a professional and as a leader, you first started your career, you were working on disinfectants that killed the superbugs like you just mentioned, MRSA and some of those other superbugs. Now you’ve just evolved. David LaVance: Yeah. That. Oh. Excuse me, John. John Shegerian: No, go ahead. David LaVance: That’s what drew me into the company in the first place, is that you have all these bacteria that have health effects and just to name the couple that you brought us – MRSA. John Shegerian: Yeah. David LaVance: CRE. C Diff. They’re responsible for probably killing about 50,000 Americans a year in hospitals. In other words, you get these bacteria infections in hospitals. So my question was, “Well, why can’t we do something about that? Why can’t we better kill these bacteria before they get us?” And sure enough, you may have heard or seen some things relating to CRE, for example. This is a very highly resistant type of bacteria and the CDC has been talking about it a lot in the last year because there is no medicine that treats it. Absolutely no medicine that treats CRE. So if you get the infection, your chances of dying are 50 percent. Well, that is a terrible ratio. John Shegerian: Yeah. David LaVance: So what we have to do is we have to get the bacteria before it gets us. John Shegerian: Wow. And that bacteria is mostly in hospitals and health care areas right now? David LaVance: Yeah. That’s right. And if people want to learn more about it, they should go to the CDC website, which really addresses a lot of the issues pertaining to CRE. And happily, our chemical kills it. Now, when you start “chemical” and “medicine” and so forth- John Shegerian: Yeah. David LaVance: Everyone is worried about, how can a chemical be green? And in reality, chemicals all have side effects, but in this particular one, it’s extraordinarily low toxicity. In fact, this is a chemical – hypochlorous acid – that your body makes. Your own body makes it and that’s how it kills bacteria inside your body. John Shegerian: Wow. That is crazy. So you really took what is really an organic solution and then you socialized it and scaled it for industrial purposes. David LaVance: Yeah. You’re exactly right. The key here was, can we make it? And can we make it in sufficient quantity so that you can use it on larger scale? John Shegerian: Wow. David LaVance: So if you can only make a few drops, it wouldn’t be worth anything. It would be a science experiment. But if you can make it by the truckload, then you can use it for other things. And indeed, to use it in oil and gas, you have to make it by the truckloads. John Shegerian: So let’s talk about now moving from health care, which is very critical and important, to one of the social phenomenas during the sustainability revolution, has become non-dependence on foreign energy and foreign oil. David LaVance: Right. John Shegerian: But obviously, the path there – like the path to any success – the journey is never smooth and easy, and one of the problems with that has been in the news all the time has been this issues of fracking. David LaVance: Right. John Shegerian: And how it has potentially harmed the environment during the process. Can you share, David, some of what you have come up with? What your company does to mitigate the harms of fracking? David LaVance: Sure. And that’s a really good place to begin in thinking about oil and gas, because we definitely do not want to be dependent on any other nation for our oil and gas. John Shegerian: Right. David LaVance: And so energy independence is strategically really important. We have that in mind and we’re saying, “OK. How is the best way to get the oil and the gas out of the ground?” The United States, in particular, is blessed with a lot of oil and gas that is trapped in the shale deposits, and we have a lot of shale deposits all over the country. Shale is interesting because it can be fractured, and the way that the industry does this is it uses a lot of water – I’m talking about millions of gallons of water in each well – and it puts that water under tremendous pressure and it fractures the rock and then that frees up the oil and the gas to flow out. OK. So fracturing, itself – if you think about breaking up the underlying rock – that creates a worry and we’ve seen some publicity and some press releases and studies and so forth about “could it lead to earthquakes?” and that sort of thing. We don’t address that part. John Shegerian: OK. David LaVance: The other part, though, is if you’re putting that millions and millions of gallons of water underground, do we have a chance that we are going to poison our water supply? Because we all know that oil and gas business is an industrial process. Any time you talk about industrial processes, you’re talking about harsh chemicals. So the question is, are the techniques such that you are going to poison the water? And that’s where we come in. Because if you’re going to use all that water – and it’s not coming out of the faucet in your kitchen; it’s coming out of a lake or a pond or a stream, so that water has all the little parameciums and other bacteria that we all learned about in high school. They’re in there. And if you put them underground, what happens? The answer is nothing good. So the oil and gas industry really wants to kill those because they don’t want to hurt their own well, but they also don’t want to damage the water supply and so forth. So the question is, can you come up with a chemical that is not toxic to humans but is toxic to bacteria? And that is really the crux of what we do at IET. We are providing that chemical so that it can be used in the oil and gas industry to kill bacteria. John Shegerian: And explain, David, please, what is the chemical’s name and what exactly it does. David LaVance: Yeah. The chemical’s technical name is “hypochlorous acid.” John Shegerian: OK. David LaVance: It’s hydrogen, oxygen and chlorine – HOCL. John Shegerian: Right. David LaVance: And what it does is it kills bacteria on contact. Now, this is an EPA-approved chemical. It’s been through all the testing and so forth. And not only is it approved for oil and gas, but it’s approved as a hospital grade disinfectant. You can spray it in hospitals. So it’s pretty safe. The EPA has made sure that we did all the testing and that kind of thing. The interesting thing, John, that is a result of all of this bacteria in the oil industry is bacteria, and one of the bad side effects of bacteria is it causes the production or the creation of another chemical called “hydrogen sulfide” – H2S, hydrogen sulfide – and hydrogen sulfide is a deadly gas. It kills oil workers. It corrodes the pipes and the pumps and so forth involving gas. And we need to eliminate that. Happily, this chemical does do that. John Shegerian: And what is your product called, “Excelyte?” David LaVance: Well, Excelyte is a solution – a very concentrated solution – of that hypochlorous acid. John Shegerian: OK. David LaVance: So that is just a brand name for this product. John Shegerian: And I’m on your website, which I love because it’s so chock full of information. And so just to make it simple for our listeners, Excelyte and the, the Excelyte product leaves as you solve the problem of fracking. David LaVance: Right. John Shegerian: The problems that – it leaves no ecological footprint behind. David LaVance: Right. This is one of the things I was getting at. John Shegerian: Wow. David LaVance: If you’re going to put a chemical down a hole – so if we’re going to inject it into the ground – what happens to the chemical after the fact? Does it just go into our aquifer? What does it do? And in this case, HOCL breaks down into its component parts. If there is hydrogen sulfide there, it’s going to break that hydrogen sulfide apart and it’s going to create something called “sulfate.” Sulfate is a pretty benign chemical and it’s just going to precipitate out. It’s going to fall to the bottom of the well as a molecular solid – shall we say – and the chlorine gasses off. In extensive testing that has been published, what we have