2025 Podcast Year in Review

Transcript

Sheldon Young
Welcome to the No Footprints podcast. I’m Sheldon Young.

Jason Moreau
And I’m Jason Moreau.

Sheldon Young
We’re here to talk about impact and to share the efforts and people behind making sustainability real.

Here we are, Jason. I forgot to mention, brought to you by Alfa Laval. I forgot my most important part of my intro.

Jason Moreau
Do you want to redo it or do you like that one?

Sheldon Young
No, I like that. I’m okay with it. I’m okay with the back-end Alfa Laval ad, just because I can’t read what’s in front of me.

I guess I can say it twice now.

Jason Moreau
Exactly. You almost brought greater attention to it than if everything had gone smoothly.

Sheldon Young
I know. I could have just avoided the whole thing. But I think sometimes you have to just acknowledge your mistakes.

I forgot to read the line that I’d written and read after, brought to you by Alfa Laval. I appreciate my company that we both work for. Give us this opportunity to have conversations around sustainability in this kind of, I’m going to call it, informal and fun environment.

I think we keep it informal, fun, but also hopefully knowledgeable for the folks that join us.

Jason Moreau
Yeah. Well, and also this is the last episode of the year.

Sheldon Young
It is.

Jason Moreau
It’s a little bit more loosey-goosey maybe than typically an episode is. It’s the, yeah.

Sheldon Young
It is my holiday gift to the world is to be, to show the world. It is, right? To show the world that it’s okay to make mistakes and to go into the season being okay with yourself.

There it is. There’s my lesson of the day. Wow.

You landed that one pretty well.

Jason Moreau
All right.

Sheldon Young
I did, right? I landed that plane. I flew that plane and then I landed it.

Jason Moreau
It was a nice mea culpa to the company and then the gift to the world. Like, yeah. I mean, wow.

Awesome. Impressive.

Sheldon Young
No, but it’s, you know, I’m thankful we get to do this. I’ll just put it that way. And I think it’s fun.

We get to meet great people and talk about something that’s really important. And hopefully it keeps people entertained and they pull something out of it. But all right, let’s, what do you got, Jason?

Let’s kick this off. We’re doing year in review. This is a, this is a year review episode for those that, you know, miss the rest of the year.

If we’re going to talk about a little bit, the things that inspired us, but let’s kick it off with what’s your story for this one?

Jason Moreau
So I figured this might be appropriate for a year in review. Everybody loves stats. Everybody loves like, what, what it, what, what’s actually happening?

What happened?

Sheldon Young
What’s the number?

Jason Moreau
So yeah, exactly. What’s the number. So I came across says a recent industrial media poll asked manufacturing and engineering professionals.

How important is sustainability in your company strategy?

Sheldon Young
Okay. Now, do I want to know the answer?

Jason Moreau
Uh, yeah.

Sheldon Young
Okay.

Jason Moreau
Tell me, hit me with it. So now I did not, I did not dive into the actual polls. I don’t know how many companies this, this, these, this pool of respondents encompasses, but however, so 23.3% said sustainability is a top priority for the company strategy, which is great.

Sheldon Young
Hey, that’s a, that’s a lot. I’m it’s more than I thought when they would, that would say top.

Jason Moreau
Yeah. Yeah. And then 26% said it’s important, but secondary.

Okay. So if you add those up, we’re almost at 50%. Yeah.

Just shy of 50%. Um, a, an honest segment of 13.7 said sustainability is really only a focus if it’s for compliance purposes. And so I feel like that’s a pretty honest answer, which leaves the remaining 37% of respondents saying it is not a focus.

Interesting.

Sheldon Young
Now, again, was there a type of industry again, did it, did you say.

Jason Moreau
It just said manufacturing and engineering professionals. And it said industrial media, which sounds like a very focused type of periodical. Yeah.

Sheldon Young
Yeah. Yeah. I think, uh, you know, a lot of things can are baked into that.

I think in terms of the wise and the reasons, uh, you know, oftentimes, frankly, you know, when you’re in the, when you’re in engineering, you may not have as much exposure to it depends on what, where the priorities are coming from. Right. And, and where the, I guess the impact of your organization is happening.

For example, we work in the food beverage industry. Okay. I would suspect, I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but I’ve seen polls before.

It’s fairly high up in the importance of, of the, of the, uh, food and beverage space. Right now. Why?

Well, because it’s such a big impact. I mean, particularly up and downstream of their facilities, right. Their agricultural impact, all the things.

So for them, sustainability is important because no more than their stakeholders care, which are the people that are purchasing the product, but it’s also the, uh, where the impact is happening, the magnitude, a lot of agricultural impact kind of trickles downstream and stuff.

