Welcome to the Planet Beyond podcast. Brought to you by Fugro, the leading partner in uncovering geo-data from the greatest subsea depths right to outer space and hosted by Jon Baston-Pitt. Planet Beyond is about doing business better in our fast changing, and acutely delicate, yet exquisite, world. Together we will explore issues beyond the day-to-day challenges; listen to those who should be listened to; seek out what needs to be done and get aligned around the new tomorrow our children deserve and that we have a responsibility to deliver.
Short: Helen West’s Ten-Year Career Plans
One day, taking a gearbox out of a vehicle in the middle of the night as a 17-year-old apprentice automotive engineer Helen West had a flash of realisation: “I can’t be doing this when I’m 30!” Today, Helen is global director, marine asset integrity, at Fugro. In this episode, she shares how she plans and...
10/17/2024 • 27 minutes, 49 seconds
Episode 39: Mapping Italy’s Seagrass for Biodiversity Gain
The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) has a 100 year history of mapping the world’s oceans. John Nyberg, technical director, explains how the organisation’s role in understanding our oceans is evolving. Now, rather than just recording ocean depths for mariners, the organisation is setting standards for how we record environmental data. In Italy, this approach is...
9/26/2024 • 39 minutes, 23 seconds
Short: TreVaughn Ellis, Lampreys, and Black in Marine Science
TreVaughn Ellis is a recent graduate of American University, and winner of the Scott A. Bass Outstanding Scholarship Award. During his studies, he interned as a researcher with the National Marine Fisheries Service, part of NOAA, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in Alaska. In this episode, he describes his research in Alaska, where...
9/12/2024 • 23 minutes, 39 seconds
Episode 38: The Power of Youth
Young people have the most to lose from climate change, but are not given a voice or a vote in how the crisis is tackled. In this episode, Jon Baston-Pitt speaks to three young women, Raina Ivanova, Chloe McKenna and Paula Garcia Rodriguez, who are taking action to make sure their voices—and those of their...
9/5/2024 • 37 minutes, 21 seconds
Episode 37: Is AI Key to Humanity’s Future?
In this Planet Beyond episode hosted by Jon Baston-Pitt, experts Irina Mirkina from UNICEF, Marek Kowalkiewicz from QUT Business School, and Pawel Michalak from Fugro discuss the future of AI and its wide-ranging impact on society. Beyond just language models, like ChatGPT, they highlight its role in disaster management, climate modelling, and decision-making processes. In...
7/25/2024 • 39 minutes, 4 seconds
Short: Merouane Debbah, Assessing AI Sustainability
In this Planet Beyond Shortcast, host Jon Baston-Pitt delves into the environmental costs that come along with the transformative potential of AI. Training and serving AI models requires vast amounts of energy, and water used in cooling server farms. Jon is joined by Merouane Debbah, AI researcher, professor at Khalifa University and senior advisor at...
7/11/2024 • 21 minutes, 24 seconds
IPF 2024: Future Voices: Emerging Leaders in Offshore Wind
In this final episode of our International Partnering Forum miniseries, we explore how the dynamic American offshore wind industry is attracting a passionate and diverse workforce of young professionals eager to tackle climate change and make a difference. Jon Baston-Pitt is joined by Samantha Mullen from RWE, Sarah Schwitzer from PEAK Wind, and Darcy Caja...
7/9/2024 • 23 minutes, 37 seconds
Episode 36: Landslide and Slope Stability
At night on May 24, 2024, a devastating landslide hit the village of Yambali, in Papua New Guinea. It took a week for rescuers to just reach the site, with heavy rain, poor roads, and ongoing conflict hindering access. The same factors have made the scale of the devastation hard to assess, but reports suggest...
6/27/2024 • 39 minutes, 11 seconds
IPF 2024: Women in Wind
The Planet Beyond team has been recording live from the International Partnering Forum (IPF) 2024 in New Orleans. In this episode, host Jon Baston-Pitt is joined by three prominent women leaders in the offshore wind industry in the Americas: Liz Burdock from Oceantic Network, Jennifer Cullen from Vineyard Wind, and Celine Gerson from Fugro. The...
