Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

Webinar – Actionable intelligence: combining data and tools to enhance supply chain visibility

In this webinar hear expert discussion on how companies can blend different data streams to proactively identify, quantify and mitigate a wide range of supplier risks across complex global supply chains, and build a coherent picture of where they need to take action or adjust their strategy.

They discuss why access to data is no longer the challenge to business that it was, and how data can best be integrated and analysed to guide companies in mapping their supply chain risks.

Panel:

• Jamie Barsimantov, COO and co-founder, SupplyShift,
• Stefan Sabo-Walsh, head of value chains, Verisk Maplecroft
• Erin McVeigh, head of products and strategic alliance, Verisk Maplecroft
• Steven Wuerth, associate director, procurement, Gilead Sciences

Hosted by Ian Welsh

Cargill on how business can protect smallholder suppliers

Kate Clancy, sustainability manager, cocoa, at Cargill, talks with Ian Welsh about how companies can work with their supply chains to help ensure the viability of their smallholder farmer suppliers. They discuss the challenges in particular around working with farmers to develop better resilience to disease, and to market price fluctuations, while exploring how to enhance all potential sources of income for the farmers and their families.

Weekly podcast: Marks & Spencer on the future for packaging and food supply chains

This week: Louise Nicholls, head of human rights, food sustainability and food packaging at Marks & Spencer, on how to engage consumers on plastic, changing modern slavery brand risks and what food supply chains of the future will look like.

Plus: circular economy and AI innovation for food supply at Davos, investors call for environmental impact transparency, and Tommy Hilfiger’s 100% recycled jeans, in the news digest.

Hosted by Ian Welsh

Why the future for drinks packaging might be aluminium

Ramon Arratia, sustainability director, Ball Beverage Packaging Europe, discusses with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh the potential for aluminium cans in the beverage sector. Arratia outlines how the sector is growing, including the shift for craft beers away from bottles into cans and other developing soft drinks categories.

He argues the case for incentive and tax systems for packaging that are eco-modulated to take account of the recyclability of the materials used. And they discuss the pros and cons of traditional life-cycle analysis systems, and what they don’t always take fully into account.

ZSL on palm oil’s commitments versus activity gap

Michael Guindon, palm oil technical adviser with ZSL, talks with Ian Welsh about how the most recent SPOTT tool analysis, assessing palm oil, has provided evidence of positive progress in the sector on the one hand, while also highlighting that many companies still have a lot to do. For example: only half of companies that have no deforestation commitments are transparent on how they are monitoring their progress against them.

Guindon also argues that while many palm oil companies have been focused on producing solid policies on deforestation, there are significant implementation gaps in the way of achieving 2020 commitments, but that the revised RSPO principles and criteria will help. And while it is tempting for retailers to ban palm oil, Guindon puts the case for why this is counterproductive.

Weekly podcast: how satellite data analysis can transform supply chains, and ETI, Coca-Cola and Walmart on point of recruitment risks

This week: Sarah Middlemiss from Ecometrica on the potential of satellite data analysis for commodity sourcing monitoring. And, Ethical Trade Initiative’s Cindy Berman, Coca-Cola’s Brent Wilton and Walmart’s Doug Nystrom debate how to identify and remediate recruitment modern slavery risks.

Plus Nestlé cuts plastic, this year’s letter from Blackrock’s Larry Fink, what future diets will need to look like, and new consumer product traceability technology, in the news digest.

Hosted by Ian Welsh

How to link reporting to better decision-making

Eric Hespenheide, chair of the Global Reporting Initiative, discusses with Ian Welsh how the globally-agreed language of the Sustainable Development Goals can help companies assess their impacts and how to communicate these, while improving corporate practices more generally.

They debate how companies can report in a way that is engaging – clear metrics and reporting standards can help – and the importance of knowing your audience and tailoring messages accordingly. Hespenheide also outlines how the various reporting standards and guidelines that have developed are moving towards greater collaboration.

Freshfields on brands’ evolving modern slavery supply chain risks

Michelle Bramley, global head of knowledge, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, talks with Ian Welsh about evolving legislative requirements on modern slavery – and human rights more generally – across jurisdictions. The direction of travel, Bramley argues, is very much away from a voluntary reporting approach towards a mandatory duty to act.

They discuss the evolving risks for business, and why even though companies may not individually have sufficient leverage to budge entrenched interests in their supply chain, they still must take all reasonable steps to identify and mitigate human rights abuses.

The challenges of creating organic wine in Bordeaux

Thomas Duroux, CEO and winemaker Chateau Palmer, an organic winery in the Bordeaux region of France, talks with Innovation Forum founder Toby Webb about how he is developing more-sustainable wines.

Doroux explains how creating a balanced vineyard is a key to fighting pests and diseases without resorting to high chemical use that many others require. Taking a long-term approach is essential to develop the processes and different approaches that allow a naturally biodynamic vineyard to flourish.

Weekly podcast: BASF on innovation in precision agriculture, and how to engage on science-based targets

This week: Geoff Mackay, sustainability director at BASF, on how innovation in precision agriculture techniques can boost yields and cut the sector’s impacts. And Nathan Shuler, sustainability solutions architect at Schneider Electric, explains what science-based targets can do for business efficiency and strategy.

Plus analysis of Tyson Foods’ focus on land stewardship, why palm oil buyers still won’t pay for sustainable crop, tougher European rules on investor disclosure, and apparel sector worker conflicts in Bangladesh, in the news digest.

Hosted by Ian Welsh