Jason Moreau
I mean, I’d be very curious at some point, maybe we dive into it, looking at it by like sectors and stuff and, and kind of see where the, where the vibe is, you know, not just sectors, but I think, and we’ve, we’ve talked about this again, year in review, it’s, it’s come up on a few episodes where what do people hear when they hear the term sustainability? It’s such an umbrella term. It would, I would love to understand when, when the person was asked that question in the poll, what, what came up in their brain?

Was it, you know, the environment was it right? Like what, what, what did that conjure for them? Because I think to your point in food and beverage sustainability for, I think a lot of people equates to operational efficiency, right?

Like, how do we, how do we better use our resources, whether it’s water, electricity, how do we improve our yield? Right. So I don’t know if that was the direct correlation that these particular set of respondents made, or if it was just sustainability writ large in terms of climate change or something.

Sheldon Young
Right.

Jason Moreau
Like, so it’s hard to know, it’s hard to know where their head went when they were answering the question.

Sheldon Young
It is, it is. I think great, great point. The definitions of sustainability.

It’s like one of the first episodes we talked about where it’s sustainability in 2025. Right. For sure.

For sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We’ll dive in.

But my story for the day is around lean. So I’m familiar with lean manufacturing or lean operations, but it’s not about, you know, making less people or that’s not making lean. No, I’m talking about looking at a process and identifying waste.

It’s a concept that was made popular. I think most, the most famous company to make it popular is probably Toyota.

Jason Moreau
I was going to say, I associate it with auto manufacturing for some reason.

Sheldon Young
Back in like the 80s, I believe it was. My timing is always off on this stuff. I never remember.

But, you know, they really brought lean practices into their manufacturing, and it really does help reduce errors and reduce waste and creates more valuable work. It does lots of things. There’s like eight wastes in total.

And I read an article recently around bringing the concept of lean into sustainability more.

Jason Moreau
Oh, that’s a great idea.

Sheldon Young
Because it’s, yeah, it’s very tied together. And I think if you can take lean concepts and apply them towards a sustainability mindset, when you go looking at hunting for things to drive sustainability, those two things will marry very well and I think will lead you to good results. But when you’re looking at lean, you’re already kind of doing sustainability because you’re looking to remove waste.

Exactly. It’s the whole concept. And so my, I guess, little story slash tip is, and we’ll put the link to the article, but if you’re a sustainability person looking at how do you make a approach, maybe a structured approach, a structured set of tools around eliminating and reducing waste and improving sustainability, look into lean a little bit.

Look into lean. And I’ll give a couple of resources, a couple ones I’ve always loved. And I’ve read these three books.

One is a very simple, short book. It’s called Everything I Learned About Manufacturing I Learned in Joe’s Garage. It’s a very simple kind of fable story around that.

And it introduces lean concepts in a very approachable way. I’ve given the book to several people. It’s very good.

Another one, it’s probably the most famous one that people know. It’s called The Goal. It also was written like a novel kind of story, but really, really great way, a more robust introduction into lean through a longer story and how the impact of lean can show up, not just in sustainable and less waste, but also in productivity, profitability, speed, all of the things that matter in business.

And then finally, I’ll give one that’s a little more technical, but not really. It’s not super technical. It’s just a little more around the pieces and parts.

It’s called The Toyota Way. And those three books, I would recommend for folks that are interested in learning more about lean. I think once you read it, you’ll say, duh, this is exactly a great set of tools I can use in my sustainability journey.

Jason Moreau
That’s awesome.

Sheldon Young
Thank you. The article definitely sparked my thinking. I’ve worn a lot of hats in my career.

I’ve done things like process improvement, operations. And it’s funny. It’s like I’ve been doing this sustainability thing.

It’s like it didn’t really super occur to me to think more about using lean until this article popped up. I’m like, yeah, well, duh. I mean, come on, Sheldon.

Think about that.

Jason Moreau
I think it’s one of those things where once it, once you sort of internalize something, you forget that it’s, it’s new or like it, like you just take it for granted as I guess the better way to say it. And so I love it when you read something or watch something and it presents something you already know, but for whatever reason it hits at the right time. You’re like, oh yeah, exactly.

And also I already knew that. I already knew that. But yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

Sheldon Young
Then I start lamenting, why didn’t I write this article? Yeah. All right.

Let’s jump in, Jason, to our year in review. But a good year. And I can say we haven’t done the podcast the whole year, but we started, I think our first episode was early April, right?

Correct. Yep. And so we’ve done a good chunk, three quarters, I’d say, of podcasting and we planned and talked about it for a few months before.

So I think we can honestly say it’s been a good year. What was your favorite part? What was the thing that stood out to you this year in terms of the, all the episodes and stuff that we’ve done?