6/25/2024 • 43 minutes, 11 seconds
Short: Plastic Punch and Citizen Science
In this episode of Planet Beyond, host Jon Baston-Pitt speaks with Richmond Quarcoo, founder and director of Plastic Punch. Richmond shares the origins of Plastic Punch, which began after discovering sea turtles tangled in plastic waste along the beaches in Ghana. The organisation uses citizen science to address marine litter and inspire behavioural change. One...
6/13/2024 • 14 minutes, 34 seconds
IPF 2024: Offshore wind innovation
How will innovation impact the future of the offshore industry? In this fourth episode of the Planet Beyond IPF mini-series, recorded live at the IPF conference in New Orleans, we discuss the cutting-edge innovations shaping the burgeoning offshore wind industry in the US. Jon Baston-Pitt is joined by guests Deanne Hargrave of Atlantic Shores Offshore...
6/11/2024 • 0
Ocean Decade 24: Resources and partnerships for the Ocean Decade
In this final episode of our Ocean Decade mini-series, released for World Ocean Day, we focus on the last of the Barcelona conference’s five plenary sessions, Resources and partnerships for the Ocean Decade. In the plenary, Alfredo Giron moderated a panel discussing collaborations in support of the Decade’s goal of promoting ‘the science we need,...
6/7/2024 • 0
Episode 35: Scaling Ocean Technology through public private collaboration
How can we map, model and analyse the impacts of climate change and mitigation actions on oceans and coasts around the world? In this episode, a supplement to Planet Beyond’s Ocean Decade miniseries, Jon Baston-Pitt talks to leading marine scientists about the development of ocean forecasting, and the more recent development of The Digital Twins...
5/30/2024 • 0
IPF 2024: Offshore wind and sustainable ocean management
How can the offshore wind industry balance environmental stewardship, community engagement, and economic growth to drive the global energy transition? In this episode, recorded live at the International Partnering Forum (IPF) in New Orleans, Jon Baston-Pitt is joined by Karen Baker, and Jean-Stéphane Naas, to discuss the challenges of marine spatial planning, community engagement, and...
5/28/2024 • 37 minutes, 27 seconds
Ocean Decade 24 – An Inspiring and Engaging Ocean for All
In this fourth full-length episode recorded live at the UN Ocean Decade conference in Barcelona we are joined by Vivienne Solis Rivera, who was a speaker at the Ocean Decade Plenary Session 4: An Inspiring and Engaging Ocean for All. This session focused on the 9th and 10th UN Ocean Challenges, skills and knowledge for...
5/24/2024 • 41 minutes, 54 seconds
Short: Ross MacFarlane – Turning Challenges into Triumphs
Every challenge is an opportunity for growth: that’s a key takeaway from Ross MacFarlane and Hidayat Alizada. Both of our interviewees have achieved personal sporting success, while supporting good causes. Ross, Remote Operations Centre Manager at Fugro in Dubai, shares insights into resilience and determination. He discusses his passion for triathlons and marathons, overcoming setbacks...
5/16/2024 • 21 minutes, 6 seconds
IPF 2024: From Land to Sea – A developer’s perspective
The Planet Beyond team has been recording live from the International Partnering Forum (IPF) 2024 in New Orleans. In this episode of the Planet Beyond IPF mini-series, host Jon Baston-Pitt is joined by industry experts to explore the journey of developers transitioning from land-based to offshore wind projects in the United States. Ken Kimmell, Alberto...
5/14/2024 • 37 minutes, 9 seconds
Ocean Decade 24 — Science and Solutions for a Safe and Predicted Ocean
In this third full-length episode recorded live at the UN Ocean Decade conference in Barcelona we hear from participants in the third plenary session of the event, on Science and Solutions for a Safe and Predicted Ocean. In her keynote address to the plenary session, Dwikorita Karnawati, head of the Indonesian agency for Meteorology, Climatology,...
