Planet Possible gets behind the headlines and straight to the facts of global environmental issues. Join host Niki Roach as she meets practitioners and visionaries working on the big issues in water, nature and climate change - and finds out what they would make possible with the Planet Possible Magic Wand! Planet Possible is brought to you by CIWEM; a community of environmental professionals creating a more positive world. Not enough time to listen to a full episode? Choose the length of pod to fit the time you have with Accordion.live/PlanetPossible
Guy Thompson is an expert in clean energy transition, nature positive economy and environmental policy and regulation, having worked at Natural England, Wessex Water and EnTrade (environmental market/credits startup). In this episode, he discussed with Niki the challenges facing the new Burnham-led government, particularly in terms of addressing the root causes of environmental issues, as opposed to addressing the symptoms with surface-level policy tweaks. Credits Presented & Produced by Niki Roach Executive Producer Andy Taylor - Bwlb Limited With thanks to Alastair Chisholm Honorary Executive Producer Jane Boland
In this episode of Planet Possible News, Emily Blaney and Niki Roach discuss: - Extreme weather becoming the new norm in the UK. - Whether water-saving campaigns work? - and why do animal "characters" go viral, without the wider environmental message connecting? Credits Presented & Produced by Niki Roach Executive Producer Andy Taylor - Bwlb Limited With thanks to Alastair Chisholm Honorary Executive Producer Jane Boland
Our climate is changing. When it rains, it’s often more frequent, heavier and likely to cause flooded roads, gardens or even properties. In this episode, we explore how we can create homes, cities and infrastructure that can cope with these changing rainfall patterns. Niki is joined by expert and subject champion, CIWEM’s Director of Policy and Projects - Paul Shaffer, and Cristina Refolo - Founding Director of Refolo Landscape Architects. Credits Presented & Produced by Niki Roach Executive Producer Andy Taylor - Bwlb Limited With thanks to Alastair Chisholm Honorary Executive Producer Jane Boland
In this episode, we explore how the change in our climate is likely to change the economics of free resources, as well. Niki is joined by Adam Lovell - Executive Director at The Water Services Association of Australia, and Karma Loveday - Water sector journalist and Founder and Editor, at The UK Water Report. Credits Presented & Produced by Niki Roach Executive Producer Andy Taylor - Bwlb Limited With thanks to Alastair Chisholm Honorary Executive Producer Jane Boland
David Shukman is shocked. Both at the climate change induced extremes that Britain now faces... and the nation's lack of preparedness. In his new book 'The Response - A Story of Fire and Flood in Britain's New World of Extremes' makes the argument that things are probably worse than we think... but also that there's more than can be done than we realise. David joins host Niki to discuss his new book, the research behind it and the future that could lie ahead. You can buy David’s book here… https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/210672/david-shukman Credits Presented & Produced by Niki Roach Executive Producer Andy Taylor - Bwlb Limited With thanks to Alastair Chisholm Honorary Executive Producer Jane Boland
In this episode of Planet Possible News, Niki is joined by Lee Pitcher, MP for Doncaster East & the Isle of Axholme. The topics being discussed are: -The UK national water safety campaign. - The hidden human health costs for the decline of bees. - News that the UK government has set a target of 87% of a cut in carbon emissions, by 2042. Credits Presented & Produced by Niki Roach Executive Producer Andy Taylor - Bwlb Limited With thanks to Alastair Chisholm Honorary Executive Producer Jane Boland
Guests and themes: New ways to fund nature-based solutions at a catchment scale with Jonathan Moxon from The Aire Resilience Company Tim Armour & Johnny Phillips from United Utilities show Niki a variety of projects designed to make Liverpool more flood resilient Garden Designer Leon Davis on making rainwater management in gardens more effective and beautiful Mary Long-Dhonau OBE on the latest tech that homeowners and renters can use to prepare for, stop and recover from flooding Tor Coombes (Leicestershire County Council) on how flood risk management is done best at local authority level Credits Presented & Produced by Niki Roach Executive Producer Andy Taylor - Bwlb Limited With thanks to Alastair Chisholm Honorary Executive Producer Jane Boland
