Ocaquatics, Employee Ownership, and the Ripples of Impact

Ocaquatics, Employee Ownership, and the Ripples of Impact

In this episode of Journey to Regeneration, Christopher Marquis speaks with Miren Oca, founder and CEO of Ocaquatics Swim School, a Miami-based company that has taught more than 3.2 million swim lessons while building a business around safety, employee development, environmental responsibility, and community access. Oca reflects on how a company she began in survival mode as a 19-year-old student evolved into a certified B Corp and, more recently, an employee-owned company through an employee ownership trust. The conversation explores what it means to build regenerative capacity in a service business with a real environmental footprint, from solar panels and pool covers to formalized employee loan programs and impact measurement. It also examines swimming as a public-safety and equity issue in Miami-Dade County, where access to lessons can shape whether children and families are safe around water. At its heart, this episode is about succession, stewardship, and redefining ROI—not only as financial return, but as the ripples of impact a business creates for workers, customers, communities, and the places it calls home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices]

Ruth Andrade of Lush on Earth Care, Circularity, and Designing Business for Regeneration

In this episode of Journey to Regeneration, Christopher Marquis speaks with Ruth Andrade, Earth Care Strategy Lead at Lush, about how one of the world’s most recognizable ethical cosmetics companies translates an aspirational purpose—leaving the world “lusher than we found it”—into operational choices across sourcing, product design, packaging, ownership, and culture. Ruth explains why Lush uses the language of Earth Care rather than sustainability, and how principles such as earth care, people care, and fair share shape its approach to business. The conversation explores Lush’s vertically integrated model, its partnerships with forest communities, women-led cooperatives, and conservation organizations, and its focus on the most material ingredients in its supply chain. Ruth also discusses the company’s closed-loop “bring it back” packaging system, their Green Hub in Poole, UK and the decision to open-source innovations such as solid shampoo bars rather than protect them as proprietary advantage. Together, the episode shows that regenerative business is not a single practice or certification, but a set of design choices about responsibility, relationships, and the long-term health of the systems a company depends on. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices]

Hans Stegeman on Making Money Work for System Change

In this episode of Journey to Regeneration, Christopher Marquis speaks with Hans Stegeman, Chief Economist and Group Director of Impact and Economics at Triodos Bank, about the role finance can play in transforming the economy rather than simply greening the status quo. Drawing on his journey from conventional economics and Rabobank to Triodos, Hans argues that money is never neutral: it is always a social relationship, shaping what gets built, scaled, protected, or phased out. The conversation explores Triodos’ dual mission to “finance change” and “change finance,” including its focus on the real economy, impact-first lending, exclusion of harmful sectors such as fossil fuels and fast fashion, and efforts to influence broader banking practice through coalitions, advocacy, and new financial system visions. Hans also challenges the limits of mainstream sustainable finance, arguing that ecological and social boundaries require an economy less dependent on growth and more oriented toward wellbeing, resilience, and sufficiency. At a time when many sustainability commitments are under pressure, this conversation reframes finance not as a technical service industry, but as one of the central arenas in which the future of business, society, and regeneration will be decided. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices]

Norrsken House Brussels and the Politics of Building a Regenerative Economy

In this episode of Journey to Regeneration, Christopher Marquis speaks with Sophie Dembinski, Head of Norrsken House Brussels [https://www.norrsken.org/houses/brussels] and former policy lead at Ecosia [https://www.ecosia.org/], about how climate action moves from individual companies into wider systems of capital, policy, technology, and market design. Drawing on her background in international relations, European policy, and climate entrepreneurship, Sophie reflects on the Paris Agreement as a turning point in her career, Ecosia as an example of mission-locked regenerative business, and Norrsken’s work connecting founders, investors, thinkers, and policymakers across Europe and beyond. The conversation explores why governance and ownership structures matter, how Brussels can help clean tech entrepreneurs gain access to European institutions, and why policy should be understood not only as a constraint on innovation but as a force that creates markets. Sophie also discusses the current shift from sustainability as hype to climate action as resilience, infrastructure, competitiveness, and energy security. At a time when climate ambition faces political and economic headwinds, this episode shows why regenerative business depends on ecosystems that can connect solutions to power, capital, and demand. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices]

Retrofitting Real Estate for Regeneration with Basil Demeroutis of FORE Partnership

In this episode of Journey to Regeneration, Christopher Marquis speaks with Basil Demeroutis, Managing Partner of FORE Partnership, about why real estate must be understood not simply as a financial asset class, but as a powerful system shaping environmental outcomes, social life, and long-term value. Drawing on his background in engineering, finance, and impact investing, Demeroutis explains how FORE Partnership uses retrofit, low-carbon design, and social impact as drivers of both sustainability and commercial performance. The conversation explores projects such as TBC London, where the team reused pre-war steel and challenged assumptions about the value of older buildings, and One Poultry, a Grade II listed landmark being reimagined as a model for heritage-sensitive decarbonization. Demeroutis also reflects on the complexity of real estate supply chains, the role of innovation mapping, the limits of certification, and the policy changes needed to make retrofit financially attractive at scale. Together, the discussion reframes buildings as living parts of urban systems—places where carbon, capital, labor, community, and culture intersect—and shows why the future of regenerative business will depend not only on new construction, but on transforming what already exists. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices [https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices]