Episode 4: Integrating Ancient Wisdom Into Regenerative Green Tech with Brando Crespi (Part 2)
In this continuing episode:
We discuss how soil regeneration is critical to survival of the human species, as an existential and not a political issue.
Brando talks about extending biochar into other agricultural industries in developed countries to create zero waste circular economies, closing nutrient loops and reducing negative impact on the environment.
He retells the story of green technology to highlight it as an opportunity for immense financial rewards as well as for creating positive social and environmental change.
The process of turning agricultural waste into biochar actually sequesters carbon, generating carbon credits which can be used to reduce the cost of farming. Brando shares how he developed an innovative model of blended finance for the International Finance Corporation, working with impact investors using philanthropy to de-risk investment.
Finally, Brando shares more personal stories that inspire us in his call to action. Small changes can effect huge impact. In this Anthropocene era, as climate change and zoonotic diseases threaten our survival, it is more important than ever to incorporate systems thinking and to realize how we need to design in ways that respect all forms of life, lest we ourselves go extinct if we do not counter the industrial extractive approach to agriculture, and to life.
*Part 1 of this interview is in episode 3
About Brando:
Brando Crespi is a global change-maker and climate activist with a deep background in sustainability, branding, and innovation. He is the Co-Founder and Executive Vice Chair of Pro-Natura International, which created arguably the world’s largest carbon sink, by planting over 2 million trees in the Juruena region of the Brazilian Amazon. Since the pandemic, Brando has moved to New Mexico's high desert and joined Santa Fe Farms as Head of Sustainability to deploy hemp, biochar and regenerative agroecology on a number of Native American reservations.
Pro-Natura organized 13 large expeditions to collect half a million samples of all life forms, and designed and executed reforestation projects in 63 countries. Over the last 35 years Brando has designed, funded and implemented numerous agro-ecological projects in the Americas, Africa and Asia, especially on the use of Biochar, advancing an ancient indigenous Terra Preta de Indio soil, or ‘dark earth’, making it possible to grow plants in any environment! By implementing innovative carbon sequestration strategies they were able to provide long-term food and water security, as well as sustainable employment for the local communities. If fully implemented, technology can offset up to between 20-30% of all greenhouse emissions.
Brando was raised in Rome and educated in Italy, Switzerland, the UK, and at Georgetown University, where he studied anthropology and economics. After a few years of Italian journalism and Amazonian anthropological fieldwork exploring shamanism he moved to Los Angeles in 1977, where he had enormous commercial success launching Rodeo Drive - opening the first Fendi, Pratesi, and Versace stores, and the Hard Rock Café, and also representing licensing needs for luxury brands such as E. Zegna, Salvatore Ferragamo, Ungaro, and many others.
In LA he also started the Samadhi Flotation Centers (the first “mind spas”) and co-founded the Mobius Group, an applied parapsychology lab. “The Alexandria Project” recounts their search, using teams of world-class scientists and intuitives for Alexander’s tomb and Marc Anthony’s and Cleopatra’s Palaces (they found the last two and much more).
In the early 1990s, Brando worked on Pro-Natura’s international growth, continuing his consulting work, focused primarily on “green” innovation. He created the hemp “eco-jeans” line for Armani, rebranded Habitat’s 109 stores (the urban Ikea) and developed “green” value-driven products at L’Oreal, Procter & Gamble, Givaudan, and other top consumer goods companies.
Learn more and support Pro-Natura’s mission at http://www.pronatura.org/
Watch how today’s atmospheric greenhouse gases can be decreased to the level of the 1950s with Brando Crespi:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4LK9re5DT8