Green Champions

Hosted by Dominique Hadad & Christy Cook

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126

Latest episode

Aug 2026

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EN-US

About the show

From energy to agriculture, retail to tech — Green Champions tells the stories of real people building sustainable solutions across every industry. Hosted by Dominique Hadad and Christy Cook, each episode provides that progress is already happening and environmental work takes many forms. New episodes every Tuesday.

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August 11, 2026Episode 2324 min

Mary Cropenbaker - What Gambling Pigeons Taught Her About People

Mary Cropenbaker is the Assistant Solid Waste Manager at Hamilton County ReSource, the solid waste district for the Cincinnati region, where she helps businesses, schools, and communities cut what they send to the landfill. She piloted 513 Green, a free sustainability certification now used by dozens of local organizations. But her path into waste and sustainability started somewhere you would never guess: a psychology lab studying how pigeons gamble.Mary grew up along the Ohio River, hopping fences and running through cow pastures, and headed to college for animal cognition research, not the environment. A single class on business sustainability changed her direction. This first episode traces the human turns behind that shift, including the senior-year crisis of realizing research alone would never let her act on what she was learning. The conversation draws out that lived experience while pressing on how a foundation in data and science communication became the throughline of everything she does now. What emerges is a portrait of someone who kept following her curiosity until it added up to a career.Episode in a glance00:57 Growing Up in Cow Pastures Along the Ohio River02:38 The Psychology Major Who Fell for Sustainability04:24 What Gambling Pigeons Taught Her About People07:10 From a Zoo Practicum to the EPA to Zero Waste13:04 Inside a Solid Waste District That Serves Everyone21:44 Why This Work Still Gives Her HopeAbout Mary CropenbakerMary Cropenbaker is the Assistant Solid Waste Manager at Hamilton County ReSource, the solid waste district serving the Cincinnati, Ohio region, where she helps businesses, schools, and communities implement waste reduction strategies on the path to zero waste. She holds a master's in environmental science from Miami University's Institute for Environment and Sustainability and an MBA with a certificate in sustainable business, and her background spans psychology research, a sustainability practicum at the Cincinnati Zoo, and a role at the US EPA. She piloted the 513 Green Certification Program, a free sustainability certification that has certified 67 organizations across the region.Connect with Mary Cropenbaker and her workLinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/marycropenbakerHamilton County ReSource → hamiltoncountyresource.org513 Green Certification → 513green.comSend us a message!

August 4, 2026Episode 2223 min

Vin Valentino - Building Washington's First Green Bank From Scratch

There is not enough public money in the world to fund the clean energy transition. That gap sits at the center of Vin Valentino's work, and his answer is the green bank, a purpose-driven financial institution built to stretch every public dollar and pull private capital in behind it. As the Energy Economy Lead for the Washington State Department of Commerce, Vin helped stand up Washington's first green bank, capitalized at 25 million dollars in its first year.The build runs from one question in a Seattle conference room to a working institution. Vin breaks down what the Inflation Reduction Act actually unlocked, why a green bank can do what a grant cannot, and how a constitutional rule dating back to the railroads nearly killed the whole idea. The conversation presses on the mechanics and the financing models, from no-cost C-PACE solar to a 500 million dollar revolving loan fund, while keeping the thread tied back to why it matters. It lands at a port, in front of the governor and a crowd of unions, on a single question that captures what real climate progress feels like.Episode in a glance00:21 Moving to Seattle to work on green economy after the IRA passes05:06 Defining what "green economy" actually means06:21 What the Inflation Reduction Act did and why it mattered09:14 Building Washington's first green bank from scratch15:07 How green finance tools like C-PACE work in practice18:14 What's giving Vin hope despite the current political climateAbout Vin ValentinoVincent "Vin" Valentino is the Energy Economy Lead for the Washington State Department of Commerce, where he works to grow the state's clean energy economy through investment, policy strategy, and partnerships across government, industry, and communities. He earned an interdisciplinary degree in applied sustainability, spanning policy, economics, business, and design, from Ohio State University. His path runs from leading sustainability and operations at Land-Grant Brewing in Columbus, Ohio, to managing sustainability programs at Stanford Health Care, to serving as a Green Economy Strategic Advisor and division manager for the City of Seattle, where he helped establish Washington's first green bank.Connect with Vin Valentino and his workVin Valentino on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/vinvalentinowaWashington State Department of Commerce → commerce.wa.govLand-Grant Brewing Company → landgrantbrewing.comSend us a message!

