Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

Monday briefing: World Environment Day collaboration to tackle plastic pollution

In this week's preview, Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh and Bea Stevenson talk about this year's World Environment Day focusing on solutions to plastic pollution, following the second negotiation session for the global plastics treaty. They discuss the agenda for the EU green week on how to deliver a net zero world with newly developing EU environmental policies. Ian also shares information on how the UN climate change conference will spark initial conversations ahead of COP28 and catalyse action on the loss and damage fund.

 

Click here to listen to the podcast on the UN global pact on plastic pollution with Environmental Investigation Agency’s Christina Dixon.

Weekly podcast – Regenerative farming: building resilience in modern agriculture

This week: Ian Welsh recently spoke with Fabiana Furlan, Head of Commercial, Finance and Sustainability at Scheffer in Brazil. They talked about how a regenerative approach can help farmers to overcome reliance on chemical inputs, restore soil health and rebalance ecosystems. They also discussed the improvements that regenerative practices have on biodiversity and carbon sequestration, and how these metrics can be measured and certified.

Plus: on-the-spot interview at the future of food conference in Minneapolis with Rod Snyder, senior agriculture advisor to the administration at the US Environmental Protection Agency and Ian Welsh. They discuss progress within the US agricultural sector and voluntary vs regulatory incentives for sustainable agriculture.

And, potential for CO2 capture with Greenland's rock ‘flour’; UNEP's guidance on building a circular textile sector across the value chain; CDP calls 1,600 companies to report environmental data; Mars bar trialling recyclable paper packaging in the UK, in the news digest by Bea Stevenson.

Host: Bea Stevenson

The key to a truly responsible palm oil sourcing supply chain

Chief sustainability officer at Sime Darby Plantation, Rashyid Anwarudin talks to Ian Welsh about the importance of flagging labour rights breaches to deliver truly responsible sourcing supply chains. They discuss Sime Darby Plantation's responsible recruitment procedures and policies to mitigate typical migrant worker risks, from origin and destination countries.

Weekly podcast – Unlocking circularity: the use of technology in apparel supply chains

This week: Debbie Shakespeare, senior director, sustainability and compliance, apparel solutions, Avery Dennison and Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh talk about how technology can be a catalyst for the development of circularity in apparel supply chains. They discuss the importance of digital traceability in extending the life of a product, through consumer education and authentication.

Plus: UK Climate Change Committee warns against government inaction on green jobs; G7 supports ‘temporary’ use of natural gas; France implements ban on short-haul flights; Science-Based Targets Network publishes new framework on nature, in the news digest.

Host: Bea Stevenson

Webinar – Resilient agriculture: value-chain collaboration for a climate-smart food system

Left vulnerable from the degradation linked to conventional farming, food crops world-over are increasingly exposed to extreme impacts of climate change. For the agri-food industry, regenerative agriculture offers a vital opportunity to re-nourish agricultural land and build up system resilience, whilst relying on and supporting farmers. To implement this at scale, there is a need for strong leadership and willing collaboration across whole value chains.

In this webinar, we heard about the approaches, tools and technologies that leading brands are using to drive this collaboration. Our panel discussed:

• How agri-food leaders can build partnerships to drive agricultural system resilience through regenerative agriculture
• How jurisdictional sourcing approaches can enable businesses to support farmer livelihoods and regenerate landscapes
• What are the available tools and technologies to monitor and optimise agricultural ecosystem health?

The panel:

• Anastasia Volkova, CEO and co-founder, Regrow
• Jay Watson, director, regenerative agriculture, General Mills
• Janelle Meyers, chief sustainability officer, Kellogg Company

Moderator: Toby Webb, founder, Innovation Forum

This webinar was hosted in partnership with Regrow.

Lifting the curtains: ethical trade and human rights corporate regulation

Founding director and director of sustainable sourcing at Brodie partners, Georgie Erangey and Dave Pendlington, follow up with Ian Welsh on some of the key topics discussed at Innovation Forum's recent responsible sourcing and ethical trade forum, including evolving corporate attitudes in supply chain risk and transparency. They highlight remediation and the involvement of procurement professionals as key pillars of corporate transparency.

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.