Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

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.

How to turn pre-consumer apparel ‘waste’ into sustainable yarns

Anurag Gupta, managing director at Usha Yarns, talks with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about how pre-consumer recycled cotton and post-consumer PET can be used to create new yarns. They compare the footprint of recycled and virgin fibres and discuss the drivers for developing the next generation yarns for the apparel sector.

How agroforestry can drive progress in coffee supply chains

This week: Ben Aschenaki, delivery unit lead and rebuild facility lead from Regeneration talks with Ian Welsh talk about the potential of an agroforestry approach and forest coffee supply chain. They discuss the importance of encouraging farmers to steer away from monocultural practices through providing incentives, training, and linking smallholders to international markets.

 

Plus: US pledges funding to curb deforestation in the Amazon; key vote strengthens new EU corporate due diligence rules; EU strikes deal to set binding sustainable fuel targets for aviation; and, global EV sales to increase by 35% in 2023, in the news digest by Innovation Forum's Bea Stevenson.

 

And, quick fire insights from the recent sustainable apparel and textiles conference in Amsterdam from European Commission's Malgorzata Golebiewska, Brittany Sage Brown from Kraft Heinz and CottonConnect's Alison Ward.

 

Host: Ian Welsh

Where agribusiness giants stand on gender empowerment and land rights

Matt Hamiltion, senior advisor on traders and inclusive value chains at Oxfam America shares with Ian Welsh some results from Oxfam's latest Moving the Middle report, assessing big agribusinesses on their policies and implementation plans. The companies are evaluated across five issue areas: women's empowerment, land inequality, smallholder equity and transparency. They also debate the need to go beyond commitments and begin implementation to sustain a just food system for the long-term.

ESG through the supply chain: Incentives that work on the ground

In order to hit targets on sustainability issues such as emissions, waste and ethical work conditions, companies must work with suppliers to implement changes on the ground. Asking suppliers to shift behaviour and protocol can be challenging, and so incentives are often needed.

As part of the theme for Earth Day 2023 to “Invest in Our Planet”, this special webinar had panellists share the different types of incentives and approaches that encourage suppliers to implement sustainable changes in farms and factories. They gave proven examples of incentives that have worked, whilst discussing:

• The potential challenges and pitfalls of communicating with supply chain workers around new sustainability initiatives
• Best practice for approaching discussions with suppliers to drive progress in factories and farms
• How to work with suppliers to build sustainable policies and initiatives that work for the business, the supplier, and workers on the ground

The panel:

• Kate Larsen, director ESG, human rights, sustainability in supply chains advisory, SupplyESChange
• Mr Sathya Raghu V Mokkapati, co-founder and president, Kheyti
• Saif Khan, technical director, Footprints

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