Jason Moreau
I’m going to get, I’m going to give you the real answer. Give me the real answer. And you’re going to think I’m, I’m just, I’m just being nice, but it was the ability to work with this project on, with you.

Oh, okay. I’ve learned a ton, both from you and all of the guests. I very much admire your approach and your, the work that goes on behind the scenes to make sure this thing gets out on time and on schedule.

That’s all due to you, not me. And I’ve just very much enjoy having like a long-term project that we’re, that we’re building together. So that’s, that’s what I’ve enjoyed the most, quite honestly, is just, is just working with somebody I respect on this project.

Sheldon Young
That is one of the nicest things I’ve ever said about it. So thank you.

Jason Moreau
You’re very welcome.

Sheldon Young
No, it is. No, I appreciate it. And I guess I, this part, this whole thing wouldn’t be, I would say possible without you, again, your support of, of, you know, being in your role and just saying, yeah, let’s just do this.

Right. And then honestly, just jumping in and being a co-host, you’ve never done it before. It’s something that you just said, yep, I’m in.

And honestly, you’re probably, I couldn’t imagine anyone sitting in that seat beside you and this wouldn’t be fun. So I appreciate you again. I know this isn’t a big hug fest, but I truly do appreciate having a great co-host for, for something, a partner.

You’re not just a co-host, you’re a partner. And so, you know, we talk and plan about this a lot and, you know, second, secondary things. I really enjoy just the variety I’ve learned from the things I’ve learned from the variety of guests we’ve had on, you know, we made a very conscious decision when we launched this to not make it just so focused on the things we work on every day in our little bubble of a world.

We said, look, this is about making sustainability real. I love that we made that choice because I think it gives this show and honestly, anyone that listens to it, a depth of, of topics and knowledge that they wouldn’t get if we were just honed in on a sliver. I know they say with podcasting, you have to get it on your little niche and you have to go, you know, our niche is not having a niche.

Essentially, when it comes to sustainability, it’s having, you know, a place where, you know, I guess our niche is it’s all about how do you make sustainability real? You know, that’s the niche, right? Right.

We’re focused on that. But the people we bring on to talk to and the topics we hit are ones that I think are right. I’m glad that we get to do it that way.

I’m glad we made that choice and we didn’t just say we’re only having food, beverage customers on or whatever, you know, that’s, that would have been, I think, a limiting choice. And I think I want to see a less powerful show.

Jason Moreau
I 100% agree. And I think it’s fascinating that for all the variety of guests and all of the different ways that they themselves are approaching sustainability in their organizations, how much commonality there is to their journey, their approach, how they think about things. I, I, I find that really fascinating.

Yeah. So, no, it’s, it’s the variety, but also the commonality has been really, really interesting and looking forward to more of that.

Sheldon Young
Yeah. So if we go back through the year, we start kind of in the beginning, we kicked off with kind of like a, what is sustainability in 2025, right? It was one of our early episodes.

And so, you know, let’s see what we, what we kind of said, start small, use UNSDG, sustainability is good business. I don’t think any of that’s really changed. I don’t think we made any bold, massive predictions, but I think, the things we talked about- Wisely stayed away from predictions.

Yes. I think so. I think we wisely stayed away from that.

Yeah. Johnny, I think that, it was the great Karnak. Yeah.

Sorry. Most people don’t know who that is, but I think, no, I think, I think sustainability in 2025 is going kind of, kind of where we thought it was. I feel the messages have been strong.

I think obviously we couldn’t predict all of what’s happened in 2025 in terms of the challenges, I guess, sustainability has had. But I think the mindset, the approach, the, I guess, grit behind making sustainability happen and continue to be important, still there. And like any movement, I don’t know if it’s called movement, in any, I don’t know, I guess movement’s the right word, but anything you’re trying to get done, stuff’s going to go up, stuff’s going to go down.

You’re going to have roadblocks. You’re going to have to work around the roadblocks. I think the industry is proving resilient.

I think the concept is proving resilient. I think we’re recognizing the things that need to change. And I’m very happy to say that we’re a part of it, right?

Yeah. And so for me, I think, you know, where is it? 25, is it going to be the same place in 2026?

We’ll find out.

Jason Moreau
Stay tuned.

Sheldon Young
Stay tuned.

Jason Moreau
Yeah. It’s been interesting to see certain trends, maybe come to the forefront a little bit more. It seemed like, I know this was the first year we went to New York climate week, but I’ve seen it stated in other areas where that focus on food as a big sustainability challenge or as a fairly big contributing factor to climate is starting to sort of get some of that recognition.

I think we talked about it, or I mentioned that it was at one of the events that I attended at climate week, where one, it was an author who was being interviewed and some of his friends in the energy space were like, feeling like, oh, like things that, you know, the winds had have shifted in 25. Right. And some of the advancements that they had made around sustainability were being pushed back.

