Lead The Change

#402: Paul Sellew

The Future of Agriculture is Local and Greenhouse-Grown: A Conversation with Paul Sellew

Paul Sellew, founder and chief executive officer of Little Leaf Farms, had a vision to grow lettuce in New England year-round after mastering the growing and distribution of greenhouse-grown tomatoes with his previous company, Backyard Farms.

Founded in 2015, Little Leaf Farms grows flavorful, crisp, leafy baby green lettuce in a state-of-the-art, energy-efficient, sustainable greenhouse facility in Devens, Mass. By innovating greenhouse growing, capturing rainwater, and using sunlight, Little Leaf Farms is an industry leader in controlled environment agriculture, allowing the company to grow lettuce and ship it to stores within 24 hours thereby surpassing competitors on taste and quality. Little Leaf Farms is able to reduce food miles and waste by growing locally as compared to 95 percent of the lettuce grown and trucked cross-country from California and Arizona. Using captured rainwater allows the company to use 90 percent less water than field-grown lettuces. Using natural sunlight over electric lights contributes to the company’s efficiency in growing practices. No human hands touch Little Leaf Farms’ lettuce throughout the growing process to ensure safe growing practices and to reduce any risk of contamination. A socially responsible company, Little Leaf Farms also works with nonprofit charity partners, Greater Boston Food Bank, Loaves to Fishes, and Daily Table, to name a few.

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#401: Karen Chovan

Reducing Risks for Responsible Mining: A Conversation with Karen Chovan, CEO & Founder of Enviro Integration Strategy

Enviro Integration Strategies is focused on helping leaders to rapidly integrate sustainable choices and practices into mining designs and operations. 

After 20 years in mining, CEO and Founder, Karen Chovan has gained a breadth of experience and knowledge working as a geological engineer and project manager. She has also worked as an organizational change agent helping teams to solve environmental problems, avoid risks in future major projects, and create programs and protocols to improve performance within the sustainability realm. From problem identification, all the way through to change implementation, Karen has helped teams get to the other side, and she has a very large network to find any unique support the project might need to get there.

Bard MBA’s Patrick Connolly speaks with Karen for this episode of the Impact Report. 

ImpactReportPodcast.com