July 28, 2026Episode 2125 min

Vin Valentino - From Bartending to Decarbonizing a Hospital

Vin Valentino is the Energy Economy Lead for the Washington State Department of Commerce, where he works to grow the state's clean energy economy through investment, policy strategy, and partnerships across government, industry, and communities. He holds an interdisciplinary degree in applied sustainability from Ohio State University, and his path has run from a craft brewery in Columbus, Ohio, to Stanford Health Care, to the City of Seattle. Before any of it, though, he was a kid from Dayton who played in bands, bartended through school, and had no clear plan. His story starts there.His turning point was small and human. One political science class cracked open how climate, economics, and migration all cross borders, and a single nudge from his older sister sent him back to college. From there he talked his way into a sustainability role at Land-Grant Brewing over one beer, then leapt to Stanford Health Care. The conversation draws out the lived experience behind each jump while pressing on how Vin keeps spotting opportunity where other people see a dead end. What surfaces is a way of working that treats every messy, uncertain step as part of the build.Episode in a glance00:53 Vin explains Washington State's clean energy economy03:19 From Dayton to Columbus, dropping out and playing music05:37 The college class that sparked his interest in climate12:17 How a conversation at a brewery became a sustainability job16:41 Getting laid off during COVID and landing at Stanford Health Care21:56 His advice for breaking into sustainability workAbout Vin ValentinoVincent "Vin" Valentino is the Energy Economy Lead for the Washington State Department of Commerce, where he works to grow the state's clean energy economy through investment, policy strategy, and partnerships across government, industry, and communities. He earned an interdisciplinary degree in applied sustainability, spanning policy, economics, business, and design, from Ohio State University. His path runs from leading sustainability and operations at Land-Grant Brewing in Columbus, Ohio, to managing sustainability programs at Stanford Health Care, to serving as a Green Economy Strategic Advisor and division manager for the City of Seattle, where he helped establish Washington's first green bank.Connect with Vin Valentino and his workVin Valentino on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/vinvalentinowaWashington State Department of Commerce → commerce.wa.govLand-Grant Brewing Company → landgrantbrewing.comSend us a message!

July 21, 2026Episode 2027 min

RE-RELEASE: Francesca Cercelletta - Using iPhone Storytelling to Frame the Change

Francesca Cercelletta, creative director for ReGeneration Hub Friuli and graphic designer for Zegna, brings a unique blend of artistic vision and sustainability passion to NanoValbruna. As the organizer of "Frame The Change," a short film festival within the forum, she champions the power of visual storytelling in communicating complex environmental issues.Francesca shares her journey into the world of filmmaking, recounting how her participation in a workshop in Naples inspired her to bring a similar experience to NanoValbruna. She describes the "Frame The Change" program, where young filmmakers, armed with just their iPhones, create short films centered around the theme of regeneration. Francesca emphasizes the importance of creativity, especially when working with limited resources, and how it can unlock innovative solutions and captivating narratives.She discusses her own short film, "O' mare è casa toja" ("The sea is your home"), which was selected for the Pimiento Film Festival in Rome, and how this experience further fueled her passion for filmmaking. Francesca also talks about the value of bringing together diverse perspectives, the power of mentorship, and the importance of providing young people with opportunities to explore their creative potential. She shares her perspective on regeneration, emphasizing the need for tangible, real-world solutions, particularly within the fashion industry.Episode in a glance- Francesca's Role at ReGeneration Hub Friuli and NanoValbruna- Frame The Change- Francesca's Short Film: 'O' mare è casa toja'- The Theme of Regeneration in Filmmaking- Regeneration vs. Sustainability: A Creative PerspectiveAbout Francesca CercellettaFrancesca Cercelletta is the creative director for ReGeneration Hub Friuli and graphic designer for Zegna. She is the organizer of "Frame The Change" at NanoValbruna.Connect with Francesca Cercelletta and her workInstagram → https://www.instagram.com/franziska.konrad/Francesca on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/francescacercellettaFrancesca's Short Film → "O' mare è casa toja” Website → http://nanovalbruna.comInstagram → https://www.instagram.com/nanovalbrunaFacebook → https://www.facebook.com/nanovalbrunaReGeneration Hub Friuli LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/regeneration-hub-friuliSend us a message!

