Innovating Circular Economies with Sarah O'Sell, UW CoMotion Labs

Ed Barker talks to Sarah O'Sell manager at CoMotion Labs’ Climate Tech Incubator at the University of Washington and a partner in the Seattle Climate Innovation Hub with Virtue Lab, NineZero, and the City of Seattle. Sarah recounts her circular-economy education in industrial design, early supply-chain work with Starbucks, and a career pivot after witnessing environmental harm and labor issues in China. She explains how the hub is designed to create “flow” from research to commercialization, and details the incubator’s application, review, and six-month program covering team-building, sales/marketing, operations, fundraising, mentor matching, and concluding with a demo day. Prior teams have raised about $1M each on average. The conversation defines sustainability, net zero, regenerative and degrowth, and highlights Ocean Made’s kelp-based seedling pot as an example of regenerative innovation. There's the impact of long timelines for materials and infrastructure innovation; it assesses venture scalability and identifies regional gaps like mobility/transportation amid shifting federal climate policy.00:00 Introduction01:47 Welcome Sarah O'Sell: Origin Story08:08 The Seattle Climate Innovation Hub10:08 Inside the Accelerator Programme16:59 Defining the Language of Climate20:42 Ocean Made: A Regenerative Company Case Study24:30 The Pace of Breakthroughs30:39 The Pacific Northwest Climate Ecosystem35:54 Policy, Hype and What's Missing41:47 Advice for FoundersAbout Your HostEd Barker has enjoyed a weird and varied career. Ed is a Brit now resident in Seattle and has founded three startups, enjoyed a long career in corporate strategy, and most recently as a VC. Sound Investments shines a small light on the fantastic work being done in the Pacific Northwest entrepreneurial community.Studio 1878Ed is Founder of Studio 1878, a podcast strategy and production studio focused on helping brands tell smarter, more human stories. We work with founders, operators, and marketing leaders to design shows that serve clear strategic goals. Studio 1878 handles the full process - from concept and positioning through recording, editing, and distribution. Our work blends editorial thinking with production craft, prioritizing substance over noise. The result is podcasts that build trust, credibility, and long-term brand value.Sarah O'Sell Sarah O'Sell is Manager of the CoMotion Labs Climate Tech Incubator at the University of Washington, the six-month cohort-based program housed inside the Seattle Climate Innovation Hub and run in partnership with the City of Seattle's Office of Economic Development, 9Zero, and VertueLab. She came to the role from Anim8 Collective, the circular economy strategy consultancy she founded after a decade of work spanning sustainable product design, supply chain transformation, and clean technology. Her introduction to the field was hands-on: at Western Washington University's industrial design engineering program, she sourced waste from local businesses and turned it into commercial products, and later co-founded a college solar startup that won EPA grants. She identifies publicly, including in her LinkedIn handle, as a circular economy practitioner. Across two cohorts she has reviewed 63 applicants and accepted 14, with portfolio companies spanning kelp-based agriculture, biochar, building performance software, EV adoption, and biodegradable materials.Connect with Sarah:Comotion Labs Climate Tech Incubator: comotion.uw.edu/startups-incubation/comotion-labs/comotion-labs-climate-tech-incubator/LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/circular-economy/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.