Niki Roach is joined by Steve Elderkin - Director of Environmental Sustainability for National Highways and Evan Bowen-Jones, Chief Executive - Kent Wildlife Trust and MD of Wilder Carbon, co-founder of Rebuilding Nature. In this episode, our guests speak to Niki about a visit to the Netherlands to see how the Dutch were delivering on their nature objectives. Inspired by what they learnt, they went on to develop a similar approach in the UK through the launch of the Strategic Nature Network. Credits Presented & Produced by Niki Roach Executive Producer Andy Taylor - Bwlb Limited With thanks to Alastair Chisholm Honorary Executive Producer Jane Boland
'Dirty Business' is a Channel 4 docudrama, released a few weeks ago, that focuses on England's water companies and sewage spills. The docudrama reported on real life dramas that have surrounded the water industry over the last five years. Environment harm, sewage spills, pollutions, and customerscommunities saying that these are no longer acceptable. Lizzie Frost and host Niki discuss their reactions, and reflect on the programme. Credits Presented & Produced by Niki Roach Executive Producer Andy Taylor - Bwlb Limited With thanks to Alastair Chisholm Honorary Executive Producer Jane Boland
Planet Possible News - once a month an environmental expert joins Niki to highlight 3 big recent news stories in climate, nature and water from around the world. This month's guest is George Wade, co-Founder and COO of Zevero (helps companies calculate their carbon footprint) and blogger behind the Grumpy Optimists (collates climate positive news) Find out more about Zevero here Find out more about The Grumpy Optimists here Credits Presented & Produced by Niki Roach Executive Producer Andy Taylor - Bwlb Limited With thanks to Alastair Chisholm Honorary Executive Producer Jane Boland
The winners of the sixth Water Breakthrough Challenge, part of the OFWAT £600 million Water Innovation Fund, have just been announced. In this episode, Hannah Muirhead joins Niki to discuss some of winners. Together, they highlight the emerging themes in innovation in the UK water sector, and some of the most exciting concepts. Find out more about the OFWAT Innovation Fund here Credits Presented & Produced by Niki Roach Executive Producer Andy Taylor - Bwlb Limited With thanks to Alastair Chisholm Honorary Executive Producer Jane Boland
Jim Tan is CEO of Kuzuko Private Game Reserve, which has connected and rewilded 35,000 acres of un-economic and over-farmed areas in the Eastern Cape of South Africa since 2001. In this episode you’ll hear how Kuzuko is now a thriving wildlife reserve home to elephants, buffalos, lions and three of South Africas 9 biomes. Kuzuko has enabled local flora and fauna to re-populate huge swathes of land whilst providing a significant boost to the economy of the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The project is also sequestering 1.5 million tonnes of carbon each year through the planting of 26 million cuttings of spekboom. Importantly, the principles pioneered here could be used in other locations around the world to provide environmental recovery that is investable. To find out more about Kuzuko , click here For weekly updates on the latest episodes of Planet Possible sign up to our mailing list Credits Presented & Produced by Niki Roach Executive Producer Andy Taylor - Bwlb Limited With thanks to Alastair Chisholm Honorary Executive Producer Jane Boland
In this week’s episode, we dig into soils - both literally and metaphorically. Soils aren’t really visible to us, but they underpin every single life system on planet earth. Soil is one of our most important carbon sinks, critical to water, home to 60% of all bio-diversity and helping to produce 98% of our food. In this episode, Niki goes on location to a soil-progressive farm where Yorkshire Farmer, Paul Temple, is managing his soils a little differently and she is joined by Expert co-host, Ellen Fay, Founder and Executive Director of the Sustainable Soils Alliance. Credits Presented & Produced by Niki Roach Executive Producer Andy Taylor - Bwlb Limited With thanks to Alastair Chisholm Honorary Executive Producer Jane Boland
Each month Planet Possible News will bring you an update on the latest big environmental stories. Host Niki will be joined by an expert guest to discuss recent events in climate, nature and water. In this episode... Climate adaptation in the UK - what's coming in terms of reports, policy and progress How the Iran conflict is impacting the environment Crisis management - are extreme weather and flood warnings being communicated effectively? Credits Presented & Produced by Niki Roach Executive Producer Andy Taylor - Bwlb Limited With thanks to Alastair Chisholm Honorary Executive Producer Jane Boland
