Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

West Africa’s waste collection challenges

Circularium Africa lead advisor and Global Plastic Action Partnership consultant Clem Ugorji talks with Innovation Forum's Bea Stevenson about how to improve the current waste collection infrastructure in west Africa, and communicating with consumers about end-of-life disposal. They discuss the challenges caused by a lack of waste segregation talk about the opportunities that can realise the value from post-use plastic and boost recycling rates in the region.

What does the future of plastics and packaging look like?

During Innovation Forum’s recent future of plastics and packaging event in Amsterdam, some of the expert participants spoke with Ian Welsh, reflecting on conversations from the conference and focusing in particular on how business can build packaging solutions that deliver impact at scale.

Hear from the Consumer Goods Forum’s Ignacio Gavilan, Jodie Roussell from Nestlé, Camiel Steffanie and Sofie Vergucht from Eastman, Trivium Packaging’s Jenny Wassenaar and Christina Dixon from the Environmental Investigation Agency.

Weekly podcast – COP27 outcomes: Why the role of business is more important than ever

This week: Business and climate journalist Mike Scott reflects with Ian Welsh on the recent COP27 climate conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, evaluating the outcomes and commitments made. They discuss the progress on loss and damage, why commitments on phasing out fossil fuel use were weakened and assess the chances of maintaining a 1.5C warming pathway. There is an ever-greater need for climate adaptation for businesses and clearer commitments from governments, they conclude.

Plus: the US Food and Drug Administration approves lab-grown meat production for the first time; Nestlé to roll out home compostable paper-based coffee capsules in France and Switzerland; cocoa supply row continues in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire over farmer income premiums; and, critical feedback from COP27 about the conference processes itself, in the news digest.

And, Innovation Forum's Natasha Bodnar introduces the Future of Food conference coming up in Amsterdam in May 2023.

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Leadership for landscapes and forests: integrating actions and stakeholders

Proforest's Africa regional director, Abraham Baffoe, and deputy director for conservation and land use, Mike Senior, talk with Ian Welsh about what effective landscape approaches look like in practice. They identify positive nature, social and climate implications and opportunities for multi-stakeholder collaboration. They discuss what good policies look like to ensure producer voices are heard, create incentives and transparency, and mitigate unintended consequences hindering progress.

Weekly podcast – Why traceability matters: blockchain solutions for sustainable chemistry

This week: Isabella Tonaco, vice-president for strategy execution and marketing, renewable polymers and chemicals at Neste, and Mezbah Sabur, founder of Circularise, talk with Innovation Forum's Toby Webb about the two companies’ partnership to establish digital solutions for a transparent and traceable chemistry value chain. They discuss how blockchain transparency can counter challenges in mass balance monitoring and share what sustainable chemistry at scale might look like.

Plus: insight from Patrick Houdry at Airbus, Eloisa Menguzzo from Dutch pension sector non-profit PGGM and Innovation Forum senior associate Peter Stanbury, speaking with Ian Welsh at Innovation Forum's recent sustainable landscapes and commodities conference in Amsterdam.

And: Lula da Silva's strong commitments to end Amazon deforestation at COP27; apparel brands pledged for low-carbon alternative fibres in initiative from Canopy; corporate net zero targets will require doubling of current pace of change, says Accenture; and, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and Changing Markets Foundation report highlights the scale of meat and dairy farming emissions, in the news digest.

Host: Ian Welsh

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How Cargill is working to deliver on its cocoa promises

Rupert Day, farmer livelihoods advisor at Cargill Cocoa and Chocolate, talks with Ian Welsh about how the Cargill Cocoa Promise programme is designed to help smallholder farmers become “agripreneurs” that are more resilient to shocks, while building community capacity. They discuss the continuing need to focus on farm incomes, and what good multi-stakeholder initiatives that help drive active collaboration and impact look like.

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