5/10/2024 • 45 minutes, 25 seconds
IPF 2024: Shipwrecked – Preserving underwater history in the energy transition
The Planet Beyond team has been recording live from the International Partnering Forum (IPF) 2024 in New Orleans. In this first episode of six recorded at the event, we look at the role underwater archaeology plays in supporting offshore wind project development. Jon Baston-Pitt speaks to explorer and diver Peter Tattersfield, founder of Kaxaan Nautical...
4/30/2024 • 27 minutes, 54 seconds
Ocean Decade 24 — Science and Solutions for a Sustainable and Resilient Ocean Economy
In this second full-length episode recorded live at the UN Ocean Decade conference we hear from participants in the second plenary session of the event, on Science and Solutions for a Sustainable and Resilient Ocean Economy. In the session—and in their conversation with Jon Baston-Pitt—Claire Jolly, from the OECD; Sergi Tudela, from Catalonia’s regional government;...
4/26/2024 • 39 minutes, 40 seconds
Episode 34: A globe-spanning eye into the deep past
The SKAO, or Square Kilometre Array Observatory, will allow scientists to peer through time into the universe’s distant past. Its telescope arrays in South Africa and Australia, along with its HQ at Jodrell Bank in the UK, have been designed to capture a picture of the universe as the first galaxies formed, the so-called ‘epoch...
4/24/2024 • 40 minutes, 40 seconds
Ocean Decade 24 – Science and solutions for a Clean, Healthy and Resilient Ocean
The UN Ocean Decade conference took place in Barcelona in April 2024. The Planet Beyond team was there, recording episodes at our on-site studio. During the conference, we released three short episodes looking at each day’s agenda. And we recorded interviews for five long episodes that will run every fortnight, up until Ocean Day, June...
4/19/2024 • 39 minutes, 25 seconds
Short: Dakota Peebler on youth activism in ocean conservation
What will be the future of our planet? Dakota Peebler, an 18-year-old leader in ocean conservation, emphasises the crucial role of collective youth action in shaping a better future for our planet. Dakota, co-founder of Heirs To Our Ocean, shares her incredible journey from childhood fascination to leading a movement for ocean preservation. She discusses...
4/17/2024 • 28 minutes, 38 seconds
Winds of progress: Inside the offshore wind revolution
The Planet Beyond podcast is heading to New Orleans for the International Partnering Forum (IPF) 2024. IPF brings together global leaders and businesses in the wind energy supply chain. And we’ll be there, recording a mini series on the offshore wind revolution, speaking with experts, being inspired by leaders, and drawing hope from the younger...
4/16/2024 • 14 minutes, 22 seconds
Ocean Decade 24 – Collaboration and determination
This week, Planet Beyond is recording live at the 2024 Ocean Decade conference in Barcelona. In this last of our three daily live episodes, we speak to Jyotika Virmani, executive director of the Schmidt Ocean Institute, a non-profit foundation established in 2009. The Institute’s goal is to advance innovative oceanographic research and discovery. It provides...
4/12/2024 • 22 minutes, 49 seconds
Ocean Decade 24 – Inspire the blue economy
This week, Planet Beyond is recording live at the 2024 Ocean Decade conference in Barcelona. In this second of our three daily live episodes, we look back over the first day of the event, and look forward to the next. We speak to Ambassador Peter Thomson, the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean....
4/11/2024 • 22 minutes, 48 seconds
UN Ocean Decade Conference – Setting the Scene
This week, the Planet Beyond team are recording live at the 2024 Ocean Decade conference in Barcelona. At the event, delegates will focus on delivering essential science for sustainable oceans. This episode is the first of three shorts to be released during the Ocean Decade Conference, to bring you the sounds and ideas from the...