Niki is joined by Amandeep Kaur Maan, Founder of EcoSikh UK and Mumin Islam, a water industry leader with a passion for water demand management, equity, diversity and environmental and social justice to explore the relationship between faith, culture and our environment. Both guests have worked on the delivery of a groundbreaking project with Cambridge Central Mosque - the first 'eco Mosque' in the UK - and the conversation covers: The opportunities for conversations about environmental sustainability and water demand management through the lenses of faith and culture. Where Mumin and Amandeep see organisations that are getting this right - and what we can learn from these experiences. What needs to be in place to enable stronger relationships that deliver meaningful change for our environment. Find out more about the projects and organisations discussed in todays episode in the links below. https://www.south-staffs-water.co.uk/media/ykypg2ho/water-efficiency-in-faith-and-diverse-communities-final-report.pdf https://cambridgecentralmosque.org/environment/ https://ecosikhukdotorg.wordpress.com/ https://waterwise.org.uk/project/wefdc-toolkit/ Credits Presented & Produced by Niki Roach Executive Producer Andy Taylor - Bwlb Limited With thanks to Alastair Chisholm Honorary Executive Producer Jane Boland
Monica Feria-Tinta is a lawyer based in England and Wales but with an international outlook . She has a passion for, and a world-leading expertise in, representing climate, nature, water and indigenous peoples in high-profile legal cases. In this episode she discusses: how she was the first lawyer to bring climate claims to court successfully. her famous work with indigenous people around the world. why she believes, eventually, rivers will have statutory protection in the UK. why the law needs to move from its previously anthropocentric focus, towards an environmentally inclusive approach. Monica Feria-Tinta's new book 'A Barrister for the Earth' is out now. Click here to find out more. Credits Presented & Produced by Niki Roach Executive Producer Andy Taylor - Bwlb Limited With thanks to Alastair Chisholm Honorary Executive Producer Jane Boland
New York City is the most densely populated city in the USA and, famously the "concrete jungle" of all those famous movies and TV shows. Surrounded by water on 3 sides and with old infrastructure, how does the Big Apple cope with rising sea levels, pressure on water quality and very little room for nature? Vincent worked on high profile projects like Hunter's Point and Little Island - pairing beautiful design with futureproof sustainability functions. Sarah was involved in a decades long project to lower the levels of nutrients in the water surrounding Manhattan. Both native New Yorkers, what are their professional and personal takes on how New York is doing? Are there lessons for other cities around the world? Credits Presented & Produced by Niki Roach Executive Producer Andy Taylor - Bwlb Limited With thanks to Alastair Chisholm Honorary Executive Producer Jane Boland
Al Chisholm is CIWEM's Director of Policy, though he will be soon be leaving to take on a new role at a different organisation. In his last appearance on the podcast in his current role, he gives his thoughts on 3 big current nature, climate and water news stories. Niki and Alastair discuss: The new strategic policy statement for the Environment Agency and Natural England. How citizen science is being carried out in one of London’s rivers. The National Emergency briefing. Find out more about the stories Niki and Al discussed here... Strategic Policy Statement Citizen Science Project National Emergency Briefing Join the Planet Possible mailing list to hear first about new episode releases… Click here to subscribe Credits Presented & Produced by Niki Roach Executive Producer Andy Taylor - Bwlb Limited With thanks to Alastair Chisholm Honorary Executive Producer Jane Boland
The King’s Foundation, founded by His Majesty King Charles III in 1990, was inspired by his philosophy of Harmony: that by understanding the balance, order and relationships between ourselves and the natural world, we can create a more sustainable future. Niki heads to Dumfries House, home of The King’s Foundation, to see how the concept of Harmony comes to life. Hear from Dr Simon Sadinsky, Executive Director of Education at the Foundation about the impacts both locally and internationally of the work happening on site and how the principle of interconnectedness is at the heart of their work. The episode accompanies the recent release of Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision - available now on Prime Video. Find out more here . Credits Presented & Produced by Niki Roach Executive Producer Andy Taylor - Bwlb Limited With thanks to Alastair Chisholm Honorary Executive Producer Jane Boland
On this MiniPod episode, Niki Roach is joined by The Guardian’s Biodiversity correspondent - Phoebe Weston. Together, they discuss: 1) Why honey bees aren’t necessarily good for ecosystems and the Italian island that’s banned them. 2) China’s carbon dioxide emissions fall by 1% in the final quarter of 2025. 3) And a radical project in Belgium that’s turning off street lights to preserve wildlife. Thanks to our sponsors BMA, Mackley and MWH Treatment for their support of Planet Possible. Credits Presented & Produced by Niki Roach Executive Producer Andy Taylor - Bwlb Limited With thanks to Alastair Chisholm Honorary Executive Producer Jane Boland