July 14, 2026Episode 1924 min

Jake Kheel - Secrets Behind the Caribbean's Most Innovative Resort

A resort that generates 25 tons of waste every single day has two choices: manage it badly or build something worth talking about. Jake Kheel, VP of Sustainability at Grupo Puntacana, chose the latter. He's back this week to get into the real work: composting at industrial scale, coral reef restoration, a hawk conservation project that now has 150 birds on property, and why climate change has stopped being a future problem for coastal communities and started being a right-now one.Jake breaks down what a VP of Sustainability actually does in the tourism industry: part problem-solving, part what he calls "troublemaking," meaning finding things that are broken and convincing people it's worth fixing them. He's candid about the failures that got him here, including an early composting experiment with worms from his New York City apartment that did not go as planned. The organic waste work took years of hardheadedness and iteration to become what it is now: a composting operation that manages food, manure, and green waste from hotels, an airport, thousands of employees, and an entire residential community. The goal isn't just to handle the waste. It's to close the loop and regenerate soil in the process.Then there's Leo. Leo is a Ridgeway's Hawk, an endemic species once down to roughly 200 breeding pairs, who now serves as an ambassador for a conservation project that started with three birds and has grown to over 150. Jake talks through how Grupo Puntacana partnered with the Peregrine Fund to establish a second breeding population on the resort property, and why taking a hawk to a school or a family farm turns out to be one of the most effective conservation strategies around.Episode in a glance01:32 What a VP of Sustainability Actually Does All Day04:15 Sargassum: The Seaweed Crisis Threatening Caribbean Tourism11:28 The Composting Experiment That Flopped (And What It Eventually Became)18:47 How Kids Are Convincing Their Parents to Compost20:39 Meet Leo: The Ambassador Hawk Winning Over CommunitiesAbout Jake KheelJake Kheel is the Vice President of Sustainability at Grupo Puntacana, a privately held resort and real estate company in the Dominican Republic that has become a benchmark for sustainable tourism in the Caribbean. With degrees from Columbia and Cornell and over 20 years on the ground in Puntacana, Jake leads a wide-ranging portfolio of environmental programs spanning coral reef restoration, composting, wildlife conservation, and sargassum management. He co-directed the award-winning documentary Death By a Thousand Cuts, which explores deforestation and cross-border conflict on the Haitian-Dominican border, and is the author of Waking the Sleeping Giant, a book about mobilizing the private sector for environmental action. His work has been recognized by National Geographic and Condé Nast Traveler.Connect with Jake Kheel and his workInstagram → https://www.instagram.com/jakekheel/?hl=enGrupo Puntacana → puntacana.comWaking the Sleeping Giant → https://www.amazon.com/Waking-Sleeping-Giant-Unlocking-Business/dp/1544520123Death By a Thousand Cuts documentary → https://deathbyathousandcutsfilm.com/Send us a message!