4/10/2024 • 20 minutes, 39 seconds
Episode 33: Epic Swim Maui and the value of our ocean
In a little over a week, Planet Beyond will be recording live at the UN Ocean Decade conference in Barcelona. In the run up to the event, we’re considering the value of oceans. In our last episode, we looked at the value of the ocean as a way to store carbon and mitigate the effects...
3/27/2024 • 36 minutes, 13 seconds
Short: Femke De Jager on failing better
How do we innovate? Often, says Femke De Jager, by failing. The keys to success are resilience and persistence. It’s all about trying things out, sometimes failing, but always learning. Throughout her career, Femke has focussed on developing new ways of managing and maintaining assets, at world leading companies including PwC and ConQuaestor, DSM and...
3/13/2024 • 16 minutes, 11 seconds
Episode 32: Mangroves, drones, and data
We need to manage our coast lines to reduce the impact of climate change. But coastal areas, and mangroves in particular, also offer one of the most effective naturebased mechanisms for capturing carbon. At COP 28 in the UAE last November, the importance of the oceans to climate change was a key focus, and the...
2/28/2024 • 41 minutes, 55 seconds
Short: Michael Neuhaus – A career in listening
How can business development professionals help customers find solutions they may not even know they need? That has been Michael Neuhaus’s mission, in a career at Fugro spanning three decades. Every sales professional needs a compelling product to offer customers. That was what Neuhaus had, as he started his career, with Fugro’s pioneering cone penetration...
2/14/2024 • 18 minutes, 23 seconds
Episode 31: The changing role of the CFO
We live in a fast changing world, with impacts on how we all work. That’s as true for those in finance and leadership, as it is for anyone. In this episode we sit down with Fugro CFO Barbara Geelen to explore how changes in society, and the evolving crisis of climate change, are reshaping leadership...
1/24/2024 • 35 minutes, 31 seconds
Short: Jeff Richardson on the UK Coast Guard
Jeff Richardson is an experienced Remote Operations Centre Manager however, we spoke to him for this episode not about his job but what it is he does in his spare time: he is a dedicated volunteer Coast Guard rescue officer. He shares with us his experiences, and explains what drives him to take on two...
1/18/2024 • 15 minutes, 23 seconds
Short: Katherine Scrimgeour on thinking differently
Earlier this year, Katherine Scrimgeour posted on LinkedIn about her own experiences of dealing with dyslexia. It’s a condition that can undermine confidence at work, but that doesn’t mean it should hold anyone back. It struck a chord with Planet Beyond host Jon Baston-Pitt, who also experiences dyslexia. In this short, Jon and Katherine talk...
12/13/2023 • 12 minutes, 18 seconds
Episode 30: Cutting Carbon at sea
As we travel through the energy transition, we must rapidly develop new forms of propulsion that reduce or eliminate carbon emissions. This has been a key driver of research and development at vessel builder SEA-KIT International. Jon Baston-Pitt first spoke to SEA-KIT CEO Ben Simpson almost two years ago, for Episode 16 of the Planet...
11/30/2023 • 35 minutes, 45 seconds
Short: David Tindall – From rocks to innovation
How does experience in the field inform product innovation? David Tindall trained as a geologist, before working as a cone penetration testing (CPT) truck operator. After years travelling the world, he took up a role as Global Product Owner, Geotechnical Equipment, at Fugro. In this role, he leads innovation in many of the key land-based...
11/15/2023 • 10 minutes, 49 seconds
Episode 29: Women inspiring girls, in sport and business
How can we help the next generation of girls set and achieve their goals? Often, by showing them what other women have achieved, and sharing the expertise they developed on the way. This autumn, championship winning golfer Kylie Henry shared her expertise with young golfers at a Girls Golf Day at Castle Buchanan, near Glasgow....
10/26/2023 • 48 minutes, 10 seconds
Short: Paul Lawrie – Learning and Mentoring
Paul Lawrie has had an impressive career as a golf pro, with 19 professional wins to his name. But he was a latecomer to the game. He only focussed on golf once he had accepted he wasn’t going to make it as a professional footballer. The secret to his success was the hard work of...