found is that after 90 days, you cannot find any trace of the chemical underground. John Shegerian: Oh. David LaVance: And since this is a chemical that – while I wouldn’t recommend this as a daily habit – but you can drink it. It’s not going to hurt you. Having it underground even for 90 days is not going to be harmful. John Shegerian: That’s fantastic. So now the question becomes – because this is fascinating, because you always hear the bad stuff in the news. As you and I know. David LaVance: Right. John Shegerian: What’s that old adage? “If it bleeds, it leads.” David LaVance: Yeah. John Shegerian: So they always want to vilify fracking. But here’s a wonderful story coming out of it. How has the adoption been? You’ve found something to help mitigate all the bad effects of fracking. How has this been adopted by the energy companies and the big companies that are involved with fracking? David LaVance: Well, we rolled this product out for the oil industry almost exactly one year ago. John Shegerian: OK. David LaVance: And at that time we were not doing any wells at all. Today, we have about 180 wells that we are treating. Now that is a drop in the bucket compared to the 1 million wells that exist in the United States, but the uptake from the industry has been very good and their receptivity is good. And one of the reasons they’re receptive – of course – is that they asked the question, “Does it make business sense?” And happily, this chemical can be made at very low cost and so it’s quite cost competitive. In fact, probably can be bought less expensively than other chemicals that would do a similar thing, and it’s very effective. So we’ve had some name brand oil companies – companies that probably some of your listeners might even own stock in – that have tested our products, and they’ve tested it against the competition, and they like it, and they’re telling us they’re going to us it. So we are in a mad dash to expand our business to be able to supply it all around the country wherever we have oil drilling and oil wells. John Shegerian: So you’re the CEO. You’ve had a lot of success in your life. You’re a humble guy, but your career has been very successful as careers go. So when you go to bed at night, David, if there are a million opportunities to sell this Excelyte and this product into, what is the dream? What is the goal? Not only as a financial goal, as a CEO of a company that has shareholders and things of that such but as a personal also who is thinking now backwards a little bit to leaving the legacy behind of one of doing good and doing well at the same time and leaving a better planet than we found – what is your goal, and how many wells can you reach with this superior product, Excelyte, and your other superior products? David LaVance: Well, I think what we really want to do, as a society, is we need to address this big problem that we have, which is a kind of bacterial invasion. John Shegerian: Yeah. David LaVance: And we all know of it because if our kids get – say – an infection in the locker room of MRSA, or grandma gets an infection of C Diff in the hospital, or something like that. We are a little less tuned into the bacterial effects in our broader environment, but bacteria thrives out there. So what I would like to do is leave a method that we can effectively eliminate bacteria without creating further harm. So the way our business is set up to do that is we make equipment that makes the actual liquid, and that equipment we want to deploy all across the country. So eventually, what we’d like to see is in every oil producing area, every basin that we have a depot – kind of like a gasoline filling station where the companies can come and get this product and then take it back to their oil and gas wells and use it -then they can use it in the pipelines and in the trains that carry the oil and gas and so forth. Then we’d also like to have a similar situation where you have depots that manufacture the product so it can be delivered to hospitals and doctors’ offices. John Shegerian: Got you. David LaVance: I think if we do that, we will have done a good thing. John Shegerian: I think you will have done a great thing. We’re down to the last two minutes or so. So if today you’re treating 180 wells, when I have you back on the show nine months from now, what is the possibility? How fast can you scale your great company, and how many wells can you be into nine months from now? Twelve months from now? Five hundred? A thousand? Ten-thousand? What do you think? David LaVance: We should get into the thousands, and we want to get into the tens of thousands as quickly as we can. Today, we have two depots – one that is in Utah and one in New Mexico. We’re expanding into Texas right now. We’ve tried and tested already in Oklahoma and in North Dakota. In all of those places, the product works and so we need to go ahead and get facilities started there, and if we do, we’ll quickly reach the tens of thousands of oil wells. John Shegerian: And do you continue to grow in the health care industry as well besides the oil and fracking? David LaVance: Yes. Health care is a little slower because you’re really making very intimate contact with people so you’d never want to make a mistake, so that will take a little bit more time to develop. But that will come, too, because after all, we all know that MRSA and C Diff, they are a common enemy. There is nothing good that comes of those guys. John Shegerian: Got you. Well, thank you so much, David. And for our listeners out there – again – to learn more about David’s great company, please go to www.EcoTreatments.com. David LaVance, you are making the world a better place and truly living proof that Green Is Good.

John Shegerian: Welcome to another edition of Green Is Good, and we’re so honored to have with us today Paul Boardman. He is the Founder and Chairman of Lakeshore Family Sports. Welcome to Green Is Good, Paul. Paul Boardman: Thank you, John. I appreciate being here. Thank you for the opportunity. It’s a wonderful show. We’re an incubator – essentially – of putting together the greenest, most sustainable arena complex in America perhaps the world, and we use your radio program as a resource to help us integrate those wonderful capabilities. So fantastic for all the work you’ve done. John Shegerian: That’s kind of you to say that and thank you. And for our listeners out there that want to find Paul’s great company – Lakeshore Family Sports – please go to www.DunelandSports.org. I’m on your site right now. Our listeners should go onto it to learn more. Before we get talking about Lakeshore Family Sports and your website and all the great work you’re doing, I want you to share the Paul Boardman journey with our listeners. How did you become a greenie, and how did you come up with the vision to start – even – Lakeshore Family Sports? Paul Boardman: It goes back. I was compelled to run for Congress in the West Los Angeles district. At that poin,t I was very concerned about violence in the media. John Shegerian: Huh. Paul Boardman: I ran for Congress twice. And it evolved over the years with different experiences I had in real estate development looking at how to move our economy forward. I’m really an economic development person so merging together my interest in sports, entertainment – being in that West Los Angeles district, it just came to a point where the market is ready to move in this direction – and it just happened. I’m a believer that the next economy is a clean economy. We’re in it now. We’ve seeded that with 3 trillion federal dollars and [inaudible] R&D over the last 15 years and almost a trillion corporate dollars. The speed of money today in net worth, that is simply I spend a dollar. How many times did it turn over, and how many times that’s spent a month is very, very low so our cash is not moving. But we have wonderful incubators. We have 700 research labs around the country affiliated with universities. In corporate labs, they’ve done amazing work in the green space. All sitting there waiting to just surge forward and