E085 - Carl Pratt from Future Planet

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Welcome back to the Green Element Podcast. where we feature business leaders and innovators transforming their operations to be more environmentally and socially sustainable. I'm your host, Will Richardson, and I can't wait to meet our guest today and help you on your journey of sustainability. Today we've got Carl from Future Planet. He is an inspiring individual that he's developed a business model that is slightly different to the normal business model, and he brings people together to solve the world's problems. And he goes into more detail on how he does that. And it's, it is really exciting what he's doing and how he's doing it. And I hope you take away the enthusiasm that he puts into, it seems, everything he does. I hope you enjoy the show. Carl, welcome to the Green Element Podcast. You run Future Planets. And I'd love you to tell me more about Future Planet and what it is that you do and are trying to achieve.

Oh, hi. Thank you so much. Yeah, I sort of run it. I guess I also co-create it with like a whole stack of people that it's been kind of shaped and grown out of an idea. And then we had so many different conversations around what it could be. And now, even now, I mean, and into the future, it will be shaped around what everyone requires, what people need, what they want to give, what they want to receive from community, and the world that they want to create and live in. And so whilst the idea sort of started at mine, I've been in a process of giving it away from the very beginning, I suppose, while sort of slightly steering it.

So you were talking earlier about you've learned to have— I mean, you've got a process involved with it, and, you know, the way that you work the event, because I was complaining, going, oh yeah, no, I I found it really hard and I got the impression that because you understand how it fits together and what to do. And could you take me through some of the things that you do? Because you're also talking about 10X and you had breakaway sessions and it was a lot more personal, you have smaller things and it just, it's really interesting what you're doing.

Let's start from the top and then I feel like everyone might have a sense around what we've just launched into after having such a lovely conversation in advance of this podcast. So, so our mission is broadly to accelerate our transition to an inclusive, sustainable future. And it's really now more than ever really important that inclusivity is at the heart of anything that we do in terms of building a future across all elements of what we might consider inclusivity to be. And so we act on that mission through predominantly through convening community and through fostering collaboration. And supporting people, both 2 sets of communities, and we're often both. So citizens, effectively to enable them and empower them to create the future that they dream of. And then changemakers who are actively working on solving or creating that future. So they might be individuals and teams from organizations and brands. We bring people together across sector and across silo. So I see ourselves as like flowing where other people perhaps are in silos. And really adding value where, where we can and supporting and bringing people together across a range of different backgrounds. And the predominant way that we convene community is through live events. It's the most exciting way to— a nourishing way to create energy and create connection and to feel each other and to support each other. And although having said that, in the recent We're sort of at the end of March now, so coronavirus is in relatively good throes. Like, we now are developing more resilience around how we bring people together online as well, in line with our mission. And so our objective is to scale a city-by-city network, a community that's city-by-city. It will extend larger than that, and to rapidly scale that city-by-city network globally. And that's what we'll raise money for. Welcoming individuals and teams from organizations and brands across the globe with the intention of supporting them to solve challenges within organizations much more effectively and within the communities that they exist in through supply chains and also through their customers and scale up the sustainable innovations through that network as well and collaborate together on systems change. So we were talking about government parties before and part of this platform was born out of a frustration with the friction around the system of government and how we might desire a future, but actually it's really ineffective to try and ask government to always give it to us. And what— when I started creating this and I drew on a lot of different pieces of inspiration, including how the Pirate Party started in Sweden and around a book called Swarmwise, but also around the plastic movement and removing plastic from the oceans. And that was somewhat of a perfect storm, but it wasn't coordinated in any effective way. And now we're starting to see much more coordination around the movements that we see. So XR is an example of that. But even that, from my perspective, still feels relatively organic. And given my background in effectively building relationships and delivering partnerships in large organizations with small organizations, My sense was that it was a much more— well, the solution that we would create was probably more practical, more action-based, but specifically around supporting people at scale to scale up sustainable innovation and solutions. And so that arose out of a variety of tests. And now we have 3, perhaps 4 formats of live events. We do public open events. for citizens and changemakers to come together so changemakers can share stories about what's happening and what they're creating. And we've welcomed maybe 60 changemakers from everyone like Ben from Farmdrop and JP from All Plants, all the way through to Kath from Unpackaged and Hege from IKEA, like a broad, wide range of people creating change and welcome citizens to hear their stories and share in that conversation with them. And then we do 10x Impact workshops, which are particularly around convening changemakers across value chains, which often doesn't happen. So we do them thematically. So for example, like packaging or supply chains or climate. And there we will really understand in a very granular nature what people personally, professionally, and also purposefully, what they want to give and receive from that day. And we build a day in a very thoughtful and curated and intimate day around what people want to give and receive. And so they end up being very effective ways for people to learn, share, you know, be upfront and honest about some of the challenges that they're facing and support each other and learn about new solutions.

