Samuel Avaala, general manager of Benso Oil Palm Plantation in Ghana, talks with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about how the business uses the Accountability Framework to help engage non-certified suppliers so they align with BOPP’s no deforestation, no damaging of peat lands and no exploitation commitments. They talk about how the framework can be complementary to membership of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil’s certification scheme.   

This is latest in a series of content supported by the Accountability Framework initiative. The Accountability Framework – set up by a coalition of 24 members to accelerate progress and improve accountability for ethical supply chains in agriculture and forestry – has recently passed the second anniversary of its launch. A number of the coalition members have recognised the achievements of the past two years – click here for more information.

This week: Daniel Baertschi, food and agriculture sector lead at Quantis, discusses how making the right choices for food companies – thinking about regenerative agriculture practices and a strong focus on soil health – can make significant impacts on reducing carbon emissions. While urgent action is required right now, the necessary changes to food production processes may take, he argues, a generation to become a reality.

Plus: growing spat over detail of EU climate plan; Science Based Targets initiative fully shifts to 1.5C trajectory; FSC drops Indonesian palm oil’s Korindo; and, Greenland cancels all oil and gas sector development, in the news digest.

Host: Ian Welsh  

At Innovation Form’s recent Future of Food conference, Erin Priddle, northern Europe regional director at the Marine Stewardship Council, Tracy Cambridge, responsible sourcing director for Europe at Thai Union, Mark Zimring, director, large scale fisheries programme at The Nature Conservancy and Dave Robb, SeaFurther sustainability programme lead at Cargill, discuss with Ian Welsh how the seafood sector should respond to growing market concerns about the impact of climate change, overfishing and biodiversity loss.

Among the discussion they consider how fishing quotas and fishing management plans should be set in the face of shifting wild fish stocks and increasing demands from consumers. They also talk about the role of aquaculture and of certification.  

This week: Taco Terheijden, director, cocoa sustainability at Cargill, and Nicko Debenham, vice president and head of sustainability at Barry Callebaut, talk with Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb about how companies can have positive impacts in supply chains through enhancing traceability and the data necessary to achieve this. The discussion, focusing on the cocoa sector, was recorded at the recent Innovation Forum Future of Food conference.

Plus: UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s Paris-style goals; insurance sector’s new net zero alignment; independent governance body to be established for voluntary carbon markets; and, the US gets tougher on companies with China forced labour risks, in the news digest. 

Host: Ian Welsh

At the recent future for climate action conference, Marie-Pierre Bousquet Lecomte, science-based targets implementation director at Danone, Robert Horster, global sustainability lead for agricultural supply chains and food ingredients at Cargill, Conor McMahon, climate delivery manager at Nestlé, and Joshua Tosteson, president, Everland, joined Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb to talk about how to implement natural climate solutions. While many of these have been around for a while, their alignment within climate change strategy, combined with better collaboration and focus is now where best practice is.

Felicitas Weber from the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre talks with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about some of the key conclusions from the recently-published latest Know the Chain benchmark into the forced labour risks in big apparel sector companies and investors.

The good news is that all the companies benchmarked have improved their performance at least a little. The less good is that there remains generally a significant difference between what companies say they should be doing compared with what they are doing in practice – with luxury brands not typically performing well.

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This week: Samuel Avaala from Benso Oil Palm Plantation in Ghana, talks about how to work with suppliers to improve traceability and transparency from non-certified sources, to tackle deforestation and ensure sustainable supply. The discussion includes how initiatives and tools, including the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and the Accountability Framework help, and the need for careful alignment of farmer incentives so the entire value chain benefits.  

Plus: new food eco labelling scheme, backed by Nestlé, Tyson Foods, Sainsbury’s and others, to cover all environmental impacts; southeast Asian working group on standards for corporate communications on sustainability; and, PepsiCo backing PET bottles with unlimited recyclability, in the news round up.    

Host: Ian Welsh

Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb talks with Sir Ian Boyd, professor of biology at the University of St Andrews, and former chief scientific adviser to the UK government on food, environment and rural affairs. They discuss why food production is one of the hardest sectors to decarbonise and the massive challenges around resource inefficiencies, and why techniques like controlled system farming might become essential to unlock food sector efficiency. And they debate the pros and cons of regenerative agriculture.

Please note: this interview was recorded in late May.

This week: Eunice Oduro, project manager at anti-poverty NGO CARE in Ghana and Samuel Apana, Cargill’s cocoa sustainability lead in Ghana, talk about their long-term partnership that has helped secure the sector’s long term future, building farm resilience and empowering rural communities.

Plus: Target’s new targets; University of Cambridge’s plastic polymer from soy proteins; International Monetary Fund calls for $75 carbon price; and Lego bricks from recycled plastic bottles, in the news digest.

Host: Ian Welsh  

At Innovation Forum’s recent future for climate action conference, Julia King, Baroness Brown of Cambridge, chair of the Carbon Trust, and chair of the adaptation sub-committee of the UK’s Committee on Climate Change – the statutory non-departmental body set up to advise the United Kingdom and the devolved UK governments and parliaments on tackling and preparing for climate change – speaks with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh. Their wide-ranging discussion includes prospects for the upcoming COP26 meeting in Glasgow, the urgent need for business to adapt to climate change and the possible implications for public policy around corporate greenhouse gas emissions.