#46 - Mark Swinnerton: Gravity vs. "giant hockey pucks" - what disused mines and renewable energy storage have in common

Mark Swinnerton, CEO of Green Gravity, shares his journey from metallurgy to mining operations and currently gravitational storage technology to support the energy transition. We get an in-depth look into how he is transforming the renewable energy storage industry and giving old mine shafts a new lease on life, an insight into the technology and logistics and how businesses are evolving in this new digital age. Tune in for some amazing advice from someone with decades of global experience in a major industry and influences so many aspects of our daily lives!Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)Chapters:00:00 Intro1:59 Guest Intro and Wollongong, Australia3:52 Mark's infamous selfie-stick - communicating authenticity9:10 Mark's journey from metallurgy to mining15:17 Reflecting on Mark's 9 years in Singapore18:16 Handling large responsibilities20:19 The challenge of mining legacy issues23:01 Mark's own perception of mining legacy issues24:26 What is Green Gravity? - the concept of gravitational storage32:30 VIsualizing the scale of mines35:30 Increasing importance of energy storage38:31 Building up Partnerships in preparation for technology readiness42:00 Multiple benefits of Green Gravity’s technology46:02 What is Mark most excited about?47:42 Relationship between mines and urban areas - the Ballarat example52:29 The changing world of business - from corporation to startup1:00:48 Q&A Start1:01:09 What does innovation mean to you?1:03:42 Key moment, book, person1:09:26 Time Management1:11:39 Favourite childhood memory1:14:15 Biggest challenge in career to date1:16:39 What would you most like to be remembered for?1:17:57 Where can people find you?1:18:38 Final Message1:19:04 OutroDetailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from. Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on: X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach Instagram: @petermbach87 Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun!Episode #6 attempts to create a biographical piece - Lena Mutzner (ep45) reacts to how NotebookLM produces a deep dive discussion about her, using all her available publications, her PhD Thesis and up-to-date CV as sources. Will NotebookLM be able to capture the essence of her work and career to date?Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w)Chapters:0:00 Intro1:26 Guest Intro and AI Impressions3:12 Guest prior experience with AI8:49 AI for Graphic Design in Research & Communication9:59 How this experiment works12:16 The human summary - or setting expectations13:47 Live Reaction41:39 Post-discussion47:23 Evaluating the analogies49:29 Discussing the accuracy and inner workings52:53 Wrap Up54:46 Outro Detailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from. Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on: X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach Instagram: @petermbach87 Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

Lena Mutzner, Group Leader in the Urban Water Management Department at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science & Technology discusses the intricacies of stormwater quality monitoring. We learn a bit about how water quality is sampled, different pollutant types that she has focussed on and the ongoing challenge around contaminants of emerging concern. We also discuss the apparent paradox of repeating research cycles despite having done similar work 40 years ago, the importance of a holistic approach to stormwater management and how she is developing her research career into the uncertain future.Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)Chapters:0:00 Intro1:59 Guest Intro & Meditative Activities4:16 Nordic Countries vs. Switzerland7:36 Lena's Mission in Water Quality10:53 How it all started - engineering or psychiatry?13:18 Contaminants of emerging concern16:48 Studying Water Quality 10126:28 Which contaminants does Lena focus on?29:28 Tyre wear leachate and 6PPD-Quinone33:01 Data issues towards building water quality understanding36:45 Different types of common micropollutants40:55 Interplay of Modelling and Water Quality Data Collection46:18 Effect-based measurements48:19 The holistic view - integration as a the way forward51:05 Mitigation of pollution through Blue-Green Infrastructures54:00 Lena's Future Research Trajectory56:49 Q&A Start57:24 What does innovation mean to you?1:00:30 Key Moment, Person, Event1:03:52 Women in STEM - Lena's drive to be a role model1:06:40 Time Management1:10:24 Favourite childhood memory1:12:55 Biggest challenge to date1:18:17 Advice for young researchers1:20:00 What would you most like to be remembered for?1:21:15 Where can people find you?1:21:57 Final Message1:22:15 OutroDetailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from. Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on: X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach Instagram: @petermbach87 Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun!Episode #5 delves into the links between water, energy and heat -  Yannick Back (ep35) reacts to how NotebookLM produces a deep dive discussion (in English) of eight of his publications, all written in German and with different foci. This is the first experiment on this mini-series, which uses multiple sources.The 8 Papers were published from 2019 to 2024. Full details can be found in the show notes. Their German titles are:2019: Einsatzmöglichkeiten von Geoinformationssystemen in der Siedlungswasserwirtschaft am Beispiel Einbindung dezentraler Entwässerungssysteme zur Entlastung des städtischen Abwassernetzes2019: Untersuchung und Optimierung der Einbindung dezentraler Entwässerungssysteme zur Entlastung des städtischen Abwassernetzes und Minderung urbaner Hitzeinseln2020: Dezentrale Regenwasserbehandlung zur Entlastung der Kanalisation und Minderung urbaner Hitzeinseln2020: Urbanen Hitzeinseln und überlasteten Entwässerungsnetzen entgegenwirken 2021: Latente Wärme vs. Sensible Wärme2021: Rolle der Energie- und Wasserflüsse im Stadtsystem: Steigerung der Resilienz unserer Städte zur Anpassung an die Auswirkungen des Klimawandels2023: Chancen und Herausforderungen bei der Gestaltung klimaresistenter dichter städtischer Gebiete mit Blaugrüner Infrastruktur2024: Die Rolle der Bewässerung städtischer Grünflächen während gleichzeitiger Trocken- und HitzeperiodenPodcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w)Chapters:0:00 Intro1:27 Guest Intro, Vibe Coding and Catch up3:20 Guest's prior experience with AI5:02 How this experiment works6:32 The human summary11:19 Live Reaction54:11 Post-discussion59:03 Potential Future of AI1:00:29 Wrap up1:01:10 OutroDetailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from. Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on: X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach Instagram: @petermbach87 Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