And his retort to them was, well, at least you have 20 years of advancements to push back, right? Like food is kind of just at the starting gate here. Food and agriculture, maybe.

And so, yeah, but it’s finally sort of getting its due and a seat at the table, so to speak. And people are focusing on it and prioritizing it, which I think is really exciting. So I think a lot of good stuff happened this year in terms of some of those trends.

Sheldon Young
Yeah. Yeah. I think so.

I agree. I think all good shifts. I think to me, it’s like, you know, you learn and you adapt and you find out where you can make impact and you keep moving.

And I think we’ve continued to do so. All right. So then after our initial kickoff episode, we spread our wings a little bit.

We had Pet Paul on. And so Paul is our first guest. Good stuff’s happened for them.

I think we’ve seen a few things pop up for them over the course of the year. Finally, I think we got that nice influx investment. I think they did a round series there.

I think I continue to see Paul on his podcast thriving and having great guests on. I think Business for Good podcast, for those that want to listen to that. And I think I’ve definitely seen some product in the market using, I’ll call it that mycelium blend mix.

So I think, you know, in terms of like future of food, you know, between that episode and a couple others we had with Caroline and Amanda both, I think really interesting stuff happening in the food space.

Jason Moreau
Yes, absolutely. And I think that’s encouraging that there’s more, we’ll call it like entrance or even competition in that mycelium space. To me, that indicates a healthy market.

I would be more scared if I were Paul and I was building this company and looking around going, why is nobody else seeing this? Right? Because then you start to wonder, am I super early?

Do I have my strategy right or wrong? In the sense of like, I thought there was an opportunity, maybe there’s not. But the fact that that space seems to be growing and that there are more entrants there, I very much see that as just continuing to snowball, especially when it’s the, as you point out, like the additive to traditional protein.

It’s sort of that like two great things are almost greater than the sum of their parts. So yeah, I’m very excited to watch how that continues to progress.

Sheldon Young
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.

So then moving on from that, we had Fadan on from the Water Environment Federation. And also the episode shortly after it around circularity. I think those two kind of married together a little bit.

And I continue to see the water story evolving and growing in the market and becoming more and more, I think people are starting to just recognize the really just critical importance of it. There’s always, there’s always been people that have realized that, but I think it’s becoming broader now. Starting to see it in more forums, like even I mentioned in the last episode, the Dairy Sustainability Alliance.

First time I’ve seen, at least in the three I’ve been to, they had like a water section that was really kind of focused and they had much more dialogue around it. I think the importance of it when it’s not there is when you start to really feel that squeeze, right? Oh my gosh, because you can’t, you’re stuck.

We have a finite amount, right? And so I think particularly in the US now, we’re starting to recognize and see the need and opportunities. I think we had a story during the year we talked about Arizona has some wastewater treatment plants that are actually recycling wastewater and bringing it back to the front of the house for like to turn into potable water in some cases, right?

Right. Starting to see more and more things where that upcycling of water or recycling of water and not just treating it and dumping it is becoming more and more prevalent. Starting to see a lot more conservation efforts within factories and facilities.

When I look through goals of organizations that are manufacturing and producing, I’m definitely seeing these water reduction goals. Before there, it’s still a main case. In some cases, they’re tied mostly to water restricted areas, but in some cases, I’m seeing just outright reductions like, hey, look, we’re cutting our water use because I think what people often start to connect the dots with is that water isn’t just the upfront cost of the water.

It is also, I got to treat that water. I have to do something with it. I may have to heat water.

Oh gosh, because a lot of water gets heated up in these processes. And so there’s energy involved and cost to that. And people start connecting and adding that up and say, wow, that’s greenhouse gas impact because I’m using a steam boiler.

And it’s also often chemicals to treat all kinds of sustainability factors goes into the more water that you use. And so I think people say, okay, they’re interconnected and seeing more of that and the circularity movement, I think is getting stronger. I spoke a lot there, but it was an important topic to me.

Jason Moreau
Yeah. And I think it is, it’s maybe, I won’t say more relevant, but extremely relevant when you’re talking, you know, food and beverage. Because I mean, you can’t really make anything happen without considering water through a lot of those processes.

And yeah, if you’re in a geographic location where water resources are becoming tighter or less reliable, understanding how you’re using water in your process becomes a business continuity issue. It becomes a risk mitigation issue just so you can continue to operate. Um, cause I, you know, our company has seen stories like in Europe and things like that, where plants have had to reduce their production capacity because they did not have enough water.

Right. So that’s a, that’s a business problem. It is, it is.

That’s a very real business problem. Um, so yeah, no, I’m, I’m excited that again, you know, much like food and agriculture getting more of a spotlight than maybe it has in the past. The fact that water is now sort of getting more attention and spotlight.

And I think that’s, that’s a great trend and an important one to keep an eye on.

Sheldon Young
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Uh, then we had, uh, Fabian Bernal.

Um, he joined us and, uh, you know, tied to that was another episode around sustainable ag, right. So we can, we kind of did that as an episode as well. Yeah.

I mean, I, having just come fresher out of a, again, that dairy conference I went to, uh, certainly was a, a, a big topic of conversation. Uh, you know, I, I think it continues to be evolving and, you know, again, it’s like with the way regulations change and you’re seeing interesting, I guess, pulling back in some areas, but then you see other places starting to double down, uh, and put stronger regulations in place. One of the interesting, most interesting things I heard, well, I’ll say interesting.

One of the most difficult challenges I think that a lot of these producers, let’s say in like dairy, I’m sure in other industries as well that deal with agriculture and things like that is an absence of stronger federal regulation. I guess they’re seeing States kind of do their own thing. Yeah.

That’s almost worse, right. In terms of having strong, really tight, strong Fed work, because you now have to serve 50 different, uh, you know, I guess labels like better term, 50 different sets of rules. And now you did, not that you didn’t have to think about it before, but typically, you know, if, if, if there’s strong federal guidance or whatever, you’ll, you’ll see a, uh, you know, okay, they got it covered.

We don’t have to do more, but now they’re starting to see stronger stuff come from States and, and, and I think there’s concern for those that, that trade across state lines for lack of better term.

Jason Moreau
Well, there’s just, I mean, when you have to, as a business take into account five, six different regulations based on where you’re operating or selling, there’s just an, an increased overhead cost of that to make like, right. I mean, it’s the difference of I’m doing one state tax return versus six, right. And now each state has different, I could take deductions here, or I have to pay a tax here.

Like it, it just, so again, it becomes a very real business issue where I’m having to invest more and spend more time, money, energy, understanding how I stay on top of all of these changing regulations and multiple different regulations versus just streamlining it and being more efficient. So yeah, that’s kind of a bummer of a trend, actually.

Sheldon Young
So it is, it is again, I’m again, smart people are working on it. I’m sure they’ll figure it out. I’m sure it’s going to come with ups and downs like anything else.

But when we had Fabian on, we talked around, you know, lots of his things around the maturity curve. We talked a lot about, he had a lot of like ways to get started and I really appreciate him as a guest from that perspective. And his, his insights, I guess, for those that are kind of just starting their sustainability journey, you know, you’re arming yourself with the quick wins, you know, the focus is a regenerative ag, but, you know, it’s like, I think they’re applicable to almost any industry.

Jason Moreau
His episode was super dense. I feel like there was so much information packed in there in terms of the maturity curve and how you get started. That’s definitely one to revisit.

And a fun fact. I think a lot of people have because that was our most streamed episode.

Sheldon Young
Was it? Oh, I’m glad you went and looked at the stats. I don’t look at the stats.

I just don’t. I don’t because, you know, for me, I would probably obsess over them too much. I look at stats and data when it comes to like my sustainability calculations and stuff I’m doing for people on processes.

I don’t look at my podcast. I trust you with that. Uh, uh, I just want us to produce, you know, good, good stories and then we’ll hopefully get more people listening.

But thank you for, thank you for mentioning that, Fabian. Congratulations, Fabian. If you’re listening, I hope, uh, that’s right.

I hope you realize you’re the most listened to episode of No Footprints. Um, let’s see. Hope everyone else step up your game.

Jason Moreau
Well, as you say, like stats just in and of themselves, it’s like, well, that’s just a number. What does it mean? Right.

And I think he had the, he had the benefit of he was earlier in the year. Right. So true people we’ve had on just in the last few months have not had enough time to, you know, he probably sits at home hitting play all day on that episode.

Sheldon Young
He’s juicing the numbers, baby. And if you’re listening, are you juicing the numbers? No, I know he’s not.

I know he’s not a great, great, great guest. Great person. So, um, yeah.

And so I think other, you know, other episodes we kind of led into here at a couple more guests, um, Caroline and Amanda, both, I think we’re in kind of in that food, uh, that food space, you know, Caroline with the, uh, uh, moving the needle and, and, and giving us insights into alternative proteins and Amanda in the, uh, elevation of upcycling. I think two, two very, very strong conversations around areas that, um, I guess I would say I’m calm adjacent to like production of food and stuff, but it’s so important in, in the result of the, of the sustainability efforts from the industry.

Jason Moreau
For sure. Yeah. I would say if there’s a commonality, it’s, they’re both looking at the prediction that what is it by 2050, there’ll be like 2 billion more people on the planet and they’ll want, they’ll want protein just like the rest of us.

