Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

Weekly podcast: Why action on deforestation needs facts-based trust

This week: Niels Wielaard founder and CEO of Satelligence talks about how greater traceability can help brands and traders take the lessons learned in one supply chain and apply it across commodities, and how the barriers to tracking from farm to mill to finished product are changing.

Plus, in the news digest: serious human rights risks for Chinese cotton; big brands call for traders to do more to stop sourcing Cerrado soy with deforestation risks; Marks & Spencer to relaunch Plan A; and, is the EU 55% carbon cut commitment enough?

Host: Ian Welsh

Webinar – Innovation Accelerator: How to drive systemic change for smallholder farmer communities

Low famer incomes, human rights abuses and environmental degradation still plague smallholder-based supply chains of soft commodities and other agricultural products. For the past nine months, Innovation Forum’s Innovation Accelerator project has been running an action research project to understand why.

This webinar was held to launch the initial findings of the research, which has explored a wide range of supply chains, including cotton, fruit and vegetables, dairy, coffee, soy, palm oil and maize. As well as bringing together cross-sector experience, the project sought insights from political science and development economics to explore the wider societal dynamics of communities and countries in which supply chains exist.

Panel:

• Ariana Constant, director, Clinton Development Initiative
• Alison Ward, CEO, CottonConnect
• Anita Neville, senior vice-president, group corporate communications, Golden Agri-Resources
• Thilo Liedlbauer, advisor, sustainable agricultural supply chains and standards programme, GIZ
• Yann Wyss, senior manager, social impact, Nestlé
• Peter Stanbury, senior associate, Innovation Forum

Introduced by Toby Webb

Click here to download the new report.

Innovation Accelerator is supported by the Clinton Foundation, COLEACP, CottonConnect, GIZ, Golden Agri-Resources and Nestlé.

Weekly podcast: How can investors unlock supply chain opportunities?

This week: Victoria Crawford, manager of the Investment Partnership Network at Just Rural Transition, discusses some of the steps necessary to enable investment in sustainable commodity supply chains, why collaboration is essential and how blended finance involving public and private funding can help.

Plus: Nestlé’s big plans for net zero; Sweden tops sustainable competitivity index (again); new UNEP report highlights spiralling emissions crisis; and, CDP highlights top performers, in the news digest.  

Host: Ian Welsh

How to develop common language and trust for palm oil

Ying Xuen Hoe, project manager, Proforest Southeast Asia, Rashyid Redza bin Anwarudin, head, group sustainability, Sime Darby Plantation, and Olivier Tichit, director sustainable supply chains, Musim Mas, discuss with Ian Welsh how the Accountability Framework initiative is helping the palm oil sector in southeast Asia.

They talk about why a number of tools are necessary to achieve sustainability commitments – around for example ‘no deforestation, no peat, no exploitation’ – and highlight the characteristics of the collaboration necessary.  

This is the latest in a series of podcasts sponsored by the Accountability Framework initiative. Click here for an introduction to the initiative, here for a webinar discussion about ensuring secure supply chains during the pandemic and here for discussion on deforestation-free supply chains in South America.

Webinar – Real-world plastic and carton recycling solutions that work

Collection and recycling of material plays a vital part in enabling a circular economy and is an inherently complex challenge to tackle. The problem is particularly acute in developing countries where lack of proper infrastructure and waste management processes stall the progress.

This webinar brought together a diverse group of stakeholders to shed some light on the challenges and the solutions that they are currently implementing or that can be implemented in the future.

The discussion includes exchange of knowledge, experiences and ideas on how to support or transform the collection and recycling of plastics and composite materials to accelerate the transition to circular economy in packaging.

Panel:

• Cynthia Shih, director of knowledge, rethinking recycling, McKinsey.org
• Jasper Munier, business development manager NWE, Clariter
• Francesca Priora, global collection programmes director, Tetra Pak
• Michel Steinecke, R&D sustainable packaging manager, Britvic

Host: Ian Welsh, publishing director, Innovation Forum

This webinar was sponsored by the 3R Initiative.

Why are landscape approaches a good fit for palm oil?

Olivier Tichit, director for sustainable supply chains at integrated palm oil business Musim Mas, talks with Ian Welsh about the characteristics of successful landscape approaches that work for the palm oil sector. Tichit argues that key elements are to have everyone involved, strong commitment from all stakeholders and an acceptance that time is necessary for the challenges to be met.  

 

Musim Mas was a sponsor of the recent Innovation Forum sustainable landscapes and commodities conference.

 

Weekly podcast: Why there’s confusion about red meat’s sustainability

This week: David Horlock from the British Standards Institute talks about how to develop sustainability standards for red meat. He argues that, despite the sector’s reputation, red meat can be part a sustainable food production system, but it depends on how it’s produced. And, a preview of the results of Innovation Forum’s research into developing resilience in smallholder farming communities with Peter Stanbury.

Plus: the latest Climate Action Tracker; UNEP’s post pandemic concerns; Amazon deforestation hits a 12-year high; and, will Swiss companies have extended liability for human rights and environmental damage?  

Host: Ian Welsh

New ‘climate positive’ alternative for plastic sector

Tato Bigio, CEO of UBQ Materials Israel, talks with Ian Welsh about UBQ’s process that creates material – that can be used as a substitute for plastic made from petrochemicals – from household waste destined for landfill. UBQ’s material currently is used in the production of durable plastic materials in the automotive, construction and retail sectors. Bigio argues that it competes well with traditional plastics on full lifecycle analysis impacts, and can be part of regular recycling streams.

 

UBQ Materials was a sponsor of Innovation Forum’s recent future for plastics conference.

Weekly podcast: How Nestlé partners to create resilient landscapes in Peru

This week: Emily Kunen, global responsible sourcing lead for palm oil and seafood at Nestlé, Sandra Doig, head of sustainability at Grupo Palmas and Marianne Marinet, programmes director for the Earthworm Foundation, talk with Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb about how they have collaborated to create a more sustainable landscape in Peru.

Plus: new food sector report from CDP; Vodafone tightens net-zero timeline; Malaysia’s rubber gloves sector forced labour risks; and, why infrastructure megaprojects are pushing forests to dangerous tipping points, in the news roundup.

Host: Ian Welsh

The challenges for Coca-Cola to meet plastics targets

Joe Franses, vice-president sustainability, Coca-Cola European Partners talks with Ian Welsh about the company’s plastics targets, the challenges getting to real scale, and the need for better collection infrastructure.

Franses highlights the difficulties of finding recycled feedstock of the right quality and then turning that into food-grade materials, particularly when there are economic incentives to use cheap virgin plastics.  And he argues the case for deposit return schemes as the only viable route to real circularity in plastic value chains.