July 7, 2026Episode 1823 min

Jake Kheel - How a Generalist Found His Calling in the Dominican Republic

Jake Kheel is VP of Sustainability at Grupo Puntacana, one of the Caribbean's most recognized leaders in sustainable tourism. He's also a conservationist, author, and co-director of the award-winning documentary Death By a Thousand Cuts.It started with a boarding school study abroad program Jake applied to on a whim. He had no idea his great-uncle Ted Kheel was one of the founders of Grupo Puntacana. But a phone call from his grandfather before the trip changed everything, and what began as a detour became the foundation of a two-decade career. Jake talks about falling in love with the Dominican Republic's people first, the warmth and gregariousness of its culture, then its staggering ecological diversity: 13 mountain ranges, two of the Caribbean's highest peaks, coral reefs, mangrove swamps, and desert dunes all on one island.Jake's background is anything but conventional for a sustainability leader. He studied Spanish literature, then went on to Columbia and Cornell to study conservation and soil science. He's a self-described generalist, and he makes a compelling case for why that's exactly what the field needs. The ability to adapt, learn new things quickly, and think creatively across disciplines has kept him sharp through 20 years of constantly evolving challenges. He also gets into what finally pulled him toward documentary filmmaking as a conservation tool, and how a research trip to the DR/Haiti border led him into a story far more layered than he ever expected.Episode in a glance01:28 Jake’s Accidental Connection to Puntacana03:11 What's Actually in a Name: The Story Behind "Puntacana"05:58 Why the Dominican Republic Is Unlike Any Other Caribbean Island11:24 No Two Days Are the Same: Hawks, Coral Reefs, and Seaweed at 7 AM15:45 Educating guests about sustainability without overshadowing their vacation19:40 Why Jake Made a Documentary About Charcoal, Murder, and the BorderAbout Jake KheelJake Kheel is the Vice President of Sustainability at Grupo Puntacana, a privately held resort and real estate company in the Dominican Republic that has become a benchmark for sustainable tourism in the Caribbean. With degrees from Columbia and Cornell and over 20 years on the ground in Puntacana, Jake leads a wide-ranging portfolio of environmental programs spanning coral reef restoration, composting, wildlife conservation, and sargassum management. He co-directed the award-winning documentary Death By a Thousand Cuts, which explores deforestation and cross-border conflict on the Haitian-Dominican border, and is the author of Waking the Sleeping Giant, a book about mobilizing the private sector for environmental action. His work has been recognized by National Geographic and Condé Nast Traveler.Connect with Jake Kheel and his workInstagram → https://www.instagram.com/jakekheel/?hl=enGrupo Puntacana → puntacana.comWaking the Sleeping Giant → https://www.amazon.com/Waking-Sleeping-Giant-Unlocking-Business/dp/1544520123Death By a Thousand Cuts documentary → https://deathbyathousandcutsfilm.com/Send us a message!

June 30, 2026Episode 1724 min

Regina Harmon - Why 235 Million Tons of Food Goes to Waste While 47 Million Go Hungry