just kick the renewable economy forward. We’ve had a security economy since 9/11. John Shegerian: Right. Paul Boardman: And now we’re moving into the clean economy, and it’s very, very exciting because it’s about energy, it’s about renewables. When people say, “How do we move the economy forward?” Well, we’re not going to smokestack the economy forward. Nobody wants that. If you Google what the consumer wants, they’re not interested in nonbiodegradables in their landfills. They want clean food, they want clean water, they want a better life. It’s ingenuity to build a better life. That’s what we do. That’s how it has to move forward. I see it very clearly that incentives to move us forward in that direction are the way to go, and this is the arena project that we’re working on, this complex to integrate the lost Well Building Standards, the Building Challenge Standards, the U.S. Green Building LEED Council Standard. All those. We don’t have an outside limit on where we’ll go. We’re incubating and bringing all the best practices we can possibly bring into that facility. John Shegerian: Well, I want to step back then, Paul, and I want you to share what is – let’s start with just ground zero – what is Lakeshore Family Sports, and how did you come up with that vision, and when did you come up with that vision? Paul Boardman: Well, we’ve now been into this process three years, and Lakeshore Family Sports is a different economic model. It is a nonprofit structure, and it will own and operate a 6,000-capacity for hockey, 7,000 for basketball, 8,000 for center stage concerts facility. John Shegerian: OK. Paul Boardman: That will go as far as we can to reach these standards. And it’s in a complex that has now become a 44-acre sustainable complex integrating other capabilities. Our partners are HOK – the architecture firm – Waste Management, Skanska – a construction company – and Panasonic. Panasonic is no longer building TVs. They’re a full integrator of solar capabilities and they are building sustainable communities and towns around the world so they have a lot of experience with this and helping put all those standards into this complex. So we partner with corporations – like Aramark as well – and what they like to do in that sustainable park or complex. John Shegerian: Got you. That’s so interesting. So you came up with this three years ago. So how do you even start? You are not in West L.A. anymore. You’re in the Indiana area, correct? Paul Boardman: I’m outside of Chicago on Lake Michigan in Northwest Indiana. We’re just about 15 miles from the steel mills. It’s a great location. Valparaiso University has been good. They have a LEED Platinum engineering school. This is a place where people build things. There is no lack of people that want to build, make, engineer. But there is an employment issue. So it’s about kicking up the economy and attributing the built environment. When I say a “nonprofit organization,” that allows us to fundraise for our project around the country. And we are. That’s one of the ways that we’re funding our project is through crowdsourcing throughout the country. We’ll go anywhere we need to go, and people that are interesting in seeing a facility that is on the cutting edge do this and help lead the way, those are the people and organizations, nonprofits and corporations that we work with as well as sponsorships and so forth to make it happen. The hope is that we’ll roll out a 2.0, 3.0 version in other parts of the country. This serves the community so well because the resources come in, you buy a ticket and then it goes – in our case – a percentage of that will go to help the local sports teams and clubs for youth in the community. So we are not extracting the resources. We’re putting them back into the community as a nonprofit organization. So we had sports- John Shegerian: How much – right. Go on. Go ahead, Paul. Sorry. Paul Boardman: Sporting events, lots of entertainment events, and it’s just a wonderful way to serve the community. John Shegerian: And so when you set out to do this – and now you’ve built a whole plan around this – how much is it going to cost to get the arena built and finalized and operational? Paul Boardman: The arena number – and this is where we’re at an incubator phase – unfortunately, the lost folks have – they do a lot of pilots. So when you sit down and say with your architects and so forth, “Hey, what does the greenest most sustainable building look like and what does it cost?” We have estimates around $120 million to $130 million and we’re refining that. Fortunately, the lost folks are going to be doing a pilot on arenas like they have done and they bring all their scientists together to help us understand every little bit of what could be more sustainable in that building, and they work with our architects and designers and so forth. So they’ve done that in the retail space and in the commercial space. They said, “All right, we’re going to get the best and brightest together around the world and sit around a table and say what elements of sustainability should be in that building, and how do we integrate that, and what is out there in the research labs and how could we bring that together?” I contend that the next economy is – integration is king. Not cash. We have plenty of cash. But it’s that process of bringing the analysts together to put together the best, most sustainable, well-governed structure. John Shegerian: Got it. And so how long will it take you to raise this capital? And talk a little bit about the crowdsourcing and other sources that you’re using for the capital. Paul Boardman: Well, we’ve had good success from corporations potentially looking at it as an internal crowdsource through their sustainable programs and as well as nonprofits around the country. So we’re not going to raise all of that 130 million that way. We’ll be debt financing. The point is a lot of arenas – as you know – over the last 30 or 40 years, they are funded through municipal dollars, bond issues and so forth. This is a smaller secondary market arena. It’s not an NFL stadium where you get $200 million from the NFL and then you do a surcharge on the tickets and you do a little bit of this, a little bit of that and you have your $900 million. It takes a very short period of time because you have a built-in ticket sales and it’s a mature structure. This is a startup in a secondary market – meaning outside of a major market like Chicago – to serve that community of maybe a million people, and that’s really what we’re serving here in Northwest Indiana’s business community, and synergizing that. That environment – we’ll do debt financing and the goal is to be able to reach our standards, to be able to go as far as we want with our sustainability. That independence helps us. So we’re trying to not do any government funding just because it may take longer, and I enjoy the process of doing fundraisers around the country and the crowdsourcing. It builds a relationship as well as it helps tell the story of what we’re doing and how other people can do the same thing. John Shegerian: And so where are you in the evolution? How far until you see the arena get built and it serves as a new paradigm for the clean and green revolution that is now here upon us in America? Paul Boardman: Well, here we are. I started three years ago with talking to folks in the community. John Shegerian: Yeah. Paul Boardman: I visited 30 facilities around the country. John Shegerian: Wow. Paul Boardman: I have educated myself. And we’re three years in, and it’s grown from being just an arena now to being a complex of 10 other development areas that could even include e-racing. So we’re looking at all those things. We expect that in the next year we can break ground. John Shegerian: Wow. Paul Boardman: And that is because of the fact that we want that highest level of integration and that’s quite an undertaking as I’ve learned. John Shegerian: Huge. Paul Boardman: It is a huge undertaking. It’s a huge undertaking. John Shegerian: Yeah. Paul Boardman: It’s time well spent and it