Yeah. And in general, in general. And yeah, I think they’re both looking at that going, well, how do we do that sustainably?

Yeah. And it’s obviously by, you know, taking more of what we throw away now and making that into a productive food usable. Or in the, in the case of Caroline, like how do we, how do we make some of these alternative proteins more palatable and acceptable in terms of what our expectations are from a taste profile standpoint?

So yeah, both really important.

Sheldon Young
Yeah. And I think they both play a strong role in accelerating the innovations, right? Yes.

Because, you know, with, with Caroline’s data and information, you know, they’re able to at Nectar, you know, Hey, your product’s great. Your product really isn’t, you know, and you quickly say, okay, I have to adapt or adjust or I’m not going to make it. And honestly, the more not to hope this doesn’t sound harsh, the more you try to run with a product that isn’t good, you’re just wasting resources.

You’re, you’re, you’re part of, you’re part of the problem, frankly, in terms of sustainability. If you’re just, if you’ve got a product that really a lot of people just don’t like and you’re just trying and you’re pushing it through with just more money and more money, you’re not doing yourself any service, right? You need to adapt.

You need to listen to data and say, okay, we need to either make a change or maybe we aren’t in the right business with this product. Right? So I think it’s doing a tremendous service to the, I guess, longevity of the alternative approaching universe.

Jason Moreau
Agree.

Sheldon Young
Yeah. And then with Amanda’s, it’s like, Hey, you’re wasting a ton of food. Y’all wasted a lot of food.

There’s a lot of opportunity to innovate and find ways to think about making good food from food that nobody wanted. Right. And so I love that.

I love both of those concepts. I think it’s like in order for sustainability to be meaningful and real, we have to look at things like this and, and have, have champions like they are to, to move it forward and to bring, to bring these insights to life. And I love it.

I love both of them in terms of what they’re doing.

Jason Moreau
Well, it goes to, right. I think something that comes up quite a lot on the shows is that there is no one magic answer that’s going to get us out of our, of our current sustainability challenges. Like, and there’s plenty of different ways to engage in and make an impact.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Sheldon Young
Very good. Now we had a couple of, I’m going to call them, uh, uh, I don’t want to use the word non-traditional. So that’s not a good word.

It’s a, uh, guess that maybe we’re, you know, you wouldn’t expect to hear on, on, well, we’re, we’re, uh, food beverage type of people. Yeah. We brought on, we brought on Matt from, uh, from Nelson Jameson, who’s a partner of Alpha Labels.

And, uh, but I loved his, his role in his, you know, around food safety and, and the things that he does there and, and his, his, uh, pushing and driving sustainability in the role that he has. You don’t often see a role like his in those kinds of organizations. So I think, uh, I loved having him on.

And then Alison Taylor in her book, um, around, uh, higher ground, uh, just to me was a refreshing aside of just stepping back and assessing, you know, sustainability at its heart. Uh, and, and really just kind of, you know, having a good, tough dialogue and questions around it. And I really appreciated her for that.

And I love her book. I mean, she has a, uh, a new, um, uh, it’s not, it’s not, uh, what’s it called? I’m sorry.

I’m blanking on it. No, it’s, it’s the, it’s the, it’s a platform. It’s a, it’s a, oh, I’ll get it in a second.

Uh, where you basically go, it’s like a blog basically. Sub sack. There it is.

It’s a sub stack. Thank you. Thank you.

Marketing person. See, I don’t always pick on you as a marketing person, Jason, you do bring good, good things every once in a while. No, it’s a sub stack.

And, uh, uh, you know, I, I, uh, I’m a part of it and, uh, really interesting dialogues and discussions happening on that. And, uh, so definitely should to chime in, but both of those guests, again, to me are bringing in that extra, I don’t know, flavor that extra it’s the whipped cream and stuff on sustainability for me. It’s stuff that makes me think more.

And, uh, you know, Matt’s a great partner and friend and, uh, you know, I always appreciate his thoughtful insight when I, when I get with him and talk to him around, uh, you know, how do we move forward to sustainability in our industry together? And he’s always got good ideas and people like that are so important there. He’s a connector.

He’s one of those people we’ve talked about people that connect dots. He is one of those people. And, uh, uh, I think having, you know, having him on for me was one of those moments of, oh, this is an important part of sustainability as well as having those folks that don’t let the threads fall apart.

And he knows where to interject himself and, and, and I think he does it kind of naturally, which is, which is a great feat. Um, but, uh, you know, I think for those of us that are in trying to make it happen, knowing people like that and finding other people like that, that can help connect dots and threads. I think Caroline did it for us as well.

I think in terms of us, when we started our climate week journey, she was very helpful in connecting some threads for us. And so I love people like that. And then Alison, as I mentioned, just a great guest in terms of what she brought to, uh, to insight and things like that.