And you—

With the goal— oh, sorry. With the goal that we would use those 10x impact— I'm almost there— 10x impact events in collaboration with citizens to scale up the solutions that changemakers highlight. So our theory of change is a bit more— that's our theory of change, effectively.

And we were talking about the supply chain. I'm just going to— I just want to hone in on an example that we can give. And what would be great is if we could put the video up that you sent me earlier on the podcast page as well. So therefore, if we talk about that event and how it works, And then if we have the video up as well, so therefore listeners will be able to actually watch the event in that video and put the two together.

Yeah.

Because I think that'd be really, that'd be really important because I understand what you're saying and I think I understand it, but it'd be good to hear an example of how you helped with supply chains and within that event and what sort of stuff that came out of it.

Yeah, I'd love to unpack that. So typically we work with people that are— that know more than me, for a start. And so I'll curate the day with 1, 2, or 3 people. So for supply chains, I curated with Louise Nicholls, who's been in M&S and now runs her own consultancy, Sasesco, and has been, you know, at the heart of supply chains and social responsibility for such a long time, and also Plan A. M&S, so really had an in-depth knowledge around what some of the challenges and what some of the needs were of the community generally. And then Oliver Hurry, who was previously at 2 Degrees and is extremely expert and really takes time to understand again what people need and has a great network. And so we worked as a group together. And then we built the day based on a conversation with everyone that will take part. So we start with a rough idea about what the themes are that we want to cover. And for me, we have an impact frame at Future Planet. And, you know, so obviously carbon is really important and climate is really important, but also regeneration and nature and circular systems. Like, we have this element of our hierarchy of impact and our philosophy around what we look at. So we're always curating a day around that. The format straightforwardly is like a day of a combination of listening to what people are sharing, sharing what you're doing in your business, and then potentially either a workshop or some way of connection. And we're working on advancing that format further to really allow people to come with challenges and have them receive support in that room and walk away with them being solved. My view is we're all going to a range of different events or different activities to try and solve the problems in our business. And I feel like it's much more efficient if we just mention what they are and then we build a day around what they are. And so it's very curated around really supporting people in that way. We had Andy talk at the very beginning. So I like to start the day with a frame. And so Andy talked about the similarities between nature and supply chains in the same way that Kevin Weiss in our packaging event talked about the benefits of Thinking fast and acting slow. I think that was— he probably will say it's the other way around, but broadly taking time to make the right decision. So we start with a perspective and then we— depends on what people want. So we had a range of perspectives. We had Robin from Nestlé talking about what they're doing to support farmers. We had Yui from Coca-Cola talking about what they're doing with climate change. We had a whole range of different people sharing different perspectives, but Because it's a small room and we create it in a space that's unlike the ones that they would normally go to. So it's a vegan feast and it was in a paper mill with like a very dressed-down day. And the way that the space is held means that the energy is just fabulous. Like, it's just, it's just really beautiful to be part of those days and it really gives me a real sense of togetherness. And so the intention— The intention is that everyone would leave with solutions to their problems, they'd helped other people, and they'd also have a ready-made network with which to kind of keep on connecting with.

In that particular area?

In that particular area. And then we would run them in different areas depending on what those teams want. So typically we work with sustainability or a key champion in the business, and they connect us to different people in that business that want to come and join our events no matter what. So the, the, our goal is to connect up the different roles in organizations and build a network in that, and in doing so, support changemakers inside organizations to create the energy and momentum around change that they need. And so we're now going to launch some CEO Suppers as well. So we're always feeling into and thinking about how to create flow, how to create positive energy, and how to allow people to move further forward faster with what they're working on.