10/11/2023 • 20 minutes, 45 seconds
Episode 28: Why Men Win at Work
Over twenty years at Procter & Gamble, Gill Whitty-Collins rose to become SVP Europe, India, Middle East & Africa. In this role, she led the turnaround of global leading brands such as Always, Pantene, and Olay. But when she reached the top, she found herself in an overwhelmingly male environment. She was one of the...
9/27/2023 • 0
Short: Jon Baston-Pitt – Doing Business Better
The Planet Beyond podcast turned two this summer. In its first two years it has been joined by guests from the worlds of politics, of exploration, of science and of engineering. Each guest has been interviewed with the aim of understanding how to do business better. At the heart of this journey has been its...
9/13/2023 • 15 minutes, 27 seconds
Episode 27: Managing Earthquake Risk
In February 2023 a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit near the Turkish Syrian border. Tens of thousands of people lost their lives and millions have been left homeless. It is one of the most devastating earthquakes to ever hit the region impacting an area the size of Germany. Earthquakes have always been near impossible to predict,...
9/5/2023 • 42 minutes, 14 seconds
Short: Helen Stewart – Soft Skills for Science
Helen Stewart is a hydrographer in the coastal resilience and ocean science division at Fugro. In this shortcast we talk about her recent keynote for the International Hydrographic Review which focuses on the importance of soft skills when working in a scientific field. Developing these skills isn’t something that always came easily to Helen but...
8/16/2023 • 14 minutes, 34 seconds
Episode 26: Energy Transition – No Miracles Needed
In 2023 the world entered its El Niño cycle of warmer oceanic currents. Without the moderating effect of the cooler La Niña effects, climate records have been tumbling – in many cases smashed by several standard deviations. Sea ice is at record lows, and North Atlantic surface temperatures are, in places, up to 5°C warmer...
7/26/2023 • 41 minutes, 6 seconds
Short: Myrna Staring – Understanding Each Other
Myrna Staring is innovation lead at Fugro, leading a team of innovation engineers working on active and passive seismic technologies for near-surface characterisation. Her work contributes to the development of tools for infrastructure and renewables developments. In this episode, she talks about the value of different kinds of empathy in building a diverse workforce. Myrna...
7/12/2023 • 16 minutes, 42 seconds
Episode 25: Women in Hydrography
Hydrography as an industry emanated from the wellspring of naval research, and ever since it has been a male dominated field. The field studies and describes the physical features of oceans, seas and other bodies of water and often requires work offshore. Attitudes surrounding women working offshore have historically restricted opportunities for women to gain...
6/28/2023 • 48 minutes, 31 seconds
Short: Daniela Taliana – Spreading the art bug
Daniela Taliana is geoscience manager at Fugro in Italy. Like our host, Jon, she has a passion for rocks. But in this episode she tells us about another passion: for art. Daniela is president of the volunteer arts association, Spazi all’Arte, or ‘Spaces for Art’, which seeks to foster collaborative and inclusive public art in...
6/7/2023 • 18 minutes, 3 seconds
Episode 24: The resilience mindset
We live in a world of unparalleled complexity and risk. The structure of our societies rests upon a stack of services—utilities, communications, banking, transport, among others—that themselves rely on a mix of public services and private businesses, both large and small. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses. All face threats from bad actors, and...
5/24/2023 • 42 minutes, 34 seconds
Episode 23: Data and insurance emergency response
When catastrophe strikes, the top priority is to get those affected to safety. But almost as urgent is the need to get businesses and utilities up and running again. A rapid response to claims can make the difference between people getting on with their lives, and suffering harm that ripples through their community. Hurricane Ian...