So tell me about your thoughts on these things.

Jason Moreau
Uh, I agree. I, you know, maybe they were a bit more of a, um, uh, a surprising choice to, to have on the podcast or, or maybe not quite what you would expect, but I would also put Stephanie. Uh, I was going there last.

Yeah, she, she was a great guest, um, coming in with, uh, her role in priority plastics. And I just thought, I mean, I think I said it during that episode. There’s just, there’s just no more excuses, right?

Like if, if Stephanie in her role and in her organization can make an impact and feel like they’re moving a needle from a sustainability standpoint, like we can all do our part. Uh, so I, I think she was another curve ball type of guests that I just really, really enjoyed and appreciated having that conversation with her.

Sheldon Young
Agree. Again. It’s like, I think even, you know, even having her on her, when she talked about it, it’s like, yeah, you know, I didn’t think about sustainability and plastic company, but yeah.

I mean, honestly, it’s like. Plastics aren’t going away. I mean, they were part of life and having companies that at least have opportunities to create choice and create avenues for, for other organizations to do, you know, off roads to take, I think to lower their impact, you know, Hey, kudos, kudos again, you’re not going to turn the faucet off in a day, but you know, you can slowly bring it down and, and bring the choices to the, to the, uh, table that are more sustainable. So I thought in fantastic guests, a good, thank you for calling it out. I was gonna, I had her kind of on my, on my list here to get to, I almost, almost missed it.

So thank you for bringing it up. Yeah. We had some, uh, you know, just in our journeys, Jason, I think all kinds of paths we went down in our individual episodes, not going to talk about each one.

Um, I loved our climate week journey. I thought that was just a fun, interesting aside for, for both of us, you know, getting out in the world, I guess. Um, and, uh, I guess meeting sustainability, I’m gonna call it like the, the Disney world of sustainability, right.

With, uh, you know, not as many, not as many, uh, rides, I guess we rode the subway a lot, but it was, uh, an interesting for me, uh, you know, just because of the nature of our work, we got to go up there and engage and have really good dialogue. And I think just hearing the angles that the world is taking in sustainability and bringing different, um, you know, different thoughts and ideas to the table for us to share all in one place. It was a, it was the buffet of, of learning for, for me at least.

And, uh, loved having that opportunity, love being able to tell people about it. And, uh, you know, if you’re thinking about it next year, which reminds me, we got to book our hotels for next year. Jason, let’s do it sooner rather than later.

And, um, uh, but yeah, I think it’s so important to think about, you know, where is going to be if you’re in the sustainability world and you’re on a journey, sometimes it’s a lonely journey, right? I think what going to like climate week and such and things like the dairy sustainability alliance, I go to all that it’s, where are you going to plug in so that you too can be around others that can help support your journey? Cause again, sometimes it’s tough and some days you don’t feel like it’s going great.

And, but having that, that, uh, network and having that group of people that you can dialogue with and bounce ideas off of, and even commiserate with, I’m going to say it sometimes you need that, um, that get you and get what you’re working on and understand what you’re working on can maybe support that. Find it, find it somewhere. If you need it, if you can’t find it, email me, trust me, I’ll, I’ll help you find it or I’ll be it for you.

Um, you know, hopefully I don’t get 2000 of those, but, uh, I’ll be busy. Sorry, boss. I’m sending emails for the next six weeks.

Uh, no, but I mean, it’s like, find your people, you know, find the ones that can help you on the journey they’re out there. And it, uh, you know, climate week for me was just a reinforcement of that. And, uh, uh, you know, and a learning adventure.

And for me, it was, it was probably one of my favorite things to report on individually.

Jason Moreau
I, I agree. And, um, I’ll, I’ll take the, uh, the marketing tack on this. I think that’s reflected in, and I’ll bring it back around to some data and some stats.

I like that our audience demographic is really interesting to see. Um, we have people all the way from 18 to 60 plus listening. Yes, we do.

Um, I will say platform wise, there is a preponderance for Apple podcasts, but we are on all of your major platforms, Amazon, you name it. Exactly. And then people who are interested in sustainability are in every country in every location.

So the streams that we got this year, as you might imagine being English speaking and us centric, a pretty big percentage of our audience was us-based. Um, however, there were literally over 20 other countries on the list where people listened to us, which is really cool and amazing. Um, but also it’s looking into the data.

It’s really funny because like, yes, United States, but like only about half the states plus plus DC, like Vermont, what’s going on, Vermont, you have a reputation for being the most earthy crunchy state in the union and nobody up there is listening. I take that as a personal failing as a marketer that I have not penetrated Vermont with a sustainability podcast.

Sheldon Young
I want a strong Vermont push, Jason. Make it so.