That sounds— and how many people largely go to an event like that?

So we've capped it actually at about 40 to 50, and my sense is we wouldn't go any higher than 60.

Right.

And I feel like what we're much more likely to do is to run a series of them. So we run 3 in a row, and there's an idea of evolution, and some people will come to all of them, but mostly people will come and dip in and then sort of solve that set of challenges they're solving, or, and they might come to the next one. It just depends. But 60 is at the moment the cap for those. Because you sort of need it to feel like by the end of the day, you've met your top 5 people that you really wanted to connect with and not felt overwhelmed by the space.

Hmm.

Like, we're not trying to create something where everyone's in the room. That's not the goal. The goal is to create something where we Understood who you want to meet, really thoughtfully brought the right people into the room and helped you connect around things that are really important to you.

And I guess if you go to all 3 of them, then you'll actually get to know pretty much everyone in the room quite well.

Well, they'll be different. Yes, we got about 30% stay for the— 30% of people stay for each one.

Right. Are they on separate— are they on the same day?

No, no, no. They're on separate days. They're about 3 months apart. So 30% of people will stay or will come back for the next one. Sometimes businesses send a different person from their team to the next one. So we might have the same brands but a different person.

Gotcha.

But then we also have— we're just launching Community Connect to really allow that group of people to then continue to connect and to build relationships beyond that one workshop event. And that will be an every month event or every other month event depending on demand. So I'm really feeling into what people need, you know, in terms of being able to connect And do you hold them geographically?

Basically, do you hold them all over the country? All over the UK?

We get requests to hold them in different parts of the country, and it definitely is in our plan. I feel like right now we're fairly early. I mean, we're fairly— I mean, compared to Informa, we're fairly early stage. And so the limitations that I have is bandwidth, basically.

Right.

But our goal and the strategy that we have that will raise investment for is around a global and local city-by-city network.

Right.

Because I recognize the need for, you know, Bristol's a really strong center. There are centers in the North and the Midlands that it would be really valuable to allow people to move between London and those centers or between those centers and each other. It's just, it's predominantly around resource at the moment.

So you're— are you in— because I know you live in Brighton, but is it London you're focused in?

London makes the most sense. I mean, globally, it's a huge global city and most businesses are there and most people will go there for business at least once a month, you know. So that works really well for us. But I definitely feel the need to create spaces that serve people in regional areas as well. Like, I think that's really important.

Yeah, yeah, it's just getting the amount of people. I get— I mean, I live in Edinburgh, as you know, and I think putting an event on in Edinburgh will be a lot harder to get people out than it would be in London because you've got much— you've got a massive pool of people in London. Although saying that, you know, saying that, I used to be the chairman of the Metropolitan branch of CIWEM, which is basically a chartered institute, but that doesn't matter. We used to meet up every year and all the people that were in charge of all the different places all over the UK, and there would be the London branch and there would actually be a Scottish branch.

Yeah.

As in, now I live in Scotland, I'm like— and I kind of thought at the time, why wouldn't there be a northeast, a north, Northwest, South, Southwest, etc. branch. But actually Scotland had its own branch. But what always amazed me was they would have 50, 60 people coming to every single event and people would drive 2 and a half hours to an event. And people in London, I struggled to get 30 people to our events and it would be a 3/4 of an hour tube ride. I was like, how does that work?

That's not the number. You gave me a number much higher than that when we were talking earlier on.

