Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

COPwatch2: $19bn deal to fight deforestation, and real movement on methane

In the latest daily podcast covering the COP26 meetings in Glasgow, Ian Welsh speaks to Mighty Earth founder and CEO Glenn Hurowitz. They react to the leaders’ declaration on forests and land use committing 110 countries to eliminate deforestation by 2030, the first big announcement of the conference – and Hurowitz gives some detail on a new pledge from UK and European supermarket chains not to source meat or dairy linked to deforestation.

In the news round up, detail of the 80-nation pledge to cut methane emissions by 30% this decade. Plus, Colombia’s 30% for nature in 2022 commitment, international collaboration on clean tech standards and policies, and China called out for lack of presence at the meetings, once again.     

COPwatch: let’s keep 1.5 alive!

The first daily podcast covering the COP26 meetings in Glasgow, with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh. All the news from the opening day as delegates struggled with train delays and venue queues, and including reflection on the opening comments from David Attenborough, Boris Johnston, Joe Biden and Narendra Modi’s 2070 net zero pledge for India. Plus insight from climate journalist Mike Scott on what to look out for over the coming days.

Weekly podcast: Successful forests action project in Kenya, and impact of new EU label for apparel sector

This week: Local managers and community leaders explain how a REDD+ project in Kenya is preserving 200,000 hectares of forest and benefitting 120,000 local people. Plus, insight from Apparel Insider’s Brett Mathews about how the new EU product environmental footprint label will impact the apparel sector, and why some brands need to take care about their marketing using sustainability messaging. And, Innovation Forum’s Narni Brooke-Adil gives an update on the upcoming sustainable landscapes and commodities conference at the end of November.

In the news digest: in the run up to COP26, explanation how we get to $100bn+ climate finance for the developing world; Australia and Saudi Arabia lay out their net zero plans; and, the climate impacts of plastic production.  

Host: Ian Welsh

For the complete audio of the REDD+ project webinar, click here.

The rise and rise of the voluntary carbon markets

Stephen Donofrio, director of Forest Trends’ Ecosystem Marketplace project, and co-author of the State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2021 report, explains to Ian Welsh why the carbon markets are set to exceed $1bn in 2021. He says why he thinks they will continue to grow as companies voluntarily take action to decarbonise their operations and broader impacts as far as they can, using credible offsets to account for what’s left.

Regenerative agriculture’s $70bn potential for Africa

Cassandra Austen, senior economist at Vivid Economics, Joe Robertson, senior advisor for sustainable finance at EAT, and member of the secretariat of the Good Food Finance Network, and Nicolas Ambanya, chief production officer, Twiga Foods, talk with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about a new report – Regenerative Agriculture: An opportunity for businesses and society to restore degraded land in Africa.

They talk about the crucial role of regenerative agriculture in land restoration, developing food supply chain resilience and increasing food security. Regen agri practices increase crop productivity, enhance soil fertility, improve water retention, and create other ecosystem services, generating extensive economic, mitigation, adaptation and social benefits. Pilot projects show that eventual 68% to 300% crop yield increases are possible. The report finds that regenerative practices in Africa could be adding more than $15bn in gross value added per year by 2030, increasing up to $70bn by 2040 (one fifth of the current agricultural GDP of sub-Saharan Africa).

Download the new report here.

Weekly podcast: Building climate smart communities in the global south

This week: Peter Williams, president of the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction talks about the work of the institute in the rural communities of southeast Asia and Africa, some of the factors that are necessary points of focus for effective development projects, and the IIRR’s climate smart village model.

Plus: Una Kent, vice-president CSR international, at WallgreenBootsAlliance on her thoughts about the key points from a half-day conference on climate change and human health co-hosted by WBA and Innovation Forum.  

And, COP26 momentum builds despite Russia and China apparent no-shows; UN biodiversity COP pledges net-positive impacts; Credit Suisse fined for Mozambique tuna sector corruption; and La Isla Network’s work on potential climate change impacts on agriculture commodity supply chains worker health gaining traction, in the news roundup.

Host: Ian Welsh

Palm oil’s climate resilience challenge

Musim Mas director of sustainable supply chain Oliver Tichit tells Ian Welsh that he wants to see progress towards more collaboration, better financing, climate resilience in agriculture and better use of renewable energy in a rural setting as outcomes from COP26. Also on his wish list for palm oil smallholders is financial inclusion so that the banking sector adapts its approach making it relevant for grower communities and helping them develop more resilience, not least to tackle climate change.  

Musim Mas was a sponsor of Innovation Forum’s future of food conference series.

Can the future be textile to textile recycling?

Textile Exchange’s La Rhea Pepper, Claire Bergkamp and Megan Stoneburner talk with Toby Webb about the challenges for the apparel sector in growing recycling of polyester – still the most used fibre in the industry.  

Mechanical recycling of PET plastic bottles to make polyester fibres is relatively straightforward. More difficult is scaling up the chemical recycling processes that could allow for mixed fibre garments to reprocessed into virgin fibres.

Weekly podcast: Why optimisation of business strategy is essential to tackle climate change

Scott Steedman, director general standards at BSI, outlines the background to the new London declaration commitment to embed climate science in all standards. He explains how standards – designed to be bodies of knowledge on what best business practice looks like – can assess carbon footprints, environmental impacts and all the climate change challenges that must be front and centre as the world economy decarbonises.

Plus: some reporting from this week’s future for plastics conference, picking up on some of the emerging themes from the event’s sessions and networking. There was a lot of positivity around the collaboration potential, but equally sober realism at the challenges involved in tackling plastic pollution, and developing the waste collection infrastructure systems, that can then lead to reuse and recycling at scale.  

And: detail about what’s coming up on 20^th October at free-to-attend half-day workshop on how business can empower, educate and build community resilience on climate change and human health. Event participants WBA’s Una Kent and Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb highlight how the discussion will focus on where the role of the private sector can make a real difference. Click here for full details and to register.    

Host: Ian Welsh

Decarbonising your business? Just get on with it

Alan Kroeger, head of supply chains and natural climate solutions at Satelligence, and Ian Welsh talk about the open dialogue that can lead to the cooperation required for companies to tackle their emissions at pace and scale.

Kroeger argues for better incentives for companies to act quickly – government and multilateral finance can help growers deliver so their buyer clients can themselves meet targets. They discuss the role of radical solutions such as scaling carbon credits using remote sensing data to leverage funding for forest communities worldwide.

Satelligence was a sponsor of Innovation Forum's future of food conference series.