55. Nature Healing Nature -- Faster. Allonnia's Nicole Richards Replay

Grow Everything Biotech Podcast

Welcome to this weeks recap of Grow Everything, where we take a deep dive into the fascinating world of soil health and the incredible power of engineering organisms. Karl and Erum are joined by the amazing Nicole Richards, a 28-year veteran in the chemical space and CEO of Allonnia. Nicole shares her valuable insights on how biology can be harnessed to solve some of our biggest challenges and transform waste into valuable resources. We discuss the exciting new lab in Brooklyn, which has been generously funded by city and state money, as well as sustainable birthday boxes and event swag made from bio-based materials. Lastly, we learn about Allonnia's groundbreaking work in extracting rare earths from mine waste sites and using biology to treat contaminants. Tune in to hear from a true expert and discover how you can get involved in this exciting field!

Grow Everything brings to life the bioeconomy when hosts Karl Schmieder and Erum Azeez Khan share stories from the field and interview leaders and influencers in the space. Life is a powerful force and it can be engineered. What are we creating?

Learn more at ⁠www.messaginglab.com/groweverything⁠

Topics Covered:

• 00:00:00 - Recap of Previous Episodes and What’s Coming Up
• 00:00:45 - Meet Allonnia: The Company that is Accelerating Nature’s Ability to Heal Itself
• 00:01:30 - What are ‘Forever Chemicals’ and Why Should We Care?
• 00:03:04 - Nicole Richards: The CEO of Allonnia and a Chemical Engineering Veteran
• 00:04:51 - How ‘Forever Chemicals’ are Affecting Our Health and Environment
• 00:07:45 - The Innovative Solutions that Allonnia is Developing to Tackle Chemical Pollution
• 00:10:01 - How Allonnia is Working with Polluted Sites to Restore Them
• 00:17:51 - The Partnership Between Allonnia and Ginkgo Bioworks
• 00:19:47 - Nicole’s Journey from Chemical Engineering to Biotech
• 00:21:49 - How Biology is Changing the Chemical Industry
• 00:24:10 - How Allonnia is Serving Different Customers and Industries
• 00:27:20 - How Our Choices Impact the Amount of Waste We Generate
• 00:29:15 - How We Can Shift Our Consumption Habits to be More Sustainable
• 00:31:03 - How Nicole Joined Allonnia and Became its CEO
• 00:32:09 - How Allonnia is Growing and Evolving Rapidly
• 00:33:52 - How Allonnia is Envisioning the Future of Landfills and Waste Management
• 00:37:19 - Nicole’s Closing Thoughts and Future Goals
• 00:37:58 - Karl and Erum’s Reflections on the Interview

Episode Links:

• Nicole Richards on ⁠LinkedIn⁠
• Allonnia's ⁠Website⁠
• ⁠Wall-E movie⁠

Donate to Turkey-Syria Earthquake Relief:

• ⁠Direct Relief⁠
• ⁠Disaster Philanthropy⁠

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Music by: Nihilore

Production by: Amplafy Media