That was the one that Green Element put on, but I'm talking more about the Solent. And I've got a feeling it was because they were free events. I think that's—

Yeah, we— yeah, we— I mean, we— yeah, well, we— so we charge, but mostly because I'd like— it's important, I think, that people co-create both what they can afford but also in terms of what they give to the event. But, but also, but it also helps us make sure that we don't get really anyone dropping out. We maybe get 5 or 10% of people that have to move it for some unforeseen reason. But we also have a strategy around our events. So the Future Planet Presents are— I mean, last year they were £11 to come to an event. And they're designed to be super easy to attend in the evening, create like a sense of community and a buzz around about a particular topic. And then if we were to enter a city, we would then like do those to whatever the capacity of that city was and then think about, okay, well, what's the next step? Like, what are we going to maybe run a 10x in? But our strategy fits quite neatly because we're not really an events business, we're a membership business. And so that run events. And so we would probably know a lot of the people that will be in that area. So it then just becomes a timing thing to set up. an event, for me anyway. I think there'll be a saturation point. So our strategy is around, you know, primary and secondary tier cities. And I think some cities will be like— London's got capacity. We could run events every week in London. It would probably be fine. Although I did notice last year there was sort of a capacity for the— what might— what last year was termed conscious consumers, but we might call citizens this year. Like, there was a capacity from a for people going to an event. Although that will have probably fundamentally changed now XR has moved the dial, you know.

Yeah, yeah.

I don't know. I feel like Bristol would be a— I'd love to find partners that wanted to go into those cities with us. That would be fantastic.

Okay, well, hopefully anyone listening to this will want to get a hold of you.

Yeah, and make magic together.

Yeah, exactly. No, exactly. So the online stuff Once you've been to a— I'm hesitant to say event because you said you didn't want—

Well, it's a gathering. I think a gathering feels like—

Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I actually, I get what you're saying. I totally understand what you're saying because it's not really an event, is it?

I mean, it's an event, but I don't know if it's just an event.

You have one of those The circumflex on the V. Yeah, I mean, it's an event.

The event of whatever else is happening in that moment.

And you can carry on conversations online, I'm assuming, within—

So we're just— I'm just working out how to do that. To be quite frank, I've been a bit shy about that, and it's been interesting because I've sensed actually that Whilst I know that we need to develop an online offering, and we do have online spaces for people to connect after the events, they've been a lot quieter than, for example, what Susti or other groups that you and I know. And I think that's because people come because they want to feel the feeling of being with other people, and that's what they're going for. And it's less about the online, and I think it's much more about that. You know, but I do like the conversations that I'm having with people now and other event organizers and other people that do this kind of thing is like, how do we create the same level of connection and intimacy in an online space? And I like, I don't think we could ever recreate the feelings of like, you know, just the feelings of being in the same space as people. You can't recreate that. But I do feel like we could probably facilitate to a certain level in how we do that in terms of how we support people. And I'm excited by that because I feel it will allow us to scale quicker and be more inclusive in who we invite and how people can attend as well. So, and probably bring a bigger diversity of thought. For example, if we're running a supply chain event in London and we can then bring people from Brazil and at the various parts of the supply chain without expending carbon to that event. that feels like suddenly a really powerful thing to be able to do.

And it's also a way for the company to, having invested in the event, and then I would imagine would carry on wanting to invest because it would be a resource that they could draw upon. And I know, I mean, we are consultants at Green Element, but actually to solve the world's environmental problems, you don't actually want lots and lots of consultants. You actually want us all to be learning off each other and to be crowdsourcing all the ideas because—

That's a great suggestion. Yeah. Yeah.

And that is a way that that learning would be continual. And if you had key people in there that would be able to help shape those conversations—

Well, that's fine. That's, that's— so I grew up, I mean, I wasn't growing up at the time, but like, I remember this space when Two Degrees— and I obviously know sustainable brands, you know, these are spaces where a level of, a level of content is kept.

Hmm.

And I really respect those platforms. I think they do great work. Two Degrees is no longer in the same shape and form, but like, my sense is that, I mean, what I'm interested in doing is sort of a masterclass or Udemy level of group learning where we sort of You know, we've done that bit. Let's get it out, ship it. You know, we've got 10 years to solve this. We don't really need to be— we just sort of need to be like agreeing on something and scaling it up rather than like, like worrying about whether we were the first to do it or the second to do something different.

Yeah.

So I feel like what we'll create with the permission and co-create with the community is this sort of like, so what's best in class for this? Who would we recommend to go to for that? So across all the themes we've got, I would love to have content and then pay people to be able to go and connect around those themes. I feel like that would be singly really, really helpful in the same way that I think Common Objective do quite well in the fashion industry. And they've really worked well in that space to really bring people together. But I feel we'll do it our own way and, you know, we'll listen to what everyone wants and we'll build just that. But I totally agree with you. Like, we don't have enough time for news, for like replicating solutions that work. We have to replicate them.