In 2023 alone, 235 million tons of food went uneaten or unsold in the United States. The number one item clogging landfills is not furniture, not plastic, not diapers. It is food. And 47 million Americans are food insecure at the same time. Regina Harmon, CEO of Food Recovery Network, returns to break down exactly how that happens, what her organization is doing about it, and how college students across 46 states are at the center of the solution.Food waste is not mainly a story about bad choices or careless people. Regina is clear on that. It is a story about a system configured to throw food away. Contracts with waste haulers already in place. Missed delivery windows that send entire tractor trailers of perfectly good cabbage back to the landfill. Date labels so inconsistent and confusing that 80% of households throw food away unnecessarily just to be safe. The infrastructure for waste is smooth and familiar. The infrastructure for recovery is not, yet. That is the gap Food Recovery Network exists to close.What Regina has built over ten years is a national organization with a genuinely local solution. Over 215 student chapters, trained in food safety, showing up in dining halls with gloves and aluminum trays, packaging surplus food and walking, biking, or driving it to the shelter, soup kitchen, or campus food pantry closest to them. She also walks Dominique and Christy through the Food Date Labeling Act, a piece of legislation FRN has championed for years that would federally standardize date labels and immediately open up millions of tons of surplus food to donation. No federal funding required. Industry already on board. The only thing missing is the political will, and Regina has thoughts on exactly how listeners can help change that.Episode in a glance00:10 Introducing the Food Recovery Network03:28 How students recover surplus food across 215 college chapters07:54 The scale of food waste and why so much surplus ends up in landfills10:41 The barriers preventing food donation and the laws that protect donors13:45 The Food Date Labeling Act and how you can advocate with elected officials20:20 Regina's leadership vision and how to support the Food Recovery NetworkAbout Regina HarmonRegina Harmon is the CEO of Food Recovery Network, a national nonprofit and the largest student-led movement fighting food waste and hunger in the United States. With a background in English literature and literary and cultural studies, Regina brings a deeply human-centered lens to anti-poverty work and food access advocacy. Under her leadership, FRN has grown to over 215 chapters across 46 states, doubled its student network to 8,000 members, and expanded its reach to over 400 locations where surplus food is actively recovered and redistributed.Connect with Regina Harmon and her workRegina Harmon on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/reginadmanderson/Food Recovery Network → foodrecoverynetwork.orgInstagram → https://www.instagram.com/foodrecovery/Send us a message!

June 23, 2026Episode 1622 min

Regina Harmon - Who is Running America's Largest Food Recovery Movement?

Regina Harmon is the CEO of Food Recovery Network, the largest student-led movement fighting food waste and hunger in the US. Before she was leading a national nonprofit, she was a kid in Maine with a cloth lunch bag, a working poor family, and a growing sense that the world was not set up fairly. Dominique and Christy sit down with Regina to hear how a life shaped by nature, identity, and literature quietly built the leader she is today.Regina Harmon grew up in Maine at a time when it was the whitest state in the union, in a mixed-race family, without a single Black teacher in her entire schooling. The discomfort of being asked to check one box on a census form when no single box fit her family stayed with her. So did the shame of using SNAP benefits as an AmeriCorps volunteer, watching people's eyes land on her in the checkout line. Those experiences did not harden her. They gave her a very clear sense of who she wanted to fight for.What makes Regina's path so interesting is how much of it runs through books. She studied English literature in college and will tell you, without hesitation, that the humanities gave her everything she needs to run a nonprofit. Critical thinking. The ability to stay focused in hard, slow work. And most importantly, empathy, the capacity to be in someone else's story long enough to actually understand it. By the time she found Food Recovery Network, she had a framework for the work that went well beyond logistics. Food, she says, is a bridge to a valley of abundance. If people can agree that everyone deserves food, that conversation can open doors to everything else people deserve simply because they are human.Episode in a glance00:10 Meet Regina Harmon, CEO of the Food Recovery Network00:59 How growing up in Maine shaped her environmental values03:36 Finding her voice through mixed-race identity and history11:16 Discovering her life's purpose through AmeriCorps and anti-poverty work15:26 How studying English literature shaped her as a leader21:21 Inside the student-led movement fighting food waste and hungerAbout Regina HarmonRegina Harmon is the CEO of Food Recovery Network, a national nonprofit and the largest student-led movement fighting food waste and hunger in the United States. With a background in English literature and literary and cultural studies, Regina brings a deeply human-centered lens to anti-poverty work and food access advocacy. Under her leadership, FRN has grown to over 215 chapters across 46 states, doubled its student network to 8,000 members, and expanded its reach to over 400 locations where surplus food is actively recovered and redistributed.Connect with Regina Harmon and her workRegina Harmon on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/reginadmanderson/Food Recovery Network → foodrecoverynetwork.orgInstagram → https://www.instagram.com/foodrecovery/Send us a message!

