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The Impact Equation

The Impact Equation

Written by: Rafi Addlestone and Adam Pike
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Welcome to The Impact Equation, conversations with leaders shaping a brighter future, hosted by Adam Pike, social entrepreneur, and Rafi Addlestone, impact advisor, With our special guests, we unlock the secrets of those who dare to transform our world. We talk to architects of change, pioneers in their fields, working toward a brighter future for us all. In each episode, we dig into each element of the impact equation.



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Rafi Addlestone and Adam Pike
Earth Sciences Economics Leadership Management Management & Leadership Science
Episodes
  • From solar cells in India to gigantic carbon sponges, with Paul Needham
    Jan 25 2026

    In this episode, we go deep into chemistry and mining with Dr Paul Needham, CEO of ARCA, a company using carbon mineralisation to turn mine waste into giant, permanent carbon sponges. In 2025, Arca signed a 10-year deal with Microsoft to remove 300,000 tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere. Certain rocks naturally react with CO₂, pulling it out of the air and locking it away forever as stone. ARCA has found a way to massively accelerate that natural process, transforming mining tailings from an environmental liability into a climate solution. Paul's no stranger to scaling impact: he previously built Simpa Networks, bringing pay-as-you-go solar to hundreds of thousands of people in rural India. In this episode we learn about scaling pay-as-you go solar in India and how carbon mineralisation turns mining waste into carbon removal at scale.



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    35 mins
  • The Builder, the Analyst & the Financier: Carbon Markets Roundtable
    Jan 18 2026

    Carbon markets tend to trigger strong reactions. For some, they’re a vital bridge - a way to fund climate action at scale while the harder work of reducing emissions catches up. For others, they feel like a distraction, or worse, a way of outsourcing responsibility. So rather than arguing for or against them, we wanted to ask a different question: What would it take for carbon markets to actually work - with credibility and scale? In our latest Impact Equation roundtable, we brought together three people working on different parts of the system: Alastair is focused on data and transparency, Shannon is building projects on the ground, and Erika is making the sector investable for serious capital.



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    38 mins
  • Hans Stegeman, Chief Economist of Triodos Bank: Rethinking Growth, Economic Systems and GDP
    Jan 11 2026

    What if the way we think about money is fundamentally wrong? In our latest episode of The Impact Equation, Rafi and Adam sit down with Hans Stegeman, Chief Economist at Triodos Bank - one of the few banks where sustainability isn’t a bolt-on, but the organising principle. Hans’s central critique is this: we haven’t just chosen economic growth - we’ve hard-wired it into everything. Our markets, financial returns, debt system, pensions, and public budgets all depend on the assumption that the economy must keep expanding. The problem is that this version of growth is material by design, and material growth always comes with ecological and social costs. His argument isn’t that progress is bad - it’s that we’ve confused progress with GDP. No amount of “green” investing can fix a system that structurally requires ever-greater extraction, consumption, and future growth just to stay standing. So what does he want to change? Hans calls for an economy, and a financial system, that is less dependent on growth, and that fundamentally success ought to be measured in wellbeing, resilience, and social outcomes, not just economic output. In this episode, Hans challenges us to question our assumptions and what we’ve accepted as “just how the world works”.



    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    46 mins
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