Hydration, Climate Change, Ethical Portfolios

TRIBEathlon Podcast

Episode 40: Andy Blow is a Sports Scientist and founder of Precision Hydration, the electrolyte specialists. An expert in sweat, dehydration and cramping, Andy previously worked as the Team Sports Scientist for the Benetton and Renault Formula 1 teams and remains an adviser to the Porsche Human Performance Centre.

An elite level triathlete in his younger days, Andy has finished in the top 10 of Ironman and 70.3 races, as well as winning an Xterra World title, and it was his own struggles with cramping and hydration that led to him specialising in electrolyte replenishment and founding Precision Hydration.

We often talk about training and fuelling, but in this episode Sid and I wanted to explore the area of hydration including the common mistakes people make and the strategies to get it right for your optimum performance.

What I’ve Been Reading

Possibly the most important book you’ll read this decade is Bill Gates’ How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need. It is far and away the best book I have read on the subject of climate change. It takes a smart person to make something complex sound simple, and Gates is certainly a smart guy. The book is easily digestible, insightful and is as much about the solutions we are working on and need as it is about the problem. I would encourage everyone to read this, and to make their own decisions based on it; if nothing else, you’ll be the best educated person on the subject at almost any dinner party!

TED Talk I’ve Found Interesting

I have mentioned The Social Dilemma as a great documentary that explores the dangerous human impact of social networking, but the TED talk How a handful of tech companies control billions of minds every day is also really worth a watch for a brief insight into the topic. A handful of people working at a handful of tech companies steer the thoughts of billions of people every day, says design thinker, Tristan Harris. From Facebook notifications to Snapstreaks to YouTube autoplays, they're all competing for one thing: your attention. Harris shares how these companies prey on our psychology for their own profit and calls for a design renaissance in which our tech instead encourages us to live out the timeline we want.

Quote of the Week

“The cruel injustice is that even though the world’s poor are doing essentially nothing to cause climate change, they’re going to suffer the most from it.”

• Bill Gates

Finance Theme I’ve Been Considering

Climate Change is probably the investment world’s greatest threat, but also its greatest opportunity. If we continue to see temperature rises, we’ll see mass migrations from areas of the world that are no longer habitable, we’ll see devastation in cities as a result of rising sea levels, and we will see continual increases in natural disasters like wildfires and storms. This would be devastating for businesses, and Bill Gates predicts that it would be the economic equivalent of the COVID pandemic every 10 years - not a pretty picture. That said, it is also the investment world’s greatest opportunity.

Companies forming part of the solution, helping us get to net zero carbon emissions by 2050, will receive more government support, more private investment and also attract more of the limelight; they are typically trading at double the value of traditional companies. When you read How to avoid a climate disaster (and I hope you do) you will realise that, whilst this is a massive problem to solve, there are key strategies that can make net zero possible. When I read it, I immediately wanted to focus more of my investments on helping the solutions, but I soon realised that by finding specific companies to target, I could barely scratch the surface of the problem; however, by investing my pensions and investments in a well-constructed ethical portfolio, I can actually make a much greater impact. I am no expert in renewables or carbon capture, so who am I to be picking individual companies to back? But by funding the solutions through the guidance of investment analysts, I can very much be a part of the solution. A solution that couldn’t be more important for our children or our planet.