Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

Webinar – Farm environmental impact: innovation and progress in animal agriculture

Webinar – Farm environmental impact: innovation and progress in animal agriculture

In this webinar, the panel discusses the pressing need within the food and agriculture industry to ‘do more with less’, focusing specifically on cattle in North America, and how innovation has led to improved sustainability over animal life cycles.

They consider Cargill’s BeefUp Sustainability initiative, which is committed to achieving a 30% reduction in greenhouse gas intensity across its North American beef supply chain; the Yield Lab’s Manure Challenge, which guides start-ups to come up with solutions that capture manure-based nutrients; and, Texas Tech’s work developing more-efficient cattle breeds.

Panel:

• Heather Tansey, sustainability director, animal nutrition and protein, Cargill
• Brandon Day, chief operating officer, The Yield Lab Institute
• Dale Woerner, Cargill endowed professor in sustainable meat science department of animal and food sciences, Texas Tech University

Hosted by Ian Welsh, Innovation Form

For further debate on these issues and many more, attend Innovation Forum's Future of Food event series online on 27^th and 28^th of May or 2^nd and 3^rd of June.

Weekly podcast: Why business must develop human rights with recourse

This week: Drew Northern from US-based Cook Group describes the importance of establishing effective human rights grievance mechanisms that workers trust. He outlines why these mechanisms to often fail to earn that trust, the pitfalls to avoid when working with third party suppliers to establish worker voice solutions, and how to tailor remediation plans to individual cases.

Plus: new EU human rights regulation to come; why green pandemic recovery packages win; and, actions for the apparel sector to ensure sustainable recover post Covid-19, in the news digest.   

Hosted by Ian Welsh

Tracking food supply chains to develop pandemic response

Bryan Yates, general manager and director of sales for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Orbital Insight, talks with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about how study of geospatial data on transportation and food supply can identify the growing pinch points caused by pandemic crisis. Yates outlines how studying these can help business plan to avoid disruption and delay as much as possible.

Join Bryan at Innovation Forum’s Future of Food event on 2^nd and 3^rd June. Click here for full details.

Weekly podcast: The forest fibre potential for the apparel sector

This week: Andrés Ortolano, FSC Italy chain of custody manager, and Ruth Farrell, textiles marketing director at Eastman Naia, debate how and why the apparel sector is sourcing increasing amounts of wood-based fibre. There are clear supply risks, and they discuss what brands can do to ensure that their suppliers are environmentally sustainable.

Plus: how pandemics are linked to deforestation and environmental destruction, and all Indonesian smallholder palm oil farmers to be certified, in the news digest.

Hosted by Ian Welsh  

How the pandemic should be managed to minimise human rights impact

Phil Bloomer, executive director of the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, talks with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about where the burdens of the pandemic are likely to be felt as business finds a way through the crisis. They discuss some of the challenges that are emerging and how government relief for companies should be managed. Bloomer points out the potential for humanising of supply chains as consumers become more aware of where the essential products that they rely on come from and how they are produced.

Listeners should note that this interview was recorded on 31^st March amid fast-moving events.

Weekly podcast: H&M and Puma on apparel’s low carbon future

This week: H&M’s Pascal Brun and Puma Group’s Stefan Seidel debate action on climate change and what future low carbon business models will look like with Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb.

Plus: pandemic impacts on Bangladeshi factories; 2020 fashion transparency index, WHO action on wet markets, and species extinction warnings, in the news digest.  

Host: Ian Welsh

Weekly podcast: How geospatial data analysis can track pandemic impacts on food supply chains

This week: Bryan Yates, general manager and director of sales for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Orbital Insight, talks about how analysis of geospatial data can help companies track their supply chains and gauge risks. In particular he discusses the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on food supply chains, and how data can give insight into how social distancing is being practiced in different cities. Yates highlights why new pinch points in supply chains and social activity more generally have developed and the challenges they present.

Plus: farm animal welfare concerns, child labour in cocoa supply chains, and new plastic eating enzymes, in the news roundup.

Hosted by Ian Welsh

Weekly podcast: How to work with suppliers to tackle critical human rights risks

This week: Why education and active engagement is how to work with suppliers to implement human rights policy, and how to overcome the inevitable capacity challenges, with insight from Shane Tyler at Fresca Group and Sarah Carpenter from Assent Compliance.  

Plus: what Primark is doing to help millions of laid-off garment factory workers; UN call for wet market bans; and, UK government scheme to cut food waste through better redistribution, in the news digest.

Host: Ian Welsh

Weekly podcast: The supply chain human rights risks to watch for from Covid-19 impacts

This week: Phil Bloomer, executive director of the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, discusses with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh some key impacts for companies as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Bloomer describes how it’s the suppliers of big brands – in, for example, the apparel sector – who will ultimately suffer as orders are cancelled and workers laid off, or exploited. More positively, he argues that the crisis does mean that many supply chains become more transparent – such as the rubber gloves manufacturing sector in Malaysia – as consumers take more interest in them.

Plus, all the news about Innovation Forum’s upcoming spring online conference series.

Why the plastics debate must focus on collection and recycling

Kristin Hughes, director of the Global Plastic Action Partnership, a multistakeholder initiative coordinated by the World Economic Forum, talks with Ian Welsh about the partnership’s work over the past 12 months coordinating government and brand approaches and desire to do something effective.

Hughes explains why the partnership is focusing efforts in southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa developing waste collection and recycling infrastructure, and paths to a circular economy approach.