Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

In the first part of our farmer voice series, Wakinya Samuel, a smallholder coffee farmer from Bushika Integrated Area Cooperative Enterprise (BIACE) in Uganda, speaks with Innovation Forum's Bea Stevenson about some of the challenges he faces as a result of climate change, including pests and diseases, and lower yields. He also explains how farmers are using innovative practices such as agroforestry to increase crop resilience.

 

 

In this week's briefing, Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh and Bea Stevenson talk about the upcoming European Climate Stocktake on EU and global progress on meeting the Paris Agreement, in the leadup to the Global Stocktake. They discuss the Inter-agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators' 14th meeting, held in Denmark, which will include discussions around SDG reports, data partnership and capacity development for the SDGs.

 

Plus, Innovation Forum's Hanna Halmari shares agenda updates and what to expect at the sustainable commodities and landscapes forum next week. Registrations are still open to join us.

This week: IDH's regional director for Asia landscapes, Chi Tran, and senior programme manager for coffee, Tessa Meulensteen, talk with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about the potential impact of the EU's deforestation regulation on the coffee sector and the unintended consequences that may arise.

Plus: UBS and Santander’s “green" bonds linked to Brazilian deforestation; Musim Mas to stop sourcing from smallholders for its EU supply chain in response to EUDR; and, European businesses excluding Scope 3 emissions from net zero planning, in the news digest by Innovation Forum's Bea Stevenson.

 

Host: Ian Welsh

Heather Tansey, vice president for environmental sustainability at Cargill, spoke with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about how to move towards a higher-yield, lower impact food supply system to ensure future supply security. They discuss the importance for the sector to prepare for the inevitable system shocks such as climate change and geopolitical events.

In this week's briefing, Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh and Bea Stevenson talk about the World Investment Forum, which commences this week in Abu Dhabi, with a focus on investing in sustainable development. Over the five days, stakeholders will convene to produce strategies and address global investment and development challenges. They also discuss World Food Day, which focuses this year on raising awareness of the importance of water management.

 

Plus, they share some details about the upcoming webinar on how forest REDD+ projects protect forests in collaboration with indigenous communities, to be held on Wednesday 18th October at 2pm BST. To join us live and receive the recording, you can register here. 

This week: At Innovation Forum's recent future of plastics and packaging conference, Ian Welsh spoke with UNEP’s Llorenç Milà I Canals, Daniel Katz from the Overbrook Foundation and Rainforest Alliance, Sebastian Munden from WRAP, Steve Hardman from Plastic Collective and Innovation Forum's Catie Ball and Tanya Richard, reflecting on the discussions and debate at the conference.

Plus: Kamudiben Satishbhai Tadavi, smallholder cotton farmer with CottonConnect, from the Narmada district in Gujarat, India, speaks with Innovation Forum's Bea Stevenson about how farmers are being impacted by climate change and extreme weather events.

And, carbon credits linked to faster decarbonisation; new tech to extract nutrients and oils from spent coffee grounds; and Zero Acre Farms attracting investment for low deforestation cooking oil, in the news digest.

 

For more information about how women cotton farmers like Kamudiben are adapting to climate change, see here: Women In Cotton: Addressing the Impact of Climate Change through Climate-friendly Practices

Saif Hameed, CEO of Altruistiq, talks with Ian Welsh about how companies can keep on top of data measurement and monitoring, and the tightening regulatory requirements. They discuss how stakeholder expectations are changing and what companies can do to adapt.

Charlotte Bande, global food and beverage sector lead at Quantis, talks to Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about how businesses are shifting from intention to action, when it comes to real long-term sustainability. They also discuss the difficult conversations that companies should be having internally, and how to ensure transparency is not a barrier to necessary collaboration.

In this week's briefing, Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh and Bea Stevenson talk about how Tokyo Stock Exchange traded carbon credits will work. They also discuss what we can expect from 2023's Middle East and North Africa Climate Week, a regional collaboration platform to inform the first global stocktake concluding at COP28 in November.

 

Plus, Innovation Forum's Hanna Halmari gives an update on what to expect at the sustainable commodities and landscapes forum coming up in Amsterdam from 31st October-1st November. Register here for a €100 discount – the offer expires this Friday, 13th October.

This week: Bex Hall, head of consulting at Sedex, talks to Ian Welsh about the factors that have led to consumer reliance on potentially undervalued food, and how food costs can be spread equitably across value chains. They also discuss how food may be going through a re-valuation process and the opportunities presented by this.

 

Plus, at Innovation Forum’s Future of Plastics and Packaging Conference in Amsterdam this week, Ian spoke with Nestle’s global public affairs lead for packaging and sustainability, Jodie Roussell. They talked about some of the trends in packaging and reflected on how the sector is shifting towards tougher mandatory compliance standards.

 

And, Starbucks develops climate-resilient coffee seeds; EU reaches deal to reduce ‘super potent’ GHGs; Global power emissions flatline in first half of 2023; and, almost £600m of surplus UK food redistributed in 2022, in the news digest with Bea Stevenson.

 

Host: Ian Welsh