4/26/2023 • 39 minutes, 18 seconds
Short: Yvan Petillot – Looking to nature, and beyond
Yvan Petillot is joint academic lead at the National Robotarium, in Edinburgh. In this shortcast, he talks to Jon Baston-Pitt about some of the key challenges faced in controlling remotely operated vehicles (ROV) underwater. The core problem is data transfer speeds. And that’s why researchers have turned to nature and creatures like dolphins, to understand...
4/12/2023 • 12 minutes, 59 seconds
Episode 22: Adding autonomy with the National Robotarium
Offshore inspections require arduous and hazardous sea travel. The coming boom in offshore wind will see tens of thousands of assets needing inspection in the North Sea alone. Building fleets of crewed vessels to perform these inspections would have significant carbon impacts. In an earlier Planet Beyond Short, Mark Bruce explained how Fugro is deploying...
3/29/2023 • 35 minutes, 11 seconds
Short: Denise Swanborn – Exploring oceans in a submersible
Denise Swanborn is an expedition manager with Nekton. She recently completed her PhD in marine science, at Oxford. In this episode, recorded on International Women’s Day, she talks to Jon Baston-Pitt about her own path to marine exploration, and describes the excitement and wonder of a career spent exploring the depths. Denise’s work has taken...
3/15/2023 • 23 minutes, 12 seconds
Episode 21: China, the Innovation Powerhouse
Many in the West view China as a threat. The country is both a supply chain partner, and an economic and political rival. And it has, for forty years, been a key exemplar of globalisation. In this episode we look beyond the fear and rivalry to better understand China’s journey to being one of the...
2/22/2023 • 35 minutes, 36 seconds
Short: Louis Demargne, Sharing data to save oceans
The world’s oceans are vital to maintaining the health of our planet, but are also one of its last unmapped territories. UNESCO and the Ocean Decade programme team have reached an important milestone. They have kicked-off the Ocean Decade Corporate Data Group to develop a framework for privately-collected ocean data to be made publicly available...
2/14/2023 • 14 minutes, 32 seconds
Episode 20: Total immersion, Telling stories beneath the waves
Ryan Chatfield and his mates have spent their lives exploring, and filming, the world below the waves. When they turned their skills to documentary making, a new connection, film-maker Brendan Hutchins, helped them pitch a series to Disney+, Shipwreck Hunters Australia. Together, they tell the stories of shipwrecks, their victims and survivors, making a human...
1/25/2023 • 32 minutes, 26 seconds
Short: Deploying remote operated vehicles from uncrewed vessels
Remotely operated vehicles can perform inspections efficiently and effectively without risk to humans. However, they can require time-consuming returns to port for reconfiguration. Mark Bruce has been working to develop electric ROVs that can be deployed from uncrewed surface vessels and pack more sensors in a way that allows them to operate without interruption or...
1/12/2023 • 9 minutes, 8 seconds
Short: Tim Crain and New Space
Looking back at the kings of France or the Pharaohs of Egypt, we marvel at their wealth. But not one of them could place a call across a planet, or drive hundreds of miles in a day down a superhighway. The story of humanity has been to take things that were challenging and make them...
12/14/2022 • 12 minutes, 24 seconds
Episode 19: Returning to the Moon
The commercial space sector doubled in size over the last decade and is expected to triple in size over the next 20 years. Exactly 50 years since man last walked on the moon, the recent launch of NASA’s Artemis 1 heralds a new era of lunar space travel. A lot has changed in the space...
11/24/2022 • 46 minutes, 35 seconds
Short: Sami Raines, astronaut candidate
You cannot just aim to be an astronaut. To be considered, you have to be good at something first. You need to excel in a career on Earth before pursuing a second in space. One candidate’s journey began as a child looking up at the stars in a small town in rural Australia. A love...
11/16/2022 • 16 minutes
Episode 18: The Award Winning Episode
The UK’s Ground Engineering Awards have recognised Fugro as the Ground Investigation Specialist of the Year 2022. We explore the importance of articulating progress on projects with the award winning team, who faced the almost impossible task of demonstrating Fugro’s full capability and achievements in just 20 minutes! It required dedication, connection, passion and purpose,...
