Never miss an episode

Get new Travel Tech Podcast episodes, aviation AI insights, and use-case deep dives delivered to your inbox.

Show Notes

Josh Dorfman is the co-founder and CEO of Plantd (plantdmaterials.com), a North Carolina materials company producing structural building panels from fast-growing perennial grass as a direct replacement for timber-derived products in US home construction. He came up through consumer sustainability media — books, Sirius radio and TV under the Lazy Environmentalist brand — before pivoting to B2B climate technology, and now also hosts the Super Cool podcast on climate solutions. The conversation traces the mechanics of low-friction sustainability: why drop-in materials that integrate into existing workflows without asking customers to change anything are the only ones that scale; why even the most committed executive cannot justify a purchase on environmental grounds alone, so the product has to win on performance and price first; and the "Trove playbook" of climate companies that eventually stop leading with climate and treat sustainability as a downstream brand benefit. Highlights include why voluntary carbon-offset schemes mostly transfer an airline's impact onto consumers while delivering little real reduction; the GLP-1 surprise — Jefferies estimates weight-loss drugs like Ozempic could save US airlines around $580M a year in fuel, roughly 1.5% of fuel spend, the "$580M olive" of the title; how falling battery cost curves are reshaping the US grid and will accelerate electric aviation faster than most forecasts assume; how Plantd's grass grows 10x faster than timber and can be harvested annually for carbon sequestration at a scale tree-planting cannot match; and why, in a venture-backed startup, selling the company and selling the product require the same storytelling skill. Josh also previews Plantd's 2026 roadmap — a furniture launch, new panel systems and homebuilder announcements — alongside biochar, graphene and potential aviation materials.