Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

This week: Cory Connors, host of the Sustainable Packaging Podcast presented by Atlantic Packaging, and Matt Saunders, managing partner at New Earth Ventures, talk with Ian Welsh about where sustainable packaging is actually heading. They discuss the shift to monomaterials and paper-based formats under EPR and PPWR pressure, and how AI is starting to reshape packaging design, procurement and testing.

Plus: West Africa's cocoa sector struggles to meet incoming EU deforestation rules; scientists and the timber industry clash over proposed changes to the GHG Protocol's forest carbon accounting; agrofuel production is squeezing food security in northern South America; and, the US pushes for exemptions from the EU's CSRD and CSDDD, in the news digest with Babette Pagès.

Host: Diana Kim

Secure your place to meet in Chicago for the Sustainable Packaging Innovation Forum USA (October 27-28, 2026).

Mobeen Chughtai, group head of ESG and corporate communications at Soorty Enterprises, talks with Innovation Forum’s Niamh Campbell about how sustainability requirements are increasingly being reframed as non-negotiable compliance. They discuss why standardised brand guidance fails to account for supplier context, and the end-of-life emissions data brands ask suppliers to report but rarely share themselves.

This week: Highlights of webinar panel discussion when Olga Antonovskaya from BHP, Jessica Wan from Redwheel, Societe Generale’s Marie Gerbier and Eirini Konstantinou from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, joined Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh to talk about what it takes for finance to back critical minerals at scale. 

Plus: Diageo plastic bottle safety concerns in India; SE Asia’s electric grid ongoing fragility; seep IP protection tightened in China; land restoration focus at UN desertification COP; and, big brand cotton from Brazil linked with forced labour, in the news digest.

If you want to listen to the full critical minerals webinar, click here.

Mari-Lou Dupont, senior vice president for social compliance at the Fair Labor Association, talks with Ian Welsh at Innovation Forum's Sustainable Apparel and Textiles event in Amsterdam about worker wellbeing in the apparel sector. They discuss why low unionisation remains the biggest underlying risk to wages and working conditions and why most brands are still stuck measuring living wage gaps rather than closing them. They also discuss what it will take to build the trust needed for suppliers to share real costing data.

This week: Innovation Forum apparel portfolio lead Niamh Campbell spoke with Julia Kirschner, impact and innovation director at fashion brand Armedangels, in New York recently about how to enable a circular approach at scale in the sector. And Ian Welsh spoke with Eduardo Alvarez, plastics and packaging expert at Dow in Amsterdam earlier this year about what can drive circularity in packaging. 

Plus: UK's continued success in cutting single-use plastic bags, EU digital product passport roll-out continues, why off-shore wind farms could help develop new aquatic food supply chains, and new palm oil finance links with deforestation, in the news digest with Babette Pages. 

Host: Ian Welsh

Marco Rosso, global head of sustainability and corporate affairs at Syngenta Biologicals and Seed Care, talks with Ian Welsh at Innovation Forum's food and beverage conference about the shifting economics of farming. They discuss why the number of farmers in the Netherlands has halved in 25 years, and the mix of income, land access and perception driving that decline. They also talk about why no single technology can substitute for a crop-by-crop, farmer-led approach.

This week: Pauline God, industry and policy expert at TrusTrace, talks with Ian Welsh about the state of play on digital product passports in apparel. They discuss the gap between mandatory infrastructure and still-voluntary product obligations, and the four biggest lessons from DPP pilots running since 2021.

Plus: Plus: fossil fuel divisions surface ahead of COP31; textile manufacturing's 92,000-tonne microfibre problem; integrated project delivery reshapes critical minerals financing; Japan backs Namibian rare earth project; and, China accelerates green energy financing amid Iran-driven oil disruption, in the news digest with Babette Pagès.

Host: Ian Welsh

Rachel Rigby, senior director, extended supply chains and responsible sourcing, and Quinn Kepes, senior regional lead Americas, at Verité, talk with Ian Welsh about the sharp rise in forced labour enforcement. They discuss the EU's new forced labour regulation and its reversed burden of proof, and the US Article 301 investigations threatening blanket tariffs on countries without effective import bans. They also talk about what Verité's three decades of workplace assessments reveal about how forced labour actually shows up in garment and coffee supply chains.

Mobeen Chughtai, group head of ESG and corporate communications at Soorty Enterprises, talks with Innovation Forum's Niamh Campbell about the brand-supplier relationship from the supplier's perspective. They discuss the compliance burden of conflicting regulatory frameworks and why sustainability requirements are increasingly being treated as non-negotiable mandates.

Plus: EU bans destruction of unsold apparel under ESPR; Amazon deforestation falls to its lowest level since monitoring began in 1985; consumers shift away from polyester towards natural fibres; and, eight global fashion capitals launch coalition to share sustainability best practice, in the news digest.

Host: Ian Welsh

The pipeline of critical minerals projects has never been longer. But the gap between a viable project and a financed one remains stubbornly wide.

Capital is available, it’s just not flowing fast enough, or to the right places. Early-stage mining projects carry a risk profile that most institutional investors are not set up to absorb. Infrastructure is absent, policy frameworks are inconsistent, and the road from discovery to production stretches beyond a decade. At the same time, rising sustainability expectations are adding cost and complexity that can deter rather than attract capital.

This webinar brought together financial institutions and mining companies to explore what it actually takes to move critical minerals investment from intention to action.

What we discussed...

• The structural barriers that keep credible projects stuck at the development stage.
• How financial institutions are building frameworks to evaluate and de-risk critical minerals investments.
• The role of blended finance, development banks and public-private mechanisms in mobilising private capital.
• Sustainability performance as a bankability asset: how responsible sourcing credentials are factoring into investment decisions.
• What mining companies and project developers need to demonstrate to get deals across the line.