10/26/2022 • 32 minutes, 5 seconds
Episode 17: Fair Winds and Following Seas
The best preparation is often to make ourselves as adaptable as possible, to be resilient to changes in circumstance. That is a mantra to Mark Sinclair, better known as Captain Coconut, who we last spoke to in Episode 4: Learning from Adventure. The intrepid Coconut thought he had failed to traverse the globe in his...
9/28/2022 • 53 minutes, 31 seconds
Short: Julie Angus – from Rowboats to Robot Boats
It began with a five-month expedition in a small rowboat crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Twin realisations struck the younger Julie Angus: the vastness and lack of information available on our oceans as well as the vulnerability of the marine environment. The worst hurricane season in recorded history also hit home the challenges of navigating such...
9/14/2022 • 12 minutes, 33 seconds
Episode 16: Net Zero Vessels – Progress on Future Fuels
As the world transitions to a low carbon economy, the way we use the seas will also change. Vessels are in a state of flux as new communications technology and advances in automation mean that the requirements for a crew are rapidly disappearing for many operations. This brings amazing benefits for sustainability, as well as...
8/25/2022 • 36 minutes, 1 second
Short: Ed Davey MP on Pancreatic Cancer
In May we told the story of Charles Czajkowski, one of the few pancreatic cancer patients to have survived beyond six months of diagnosis. Fewer than 7% of patients survive beyond five years of diagnosis. Challenges face healthcare providers, including a lack of alarm symptoms, but outcomes for this terrible disease have barely improved in...
8/10/2022 • 18 minutes, 13 seconds
Episode 15: The Future of Ocean Technology
Good intentions alone will not secure the future of our seas. More than 90% of trade moves across the ocean, and the global population eyes the marine environment as an increasing source of food. Added to this, a range of new activities are forecast to increase the ocean economy from $1.5 trillion in 2010 to...
7/27/2022 • 41 minutes, 9 seconds
Short: Understanding the Oceans
In some ways more is known about the surface of Mars than our own planet. With over 70% of the Earth’s surface covered in ocean, more than 75% of this watery space has never been mapped. This daunting data hole prevents search and rescue teams from performing vital work, such as like searching for...
7/13/2022 • 17 minutes, 36 seconds
Episode 14: Ocean Science, Ten Years to Turn the Tide
For much of history the seas have loomed impossibly large and untouchable. This perception is at odds with the vulnerability of ocean environments. Now, following decades of abuse by a growing human society, a realisation has been reached. The degradation of the world’s oceans has led to several looming crises: plastic pollution, warmer waters and...
6/29/2022 • 51 minutes, 44 seconds
Short: How to Map the Ocean Floor
This is an episode about filling in the gaps. Gaps in our knowledge of the largest environment on the planet, the ocean. Although it is not quite true that we know less about the ocean floor than outer space, it is still the closest thing we have to an alien environment on Earth. And that...
6/14/2022 • 13 minutes, 8 seconds
Episode 13: Beating Pancreatic Cancer
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer in the world. In the UK 50% of those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer will die within three months of their diagnosis. Only 7% will survive for five years, the lowest of any common cancer type. We hear from Charles Czajkowski about his battle with pancreatic...
5/25/2022 • 44 minutes, 24 seconds
Episode 12: Skills to Save the Seas
Live from Oceanology International in London we discuss how to attract, develop and train the skills needed to handle the tsunami of new technology coming into the sector. Development of uncrewed vessels and improved digital communications are creating new opportunities for people at all levels of career progression. Guests Gordon Meadows, CEO, SeaBot XR Dan...
4/27/2022 • 36 minutes, 41 seconds
Episode 11: Alaska – North to the Future
One fifth the size of the continental US, Alaska stands as America’s only Arctic state. And when it was founded, Alaska was given a special deal. Too remote for full Federal infrastructure funding, Alaska would have to pay for its own needs from the wealth locked away below its frozen soil. For many years this...
