Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

COPwatch: Has time run out for 1.5C?

Reckitt’s global head of sustainability David Croft gives some in-person insights from the COP27 meetings in Egypt. He reflects, talking with Ian Welsh, on what progress was made in the opening few days as the conference leaders scrambled to keep the 1.5C warming pledge fully in focus. They discuss the importance of non-siloed solutions, some reasons for optimism, and what future COP meetings should focus on to avoid the accusations of greenwash that have been levelled at the Sharm el-Sheikh conference. Ian Welsh also briefly rounds up some of the other events of the first week.

Weekly podcast – Information is power: how to test soil health and drive agricultural sustainability

This week: Alberto Acedo, co-founder and chief scientific officer at Biome Makers, talks about how the company’s BeCrop technology can test soil health to drive improvements in agricultural sustainability. He discusses the benefits of identifying the soil metrics that help farmers identify and monitor biological and chemical properties of soil to provide effective solutions for sustainable agricultural management.

Plus: quick fire insights from Golden Agri-Resources' Anita Neville, Mighty Earth's Glenn Hurowitz and Everland's Joshua Tosteson, speaking at Innovation Forum's sustainable landscapes and commodities conference in Amsterdam.

And: funding for loss and damage due to climate change and a proposed two-year halt in debt payments from nations impacted by climate-related disasters, discussed at COP27; a more-rapid shift to regenerative agricultural practices needed according to Sustainable Markets Initiative taskforce's report; and, a growing row between Indonesia and the EU over legal timber and deforestation due diligence, in the news digest.

Host: Ian Welsh

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Bottom-up collaboration to improve landscape and livelihoods

Proforest's deputy director for company collaboration Veronique Bovee, and landscape coordinator for Indonesia Mila Nuh, talk with Ian Welsh about their landscape and livelihoods programmes. These tackle deforestation and human rights issues, and facilitate smallholder inclusion. They discuss the importance of multi-stakeholder collaboration between district and national governments, local communities and companies, with a bottom-up approach to achieve forest protection and improved community livelihoods that is beneficial for all.

Weekly podcast: Incentives to improve inadequate waste infrastructure in west Africa

This week: Clem Ugorji from the Global Plastic Action Partnership, formerly vice-president for public affairs communications and sustainability for west Africa at Coca-Cola, talks with Bea Stevenson about the reality of waste collection infrastructure in the region, and ways to create value and incentives for plastic collection and waste segregation. 

Plus, insight from Tesco’s Anna Turrell, APRIL’s Craig Tribolet and FarmStrong Foundation’s Michiel Hendriksz, speaking with Ian Welsh this week at Innovation Forum's sustainable landscapes and commodities conference in Amsterdam.

And, in the news digest with Bea Stevenson: Ellen MacArthur Foundation says corporate plastic recycling reuse targets ‘unlikely to be met’; Lula victory in Brazil spurs hope for the Amazon; Tesco and WWF on mandatory farm food waste reporting; and, Microsoft's president warns of sustainability talent shortage.

Host: Ian Welsh

Optimised guidelines to reduce deforestation and land conversion impacts

Leah Samberg, lead scientist, global policy, at Rainforest Alliance, and McDonald's sustainability director, nature and climate, Pete Garbutt, talk with Ian Welsh about new guidance developed by the Accountability Framework initiative in partnership with the Science Based Targets initiative and Green House Gas Protocol on land use change and further target setting, accounting for impact and disclosure. They discuss McDonald's strategy to reduce deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions and focus on how the guidance will aid towards accounting challenges, targeting alignment and routes to success through collaboration.

Weekly podcast: What does landscape approach delivery actually look like?

This week: Mike Senior and Abraham Baffoe from Proforest discuss how landscape approaches can work in practice, and the growing momentum over the past few years from companies making commitments and investments – through the Consumer Goods Forum’s Forest Positive Coalition for example. They talk about the leadership that is necessary from grower country governments, and why science-based targets for nature are going to be a key future innovation. Collaboration will be necessary, they argue, to ensure incentives for sourcing companies are aligned with countering deforestation and land use change in higher risk regions.

Plus: Mondelēz International’s new $600m investment in cocoa sourcing sustainability; deforestation rates slowed 6.3% in 2021 according to latest Forest Declaration Assessment; H&M, Unilever, and Nestlé among those calling for mandatory nature impact and disclosure by 2030; and, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority proposes new clampdown on greenwashing in 2023, in the news digest from Innovation Forum’s Bea Stevenson.

Host: Ian Welsh

Packaging decarbonisation: what are the incentives to drive success?

Juliet Ermer and Sarah Laidler from the Carbon Trust talk with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about decarbonisation in the packaging sector, and what is needed to enable recycled plastic content to compete with virgin. They discuss the prospects for a legally binding UN plastics treaty by 2024 and consider legislation on extended producer responsibility, pros and cons of chemical recycling and what good policy on consistency in packaging design can look like.

Remote-sensing innovations for net-zero and nature-positive supply chains

For companies working towards their net-zero and nature-positive commitments, the need for clear and reliable intelligence on natural capital is vital. Innovative remote-sensing solutions can be an important enabler for improving business decisions with such data.

This webinar, our expert panel discussed how remote-sensing data can be utilised to support company action for net-zero and nature-positive supply chains. We explored the science and best practice, as well as the challenges for integration with other supply chain data and existing business processes. In brief, we talked about:

• The challenges that food, land use and agriculture companies face when collecting and applying natural capital data.

• How business can integrate remote-sensing based natural capital intelligence with other critical supply chain data such as asset location, supplier information and land ownership.

• The importance of high-quality natural capital intelligence to drive collective action and multi-stakeholder collaboration for sustainable supply chains and landscapes.

• How utilising this data can accelerate existing sustainability, procurement, and reporting processes.

Our panel:

• Andrew Wilcox, Senior Manager, Sustainable Sourcing & Digital Programs, Unilever

• Rob Emanuele, Geospatial Architect, Microsoft

• Anita Neville, Chief Sustainability and Communications Officer, Golden Agri-Resources

• Alessandro Baccini, Co-founder and CSO, Chloris Geospatial

 

This webinar was moderated by Ian Welsh, director of publishing at Innovation Forum, and hosted in partnership with Chloris Geospatial.

Weekly podcast: Why brands need to commit to farmer incomes

This week: Rupert Day, farmer livelihoods advisor at Cargill cocoa and chocolate, discusses some of the sector innovations that are making a real difference for producer communities, and why keeping farm incomes considerations front and centre of supply chain strategy remains vital.

Plus, comment from Christina Dixon, Environmental Investigation Agency, and Jenny Wassenaar, Trivium Packaging, both speaking at the recent future of plastics and packaging conference in Amsterdam.

In the news digest: biodiversity crisis outlined in WWF’s Living Planet Report; Consumer Goods Forum’s plastic coalition predicts 800,000 tonnes of chemically recycled plastic required in 2030; and, Net Zero Tracker compares public and private companies.

And, Innovation Forum’s Hanna Halmari gives an update on Innovation Forum’s upcoming sustainable landscapes and commodities conference, in Amsterdam on 1^st-2^nd November.

Host: Ian Welsh

Transforming supply chains in India through regenerative agriculture

Rahul Raj, co-founder of Sasya Produce talks with Ian Welsh talk about the company's priority to support farmers to implement sustainable agricultural practices and open new international markets. They discuss the future of food supply chains and the company’s five-year plan for regenerative agriculture and improving smallholder farmer livelihoods.