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As some of you might be aware, 3 Sided Cube has a podcast that we started last year. It was something we thought about, talked about, strategised about doing for awhile. Everyone and their mother has a podcast, so we wanted to ensure we entered the fray with something worth talking about.
We could talk all day about technology and exciting innovation, but what we really wanted to do was to facilitate conversations about how that very technology could be leveraged to help humans, reduce our impact on the planet. We did this by welcoming psychologists, brands, sustainability experts, climate scientists, government and charitable organisations to each episode to gain a thorough understanding of the problem, and glean how each of us as individuals can be the solution. Series 1 was hosted by yours truly, and Charlotte Mill, Head of Marketing at 3 Sided Cube.
Well I’m happy to report that our podcast only went and bagged a Web Excellence Award!
Don’t worry if you missed it! You can catch-up here:
Season 1: Igniting Change
Episode 1: We speak with Professor Mark Maslin, Climate Scientist at UCL, and Author of ‘How to Save the Planet: The Facts’
Episode 2: We speak with Tolly Gregory, Climate activist and Artist
Episode 3: We speak to Molly Webb, Founder of Yoyu
Episode 4: We speak to Marc Violo, Head of Marketing at Loop
Episode 5: We speak to Paul Tyrer, Founder of Eumelia
Episode 6: We speak to Kate Sandle, Director of engagement from B CORP UK
Episode 7: We speak to Applied Futurist, Tom Cheesewright
Episode 8: We speak to Jo Chidley, founder of Beauty Kitchen
Episode 9: We reflect on some of the main takeaways from Season 1.
Why doing a podcast was important to us
We (speaking for all the Cubes here) are extraordinarily passionate about the life-changing and life-saving digital products that we get to wake up every day and be a part of building. Technology is the key to solving some of the biggest global challenges facing mankind today. But that is such a broad statement and promise for technology to deliver.
We got 99 problems but the ability for technology to solve all of them ain’t one.
So we set out to really understand what we were facing and how technology can help by launching our ‘Bridging the Gap’ report designed for businesses, consumers and politicians. The report offers ground-breaking research into how we can bridge the ‘intention-action gap’ for consumers and businesses. It has been developed specifically to make effective and practical recommendations on how to help people act on their original sustainable intentions and boost sustainable consumer and business behaviour.
Download our 'Bridging The Gap' report here
The findings were eye-opening.
It covers a range of key issues, including the size and prevalence of the gap, why it exists, how we can fix it, and the role technology can play in helping consumers overcome it. The size of the gap is staggering! A whopping 17.6 million (that’s 1 in 3 adults) Brits are impacted by the ‘intention-action gap’.
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But that’s not all. The research also reveals how 64% of British people now regard sustainability as a ‘high priority’ in their lives – this is so encouraging, and just goes to show that the willingness of consumers is there. They are ready for a change, they want to change… but they need our help!
And that’s where Season 1 of ‘Igniting Change’ was born.
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It was that challenge of wanting to dig deeper into the ‘intention-action gap’ and understand the micro level of what we can all do to close the gap that gave us the theme for our podcast. A podcast is such a great, interactive way to be able to interview loads of people with all sorts of different experiences and have a really open and honest conversation with them about the subject matter.
In order to make change happen that’s what we need to do. To keep talking about it and having those unfiltered conversations about the steps we can take as individuals to be the change we really want to see. Before we knew it we had a “dream guest speaker list” and couldn’t wait to hit the ground running to start recording episodes!
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How we went about it
Turning our idea for ‘Igniting Change’ to a fully formed idea was a whole new bag of tricks. Going into it, we didn’t know much! Aside from listening to podcasts, neither of us had any experience in what it took to deliver a neat and tidy podcast episode to listeners every week.
But we soon learned!
Pretty early on we decided, as we didn’t have anyone available internally, to hire someone to edit the podcast. I’m so glad we opted to do that because it enabled us to focus on the guests and really get a wide breadth of experience within the sustainability sector. There was definitely a lot of thought and care that went into lining up guest speakers for each episode so that by the end of the season there was a real comprehensive overview about the intention-action gap.
Once we had an outline of what Season 1 would look like and the content we would cover, it was time to experiment! There was definitely a learning curve but experimenting with a few different microphones and chatting to those that are in the industry really helped us get up to speed on the in’s and out’s of producing a podcast.
We used Squadcast as it is a great program for novice podcasters to use, but also captured the sound well. To compliment this, a Yeti microphone was what worked out best for us in the end so that you could hear us clearly. We were worried about the sound being an issue but soon realised Cube HQ is a great spot and if we recorded out of working hours, this minimised noise – and it actually worked out great for our guests too!
It was a whole new can of worms setting up all the tech to best record us. After lots of trial and error and even more practice runs – we got into a great rhythm of being able to quickly set-up and feel comfortable going through the motions to host a seamless episode.We used Lybsyn for our viewings because it was a great way to track the downloads and it is so cool to think that there are over 600 people out there that care enough about the subject matter to download and listen!
Key learnings
Over the course of eight episodes, we quickly saw a theme arising from each guest. When asked what they would recommend for steps one could take that is interested in living a more sustainable lifestyle, the resounding answer was, “don’t strive for perfection”.
If you go into transitioning towards a lifestyle that is more cognisant of being gentler on the earth and natural resources, start small!
If you try to do a massive overhaul and beat yourself up that you aren’t living 100% sustainably, then it’ll get overwhelming. Do what you can on a small scale, use sustainable energy, be mindful during your shop and then slowly expound upon your new habits.
No one is expected to be perfect, but we are expected to try! null
And that, ladies and gents is the story of where ‘Igniting Change’ came from. It was such a joy to be a part of, and I learned so much more about some of the barriers we all experience every day from living more sustainably and how to easily get around them. I loved every part of recording our first Season and can’t wait to kick off Season 2. Which makes the award and recognition all the better. When you’re doing something you genuinely love that’s really all that matters….but being an award winning podcast host is pretty damn cool.
There are some great apps out there helping people to make these changes and live more sustainably in our day-to-day lives. Check out our favourite out there to help us all do just that.
5 Apps To Help You Live More Sustainably
Published on 20 May 2022, last updated on 20 May 2022