will be an attraction. John Shegerian: For our listeners who have just joined us, we’ve got Paul Boardman with us today. He is the Founder and Chairman of Lakeshore Family Sports. You can learn more about Paul and Lakeshore Family Sports at www.DunelandSports.org. So now you’re in this journey. How did you get all these amazing and great brands – HOK, Panasonic, Sysco, Aramark, Waste Management – how did you get them all to join with your vision towards building this wonderful complex called Lakeshore Family Sports? Paul Boardman: Well, they’re already – it’s all about integration in our society today. They all have mature products that need to be integrated with other products to build something fantastic. So it’s really a matter of selling them on that vision and having a good plan, and we have a good plan. My background as an advocate – I think – helps a bit. Persistence. I’m 100-percent passionate about it. I’ve spent a lot of research understanding the dynamic of where we are with the economy. I believe 100 percent that it is the integrated and that analytic process that is going to move our society forward, that ingenuity to build a better life. And that’s what we all embrace – I think – in America. And we want that. We want cleaner, greener, more efficient, less waste. These are the goals of our society. I think that’s been spoken out there very clearly with the consumer desires and what they’re saying. And of course we spent 3 trillion federal dollars on federal research labs. They’re cooking with new capabilities. Then those have been funded – other large corporations. So you just look at Tesla, you look at Panasonic, you look at Waste Management, they all have R&D and they’re pushing that curve. So we, as a society, need more projects like this to push that curve and integrate with those companies and bring them to the table. John Shegerian: Is it your thesis, Paul, that we can’t leave behind the secondary markets – like where you’re building your center – in the clean and sustainable revolution? Paul Boardman: If you built an arena in a large market, and it’s been there five years or 10 years, it’s going to be difficult. You can retrofit that, but it’s going to be difficult to just start a brand new one and tear it down. It’s going to go through its lifecycle. There are secondary markets that have a need for entertainment. They have a need for sports, a lower cost. Their businesses have a need to communicate, thrive and participate and synergize so it’s part of a new economic development model. Keep in mind the corporations in America have $4 trillion in cash in the banks, and it’s hard to get that money out, and it’s not moving. It’s moving very slowly. They are the players. The Waste Managements – they have the resources. John Shegerian: Right. Paul Boardman: My contention is they just don’t have enough business plans, they don’t have enough projects and it’s very difficult to stand up and do these projects. John Shegerian: We’re down to the last five minutes or so. Where do you see, Paul, Lakeshore and your vision going in the next 10 years both locally in the area that you’re serving with the first arena but then nationally and beyond? Paul Boardman: Arenas are a wonderful place to educate people. You come in, you see and you experience these wonderful – it’s similar to life. You’ve got a passion. It’s a fantastic environment. You can see that there is camaraderie amongst the people, and it’s a wonderful showcase. So we’re building a model, and that model can be revised – 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 – as new capabilities come online. So the idea is to build that model in conjunction with the loss with the Living Building Council, with the Living Building Challenge and with the LEED folks, and then roll that out in other secondary markets and serve those communities. John Shegerian: Got you. Paul Boardman: You may be looking at between 10 or 20 different facilities over a 20-year period of time. John Shegerian: And where will you take it after you do Lakeshore? Where would be the next community? Are you already in discussions with other communities and other areas, and how has that been going? Paul Boardman: Well, I’ve had folks come to me and say, “That might be a good idea for our community,” and we’ve had some interest in Florida and New York, Texas, California. I’ve had some interest come out of Louisiana and Minnesota. So I’ve had someone say, “Hey, we’ve got an aging facility and we’d like to maybe have one in our community,” so we’re a bit overwhelmed, but we have to build the model first. John Shegerian: Right. Paul Boardman: And we need all the capabilities that we just talked about – all those organizations coming together to build that model. Of course that model is available for other folks to step up and utilize. So it’s not about enriching Paul Boardman. It’s about building a model that everybody can have access to. We’re a nonprofit. Our arenas are nonprofits to serve the community, especially, and to be economic developers and help create jobs. We do things that – we want everybody to have a 401k matching program. If we’re going to have our facility management people, we want everyone to have an opportunity to create a little wealth from their work. We want to do local food sourcing. There is just no end to all that integration capability that we need to put into the structure to serve the people better. John Shegerian: Got you. We’re down to the last two minutes or so. Share a little bit about your journey being a green entrepreneur and words of wisdom you could share backwards with the next young generation coming up that want to be the next Paul Boardman. Paul Boardman: It’s so exciting. There is so much interest and so much acceptance, and it’s almost a coordination job. We’ve come to a point where our society is accepting. We need to build these relationships, and the barriers that may have been there in the past just aren’t there, so you have to think “2015” and just do it and just go out there and make it happen and move it forward, and you’re going go to find wonderful opportunity, even in places you think they might not be. For example, you say, “Oh, maybe utility would be against this,” and you find that they’re more than happy to embrace purchasing your electricity or what have you. It’s really astounding and fantastic. John Shegerian: That’s wonderful, and that is some great words of wisdom for the next generation. And for our listeners out there that would like to learn more about Paul and also his great company – Lakeshore Family Sports – please go to www.DunelandSports.org. Paul, we want you to come back on Green Is Good in the future to talk about the evolution that you’re working on and how the project is going. I just want to say personally thank you for being living proof that Green Is Good.

John Shegerian: Welcome back to Green Is Good, and we are so honored to have with us today from Israel Daphna Nissenbaum. She is the CEO and co-founder of TIPA Corp. Welcome to Green Is Good and thank you for joining from your offices in Israel today, Daphna. Daphna Nissenbaum: Thank you for giving us the opportunity to be interviewed today. John Shegerian: We’re honored to have you. And for our listeners out there that want to follow along with this interview with Daphna, please go to her great website – I’m on it right now – it’s www.TIPA-Corp.com. I’m on your website. It’s a beautiful website. Before we get talking about all the great things you’re doing at TIPA, I want you to please share the Daphna Nissenbaum story about your green journey, leading up to co-founding this wonderful and important company. Daphna Nissenbaum: OK. So, actually, by profession, I am a software engineer and I also was a CEO of a research center on Capital Markets in one of the universities in Israel. John Shegerian: OK. Daphna Nissenbaum: And one day I had an argument with one of my kids about his plastic bottle. They used to throw it into the waste bin in school and I said, “Please bring it back home because we have to reuse, we have to