And it's that, as you said, it's that many solutions. There are loads of ways to peel an orange. And, you know, you've got what fits one person won't fit another person. You talk about 2 Degrees, you talk, and you will have lots of people doing the same thing. I mean, there are lots of people that help companies become more green.

Yeah.

I wouldn't say that we necessarily fit every single company because there are other people that would potentially do a better job than us because—

Find your tribe, right?

Yeah.

What I would love— what we've done so far, I mean, we've tested a load of stuff so far. So what I have— sorry, what has been done in a sort of not perfect, but hey, look at this kind of way is we've partnered with UK Green Building Council or Sustainable Restaurant Association or Fashion Revolution or whatever that might have been for an event, right? And so my sense is that actually we can probably partner with all these different organizations and people that are doing things in their space, accelerate the learning, accelerate the trust, and create something different but complementary to what they're doing already. Because after all my time of working with startups and growing businesses, like, everyone builds something different. You know, there's like 50, 60 CRM solutions in the world. There's so many different marketing platforms in the world. And as you say, everyone finds a way to differentiate and finds a way to like create something that their tribe wants and enjoys. My vision is to be the HubSpot of like solving sustainability problems, right? To have that level of like attention to detail around it. That would be— that's what we're aiming for, I feel.

Yeah, that makes— that's good. That's cool. It's exciting.

Well, it's bloody hard work, but yeah.

What isn't hard work though? I mean, genuinely, what isn't hard work? If, you know, nothing does come easy. It's one thing I'm now learning as I'm getting older and older. I'm realizing that actually things don't come easy. You do have to work at things. It doesn't get handed to you on a plate.

I was really like, I was really fantasizing that by 21 I would have been like A millionaire and really successful. But you know what, had I been that by that time, I would have totally ruined my life and I wouldn't have found the place where I am now. So I really appreciate, like, I just really appreciate the life that I've been through and the context of the life that I have because I feel like hardship creates empathy and empathy creates good solutions. Yeah, I would say that. And I feel like when— yeah, I know. Yeah, I would say that. That feels right.

Going back to your gatherings and what's been talked about in them, what would you say are maybe 2 or 3 key things that you've learned from other people that you think that would be really useful for people to take away from this?

Beautiful and unexpected question. Okay, I'm gonna let that sit with me for a moment, and I'm just gonna arrive at what I feel is a good, a good answer to that, that I feel.

I can ask another question.

