Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

What bold environmental and social regulation implementation looks like

Environment and human rights expert Etelle Higonnet, formerly senior advisor at the National Wildlife Federation, talks with Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb about how environmental and human rights regulations are changing worldwide, in particular around procurement and importation of commodities and products linked with high-risk production regions. They discuss the pressing need for regulatory harmonisation, and how developing capacity in monitoring and enforcement can help get ahead of potential breaches, resolving them before they escalate.

Weekly podcast: How supply transparency drives competitive advantage

This week: Goetz Martin, director for sustainability and strategic projects at Golden Agri-Resources, talks about how ambitious brand targets are now driving emissions reductions in palm oil supply chains. Investors and palm oil customers are asking lots of questions about the GHG impact of the commodity, and expect data verification and transparency.  

Plus: new Diageo scheme to incentivise regenerative agriculture from east African smallholder farmers; further Qatar migrant worker abuses alleged as World Cup looms; and, ESG screening banned by state governor for Florida $228bn state pension funds, in the news digest.   

Host: Ian Welsh

The engagement, governance and integration pillars for net zero success

Krishna Manda, vice-president for corporate sustainability at Lenzing, the textile sector fibre manufacturer, talks with Ian Welsh about how the business has established a net zero strategy. They discuss the importance of board-level ownership and incentives, how to establish science-based targets, the need to signal to stakeholders that you are serious and the importance of near-term target setting to achieve long-term goals.  

Weekly podcast: Britvic’s sparkling net zero and packaging strategy

This week: Insight from soft drinks manufacturer Britvic’s supply chain director Nigel Paine into the company’s carbon reduction and net zero strategy, developing better supply chain relationships. He talks about how Britvic’s brands are moving to lightweight recycled plastic bottles, and how to ensure that efficiencies in one area don’t cause greater impacts elsewhere.

And Robertsbridge’s Chiara Vitali discusses some new research into plant-based meat alternatives and interventions that can effectively reduce consumption.

Plus: supplier finance incentive scheme from Coca-Cola Europacific Partners and Rabobank, new EU ESG benchmark labelling scheme on the cards, the looming fertiliser supply crisis, and new water resource sustainability campaign for big companies and investors from Ceres, in the news digest.

Host: Ian Welsh

Palm oil’s evolving regulatory risks

Ian Suwarganda, head of policy and partnerships at Golden Agri-Resources, talks with Ian Welsh about how regulatory changes in the EU, US and elsewhere are impacting the palm oil sector. In particular, they discuss how well-meaning rule changes can in fact de-incentivise companies to encourage the changes they should at suppliers and, rather, encourages them to divest and source from markets with lower perceived social and environmental risks.

How to boost soil health and accurately measure the carbon benefits

At the recent online future of food conference, Anastasia Volkova, CEO of Regrow, Britt Lundgren, director of organic and sustainable agriculture at Stonyfield Farm, and Carmen Barker Lemay, head of strategic partnerships at the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction, joined Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb. They talked about how business can drive effective action on soil health throughout agricultural supply chains and reduce environmental impact in line with net zero targets.

Weekly podcast: Why traceability is not all good news for palm oil

This week: Palm oil company Musim Mas's director of sustainability Olivier Tichit, and assistant professor of environmental policy at ETH Zürich Rachael Garrett, talk about the evolving role of smallholder farmers in supplying the palm oil sector, and the risks that some farmers may be excluded from certain markets as buyers and brands demand ever-greater supply chain traceability.

Plus: fruit pickers for UK supermarkets found to be paying recruitment fees; UN oceans treaty on the horizon; implications of new US climate legislation; and, lab-based palm alternative to come to market, in the news digest.

And, Innovation Forum’s Hanna Halmari gives an update on how November’s sustainable landscapes and commodities conference is coming together.

Host: Ian Welsh

Apparel companies’ role in overcoming barriers to circularity

At Innovation Forum’s recent sustainable apparel and textiles conference Toby Webb was joined by Anurag Gupta, managing director at Usha Yarns, and Madeleine Michell, social conscience communications officer at Toast. They discussed how to overcome the barriers to circularity, and in particular how companies can facilitate and simplify recycling infrastructure to persuade companies to take part.

Weekly podcast: How to plot a realistic and robust route to net zero

This week: Krishna Manda, vice-president for corporate sustainability at textile sector fibre manufacturer Lenzing talks about what an effective net zero strategy looks like. This includes getting interim targets right, aligning incentives across the business and with suppliers, and how to avoid tensions between short term targets and long term goals.  

Plus: Brazilian cerrado green bond scheme for farmers backed by Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose and Barry Callebout; Stockholm University study shows all rainwater contaminated; big apparel brands’ offcuts firing polluting brick kilns; and, University of Oxford rates impacts of 57,000 UK food and drinks product lines, in the news digest.  

Host: Ian Welsh

 

Fast fashion has ten years left. If so, what’s next?

Zalando’s CEO Robert Gentz has stated that the apparel industry must “abandon the fast fashion business model within the next ten years”. The steep environmental costs of the take-make-waste system are obviously incompatible with the recent net-zero pledges of countries, cities, and businesses. If this is the start of the end of fast fashion, what does the apparel business model of the net-zero future look like? 

In this opening panel from Innovation Forum’s recent sustainable apparel and textiles conference, leading sustainability professionals from across the apparel industry debate the business model transformation required and what sustainable growth looks like. 

Session panel, led by Innovation Forum's Toby Webb:

• La Rhea Pepper, CEO, Textile Exchange
• José Arguedas, head of corporate responsibility and sustainability, River Island
• Liz Hershfield, senior vice-president of supply chain and sustainability, J Crew Group
• Lucita Jasmin, director of sustainability and external affairs, APRIL