June 16, 2026Episode 1522 min

Mason McNeill - Rerouting America's Food Waste, One Grocery Store at a Time

Most people don't think much about what happens to the food that doesn't get sold. Mason McNeill does. As Chief Commercial Officer at Denali, the nation's largest organics recycler, he's spent his career building the systems that catch that material before it hits a landfill and put it back to work.Denali runs routes to grocery stores and food producers across all of the lower 48, collecting food waste and organic residuals and routing them to recycling facilities where they become compost, animal feed, fertilizer, or renewable fuel. Mason breaks down how that circular chain actually functions, including the part most people don't see: you need customers on both ends. Someone has to send the material, and someone has to want what comes out the other side. Keeping that balance is a big part of his job.He also gets into depackaging technology, one of the more practical breakthroughs changing what's possible in organics diversion. Manually separating food from packaging used to be slow, inconsistent, and a contamination risk. The equipment that handles it now has made it possible to take on waste streams that weren't workable before. And looking ahead, Mason is clear-eyed about how much is still left to build. Landfill costs are rising. Communities across the country are asking hard questions about what's going into the ground. The infrastructure to answer those questions at scale is still catching up. He doesn't frame that as a problem so much as a direction.Episode in a glance00:10 Denali and organics recycling01:03 Inside Denali and what a Chief Commercial Officer actually does03:48 The current state of organics recycling and Denali's strategy to lead it05:52 Serving customers on both sides of the circular supply chain09:54 How depackaging technology is unlocking more food waste diversion14:08 Looking ahead at landfill diversion, infrastructure, and grassroots momentumAbout Mason McNeillMason McNeill is the Chief Commercial Officer at Denali, the nation's largest organics recycler, where he leads customer relationships, sales, and infrastructure growth across the country. He holds degrees in finance, accounting, and history from the Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas and began his career at Stephens, a leading investment banking firm, advising private and family-owned companies on accessing capital markets. His work at Denali centers on building the infrastructure and partnerships needed to divert organic material from landfills and return it to productive use as animal feed, fertilizer, compost, and renewable energy.Connect with Mason McNeill and his workMason McNeill on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/masonbmcneillDenali Website → https://www.denalicorp.com/Send us a message!

June 9, 2026Episode 1417 min

Mason McNeill - The Banker Who Bet on Waste

Mason McNeill is the Chief Commercial Officer at Denali, the nation's largest organics recycler. But before he was thinking about food waste and circular supply chains, he was a young investment banker in Little Rock, learning how to tell the story of businesses that had spent decades building something worth believing in.Mason grew up in the Arkansas River Valley and showed up to college knowing he wanted to study business. What he didn't plan on was picking up a history major along the way. That combination turned out to matter more than he expected. Finance taught him how businesses actually work. History taught him how to think, how to read a situation, and how to make a case. He's been doing both ever since.The conversation gets into what drew him from investment banking to the waste and recycling space, and why he thinks sustainability advocates underestimate how important it is to speak the language of capital. His take is pretty direct: great ideas don't move without money behind them, and if you can't tell the story in a way that gets investors excited, it stays an idea. That's not cynicism. It's just how he's watched things work, and not work, over the course of his career.Episode in a glance00:44 Growing up in Arkansas and studying business and history01:52 Why critical thinking and liberal arts matter in business05:06 Investment banking explained and connecting capital to sustainability09:48 Joining Denali and the organics recycling mission13:27 Advice for sustainability businesses and the next generationAbout Mason McNeillMason McNeill is the Chief Commercial Officer at Denali, the nation's largest organics recycler, where he leads customer relationships, sales, and infrastructure growth across the country. He holds degrees in finance, accounting, and history from the Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas and began his career at Stephens, a leading investment banking firm, advising private and family-owned companies on accessing capital markets. His work at Denali centers on building the infrastructure and partnerships needed to divert organic material from landfills and return it to productive use as animal feed, fertilizer, compost, and renewable energy.Connect with Mason McNeill and his workMason McNeill on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/masonbmcneillDenali Website → https://www.denalicorp.com/Send us a message!

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