Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

Weekly podcast: GIZ on why producer communities need a stronger voice

This week: Silke Peters from the sustainable agriculture supply chain initiative at GIZ talks about the challenges involved in developing effective multistakeholder collaboration to help smallholder farmers across different commodities. And, in the run up to this year’s conference, another chance to hear how Cargill CEO David MacLennan opened 2020’s Future of Food USA event, in conversation with Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb.

Plus: why Boohoo’s links to forced labour might mean a US import ban; UN assessment highlights need for Paris agreement action; and why deforestation news from Indonesia isn’t that good after all, in the news digest.

Host: Ian Welsh

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How cotton learns from other commodity supply chains

Alison Ward, CEO of CottonConnect, talks with Ian Welsh about the durability of cotton supply chains and why apparel brands can gain from working directly with producers to really develop transparency. Representing 75% of all cotton farmers, and with the livelihoods of 350 million people at stake, working with smallholders in particular leads to gains for brands and everyone in the value chain. The keys are helping farmers to diversify their crops, and gain access to markets and finance.

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Weekly podcast: Will future business leaders use their power differently?

This week: Andy Hoffman, professor at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, on why business has to evolve to embrace sustainability across functions and accept that profit is only one measure of success. Business may be the problem, he argues, but is also clearly the solution.

Plus: H&M and Ikea developing new low impact fibres from forests; Sainsbury’s to take back and recycle plastic films; palm oil’s SE Asian deforestation impact down 58% year on year in 2020 says Chain Reaction Research; and, AB InBev takes up $10.1bn sustainability-linked loan facility, in the news digest.

Host: Ian Welsh

Potential labour and human costs of a successful energy transition

Jessie Cato, natural resources and human rights programme manager at the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, talks with Ian Welsh about the significant human rights risks that exist in the supply chains of low carbon technology manufacturers.

As demonstrated by the BHRRC’s tracker of companies producing six transition minerals – lithium, cobalt, copper, nickel, zinc and manganese – required for the manufacture of electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines, brands in the low-carbon sector need to take care to ensure transparency in their supply chains. A failure to do so could impact the speed at which their customers can reach their net-zero ambitions.

Weekly podcast: How an ecosystems services approach helps all producer communities

This week: Hear Musim Mas’s Olivier Tichet outline his ‘magic ingredients’ for landscape level solutions for agricultural commodity supply chains: everyone must be involved; all parties must be committed to change; and, there must be acceptance that change takes time.

Plus: new commitments from BNP Paribas on Amazon soy and beef sourcing; a concerning increase in land grabs by the extractive and agriculture sectors from indigenous peoples says the Forest Peoples Programme; PwC says that listed companies out-perform privately-owned firms on sustainability commitments; Maersk’s ‘carbon neutral’ ship by 2023; and Jaguar all-electric by 2025, in the news digest.   

Host: Ian Welsh

Are financial institutions ignoring deforestation?

Sarah Rogerson and Emma Thomson from Global Canopy talk with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about the conclusions of the latest Forest 500 report. 2020 no-deforestation targets were universally missed, and the new research highlights a lack of deforestation commitments from investors and the finance sector in general, particularly in North America.

Forest 500 also shows that perhaps recent focus on palm oil has led to more commitments in that sector than, for example, soy and other commodity supply chains with significant deforestation risk.

Weekly podcast: Manage apparel sector human rights risks by empowering producer communities

This week: Alison Ward, CEO of CottonConnect, discusses how brand buyers can work with cotton producer communities to access markets and finance, and how to identify and mitigate some of the serious human rights risks in the broader apparel sector.

Plus: Nestlé and Shell plot their routes to net zero emissions; H&M and others working on new circular fashion partnership in Bangladesh; and CDP uncovers $120bn of potential supply chain environmental risks, in the news digest.  

Host: Ian Welsh

Materials innovation and sustainability: the business opportunities in 2021

In this extended discussion, hear experts from Neste, Covestro, Unilever and the European Commission talk about scalable, affordable solutions to the sustainable materials challenge. The panel demonstrate progress, debate some difficult questions and highlight what is possible during 2021, a vitally important year, of course, for the climate.

Hear about Neste’s views on scalable, lower-greenhouse-gas-impact innovative materials. And, how Unilever plans to change purchasing policy from fossil-based to circular materials through to 2025. Learn what Covestro is doing to develop scale in production and distribution of lower GHG materials. And hear how the European Commission believes smart policymaking can maximise the upside, and minimise the downside, whilst encouraging innovation, products at scale and sustainable growth.

Panel:

• Lars Börger, vice president brand owner management, Neste
• Lynette Chung, chief sustainability officer, Covestro
• Marika Lindstrom, vice president, procurement – packaging, and beauty and personal care, Unilever
• Werner Bosmans, policy officer – circular economy, European Commission 

Hosted by Toby Webb, Innovation Forum

This discussion was supported by Neste.

Weekly podcast: Renewable energy’s human rights risks

This week: Jessie Cato from the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre talks about the latest tracker following the forced labour risks in the supply chains of the minerals necessary to transition global energy supply to renewables. Lithium, cobalt, copper, nickel are among the elements required for solar panels, batteries and wind turbines, and have significant supply chain human rights challenges.

Plus: Chatham House and UNEP report says food supply is responsible for 86% extinction risks; WWF’s plan for dairy to get to net zero; PepsiCo joint venture with Beyond Meat; UK renewables supply beat fossil fuels in 2020; and GM to be zero tailpipe emissions by 2035, in the news digest.

Host: Ian Welsh

Deforestation commitments without implementation in palm oil

ZSL’s Eleanor Spencer and Ian Welsh talk about the latest SPOTT survey into transparency and strength of corporate commitments on deforestation at the palm oil sector’s top 100 companies. As ever progress across the sector is mixed, with leading companies – particularly suppliers to big consumer-facing brands – continuing to drive best practice, but many others achieving a score of zero across the 180 indicators assessed.