Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

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.

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.

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

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.

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

 

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

James Ede, group sustainability lead for starches, sweetners and texturisers at Cargill, and Andrew Voysey, head of impact and carbon at Soil Capital, talk with Ian Welsh about why regenerative agriculture has become so much a part of the food sector’s decarbonisation plans. They discuss how regen agri brings together the opportunities to deal with carbon emissions, as well as water use, soil health and biodiversity risks. What’s crucial, they argue, is the need for verified data that provides farmers and their customers with the evidence they are progressively cutting carbon emissions and other impacts.

This week: Representatives of the winning projects from WWF and Tesco’s Innovation Connections programme for agricultural supply chain entrepreneurs, receiving up to £150,000 each, talk about their projects and how they will impact at scale. Talking with Ian Welsh are Casey Woodward, founder and CEO of AgriSound, Branston agronomy director David Nelson, Oliver Kynaston, carbon calculator manager at Farm Carbon Toolkit, Chirrup project lead Conrad Young, and Future by Insects chief executive Evelyn Peters.

Plus: concerning new road development in the Amazon; indigenous rights impacts from land speculators; India’s new carbon market for heavy emitting sectors, and UK retail chain Morrisons goes carbon neutral in its egg supply chain, in the news digest.

Host: Ian Welsh

Dr Suwanna Gauntlett, founder and CEO of anti-deforestation NGO Wildlife Alliance, talks with Ian Welsh about how protection of forests on the ground is essential to halt deforestation in Cambodia. They discuss the drivers of deforestation in the country, not least from speculators clearing forest for illegal land sales. In addition, they talk about how REDD+ projects provide carbon market finance that enhance indigenous people’s livelihoods through economic development as well as funding for professional law enforcement personnel.

Birgitte Holter, head of green and low carbon fertilisers at Yara, and Claes Johansson, head of sustainable development at Lantmännen, talk with Ian Welsh about how their collaborative approach is enabling lower emission fertilisers for fossil-fuel-free food supply chains. The creation of green ammonia using hydrogen from electrolysing water, using renewable electricity, is the key process that Yara has developed in partnership with Lantmännen.