Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

The concept of regenerative agriculture is being hailed as the new paradigm in sustainable supply chains. While it is predominantly food brands that have acted fastest to make significant commitments to regenerative, the future of cotton production could be based on similar practices that aim to restore, renew and replenish the environment. However, big questions still stand on definitions, processes, outcomes, and crucially what this actually looks like on the ground.

In this hour-long webinar, we took a closer look at how regenerative practices can be applied to cotton farming. We discussed:

• How regenerative apparel can be defined and how it differs from sustainable fashion
• The opportunities and challenges for brands, farmers and partners in implementing such program
• The key players in this transition and their roles in ensuring that these practices are scaled
• How to determine the impact and specific outcomes of regenerative programs

Panellists:

• Alison Ward, CEO, CottonConnect
• Rachel Kanter Kepnes, manager of supply chain social responsibility, farms and special programs, Patagonia
• Sheetal Nischal, sustainability projects manager, Primark
• Hanna Denes, Climate+ Strategy, senior manager, Textile Exchange
• Peter Stanbury, senior associate, Innovation Forum

Moderated by Ian Welsh

To view the webinar on video, click here.

Alison Ward, CEO of CottonConnect, and Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb chat in Dublin, while attending Textile Exchange’s Sustainability Conference 2021, about what regenerative agriculture can bring to the cotton sector. They discuss CottonConnect’s 3,000 farm regenerative agriculture pilot programme, how this builds on work developing sustainability in cotton supply chains more generally, and why an approach that focuses more on outcomes than definitions is important.

This week: Sebastiaan van der Hoek, forestry advisor at Cargill, talks about how agroforestry can benefit the cocoa sector, and help the business deliver its sustainability goals, including the Cargill Cocoa Promise. He welcomes the high profile that nature-based solutions had at COP26 and the traction they are gaining more generally.

Plus: global energy intensity improved in 2021 says IEA’s latest Energy Efficiency Report; carbon neutral eggs at Morrisons; Patagonia’s community energy sourcing; and, GRI and CDP collaborate on biodiversity, in the news digest.

Host: Ian Welsh   

At the Global Landscapes Forum in Glasgow during COP26, the Hon Gary Juffa, governor of Oro province in Papua New Guinea, and Tony Simons, executive director of CIFOR-ICRAF, the body formed by the merger of the CIFOR – Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry, spoke with Ian Welsh. 

They discussed a new Resilient Landscapes initiative supported by the national and local governments in Oro province showcasing the importance of nature-based solutions, preserving biodiversity while helping indigenous communities realise the value of their landscape. 

Achieving the Paris Agreement targets requires a radical transformation of the world’s food and land use systems. The land sector alone can deliver at least 30% of the mitigation required to reach net-zero.

In this context, companies with a land-use footprint must embrace interventions to conserve and restore forests and other natural ecosystems in the landscapes they source from as part of their climate strategies. To help scale up these investments, carbon accounting frameworks that provide the right incentives are key.

This hour-long webinar assessed what’s required to drive urgency and transformation in the food and land use system. We discussed:

• What is the role of carbon accounting rules to incentivize the right actions for transformation?
• The challenges that need to be addressed to make these incentives work in practice
• The challenges and opportunities for companies with a land-use footprint to invest and scale up natural climate solutions at a landscape level

Our panel:

• Michele Zollinger, global sustainable sourcing for pulp and paper, and climate lead, Nestlé
• Scarlett Benson, co-director of knowledge generation for the food and land use coalition (FOLU), SYSTEMIQ
• Sandra Genee, head of value change initiative, SustainCERT
• Tilmann Silber, strategy lead climate and nature, Barry Callebaut

Moderated by Toby Webb, Innovation Forum

This week: Tara Luckman, advisor to the US Cotton Trust Protocol, and Dr Mark Sumner from the school of design at the University of Leeds, talk about the impacts of a lack of transparency in apparel production, and cotton in particular. They discuss the importance of data, and how the sector can move away from mass balance approach to supply chain sustainability and monitoring, and deliver proper traceability.

Plus: review of the themes that emerged at the Innovation Forum sustainable landscapes and commodities conference.

Host: Ian Welsh  

Ian Welsh reports from the second day of the 2021 sustainable landscapes and commodities conference. Among the main discussion points were how landscape approaches are being implemented now, and the challenges encountered; how to properly engage smallholder farmers and other grower communities in corporate decision making; and, how to find sustained finance, at scale, to drive change.

Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh reports on the opening day of the 2021 landscapes and commodities event. Highlights include analysis of the impacts of the outcomes from COP26, what transformational change means in practice for key commodity landscapes, and how evolving corporate procurement policies can deliver on targets.

Coming up on day two are open discussions on landscape restoration, regenerative agriculture and ecosystem services payments for farmers. Plus debate on whether the priorities of business and campaign groups are diverging.   

This week: Lord Deben, chair of the UK’s Climate Change Committee, reflects on the outcomes from the COP26 meetings and how momentum can be carried forward over the coming months. A standout from Glasgow, he argues, was the enthusiastic involvement of leaders from big business driving progress forwards.

Plus: PepsiCo targets access to nutritious food; European retailers not doing enough in farmed fish supply chains, says Changing Markets Foundation; and the fashion sector needs $1tn investment to get to a 1.5C pathway according to Fashion for Good and Apparel Impact Institute, in the news digest.

Host: Ian Welsh

Victor Tamanjong, assistant technical manager for Africa at the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, outlines the history of the palm oil sector in Africa, and the more recent growth of certified crop. He discusses how to engage smallholder farmers with the benefits of certification and adopting a more sustainable approach in general – including market access, training, increased yields and farm income. As in many palm oil growing regions, land tenure is a major challenge – but an approach that respects local land-holding customs is proving to be successful. With Ian Welsh.