Jarrod Luxton, Senior Lead at the Finnish Innovation Fund (Sitra), Board Member of Finland's Sustainable Investment Forum (finsif) and Founder of First Arrow discusses what a best-practice sustainability strategy looks like in 2025! The key player? Nature! We delve into the topic of valuing nature-based solutions and compare and contrast between Australian and Nordic contexts, especially Finland's priorities and motivations for the practice. Jarrod and I also reflect upon our times in Australia and the transition to Europe.Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)Chapters:0:00 Intro1:59 Guest Intro & Nordic Summers and reconnecting via Podcast4:36 Missing Australian Rules Football ("Footy")6:14 Jarrod's own podcast creation journey7:29 Jarrod's interest in ESG12:58 NBS and Terminology17:13 Valuation of NBS, Sitra and Jarrod's perspective34:41 Finland's Adoption of NBS - current status37:25 Green gentrification and being equitable with NbS39:55 The role of spatial data41:36 What does a best practice sustainability strategy look like in 202548:22 Unpacking the importance and thinking of circular economy51:00 The TNFD-LEAP Framework for financing55:01 Jarrod's current endeavours56:34 Investing in nature - are nature credits a thing?58:24 The importance of communication and Jarrod's new company1:02:18 Q&A Start1:02:39 What does innovation mean to you?1:05:28 Key event, person, book1:08:20 Time Management1:10:43 Favourite childhood memory1:11:39 Biggest Challenge to Date1:14:02 Advice for young professionals1:15:56 What would you most like to be remembered for?1:17:35 Where can people reach you?1:18:31 Final Message1:18:46 OutroDetailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from. Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on: X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach Instagram: @petermbach87 Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun!Episode #4 delves into "Water sensitive urban design as part of the urban form" -  Martijn Kuller (ep3) first reacts to how NotebookLM produces a heavily prompted deep dive discussion (my work of art) of an older review we co-authored, highlighting the ease with which prompting can get dangerous and misleading if not in the right hands. We then both react to an Audio Overview of the same review produced by Google Gemini 2.5 Pro, the LLM upon which NotebookLM is based - shorter and more concise.Full Reference to the Paper: Kuller, M., Bach, P.M., Ramirez-Lovering, D. and Deletic, A., 2017. Framing water sensitive urban design as part of the urban form: A critical review of tools for best planning practice. Environmental modelling & software, 96, pp.265-282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2017.07.003Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w)Chapters:0:00 Intro1:26 Guest Intro and what's happened since Episode 34:39 How this experiment works5:44 Guest's prior experience with AI9:59 Martijn's critique of current thoughts so far12:25 The Experiment Structure13:07 The human summary16:43 Live Reaction - Prompted NotebookLM31:52 Post-Discussion - Prompted NotebookLM36:57 Live Reaction - Gemini Audio Overview52:01 Post-Discussion - Gemini Audio Overview55:16 Thoughts on the future of AI57:50 Wrap-up59:10 OutroDetailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from. Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on: X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach Instagram: @petermbach87 Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

Thomas Young, Associate and Blue-Green Infrastructure Specialist at The Environment Partnership (TEP) in the UK shows us his journey from the technical side of green roofs to the more holistic broader planning of sustainability and blue-green infrastructure. His incredible journey is supported by many seemingly unrelated topics, travels and passions that have all contributed to the impact he is creating in the UK. Find out how beer, mushrooms, cowboys and community among many others are linked to this intricate story!Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)Chapters:0:00 Intro1:59 Guest Intro and a house tour4:09 Origins of Tom's Ecology Inspiration7:13 Sheffield and Tom's PhD side project12:59 Green Roofs 10122:30 Fungi to help Green Infrastructure28:12 Writing the British Standards for green roofs32:20 Blue-Green or Green-Blue Infrastructure? Return of Terminology35:10 Venturing into Sports Turfs41:56 Joining TEP and thinking about golf courses53:08 The Nuffield Farming Scholarship and Tom's world travels1:03:52 Learning for the UK's future cities and sustainability1:07:40 Tom's current endeavours1:12:47 Q&A Start1:13:14 What does “innovation” mean to you?1:13:53 Key event book person1:14:43 Time Management1:16:56 Favourite childhood memory1:17:36 Biggest Challenge to date1:18:37 Advice for young professionals1:19:42 What would you most like to be remembered for?1:20:27 Where can people find you?1:21:08 Final Message1:21:36 OutroDetailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from. Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on: X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach Instagram: @petermbach87 Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

