Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

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.

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

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.

This week: Stephen Donofrio, co-author of the new State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2021 report, and director of Forest Trends’ Ecosystem Marketplace project, talks about why the voluntary carbon markets are set to top $1bn in 2021, and the drivers for this. Primarily these are corporate awareness of emissions and desire to set in place how to achieve a net zero footprint. Donofrio also argues that it is a “myth” that businesses are engaging in offsetting without decarbonising operations and supply chains concurrently.  

Plus: Mars, McDonald’s and Marks & Spencer announce new and challenging decarbonising targets; why palm oil buyers may have inadvertent timber deforestation risks, says Aidenvironment; and, embedded sustainability management practices leads to better overall company performance, according to Accenture and the World Economic Forum, in the news digest.

Host: Ian Welsh

With discussion on how companies can build a market-driven solution to finance forest and wildlife conservation, benefit local communities and meet SDGs, this webinar was broadcast live from the Wildlife Works Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project in Kenya.

The project protects over 200,000 hectares of dryland forest, an important ecosystem with rich biodiversity. Located between the Tsavo East and Tsavo West National Parks, the region serves as a vital corridor for more than 300 species of wildlife, including 2,000 wild elephants. 

The emerging marketplace for REDD+ carbon offsets provides funds for the project to support social programmes that impact around 120,000 local people. Long-term jobs for local communities have replaced unsustainable and destructive sources of income such as poaching, subsistence agriculture and illegal tree harvesting. 

In 2011, the project was successfully validated and verified under the Verified Carbon Standard and the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standard. It was then the world's first REDD+ project to receive issuance of carbon credits and also the first Verified Carbon Standard REDD+ mega-project, in that it will result in the avoidance of over 1.5m tonnes of emissions per year for 30 years.  

Joining live from the Kasigau Corridor REDD+ project were:

• Lenjo Mwandoe, community relations manager
• George Thumbi, agribusiness and forestry manager
• Seraphine Charo, carbon committee representative
• Mercy Ngaruiya, founder of an environmental women’s group
• Eric Sagwe, head ranger

Host and moderator: Ian Welsh, Innovation Forum

 

This week: Oliver Hurrey, founder of the scope 3 peer group and the sustainable procurement pledge, and Ian Welsh discuss some of the talking points from Innovation Forum’s climate action conference. While tackling the climate crisis is clearly daunting, there is a sense of urgency and positivity, with business beginning to get to grips with tough scope 3 emissions. And big brands are increasingly requiring their suppliers to have clear decarbonising plans in place – getting to net zero is going to be a necessary license to trade.

Plus: all the latest about the upcoming future of plastic event from Innovation Forum’s Natasha Bodnar.  

Xavier Roussel, sustainability and marketing director at Dole Foods, and Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb discuss how augmented reality experiences from QR codes and other technology solutions can help brands use sustainability messages to market products. Roussel explains how the next steps will involve providing consumers information to calculate carbon footprints – many customers are now engaged with the full story behind the products they buy.  

Avedis Seferian, CEO of global social compliance non-profit WRAP, talks with Peter Stanbury, co-author of Innovation Forum’s new Sustainable Apparel Barometer 2021, about the report’s key themes. Among their discussion points: the pros and cons of second versus third party auditing; the explosion in the number of audit standards and the subsequent challenges of compliance for factories; the on-going need to accept that there is no one-size-fits all solution; and, why some brands still need to think about actually achieving social compliance rather than being seen to do it.   

WRAP was a research partner for the Sustainable Apparel Barometer.

This week: Oliver Tichit, director of sustainable supply chain at Musim Mas, talks about what he wants to see from the COP26 meetings, and the challenges of translating outcomes from government level meetings to on-the-ground challenges. He also discusses how the pandemic has highlighted resilience in the palm oil industry, and some solutions that can help smallholder farmers gain access to mainstream sources of finance – a long term problem for a sector characterised by having growers in remote places.

Plus, Innovation Forum’s Hanna Halmari outlines some highlights from the upcoming climate action conference.

And: PepsiCo’s new sustainability framework; Carbon Tracker and Climate Accounting Project report says top corporate emitters are not fully disclosing risks; and, Gambia is the only country on track for 1.5C according to Climate Action Tracker, in the news digest.

Host: Ian Welsh

Sign up here for the free carbon solutions webinar, live from Kenya’s Kasigau Corridor REDD+ project on 30^th September at 2pm UK/9am ET.

Paloma López and Sean Ansett, co-founders of Future Fit Foods talk with Toby Webb about their vision for convenience foods that are healthy and efficient to transport. They discuss the benefits of using the latest freeze-drying techniques that preserve flavour and retain nutrients – and mean that the cost and footprints of transporting the water to consumers are eliminated.