10 binge-worthy sustainability podcasts to listen to now

Woman standing in front of green wall wearing headphones

Tianna Nadalin

Posted June 03, 2021


Tune into these top sustainability podcasts and learn how to reduce your eco footprint.

As more of us try to find ways to lead more environmentally friendly lives, we're hungry for practical advice and information on how to reduce our impact. And we're increasingly turning to digital audio for our daily dose of green-spiration.

According to the latest Infinite Dial Australia 2021 study, 5.6 million Australians, or 26 per cent of the population, listens to podcasts weekly. This represents a 53 per cent increase on the results from 2020's pre-pandemic survey.

So, to celebrate World Environment Day on Saturday 5 June, we’ve hunted down 10 thought-provoking sustainability podcasts to plug into while you work from home.


10 best sustainability podcasts to listen to in 2021
 

Sustainability Defined

If you're new to the world of sustainability, Scott Breen and Jay Siegel's Sustainability Defined podcast is a great place to start. From sustainable beer and urban greening to eco-anxiety and energy storage, each episode is a deep dive into different sustainability trends and topics. Banter, puns and personal anecdotes punctuate this eco-podcast, making the (at times) heavy subject matter much more relatable and digestible.

Recommended episode: Biotechnology and Sustainability with John Melo and Beth Bannerman (Amyris)

Business of Biodiversity

The theme for this year's World Environment Day is biodiversity and what better way to learn more about it than through podcast. Produced by the NSW Government's Saving our Species (SoS) program, Business of Biodiversity takes a look at what we can do as people, and as businesses, to help protect our threatened species.

Recommended episode: Biodiversity Entrepreneurs

Futuresteading

How do you live your life like tomorrow matters? That's the question asked on Futuresteading, an Aussie-made podcast that aims to inspire listeners to do a little more to help shape a better, and more sustainable, future. Hosts Jade Miles and Catie Payne's all-star guest line-up has included cracking conversations with ecopreneurs the likes of Natural Harry's Harriet Birrell, STREAT co-founder Rebecca Scott and Chris Ennis of CERES, offering practical tips and information on everything from indigenous agriculture and anticonsumerism to regenerative farming, radical life pivots and if there is even such as thing as too much sriracha.

Recommended episode: Rob Greenfield on Intersectional Environmentalism

Wardrobe Crisis

Clare Press was Vogue Australia’s first sustainability editor but decided that wasn’t enough of a workload. She started a podcast throwing the fashion industry’s relationship with the environment into the spotlight. Each week on Wardrobe Crisis she invites designers, academics, fashion insiders and more onto her show to discuss ethics, sustainability and the changing face of the fashion industry. From a model-turned-sustainable designer to human rights lawyer-turned-ethical fashion entrepreneur, the podcast aims to celebrate positive enterprises while showing listeners how to re-evaluate their relationship with their wardrobe.

Recommended episode: Sustainable Fashion is a Lie Without Garment Workers at the Table

The Climate Question

Produced by the BBC, this podcast is all about why we find it so hard to save our own planet, and what we can do to try and change that. But don’t fear, The Climate Question is anything but dry, exploring questions like, ‘Can indigenous knowledge help us fight climate change?’, ‘Is carbon the new calorie?', 'Why can't we crack our food waste problem?' and what will happen to fossil fuel workers as we transition to renewable energy. There’s even an episode that discusses how we can live with SUVs, which are among the best-selling cars in markets around the world, but also pollute more than a normal-sized car, and require more fuel to move and energy to make.

Recommended episode: Is science fiction holding back climate action?

Climate Rising

How is climate change impacting businesses? Harvard Business School's Climate Rising podcasts brings together leaders and policymakers to share thoughts and insights into what businesses are doing, can do, and should do to confront climate change.

Recommended episode: Electrifying Mass Mobility
 

Woman listening to podcast by ocean

5.6 million Australians, or 26 per cent of the population, listens to podcasts weekly.


Sustainababble

Get your LOLs and learn a thing or two by tuning into Sustainababble, a weekly comedy podcast about the environment. In their noble solve the mystery of how humanity can save the planet, hosts Ol and Dave (and their hilarious eco ramblings) traverse subject matter as existential as 'What's the point', as en point as eco-parenting and as enticing as chips. And, before you ask, yes; there is a whole episode dedicated to the delicious fried potatostuff (or, at least, how chip fat is being used to fuel our engines). 

Recommended episode: Artificial Lawns

Little Green Pod

The ABC's Little Green Pod is a podcast for busy people who prefer their eco-upskilling bite-sized, which is why episodes are capped at 10-12 minutes. From chemical-free cleaning and waste-free kids parties to the greenest ways to de-fuzz and the ethics of having babies when you care about climate change, host and mum-of-two Fi Poole simplifies the big issues to make it quick and easy to live a little greener.

Recommended episode: Bush to Brazil — making hairy decisions to suit you

Planet A

When it comes to life on earth, there is no plan B. That is the premise behind Planet A, a climate change podcast hosted by Danish Minister of Climate, Energy and Utilities, Dan Jørgensen. Now in its second season, the scintillating science podcast boasts a revolving microphone of some of the world's leading thinkers and experts and activists in the climate change space, and tackles topics including carbon pricing, climate politics, and rewilding (the emerging idea that that "society must free nature from human intervention and allow it to resume its natural ecological processes").

Recommended episode: George Monbiot – Rewilding: How Wolves Changes a River

The Sustainable Minimalists Podcast

If sustainable living is a mindset then The Sustainable Minimalists Podcasts is just the catalyst to shift your thinking. By adopting a minimalist mindset, host Stephanie Seferian (founder of popular sustainability blog mamaminimalist.com) helps listeners not only survive but thrive, with less. From minimalist beauty hacks to time management tips and everything in between, this pared-back podcast embraces principles of conscious consumerism to help you live a little lighter. sp;

Recommended episode: Finding your minimalist mindset