My guest today is Brad Pedersen, one of the Co-Founders of Pela. Pela is a B Corp, 1% for the planet, and Climate Neutral Certified Brand working to create a waste-free future by developing products from environmentally sensitive materials.

Pela started with the observation that people upgrade their phones every 18-24 months on average, but phone cases last hundreds or thousands of years. Pela started with plant-based compostable phone covers and accessories and now has plant-based biodegradable sunglasses and their newest product Lomi which is tackling food waste and the messy problem of composting for people that don’t have access to compost themselves.

Along with the trifecta of third-party certifications Pela addresses problems that people have around waste, but most importantly they do it in a way that people want to talk about and share.

We also talk about Pela’s previous goal of keeping 1 billion pounds of waste from ever being made, and how Pela has ten X’ed that to 10 billion.

Brad has been involved in many businesses, some that worked and some that didn’t. He has done a lot of personal development and reflection in the process which we discuss in the second half of our conversation. I hope you enjoy our conversation and find it useful.