reduce, we have to recycle. You cannot just throw it away as you want.” John Shegerian: Right. Daphna Nissenbaum: And after a few arguments like this, I understood that I hear this all the time around me. And I told them there must be another way. We must think differently on how we handle the packages. And the first thing I thought about was actually an orange peel. Why won’t we create a package that is like the orange peel that would behave like an orange peel that we can treat it as an orange peel? A biodegradable package that once we eat or drink the content and then we treat the package as an organic waste. And there was the original idea. John Shegerian: Got you. And how many years ago did you found your company TIPA? Daphna Nissenbaum: That was five-and-a-half years ago. John Shegerian: Wow. Daphna Nissenbaum: When we started TIPA. Actually I had the idea. I met my partner and we started developing cool designs for cool packages and searching for the right materials. Because I am not a polymers expert and so we hired two bioplastic experts to find the right material for us for flexible packaging, for biodegradable packaging. And after six months when they both came to us separately and said, “Well, there is no such solution, just come back in a few years,” we said, “No way.” No way. We have landed on the moon; now, how come we cannot have biodegradable flexible packaging? And this is how we started developing this solution. And that was five-and-a-half years ago. John Shegerian: Got it. So that was approximately 2010 or so. Daphna Nissenbaum: Right. John Shegerian: OK. So now, today, if I met you on an elevator in your office building or some other apartment building and I said, “What do you do, Daphna?” explain what TIPA does to our listeners. What is TIPA overall? Daphna Nissenbaum: We developed packaging that is like the orange peel. You can just drink or eat the content and treat the package as an organic waste. We give a bioplastic solution that actually looks and feels and gives the same properties as conventional plastic in one hand, but at the other end – post-consumption – it just degrades biologically. It actually becomes a fertilizer that can be used to fertilize the soils again, and this is the natural recycling process that exists in nature so we imitate it. So this is what we offer. John Shegerian: So you offer this. Now, I know how you got your epiphany. I know how you got your idea. When you were creating the products that you now sell and market, did it exist anywhere in the world before you created it? Daphna Nissenbaum: Well, bioplastic has been existing in the market for a few years. John Shegerian: OK. Daphna Nissenbaum: Let’s say for 15 years. John Shegerian: OK. Daphna Nissenbaum: But it has been used for very specific uses like for agriculture or for waste bags, etc. We came with the need to create food packaging. John Shegerian: OK. Daphna Nissenbaum: Why? Because the food industry is the No. 1 contributor for plastic waste. John Shegerian: Wow. Daphna Nissenbaum: And there is no solution in this space – the space of the food and beverage packaging. John Shegerian: Got you. That’s so fascinating. So, now, you took what was already invented for other applications and you then took it to the food industry. Daphna Nissenbaum: Right. John Shegerian: Ah. Daphna Nissenbaum: But the technology was not ready because the materials are not like conventional plastic materials – tend to break easily and not as strong as conventional plastic – so we had to develop very specific formulations to become a solution. It actually took us five-and-a-half years to develop the first generation of materials, which is now being launched in the market. So it’s not that easy. Once we understood what the bigger problem was and that there was no solution, and we started the development soon enough, we understood that it’s [inaudible] there’s a good reason why we could not find the such solutions in the past. So we were focused on the food industry. We were focused on the food industry needs and the properties that the packaging needs, and this is what we developed. John Shegerian: So now you put out your first generation. Who is your potential client in terms of where did you go first with your packaging and where are you finding early adoption first? Daphna Nissenbaum: So we focused on the U.S. market because we found it early adopters. John Shegerian: Yes. Daphna Nissenbaum: And we can find early adopters in this market. We actually approached brand owners – the companies that pack the food, that sell the food – so we approach them because we realize that more and more companies are searching and seeking for sustainable solutions. They want to care about the environment as their clients care about the environment and they want to bring added value, so we approach those companies – the food banks that are sustainable companies that have the sustainability message in their general message. John Shegerian: Are there any brands that our listeners would have heard of before? Are these popular brands, or are these smaller brands so you can work with other entrepreneurs, or are these multinational global brands that you are approaching? Daphna Nissenbaum: Actually, we do both. We approach the multinational, the big companies, the big players in the market in one hand but we also talk to the smaller brands who tend to adapt to solutions more easily or quickly than the bigger brands. But we actually do both. We’re players in both bets. John Shegerian: And so your offices in the – you’re in Israel today at your offices, but where are your offices in the United States? Daphna Nissenbaum: We actually have an office in New Jersey. John Shegerian: OK. Daphna Nissenbaum: And we operate also from there. And we also have agents in Israel and in Europe. John Shegerian: Got it. So the product is already starting to go in the food companies on the packaging. How has it been received so far, and how is it working so far? Daphna Nissenbaum: So we just started sales, actually, this quarter. John Shegerian: OK. Daphna Nissenbaum: So we moved forward with a few companies in the U.S. and in Europe and the products are going to be soon on the shelves in both territories. It’s going pretty well. All the companies – the companies that we talked to – all of them understand the huge problem that the plastic creates and the need and the demand that comes from their clients. So this is the kind of discussion that we have with the food brands. John Shegerian: So this is five-and-a-half years in the making, and finally, you’re going to come to market. The product itself, after I take it off of the food item I want to use,the product itself, if it ended up in a landfill or if it ended up somewhere else, it just basically could become part of the compost, again. It could become part of the Earth, again. Is that correct? Daphna Nissenbaum: Right. So the best solution is a compost system, then the package decomposes within six months and becomes a fertilizer that can be used to fertilize the fields and then to grow. John Shegerian: What an amazing story. Daphna Nissenbaum: But if it ends not in compost, then it’s all – we have exactly as an organic waste. It’s all decomposed. Maybe slower. But nothing to compare with conventional plastic. John Shegerian: Right. Daphna Nissenbaum: So we’re not talking about hundreds of years but in a few years the package will disappear. John Shegerian: Right. For our listeners who just joined us, we’re so excited and honored to have with us today Daphna Nissenbaum. She is the CEO and cofounder of TIPA. You can find her great important company at www.TIPA-Corp.com. Daphna, talk a little bit about your journey as both an entrepreneur, ecopreneur but also a woman. You’re a part of Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In generation. You had a big idea. You had to put together not only a team, but you also had to put together major money, funds, capital to get your idea to today where you are. Talk a little bit about, has it gone the way you thought it would? Has it been