Mashael Yazdanie, Group Leader, Scientist and Lecturer at the Urban Energy Systems Lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Materials Science & Technology (Empa) traces her journey across the renewable energies towards more holistic thinking around energy, sustainability, society and sufficiency. We cover her projects in both the global north and south, key concepts such as planetary boundaries, sufficiency, efficiency and doughnut economics as well as the need to learn, unlearn and relearn if we want to become more adaptive and resilience in the face of the climate crisis.Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Starsky by Alex Keren (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5vZ3lENfDLjkln8scBJ8mW)Chapters:0:00 Intro1:59 Guest Intro and Solar Racing5:58 Nature and energy?9:50 Sufficiency, planetary boundaries and doughnut economics20:31 Mashael's early renewables journey - Biogas Energy in Pakistan29:58 Mashael's early renewables journey - Wind Energy33:37 Mashael's early renewables journey - Tidal energy and the rest36:35 Is there a favourite renewable?38:01 Energy grid centralization vs. decentralization42:30 Planning-support modelling & optimization44:48 Understanding the breadth of modelling tools46:49 Energy in West Africa - The Measures Project54:28 The concept of 'Regret' in decision-making1:01:56 Coming full circle to sufficiency1:04:06 Learning, unlearning and relearning for the climate crisis1:10:06 Mashael's future trajectory1:14:30 Q&A Start1:14:50 What does "innovation" mean to you?1:16:00 Time management1:20:34 Favourite childhood memory1:21:26 Biggest challenge to date1:23:45 Advice for young researchers1:27:57 What would you most like to be rememnbered for?1:30:16 Where can people find you?1:30:58 Final message1:33:06 OutroDetailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from. Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on: X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach Instagram: @petermbach87 Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun!Episode #3 delves into "Different perspectives on urban nature-based solutions" -  Veljko Prodanovic (ep13) and I react to how NotebookLM produces a deep dive discussion on an opinion piece around human, ecological and AI perspectives of urban nature based solutions, this time guided by a focus prompt.Full Reference to the Paper: Prodanovic, V., Bach, P.M. and Stojkovic, M., 2024. Urban nature-based solutions planning for biodiversity outcomes: human, ecological, and artificial intelligence perspectives. Urban Ecosystems, 27(5), pp.1795-1806. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-024-01558-6Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w)Chapters:0:00 Intro1:26 Guest Intro and callback to main series3:31 How this experiment works4:31 Guest's prior experience with AI9:50 The human summary11:20 Live Reaction49:18 Post-discussion53:40 Potential Future of AI55:54 Wrap up57:21 OutroDetailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from. Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on: X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach Instagram: @petermbach87 Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/

Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series will explore the power of NotebookLM, our live reactions to its outputs... and a deep dive into some of the topics that we have covered on the show. We feature previous guests, who are here to join in on the fun!Episode #2 delves into "Tools for urban heat mitigation" -  João Paulo Leitão (ep1, ep40) and I react to how NotebookLM produces a deep dive discussion of a fairly long and comprehensive literature review paper that we co-authored along with colleagues.Full Reference to the Paper: Probst, N., Bach, P.M., Cook, L.M., Maurer, M. and Leitão, J.P., 2022. Blue Green Systems for urban heat mitigation: mechanisms, effectiveness and research directions. Blue-Green Systems, 4(2), pp.348-376. https://doi.org/10.2166/bgs.2022.028Podcast Intro/Outro Song: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields (Check out more of his tunes over on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7vRFEGMyTTfeCtc8qiUB82?si=dygdqu9IQLSFYNvVzPNu5w)Chapters:00:00 Intro1:25 Guest Intro1:57 Guest’s prior experience with AI4:06 How this experiment works5:17 Live Reaction49:22 Post-discussion52:12 Thoughts on the future of AI53:49 Final remarks54:39 OutroDetailed shownotes over at: petermbach.com/podcast for more in-depth information about each episode.Join the community over at: linkedin.com/company/tgcpodcast and let's connect across the world!Subscribe and listen to the podcast (and do please leave a review/rating) on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts from. Your subscription/follow will greatly help the show grow and reach a wider audience.Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach (www.petermbach.com), follow me on: X (fomerly Twitter): @petermbach Instagram: @petermbach87 Subscribe to my channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/PeterMarcusBach/