Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

Monday briefing: from COP15 and COP27 commitments to action

In this week's preview of what's coming up, Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh and Bea Stevenson talk about how this year's International Day for Biological Diversity is catalysing action on commitments made at COP15 in Kunming. They also discuss the agenda for the second meeting of the Transitional Committee, charged with establishing a Loss and Damage fund for developing countries.

Plus, Innovation Forum's Emily Heslop shares final updates on the future of food conference coming up next week in Minneapolis on 31st May-1st June.

Click here to register to the resilient agriculture webinar on Tuesday 22nd May at 1pm BST, hosted in partnership with Regrow.

Weekly podcast – Collaboration to drive progress in recycled products and packaging

This week: Katherine Hofmann, sustainability strategic initiatives manager at Eastman, and Stanley Black & Decker’s director of product development, Ed Higgins, share with Ian Welsh how they are collaborating to develop sustainable power tools including using recycled plastics. They discuss the future of sustainable innovation in power tools production, sustainable packaging and how better design can mean products can be fully recyclable.  

Plus: UN report says plastic pollution could be slashed by 80% by 2040; EU countries to finalise 42.5% renewable energy target; EU places ban on destruction of unsold clothing; and, auto manufacturers implemented in battery supply chain abuses, in the news digest with Bea Stevenson.

Host: Ian Welsh

The growing potential of agroforestry for coffee supply chains

Ben Aschenaki, delivery unit lead and rebuild facility lead at Regeneration, talks with Ian Welsh about the role of agroforestry in delivering long term resilience in the coffee sector, and the potential for coffee sensitively harvested from within standing forests. With incentives such as increased land productivity, and boosting farmer incomes as they gain better access to international markets, they also discuss the importance of landscape governance models.

Webinar – The future of meat debate: what are the best options for human and planetary health?

The meat sector appears to be at a crossroads. There has been much coverage of the rise and fall (and rise?) of the alternative meat industry. Whilst some critics flag plummeting sales and lower stock prices, others have questioned nutrition and sustainability claims.

Simultaneously, evidence continues to mount that we have no choice but to move away from our current land and carbon-intensive meat industry.

In this special webinar, we tried to cut through media bias and counterproductive polarisation, to find a sensible route forward. We asked our panel whether it’s possible to have a market in which animal meat and meat alternatives with genuine human and planetary health benefits can co-exist.

Our panel discussed:
• What is the forecast for the future of the ‘fake meat’ industry?
• What are the current and projected consumer trends around meat/alternative meat?
• Why zero-sum positioning is unhelpful to the climate and health agenda, and how can we ensure that nutritious and sustainable meat and meat alternatives win out and co-exist.

The panel:
• Samantha Werth, executive director, US Roundtable for Sustainable Beef
• Peer Ederer, founding director, GOAL Sciences / programme and science director, Global Food and Agribusiness Network
• Andy Shovel, founder and co-CEO, THIS

This webinar was part of our "big debate" series and was moderated by Ian Welsh.

Monday briefing: G7 and G20 to discuss climate change and energy transition

In this week's preview of what's coming up, Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh and Bea Stevenson talk about the G7 summit and G20 meeting this week focusing on climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution and just energy transition. They also discuss ongoing high consumer food prices as UK prime minister Rishi Sunak is set to meet with supermarket bosses and farmers.

 

Plus, Innovation Forum's Catie Ball introduces the future of plastics and packaging conference returning this year in Amsterdam on 10th-11th October.

Weekly podcast – Tackling labour rights for truly responsible palm oil sourcing

This week: Rashyid Anwarudin, chief sustainability officer at Sime Darby Plantation, talks with Ian Welsh about why developing truly responsible commodity sourcing supply chains means seeking out labour rights breaches and remediating them. They discuss Sime Darby Plantation’s strategies to ensure workers are treated ethically including responsible recruitment procedures and grievance mechanisms.

Plus: further reflections from the recent sustainable apparel and textiles conference in Amsterdam with Ola Bakowska from Circle Economy, Patagonia's Nick Allen and Umer Rehman from Soorty Enterprises.

And, renewables to be the biggest source of the world's electricity, says the International Energy Agency; Circle Economy’s new report shows economical potential for the global south in adopting a circular approach; World Green Building Council shares how companies can make the transition into circular design, end of life disassembly and recycling materials; and, Ecuador closes $1.63bn debt-for-nature financing facility, in the news digest.

Host: Ian Welsh

From concept to reality: Building a resilient apparel net-zero plan

Scott Kelly, senior vice president at Risilience, talks with Ian Welsh about how apparel brands can go beyond planning and implement effective net-zero plans by 2050. They discuss the importance of measuring emission sources then setting a net-zero plan and interim targets, and how to be transparent in reporting progress.

Nestlé Global Virtual Event: Implementing regenerative agriculture at scale

Please note that this is an audio recording of a webinar containing slides and presentations. To view the video recording, click here. 

 

As part of Nestlé’s pledge to source up to 50% of its key ingredients regeneratively by 2030, this live virtual event featured updates of progress to date and deep dive into some case studies.

We discussed the role of the food and beverage industry in scaling up regen ag and broader nature-based solutions to address the impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss and soil degradation – through protecting and enhancing livelihoods.

Hearing live from senior Nestlé colleagues, alongside industry experts, farmers and local project managers, they discussed topics such as:

• Nestlé’s regenerative agriculture approach, and the progress and challenges encountered so far.
• How regenerative agriculture programs are working on the ground, taking dairy farming in Chile, and coffee farming in Vietnam as case studies.
• The outlook for the future of regenerative farming, and the next steps needed to bring it to scale.

This discussion was moderated by Ian Welsh, publishing director at Innovation Forum.

This webinar was hosted in partnership with Nestlé.

Innovation Forum collaborates with leading companies to deliver bespoke stakeholder engagement, research and sustainability communications services. Partners gain access to our network and cross-industry experience to promote positive change in their chosen areas. Our bespoke projects are a chance to utilise our decades of experience in sustainable business to create an effective programme, make connections, and gain insightful feedback from key industry experts.

Click here for more information about our stakeholder engagement and communications services.

Weekly briefing: Focus on regenerative future at this year’s World Fair Trade Day

In this week's preview of what's coming up, Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh and Bea Stevenson talk about the World Fair Trade Day on Saturday 13th focusing on regenerative business for future economy including topics of smallholder farmers and sustainable agriculture. They also discuss the continued rise in supermarket food prices — despite wholesale prices coming down — due in part to energy costs, production and packaging, and transportation.

 

Plus, Innovation Forum's Catie Ball shares details about some sessions to take place at the sustainable apparel and textiles conference USA in New York on 21st-22nd June.

 

Click here to register to the future of meat debate webinar on 11th May at 3pm BST.

What good ethical trade and human rights regulation looks like

This week: Brodie partners' founding director, Georgie Erangey, and director of sustainable sourcing, Dave Pendlington, talk with Ian Welsh about developing ethical sourcing regulation from the EU and other jurisdictions and why procurement professionals are ever-more involved in tackling corporate human rights risks.

 

Plus: insights from Hanne Søndergaard from Arla Foods, Paulig Group's Lea Rankinen and Nestlé's Owen Bethell from this week’s future of food conference in Amsterdam.

 

And, wealthy nations to meet $100bn climate pledge, three years late; why loss and damage funding must not create more debt for the global south; Barclay’s bank cracks down on deforestation for beef; and, LinkedIn highlights need for green upskilling for increasing sustainability roles, in the news digest by Innovation Forum's Bea Stevenson.

 

Host: Ian Welsh

 

Click here to register to the future of meat debate on Thursday 11th May at 3pm BST.