slower? Has it been faster? And has it been more challenging as more people and organizations try to get in your way during this journey? Daphna Nissenbaum: OK. So, first of all, I have to say, it’s an amazing journey. It’s not easy, but it’s very challenging, very interesting. And I have to say one more thing, that once you know you’re doing the right thing, everything falls in place. John Shegerian: Yeah. Daphna Nissenbaum: So we started with this idea, and as long as we went through this journey, we understood more and more about the size of the problem, the size of the need and what we have to bring to the market. So this is one journey. Then you have to find the right people to join you. So, from the very first step, we hired people that have vast experience with the conventional plastic market so we knew how to approach the market, we knew what the market needs and how to process the materials. But, on the other hand, all the time we thought differently. We knew we had to think differently of what the market needs and what we want to bring to the market because we didn’t want to go through the same path as conventional companies go through. So this is a journey to go with hiring the right people, the new minds and the old minds in terms of knowing how the plastic market works on one hand and to raise money and to bring the right partners on board with us, people who really can appreciate what we do and understand the problem and have the patience to go through this journey. But I have to say that – as I said in the beginning – if you do the right thing then everything falls in place. So we found – and maybe they found us – the right investors. John Shegerian: Yeah. Daphna Nissenbaum: And we have great partners. We have a wonderful team. We are 25 people. Each one is an expert in a different field but all together we make a great team that moves very fast and forward, and we’re focused. All the time we have to be focused on what you do, what you want to bring to the market. And it’s not easy because the opportunities are all over the place but you have to stay focused. And our focus is on the food industry – on soft packaging for the food industry – and once you focus and you’re going on the right way and it’s – we’re making a great team, great company and now we also have the ready-for-sale solution and we move forward and fast. John Shegerian: What kind of products, Daphna, do you offer? Like in this first generation of what you’re putting out in the marketplace and that we’re all excited to see our food in so that we don’t pollute the world anymore – what are the original products that you’re putting out there right now in the next six months to a year? Daphna Nissenbaum: OK. So yeah, this is a very important question, of course. We concentrated the first generation on dry food. So we offer packaging – for example – for fresh produce, for potato chips, for granola bars. For dry food and chilled food this is the first generation, and of course, we’re going to come soon with this next generation for other food segments. If you just think about today when you go to the supermarket and you go through the aisles- John Shegerian: Yeah. Daphna Nissenbaum: Everything is packed. Almost everything is packed – small portions, big portions, etc. – and a big segment is the segment of the dry food. So we concentrated there in the first generation. John Shegerian: Perfect. Wow. And so are there any brands that you can mention now that we’ll be seeing your packaging on in the next six months that our listeners can look out for and support because they want to support your kind of sustainable packaging? Daphna Nissenbaum: I hope that during our next interview I’ll be able to say the names. John Shegerian: OK. Good. We want that. We want you to come back on and say the names and promote your brand with the great brands that are going to be adopting your brand. That is the whole key. That is what we want. Daphna Nissenbaum: Right. John Shegerian: That’s wonderful. Daphna Nissenbaum: I think that is very – sorry. John Shegerian: No go ahead. Daphna Nissenbaum: I think that the companies would like to adopt this solution as well because it puts them in a different place, in a place where they say, “OK. We know there is a huge problem and we’re going to take care of it.” John Shegerian: Yeah. That’s right. Daphna Nissenbaum: We’re going to be the leaders in taking care of a growing huge problem of flexible packaging, of plastic, of current plastic. John Shegerian: Yeah. Daphna Nissenbaum: And we offer a solution that is outstanding, it’s a new technology and you can actually look at a packaging from now on as an organic packaging. John Shegerian: Yeah. Daphna Nissenbaum: And it just integrates in our life without any changes. John Shegerian: It’s amazing. Daphna Nissenbaum: So we give the same properties and feel as conventional plastic on one hand and the on the second hand we say, “OK, just think about it as an organic waste and treat it as an organic waste.” Whatever you do with your organic waste, you can do with our packages. And organic waste is 30 percent of our solid waste. John Shegerian: That’s amazing. Daphna Nissenbaum: And it’s going to stay here forever. Even in 200 years time, we’re still going to have organic waste and we have to take care of our organic waste so we can just integrate the plastic packaging into the organic waste. John Shegerian: Daphna, we’re down to the last two to three minutes unfortunately but can you share – you’ve been doing this five-and-a-half years. You’re just a rocket ship ready to go to the moon now as you launch your products. Where do you see TIPA in the next five and 10 years? What is your goal? What is your vision? When you go to sleep at night and you lay down where is your vision to take this in the next five to 10 years? Daphna Nissenbaum: TIPA is going to lead the biodegradable compostable bio-based solutions in the food packaging industry. We’re going to bring more and more sophisticated and advanced solutions to this market. This is a market of $73 billion in 2013 and was growing. We’re going to be the leader in the new packaging way of this market. John Shegerian: Wow. That’s amazing. And any last words of wisdom in the last 60 seconds for other young entrepreneurs, ecopreneurs that want to be the next Daphna Nissenbaum? Daphna Nissenbaum: First of all, be yourself. Believe in what you do. Do the right things and all the rest will happen. Don’t stop dreaming. Don’t stop aiming far and high. And just do what you believe you have to do and the rest will follow. If you believe in yourself, all the surrounding believes in you. John Shegerian: I love it. Daphna Nissenbaum: The investors, the company, everyone. Just do whatever you believe. If it is the right thing, it will succeed. John Shegerian: That is wonderful advice. Daphna, we’re going to have you back on to talk about the brands that have adopted TIPA’s great products in the future. And thank you for spending time with us today. For our listeners out there that want to learn more about Daphna’s great products, please go to www.TIPA-Corp.com. Thank you for making the world a better and more sustainable place, Daphna. You are truly living proof that Green Is Good.

