Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

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.

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

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.  

This week: Tato Bigio, CEO of UBQ Materials Israel, explains how waste destined for landfill can be converted into new thermoplastic material that can take the place of traditional plastics in potentially thousands of products. He says that the thermoplastic is competitive on price, significantly cuts emissions and outperforms traditional plastic on a full lifecycle analysis basis.

Plus, in the news digest: Unilever pledges to halve food waste and boost non-meat products; UK’s ten-point green recovery plan; slow corporate progress according to new human rights benchmark; and, how RSPO certification can help farmer community incomes – but additional resources often required.  

Host: Ian Welsh

Felicitas Weber, Know the Chain project lead at the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, talks with Ian Welsh about the latest food and beverage sector forced labour benchmark. The topline conclusion is that progress to get to grips with exploitation of workers remains slow. While there is perhaps some inevitable distraction from ensuring business continuity in challenging times, Weber argues that as companies move towards human rights due diligence, a worker-centric approach is essential.

This week: Olivier Tichit, director for sustainable supply chains at Musim Mas, talks about the essential elements required for a successful landscape approach. He argues that the starting points have to be involving all stakeholders, commitment from all parties and time.

Plus: why the global food system needs radical change; Biden’s climate commitment; McDonald’s to launch plant-based burgers in 2021; latest ZSL SPOTT report on palm oil deforestation; and, UK companies requirement to report on climate risks, in the news digest.

Host: Ian Welsh

Renata Nogueira, South America sustainability manager for Cargill, and Gonzalo La Cruz, managing director, Solidaridad South America, talk with Ian Welsh about how to protect native vegetation under pressure from commodity crops, including in Brazil’s Cerrado biome.  They discuss the need for solutions that bring benefits to local producers – in Paraguay and Colombia – and argue that when all benefit, progress is made.

Cargill was a sponsor of Innovation Forum’s future of food conference series, and the recent sustainable landscapes and commodities forum.

John Grant, writer of the new book Greener Marketing, talks with Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb about how marketing has adapted in the past decade. They discuss why the era of radical millennials, demanding better more sustainable behaviour from companies and their brands and being ever-more suspicious of greenwashing, means there is a need for market disruptions led by marketing that is evolving and, in short, becoming better.

Click here for more information on John Grant and detail of how to get hold of a copy of Greener Marketing.

Tom Griffiths, coordinator of the responsible finance programme at the Forest Peoples Programme, talks about why there has been a disconnect between how business approaches human rights and environmental issues. Plus: the positive impacts of a switch to plant-based proteins; more calls for the US to re-join the Paris accord; GSK joins the net-zero party; and, AB InBev’s new blockchain pilot for beer transparency, in the news digest.

Host: Ian Welsh  

Rainforest Alliance’s Mauricio Galindo, WWF’s Camila Cammaert and Laura Rojas Salazar, ONF Andina’s Luz Andrea Silva, and Forest Peoples Programme’s Tom Griffiths talk with Ian Welsh about how the Accountability Framework initiative is helping companies in South America in general, and Colombia in particular develop more sustainable supply chains. They discuss the need to protect forests and other ecosystems, and focus on tackling human rights risks among indigenous communities.   

This is the third in a series supported by the Accountability Framework initiative. Click here for more detail about the initiative and here for a webinar about how it is helping farmers in Ghana and Cameroon.