Jason Moreau
Yeah, that is absolutely on the agenda for 2026.

Sheldon Young
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think, uh, yeah, we have, uh, I know we have people up there. I know they’re there.

Jason Moreau
They’re there.

Sheldon Young
They’re there. We just got to find them.

Jason Moreau
Yep. We just haven’t been connected yet. So that’s right.

It just takes time, but I just say, yeah, I think this is a really important topic and there’s, um, allies and friends everywhere. People who want to help you do the work. Um, and yeah, we’re, we’re just kind of getting started with this in terms of where we are here, but, um, but yeah, like it that we’re, we’re playing that connector and megaphone role.

Sheldon Young
Yeah. Yeah. I enjoyed it as well.

And I guess I think, uh, I hope, uh, those of you that joined us in the journey or they’re still sticking around and, uh, uh, enjoying what you’re getting. Again, you can always reach out to us and give feedback and ideas. It’s a nofootprints.podcast@alfalaval.com.

A L F A L A V A L. That’s how you spell Alfa Laval. Um, in case you’ve been sending it to A L P H A Laval.

Um, you never know. Never know, Jason. Never know.

Jason Moreau
Hope we own that domain.

Sheldon Young
I mean, it’s very good. Right. Uh, yeah, but I think, um, 20, 20, 26 is right around the corner.

Um, we’re both to me, hopefully spending some, some good time with family in the next few weeks. And, and this is again, our last episode of the year. Our first one will come out early January as usual.

Uh, what are you looking forward to next year?

Jason Moreau
Hmm. That’s a great question. I tend not to be one that thinks too far ahead, but I think next year, um, just building on sort of the foundation that we established this year, you know, I’d never done a podcast before.

Um, and so I’m, I’m looking at sort of taking, I think the rhythms and the cadence and the topics that we established this year, and just being able to, to build on those. Uh, and we’ve talked about different ways that we’re thinking about doing that. So I’m not going to let the cat out of the bag, but I’m, I’m excited about what we’ve talked about because, um, as I’ve said, like the variety of topics, the amount that I’ve been impacted in that I’ve learned from our guests has been really fun.

And I think more people would enjoy it and see it as fun if they get exposed to it. So that’s, that’s maybe not so much what I’m looking forward to. That’s what I’ll commit to right now is getting more of that out there.

Um, because I think people need it. I think the big takeaway from climate week was, you know, sometimes the news can feel like a bummer, but there’s still lots of people out here doing really good, important work and it’s important to shine a light on it. And that’s what we’re going to do.

Sheldon Young
Yeah. I think I echo that sentiment. I think for me, uh, I’m looking forward to having, uh, again, wide variety of fun guests that have great stories.

And, um, I know every time I get to interview one and talk to one, I’m energized by it. I learned something new. I pick up a trick, whatever it is.

Right. And I hope, uh, I’m excited to just bring more of that to, to 2026. And, uh, who knows?

Maybe we’ll mess with format. Maybe we’ll have fun with this thing. Who knows?

You having some fun, Jason? That’s what I’m doing.

Jason Moreau
If this was a car, we were going to start doing donuts.

Sheldon Young
Exactly.

Jason Moreau
We’re doing donuts in the podcast.

Sheldon Young
I got to think of some new marketing insults.

Jason Moreau
Um, no, no, no, no, both excited for that weirdly and also very nervous because you’re very creative. So yeah, bring it on.

Sheldon Young
Thank you. I’ll take the compliment. All right.

All right. So I think we’ve talked enough, Jason. I’m excited for 2026.

I think, um, you know, thank you all for joining us in this. And this year, um, each and every one of you that’s taken some time and listened to an episode. We truly appreciate it.

I mean, we, uh, we, you know, we know you don’t have to, you know, you have other things to do with your life. Hopefully we’ve made a car ride more interesting and brought some, some, uh, some sweet sustainability knowledge to you. Uh, you know, make sure you like subscribe, share this with your friends, family, strangers, babies, anyone that you think might want to hear, um, let them know about it.

And if you’ve got a great guest or an idea for topics, set it to know for print stop podcast at alpha valve.com and have a wonderful holiday season and a new year. And, uh, Jason, you’re one of my best friends and I wish you the best as well. And I’m looking forward to doing this with you next year.

Jason Moreau
Right back at you. See everybody in 2026, 2026. Bye-bye bye.

Sheldon Young
Our guests come from many industries and companies as we’re talking about how the world makes sustainability real. Our company Alfa Laval is a global supplier of process solutions. So it’s very possible that the organizations our guests are with may use Alfa Laval or even our competitors’ products.

This does not mean that we, the hosts or Alfa Laval or endorsing any of the company’s guests or the specific ideas that we discuss.