John Shegerian: Welcome back to Green Is Good, and we are so excited to have with us today Nagwa Awad. She is the Senior VP of Business Development and founder of Dawan Global. To learn more about Dawan Global, you can go to www.DawanGlobal.com. Welcome to Green Is Good, Nagwa. Nagwa Awad: Hi John. Thank you for having me on. It’s a pleasure. John Shegerian: Thank you for spending time with us today. I would love you first to share a little bit about yourself with our listeners before we get going – your journey leading up to the founding of Dawan and then sharing a little bit about why and how you came up with the idea. Nagwa Awad: Originally, my education is in Computer Engineering, during a time when computers weren’t commonplace. So I graduated with a degree in Computer Engineering and a Business minor. And just to show you how old I am – I was the only woman in the graduating class. John Shegerian: Wow. Nagwa Awad: Which did not intimidate me. I actually saw it as a welcome challenge. When I graduated, I worked as a programmer in computers then I was promoted to Project Manager so I got to manage a team of people that were a good 10 years older than me. Then, when it was time to have children and start a family, I left corporate America and I managed a medical practice for 20 years. John Shegerian: Wow. Nagwa Awad: And my first order of business was to computerize it. Back then – we’re talking about 20, 25 years ago – you didn’t just go out and buy software. You actually programmed it, set up the networking, everything. I would say, like around 1991, 1992, I discovered investing in the stock market and found that not only did I like it, I had a talent for it. John Shegerian: Wow. Nagwa Awad: I know. I actually survived three stock market crashes and did really well. John Shegerian: That is amazing. Wow. Nagwa Awad: Yeah. And then when I turned 50, I decided to do two things. John Shegerian: That’s awesome. Nagwa Awad: It was a fork in the road when I was 50. It was either retire with a healthy pension and travel the world or start yet a third career. Then I realized I’ve travelled the world. I’ve seen almost every country in the world. John Shegerian: Wow. Nagwa Awad: What do you do when you’re retired, you know? John Shegerian: Yeah. Nagwa Awad: So that’s when I decided to start Dawan Global. John Shegerian: OK. Nagwa Awad: I’m an avid hiker. I’m not an outdoors person, but I do enjoy – we live on the East Coast so I enjoy every season. I enjoy skiing in the winter, hiking in the fall. And I’m a passionate hiker. I was always running out of charge for my cell phone, my digital camera. John Shegerian: I love it. Nagwa Awad: I wanted to be out in nature but I wanted to be out with my electronics. So I came upon this idea of using the sun to charge your electronics without having to worry about charging the charge for your electronics the night before. Then when super-storm Sandy hit, I said, “Hey, I have something here,” because I was the only one that had a functioning computer and cell phone, access to the Internet and most of all a working coffee machine, which is a big plus for me. John Shegerian: Wow. So wait a second. So first of all. So now you’ve had a fascinating journey and now you’re starting a new one. You decided to start a new one with Dawan Global to be an entrepreneur, again. Not just work for corporate America, not work for somebody else and even – or not even just trade your own stocks. Now you’re actually going to go do something as a real ecopreneur. So what year was this? What year are we talking about? Nagwa Awad: I started Dawan Global in 2013 on my 50th birthday. So now you really know how old I am. John Shegerian: Wow. OK. Now we know the truth. So that means – by the way we’re the same age, OK? Now you know how old I am. We’re the same age. So now you’re at 50 years old, you have this – I love it. And how did you come up with the name? Explain the name? Nagwa Awad: It’s my name backwards. John Shegerian: Ah. Nagwa Awad: I was toiling around – because, originally, I started selling the items online and I just was getting more orders than I could keep up with as a private person. John Shegerian: Right. Nagwa Awad: I’ve always had that entrepreneurial spirit. There is a rush that you get from selling something. John Shegerian: Right. Nagwa Awad: So I tried to put my name. It didn’t come up. So I put – I figure if Oprah Winfrey can do it so why not me? So it’s my name backwards. John Shegerian: I love it. It’s wonderful. That’s beautiful. OK. So you start this in 2013. Now explain the first year. How long did it take you to create something that was sellable, and how did you get the first sale? Talk a little bit about the second sale and then talk a little bit about how do you then socialize a product like this. How do you really start making a business model out of it? Nagwa Awad: Well, when I found this unit – obviously, it wasn’t my unit but I found this unit. John Shegerian: Right. Yeah. Nagwa Awad: And I purchased 10 units. John Shegerian: OK. Nagwa Awad: And if I’m telling you that – I posted it online, and since I posted it online, if I’m turning around to grab something on my desk, I get an email that says, “item sold.” Like, within a split-second, my first item sold. So then I increased the price a little bit more, and I found that when I increased the price, I actually sold more because I guess people felt like I was running out of inventory. John Shegerian: Wow. Nagwa Awad: So then I started negotiating with the manufacturer to purchase them at a lower price. John Shegerian: Wow. Nagwa Awad: I didn’t set out to start a company. It just started itself. But then I realized that I have something here and maybe it was better to form a company and sell it through the company. So I incorporated exactly on my 50th birthday. It was my 50th birthday gift to me. John Shegerian: Wow. Nagwa Awad: Once I incorporate, then you have a little bit more freedom in negotiating. You get your DUNS number, you file your IRS forms and you have a little bit more freedom to negotiate with manufacturers and be able to attend expos. People are willing to talk to you a little bit more when you’re actually a company as opposed to just an individual. John Shegerian: So explain for our listeners and for me, how unique is your product, and how many competitors do you have, and how have the last two years been? So now you get going, you incorporate, you’ve created a better manufacturing position for yourself with your manufacturer, better contract. Talk a little bit about the last two years. How is the rise of your great company? For our listeners out there to find your product, please go to www.DawanGlobal.com. Nagwa Awad: Well, what initially attracted me to the product that I’m selling is, it’s the size of a cell phone. It really is the size of a cell phone. John Shegerian: Wow. Nagwa Awad: But it can charge anywhere from three to 30 cell phones depending on power. So I figured, what am I looking at as a consumer? John Shegerian: Yeah. Nagwa Awad: But then I decided for ethics sake, because I’m a very – I like to be ethical. I just believe in karma. What goes around comes around. John Shegerian: Yup. Nagwa Awad: So I realized that even though there is a great demand for my products, I’m really warranting somebody else’s product. I’m purchasing from a factory. Whether the quality is good or mediocre I’m warranting that product. So this year what I decided to do is, I’ve actually branded my own products. We design. We came up with four new designs for four different purposes. They’re lighter in weight, bigger in capacity, plus they really do have the name, “Dawan Global,” on them. John Shegerian: Beautiful. Nagwa Awad: Because I warranty my products for a year. No questions asked. You can return them because – I don’t know – you don’t like our company colors. It doesn’t matter. I just think of myself as a consumer. John Shegerian: Right. Nagwa Awad: So once that happened, then the next phase becomes then you go out there and you market the product and wait. They say you should really spend the most amount of money on your marketing and sales team, and that is the business model I attribute my success to. I invested heavily in my marketing company – I do have a marketing company on retainer – and very heavily in my sales staff to get the word out. But that’s enough to get people in the door. Now you need quality to keep people in the door, to get them coming back for more. John Shegerian: Right. Nagwa Awad: So I made sure that the product – and, actually, we had to send an entire shipment back because it had like a yellow dot. I guess there was a problem with the dye. I’d rather take the financial loss than to have to put out a product and have my customer come to me and say, “There is a yellow dot in the middle of the screen.” John Shegerian: Right. And so when you say you have a marketing team are