Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

Microsoft and Hilton on sustainability’s business case and how to save $1bn

Daniella Foster, senior director for global corporate responsibility at Hilton, and Jennifer Marsman, principal software development engineer at Microsoft, talk with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about how to make the business case to corporate boards so they sit up and engage with developing sustainability to future-proof business models. Investing in how to measure impacts better, both environmental and social, is crucial, they argue, alongside thinking about what the business will look like in the future.

Weekly podcast: Greenpeace on plastics pollution and Dow on corporate materiality

This week: Louise Edge, European campaign coordinator at Greenpeace, talks to Toby Webb about some of the key actions companies need to take on plastics pollution. And Erica Ocampo, global sustainability strategy manager, Dow Chemical and Ian Welsh discuss how to define corporate materiality and measure impact. Plus: Lidl’s sustainable soy sourcing switch; why companies are not yet using modern slavery statements as a catalyst for better reporting; and more questions about processing plastics waste.

Hosted by Ian Welsh

Investment community engagement on modern slavery

Phil Bloomer, executive director of the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, talks with Ian Welsh about why there are still only a small number of corporate leaders working effectively on human rights. Bloomer highlights, however, the increasing awareness of the investment community about operational and supply chain modern slavery and human rights risks as a real driver of change.

Webinar – Sustainable commodities: is the landscape approach the future?

With 2020 fast approaching, companies are facing increasing pressure in cleaning up their supply chains and ensuring the sustainable sourcing of commodities.. In this webinar, experts from Olam, Coca-Cola and Unilever debate the landscape approach – where companies spanning multiple sectors work together to address land use issues – and how it can help solve this incredibly complex and sensitive issue. But how can we ensure that we are not only focusing on environmental impact, but also on the social and economic outcomes across regions and jurisdictions?

Panel:

• Christopher Stewart, head of corporate responsibility and sustainability, Olam
• Ulrike Sapiro, senior director, water stewardship and sustainable agriculture, Coca-Cola Company
• Melissa Miners, senior global advocacy manager – forests, Unilever

Hosted by Toby Webb, founder, Innovation Forum

Weekly podcast: Mondelez’s deforestation impacts in west Africa

This week: Christine McGrath from Mondelez International and Meghann Jones from Ipsos talk with Ian Welsh about the impacts of Mondelez’s Cocoa Life programme in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire and debate why a holistic approach is required to achieve corporate deforestation and social goals. And Innovation Forum’s Tanya Richard speaks to Cyndi Rhoades, CEO of Worn Again Technologies, about the apparel sector’s circular economy potential and impacts on plastic pollution.

Plus, in the news digest: what business must do to achieve the IPCC 1.5C goals; investor fossil fuel divestment; and, the good and bad from Know the Chain’s new food and beverage benchmark.

Hosted by Ian Welsh

Plastic pollution: design products so they can be made again

Sara Wingstrand, new plastics economy research analyst from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, talks to Ian Welsh about plastics and the essential transition from a linear to a circular economy. They discuss why plastic is a resource and how circular economy principles can develop a restorative economy by design. Wingstrand argues that business models need to change, and companies need to think about how they can eliminate single use plastic products. She highlights how some companies are changing to have re-use business models, focusing on the service they provide and new ways to deliver it.

Why palm oil is about more than deforestation

Anita Neville, Golden Agri-Resources’ vice-president of corporate communications and sustainability relations, talks with Ian Welsh about GAR’s new ‘Extraordinary Everyday’ series. This aims, through story-telling, to highlight aspects of the palm oil sector beyond the bad news around deforestation and ecosystem destruction that dominates the news agenda. Neville outlines why GAR wants to talk about some more positive aspects of the industry, and how compelling narratives can help palm oil companies both engage consumers but also provide reassurance and confidence for other stakeholders including the financial community.

Weekly podcast: why engaging the C-suite requires more than ‘greed and fear’

This week: Daniella Foster, senior director for global corporate responsibility at Hilton, and Jennifer Marsman, principal software development engineer at Microsoft, talk with Ian Welsh about how to piece together the narratives for future-proofing business models. They discuss the business cases that really make sceptical board directors sit up and help drive forward smart solutions. Foster and Marsman debate how to get beyond the obvious answers and make billion-dollar savings.

Plus: why California will require women directors on corporate boards; initiatives on gender empowerment, modern slavery, and food and land use at the UN General Assembly; and, changing public attitudes to plastics, in the news digest.

Hosted by Ian Welsh

Weekly podcast: how business can really cut plastic use, and the key deforestation questions

This week: insight from the recent Innovation Forum webinar on the business challenges in developing realistic alternatives to plastic packaging, with Iceland’s Ian Schofield, Surfdome’s Adam Hall and CupClub’s Safia Qureshi. Plus an in-depth discussion between Greenpeace forest campaigner Richard George and Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb on where the business and deforestation debate is going and why progress has been slow. And news of the new World Benchmarking Alliance, palm oil trader Wilmar pushing back against deforestation allegations and more supermarket pledges on plastic us, in the regular roundup.

Hosted by Ian Welsh

How sanctions are nudging business on forced labour

Stephanie Brown Cripps global sanctions counsel, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, talks with Ian Welsh about how governments – particularly the US – are increasingly using sanctions as tools to influence corporate behaviour on human rights and modern slavery. Brown Cripps outlines some of the civil and criminal penalties that can be imposed on business, and they discuss how companies can become inadvertently in breach of sanctions regulation.