No, I want you to give me silence whilst I feel into the question. I was enjoying doing that, and I was arriving at the right one. Um, I feel like the safety to be vulnerable and share love and the, and the feelings that we get when we're in a safe space and how we can then share that energy with others. You know, this is such a difficult journey for all of us, and we've all joined it for some reason because we, you know, many reasons, but often because we really care and we really tune into the world and really want to go do a good job. But ultimately, many of us work in environments where it's not always that easy to do it, and the energy is not always that positive, and we're really pushing against quite difficult things, be it deadlines or the space that we're in or the processes that we have to work through or the hierarchies that we have to move against, you know. And so really Like, you know, I had to be quite brave to create a space where I felt like love was the primary thing that was in the room and where people felt like they had permission to be their absolute best selves or just themselves, however vulnerable that that was. So, you know, at the beginning of our packaging event, when we, when we do around the room at the beginning of the day, like, how are you feeling? How, why are you here? What would you like to— why are you here? You know? And like everyone shared that they were there. I mean, it's making me emotional. Everyone shared that they were there for their children, really. It became a trend in the room. And we had like just tears, you know, just so much emotion. And I feel like that's so okay. And I've— that's so— that feels so good to be able to create spaces where that, that is the case. And I feel like that's probably the— like, I feel like that's the best and most different thing that we give. And so when people ask me like what your USP is and they maybe expect a technical thing. I'm like, it's a feeling. And it's really, it's just the feeling, right? And I think that that's really the more that I learn about that, the more that my sense is that the movement into good feelings or the movement from fear to positivity and love is the feeling that we're all searching for in what we do, whether we get it right or not. Like that in some ways, that's such a driving force for us. So that's part of it. I really, I really sense the value and the power of listening to people share stories from spaces where you never expected to hear the story about what they're like, like the change, right? So in packaging, we're bringing together waste people like Adam from Suez with like Joanne from Free the Birds. Like these are creative agency and a waste company that often, you know, They're not in the same room, or Katie from Nirvana. Like, these are all different people working on the same problem, but not necessarily always in the same room or in the same network. And so I really value, like, being able to— to be honest with you, I'm— what I— the thing that I really value is bringing those people together. I feel the thing that they really value about that is that they're brought together. So I have a different perspective on what's happening in that Those is that I feel like I should search for a third, but maybe it won't arrive. So just take a moment. Yeah, and the third is that it really doesn't matter where you are from in an organization, right? You could be like an analyst, or you could be like a pack tech, or you could be like. just new to sustainability, or you could be a CEO, or you could be head of brand or head of marketing. Like, we're all learning together and we're all on this journey together. And I feel like that's such a powerful thing to be able to provide for people. Because, like, if I, if I, you know, just because she's in my mind, if I think about Katie at Nirvana, she knows so much about materials and just such an incredible brain on, like, how to solve these challenges and so passionate about that space. Or Lisa at Pearl Fisher, like all these people really care and know about these subjects, you know, but they're not super senior. And then, but then we also have someone like Phil Wilde from James Cropper who's got a great perspective on his sector, on his industry, and he gives a totally different perspective. So bringing those different people together from all the different spaces and also in a really inclusive way. So we really try hard to include all different types of people, introvert, extrovert, Different backgrounds, whatever. I feel like that there, I really value doing that. Like, I really love doing that because you're always going to learn something different than you would do in the normal room, you know?

Okay.

Yeah, thank you for asking. I felt that was good. I like that.

No, I'm just trying to think about what I would want to— if I was listening to this podcast, what I'd want to take away from it.

Yeah, okay.

and understand. And I always think this is the reason why we're here, isn't it? And it's actually going back to what you've just been talking about, learning from each other.

Yes.

And I think, I mean, can you imagine what 10 years ago if someone said, oh yeah, you could be listening to a podcast and learn about how to green up your company or the sort of things that you'd be doing in it, and it'll just be a couple of people chatting online about it. And that's how you could actually learn. And you'd be like, really? That's quite random. But that's where we've got to. We're actually crowdsourcing all of our ideas now. And hopefully at some point consultants will be almost null and void. We won't need people to physically come in or we won't be paying for people by the hour.

You'll always need consultants because I can take a risk with a consultant.

It would be nice to think that they are so niche at that point then, if you always need them. But you're not using— I mean, at the moment, people use us for quite basic stuff that they quite frankly should be outsourcing.

No, I fundamentally— I'm only cutting you off because I want to make sure that I give credit to what you do. before you do yourself out of like the greatness that you are. Like, I feel like, like we all play a role and it's really important to have external people come into an organization and support them to make changes. As a consultant, you're naturally going into lots of different environments. And I know that we create that for people from organizations. And that's some of the, one of the things that we're looking to solve, but we do not go and go deep in an organization. We just create the network where you could meet people. So the idea is that, like, as a consultant, you either hold knowledge or you're always constantly evolving your offering, I would imagine, so that you're allowing people to, wherever they are in their learning journey, to be supported by you. Or like you've done, you develop technology that supports them. There are a whole load of ways that you're going to be creatively thinking about how to support and serve. And I feel like that often can't exist in a business because they'll just sort of muck it up or it's not their core focus or like they won't be able to solve the problem in the same way that you have done. And also I would say that like as a consultant, you're honing your craft and sharpening your tools on a variety of different businesses and solutions and problems. Right. But in a bit, in somewhere like, I don't know, in a business, I won't name any names. It doesn't matter. Like they are, they're sort of solve one problem and then onto the next one. They don't have that luxury of like solving something 20 times. So it's a very different— I feel like everyone has got a role to play, if I would—