you doing most of your sales online right now? Do you have analogue people that are trying to get it placed in stores? Explain your model. Where are the majority of your sales being derived from right now? Nagwa Awad: Well, we have a website at Ecommerce, but that is mainly for end-users, B2C. But as far as our B2B, that is mainly face-to-face where we actually – I like to use the term “pound-to-pavement” because in my mind we’re all seriously like glorified salespeople. Even when the President of the United States runs for office, he is selling his talent. A doctor is selling his services or is education. So we are all salespeople. There is nothing to be ashamed of in that. But to get good sales, to get leads you really have to pound the pavement and that’s what I tell my sales staff. So B2B is face-to-face. We are getting our products in the stores. We do have distributors kind of throughout the country. In March, we’ll be kind of throughout the country. In March, we’ll be distributing internationally. But as far as B2C – end-users, just single customers – we strictly sell online. John Shegerian: Wow. So right now B2C is strictly online, but you’re also doing B2B, and next March, you’re going to be international. Nagwa Awad: Yes. John Shegerian: That’s so exciting. Wow. So talk a little bit about the journey. What would you like our listeners to know about your product? How can they buy your product? How expensive is it? And then we’ll get into some other stuff. Nagwa Awad: Well, if they log on to the website, www.DawanGlobal.com, they can purchase the products. Any emails, any phone calls – they come through me. As I said, I started this company with just myself out of a home office and my warehouse was my basement. John Shegerian: Right. Nagwa Awad: But now we’ve actually expanded. We have an office in New Jersey and we have an office in New York. But that doesn’t mean I don’t get to see every single email, every single piece of communication that comes from customers. Every one of my employees has to have me as a CC on every communication that goes back and forth. Anyone who calls, it comes to me first and then either I return the phone call or I pass it on to the person who can help them. John Shegerian: Wow. Nagwa Awad: So if they log on to the website, they can purchase the product. John Shegerian: Wow. Nagwa Awad: If they are looking to purchase in bulk – if they are a distributor or electronics store owner or another small business – then I would put them through to my sales account executive because then he can give them special pricing. We do have a lot of clients that will purchase, for example, 30 units at a time to give them as gifts to their staff so those also I would put through to my sales department because then they get special pricing. Obviously, they don’t pay taxes, they don’t pay shipping. There is a little bit more involved when we’re dealing with a business. John Shegerian: And are you where you want to be after two years? Is it bigger than you thought it would be, Nagwa, or is it smaller than you thought it would be? And where do you want it to go in 10 years? I mean, listen, you’re a young 52. You’re like me. We’ve got a long road ahead of us here. Nagwa Awad: Yes. Of course. John Shegerian: We’re just starting up. We’re just in the second half of the game here. I mean, there is a long way to go before they blow the final whistle on us so where is this going to go? Are you where you want to be after two years, and where is this going to go in the next five to 10? Nagwa Awad: Well, I will say that 50 is the new 30, but as I keep telling my staff, the company is growing on its own and we’re just chasing after it trying to keep up with it. John Shegerian: That’s so great. Nagwa Awad: So it has grown a lot more than I anticipated. Where do I want to be five to 10 years from now? John Shegerian: Yeah. Nagwa Awad: Sincerely and from the heart, I’d like to see everybody have access to some power for their electronics. John Shegerian: Right. Nagwa Awad: Whether it’s my products or – we really don’t have many competitors – but whether it’s our products or somebody else’s, everybody really needs to tap into natural resources to keep your electronics. So that’s where I want to see a Dawan Global, in every hand, in every household. John Shegerian: That’s a fascinating point. Before we went on the air, you and I were talking where we all are today. And Michael is in New York and I’m in L.A. today and you’re in New Jersey. Can you share a little bit about how long – because we all have different levels of sun based upon time of year and also geographically where we’re sitting – how much solar does it take for your device to charge up my cell phone typically? If it’s not a sunny day, am I out of luck? Or even on a cloudy day will it still derive some energy to put into my cell phone? How does it really work, and how many minutes on a sunny day does it take? Nagwa Awad: Well, let me just start by saying there are solar banks and there are solar chargers. John Shegerian: OK. Nagwa Awad: Solar banks are like batteries. John Shegerian: OK. Nagwa Awad: For a solar bank to charge, you need the UV rays. John Shegerian: OK. Nagwa Awad: So even on a cloudy day the sun rises every day, so every day you can charge it because just because you don’t see the sun doesn’t mean it’s not there. It’s still up in the sky. John Shegerian: Right. Nagwa Awad: So you’re getting the UV rays from the sun. But the solar chargers – that you need direct sunlight for because there is no battery in it to harvest the sun power. So just getting back to the solar banks. You’d need one hour per 1,000 milliamp hours to charge it. So our smallest unit is 5,000 milliamp hours, which is enough to charge one-and-a-half cell phones on a single charge. From depletion to completion, you would need about an hour per 1,000 milliamp hours so we’re talking about five hours. Our biggest unit, though, is 100,000 milliamp hours. That can charge 30 cell phones on a single charge. So even though, technically, it would take 100 hours to fully charge, it’s never going to be depleted. John Shegerian: Got it. Nagwa Awad: Because on a single charge, you can charge your cell phone and your laptop and your digital camera and still maybe – you haven’t put a dent in this thing. John Shegerian: Ah. I see what you’re saying. So you’re saying on a sunny day – if I’m sitting in San Diego or L.A. and on a sunny day I leave your biggest unit out to get charged now, it stores energy for me and I can plug into that whenever I want. Nagwa Awad: Yes. John Shegerian: Ah. That’s awesome. Nagwa Awad: I put it in my purse. When I see that my phone is running out of charge, I just hook it up to my phone and I’ll stick it inside my purse with no sunlight around because the charge is already in there. John Shegerian: We’re down to the – unfortunately – you and I could spend an hour together on the show – because of time limits today – but we’re going to have you back. We’re down to the last minute. Why isn’t every Best Buy buying from you? Why isn’t every Wal-Mart? Talk a little bit about – is that what’s coming? Is that what is going to come in the future? Are you going to get into all those great retailers, and are we going to see your product all over the place soon? Nagwa Awad: Yes. Yes. And Yes. John Shegerian: Yay! Nagwa Awad: We are talking to Best Buy; we are taking to Wal-Mart; we are talking to these people right now; and yes, you will see it in stores and you will have more access to it than the Internet. But I do want to say that if you purchase it through the website, it’s very convenient. You get it within two days. John Shegerian: Wow. That’s awesome. Well, people should go to your website, which is www.DawanGlobal.com. Nagwa, we’re going to have you back on the show because we didn’t have enough time today. Your journey is fascinating and we want more people to buy your great product and make the world a better, cleaner and greener place. Thank you for being on Green Is Good today. You are truly living proof that Green Is Good.