3/30/2022 • 43 minutes, 32 seconds
Episode 10: Sporting Heroes
Belen Valdovinos and Rada Khadjinova are world leading sports people who push themselves to do better every single day. Their dedication and determination drives them in sport and in their work at Fugro. Listen now and be inspired! Host Jon Baston-Pitt Guests Belen Valdovinos, Business Development Manager America, Fugro Rada Khadjinova, Alaska Country Manager, Fugro
2/24/2022 • 34 minutes, 59 seconds
Episode 9: Veterans – Life After Service
What does it mean to serve? For most, a career in a military and what it is to be a soldier are complete unknowns. Deployment conjures up images of courage, of danger, and of endurance. Yet the resourcefulness and problem-solving skills that the military imparts to its personnel also makes them a resource to civilian...
1/26/2022 • 47 minutes, 5 seconds
Episode 8: Climbing Mountains with Mark Heine
Mark Heine has been with Fugro since 2000 and CEO since 2018 and although gathering data about our planet has been his passion since studying geodetic engineering at Delft University, mountaineering is his first love. At just 10 years old Mark conquered his first summit and after that he was hooked. His hobby has taken him to the top...
12/16/2021 • 40 minutes, 30 seconds
Episode 7: The Green Hydrogen Transition
We’re in a race against time when it comes to decarbonising energy. Hydrogen could play an important role in the transition but only if we can move to producing it from water instead of natural gas. In this episode we hear from a company that is already working on this with the world’s first pilot...
By 2050 it is forecast that 75% of global electricity will come from renewable generation making wind energy critical in fighting the climate crisis. In this episode we hear that by sitting out in deep waters floating wind could not only become a viable solution to the energy transition, it can also be a hub...
10/22/2021 • 25 minutes, 54 seconds
Episode 5: The rise of Floating Wind
From the US and Korea to Scotland and Portugal exciting things are happening in the world of wind energy. Instead of building offshore wind farms close to shore, the successful deployment of floating platforms for turbines is opening the vast ocean to renewable energy development. The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) predicts commercial deployment of...
9/23/2021 • 0
Episode 4: Learning from Adventure
An adventurous spirit in people has made many successful organisations what they are today. To be truly great, we often find these people are guided by a moral compass, possessing core values that provide that relentless pointer to the right way, even when all plans have turned on their head. Fugro’s hydrographic director Mark Sinclair...
8/23/2021 • 35 minutes, 51 seconds
Episode 3: Ocean Science For Planetary Health
We have one planet and one ocean system but its health is in rapid decline. We bring together leading experts to discuss how science could save our oceans. The timing could not be more critical as 2021 saw the launch of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science. The initiative aims to improve our understanding...
7/29/2021 • 37 minutes, 37 seconds
Episode 2: Innovation for Transformation
In this episode, a panel of experts representing established, leading companies as well as new technology disruptors tackle one of the most difficult issues of our time: climate change. Specifically, how industry can innovate and transform to better overcome the emerging challenges. We discuss how to create a beehive of collaboration, not only within a...
6/18/2021 • 54 minutes, 55 seconds
Episode 1: Saving the South Pacific
Introducing Fugro’s Planet Beyond podcast. In this inaugural episode we look at the islands of the South Pacific, whose inhabitants are among the first to experience the hardships of climate change. Sea level rises, coupled with more frequent and more extreme weather events, are impacting the lives of these low-lying coastal communities. We are joined...
5/21/2021 • 32 minutes, 41 seconds
Coming soon…
Welcome to the Planet Beyond podcast. Brought to you by Fugro, the leading partner in uncovering geo-data from the greatest subsea depths right to outer space and hosted by Jon Baston-Pitt. Planet Beyond is about doing business better in our fast changing, and acutely delicate, yet exquisite, world. Together we will explore issues beyond the...
