Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

Weekly podcast: The rise and rise of supply chain traceability, and what plastic food packaging standards might look like

This week: Dawn Jutla from blockchain technology developers Peer Ledger on how technology is revolutionising consumer engagement with products and supply chains. And, Jo Griffiths from the British Standards Institute (BSI) on the challenges developing sustainability standards for plastic packaging.

Plus: WEF annual risks report; Blackrock doubles down on climate, again; the EU’s €1tn climate mitigation plan; UK supermarkets switch from plastic bags to higher impact alternatives; and Quorn’s carbon label plan, in the news digest.  

Hosted by Ian Welsh

Why palm oil success will mean not having to talk about deforestation

Anita Neville, senior vice president for corporate communications at Golden Agri-Resources, and Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh talk about why the palm oil still suffers from negative publicity, despite the progress the sector has made. She outlines how the industry can achieve real traceability, and develop a robust economic model for the future.

She argues that this means ensuring that farmer incomes are improved and helped to ensure that they have options beyond simply extended farms by destroying forests. Neville also outlines how the palm oil sector can progress so that future discussion is not always centred on deforestation impacts.

Golden Agri-Resources was a sponsor of Innovation Forum’s recent sustainable landscapes conference.

Why plastic use should be lessened not demonised

Franco Costantini, managing director of Control Union UK talks with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about why certification can be useful for companies wanting to rationalise their use of plastic and help them satisfy consumers on product impact.

They discuss the importance of not dismissing use of plastic out of hand, and examine the drivers for greater use of product plastic-free certification when this is appropriate.

Constantini also outlines how certification can also be useful in food and agriculture value chains.

Control Union was a sponsor of the recent Innovation Forum future for plastics conference.

 

Weekly podcast: Real-time monitoring of palm oil deforestation risks

This week: Niels Wiellard, managing director of Satelligence, on how a new satellite monitoring initiative in the palm oil sector – known as RADD – will help the industry monitor deforestation in plantations in near real-time. And Jeff Milder, director of global programmes at the Rainforest Alliance, on his hopes for the implementation of the new multistakeholder Accountability Framework initiative.

Plus: Kroger cuts food waste, the Co-op’s recyclable packaging, the 8.4m football pitches problem, and making protein from air in Finland, in the news digest.

Hosted by Ian Welsh

Why sustainability belongs at the centre of company operations

CB Bhattacharya, professor of sustainability and ethics at the University of Pittsburgh and author of Small Actions, Big Difference, discusses with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh how companies are working hard to change how they approach sustainability and leverage greater value.

They consider case study examples – including Unilever – where companies have engaged their employees around sustainable business and reaped the business benefits, and debate why some companies still struggle to set the right goals to ensure long term survival

Partnerships and incentives for more sustainable palm oil

Emily Kunen from Nestlé, Gotz Martin from Golden Agri-Resources and Róisín Mortimer from Earthworm Foundation debate with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh how business and partner organisations can really help smallholder palm oil farmers grow incomes without clearing new land.

They discuss the challenges around developing traceability all the way to the farm level, land use planning and ownership, and indigenous land rights in particular. Involving and engaging local communities is an essential part of this.

Weekly podcast: Palm oil traceability and farmer livelihoods, and some reasons to be positive about 2020

This week: Anita Neville, senior vice president for corporate communications at Golden Agri-Resources, debates the state of play for the palm oil sector, why traceability in supply chains is vital and why the industry still attracts a bad press despite the best efforts of the most progressive companies.

Plus: COP25 flops, Apple and Google threatened with court over cobalt child labour, meat alternative labelling, and four reasons to be upbeat about 2020, in the news digest.

Hosted by Ian Welsh

Golden Agri-Resources was a sponsor of Innovation Forum's recent sustainable landscapes and commodities conference.

Defining a landscape approach and why it’s so important

Justin Adams, executive director of the Tropical Forest Alliance talks with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about the urgency for collective action on deforestation and its associated social challenges.

They discuss the tensions and tradeoffs necessary to deliver sustainable landscapes, and the partnerships locally and at a global level required. Adams describes how the Amazon Soy Moratorium has had successes and failures in protecting forests in Brazil – and the unintended consequences such approaches can have for biome clearance elsewhere.

The importance of ‘active listening’ for business planning

At IFC’s manufacturing conference in Morocco, Irache Pardo, finance and treasury director for Spanish hi-tech business CIE Automotive and Ian Welsh discuss the impacts of sustainability and industry 4.0 technology on the manufacturing sector.

They discuss how to link sustainability and profitability, and then target investment to bring about the best business impacts. And they debate how to get these impacts properly built into business planning.

Innovation, technology and industry 4.0: a Mexican case study

Frédéric Garcia, advisor for industry to the head of staff of the president of Mexico, and formerly CEO of Airbus Mexico, and Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh discuss the importance of the manufacturing sector for the Mexican economy, and how Mexico has benefited from free trade with the US and Canada over the past few decades.

They discuss what innovation can do for a developing economy, particularly in terms of access for business to technology, the challenges from a rapidly growing population, and how to make the Sustainable Development Goals relevant.