Yeah, I can see that. I can see that. And actually, it's also a structure. I was thinking about what you were saying, and we've got a structure of the way to do it. And we know the structure works. And as you say, it's a tried and proven process to do it. And instead of taking 10 months, we can do it in 2 or 3 because we know what you should be doing in that particular order.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And sometimes you don't— like, often, like, you know, this is in reality, this is a lot of small teams in businesses, or sometimes just one individual, like, trying to solve a myriad of things. So to work with trusted people that can help them, like, take a weight off them and solve a particular challenge, they can— that, you know, that's brilliant. I feel that works really, really well. So I think all all credit to consultants. And I like— well, my mind's saying not to. So when I started Future Planet, the idea was that it would be, of course, inclusive to it no matter where you were in the industry and what you were working on. I feel like you've got a role to play. You know, there are some things where they might exclude consultants from, or they might exclude like young startups, or they might exclude like different people in the business or focus on one part. But I don't think that's how we really solve particular problems. In my world, that's not how we solve problems. You know, it's by welcoming everyone to the table because the best ideas might come from someone that's, you know, the least expected. Yeah. So yeah, I sort of feel we're all in it together.

We absolutely are. We absolutely are. Is there anything else that you would like to add? We'll have all of your social media handles and all that kind of stuff on the websites. But I mean, where do we follow you? How do we know about your gatherings? And can anyone sign up, or is it—

Yeah, I mean, you can have— anyone can sign up. And if you for some reason— like, so anyone can sign up, and the narrative I have is that we welcome you to find the money that we suggest that you pay and to go and make that happen. But if you for some reason can't make that happen, then we can have a conversation about how to help you be in the room. I mean, you've been deeply generous with the questions that you've already asked. So I feel like you've completely allowed me to share everything that I would want to share. I guess there are 2 things that I would add. So I really, I started this as a citizen, as just a general person that was passionate about creating a future. And I'm really passionate about the connection between citizens and us as individuals, not necessarily changemakers working on the problem, and how we build that future. So part of our strategy will include a People's Fund. My view is that like individuals who might have like £5 or £10 a month, like the collective, the collective impact of them joining that money together and supporting changemakers to accelerate those solutions is the final part of our theory of change. And really allowing that, that allowing people to fund that future will give us a lot more integrity, I feel, around that future. Because it will be funded by the people, for the people, and for the planet. And then you asked how people might find us. So at the moment, the website is futureplanet.rocks, R-O-C-K-S. But by the time you listen to this podcast, maybe we will rebrand. We are rebranding to futureplanet.love, and I think that maybe that's what it will be by then, which I'm really excited about. And so if you go to a website that looks super colorful and like really optimistic and it's got futureplanet.love in the domain name, that's the best way to find us.

Brilliant. Carl, what you're doing is— it's just so It is different, isn't it? And the way that you're doing it as well is different, intuitive, and exploratory.

Yeah.

And I think that it's really exciting because we need more people doing that type of business because there's a lot of— I wouldn't say they're naysayers, but there's a lot of people out there that go, oh no, that's not the way you do it. And so we need more people like you to pave the way to help, you know, change society to what it will be. And it will be it. It depends on how fast we want to get there. If we want to jump on your train, we'll get there faster. If we want to, you know, not, then we'll get there slower, but it will happen. And so thank you.

I love you. I really value and appreciate your words of affirmation. And I would say that it's really the future that we all dream of, you know. My aspiration and my dream of Future Planet is it's no— it's always given away to everyone to join together and create that future that they dream of within the container of optimistic, positive, inclusive, sustainable. Like, and I feel like that's so many people in this world are creating that world. And so yeah, it's— I've run out of steam, but it's definitely not just me.

Brilliant. Thank you so much, Carl.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for listening to the end of this episode of the Green Element Podcast. Do take a moment and share this with your friends and colleagues and rate and review the podcast wherever you get your podcasts. I'd love to know what has been your biggest takeaway from this conversation. What are you going to do differently? Please share your thoughts across social media and tag us so we can see them too, @GE_podcast. For links and show notes for this episode, visit our website, greenelement.co.uk/podcast. Thank you again. I hope you will join me on the next episode and together we can help create a better world.