Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

How to tackle deforestation through communities and smallholders

Conference minipod: Stephen Donofrio, director of Forest Trends’ Supply Chain Initiative, talks with Innovation Forum’s Tom Idle about the importance of business methodologies that engage with smallholder farmers and build long-term relationships.

This one of a series of short podcasts summarising conference sessions recorded at Innovation Forum's sustainable landscapes and commodities event in London.

 

Cocoa and Forests Initiative: lessons for other commodities

Conference minipod: Jonathan Horrell, director for sustainability at Mondelez International, explains to Innovation Forum’s Tom Idle how the multistakeholder Cocoa and Forests Initiative aims to reverse deforestation trends in Ghana and Côte D’Ivoire while protecting farmer livelihoods, and the lessons learned that can be implemented in other sectors.

This one of a series of short podcasts summarising conference sessions recorded at Innovation Forum's sustainable landscapes and commodities event in London.

Finance that drives sustainable performance for landscapes and commodities

Conference minipod: Frances Way, chief strategy officer at CDP, explains to Innovation Forum’s Tom Idle the extent she sees sustainability taking centre stage at financial institutions. She picks out green bonds, sustainability-linked loans and blended finance as the innovations to watch.

This one of a series of short podcasts summarising conference sessions recorded at Innovation Forum's sustainable landscapes and commodities event in London.

Unlocking the potential of smallholder farmers

Conference minipod: Michael Gidney, CEO of the Fairtrade Foundation, and Helen Browning, chief executive of the Soil Association, talk with Ian Welsh about why smallholder farmers represent an enormous opportunity for global commodity supply chains.

This one of a series of short podcasts summarising conference sessions recorded at Innovation Forum's sustainable landscapes and commodities event in London.

How are blockchain and other innovations enabling supply chain traceability?

Conference minipod: Nic Sheen, chief technology officer at Authenticate, describes to Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh how a blockchain can work in practice, taking as an example a Parma ham case study Authenticate has developed. Sheen also outlines the four key elements to a blockchain.

This the first in a series of short podcasts summarising conference sessions recorded at Innovation Forum's sustainable landscapes and commodities event in London.

Weekly podcast: TFA on the tradeoffs that can scale the landscape approach

This week: Justin Adams, executive director of the Tropical Forest Alliance discusses the challenges working with on-the-ground commodities producers in developing economies who are facing poverty every day. Adams critiques lessons-learned from the Amazon Soy Moratorium that can be applied elsewhere, and analyses why landscapes are not a silver bullet solution. And Frédéric Garcia, advisor for industry to the head of staff of the president of the Mexico, on innovation in Mexico and whether the country is ready for the impacts of industry 4.0.

Hosted by Ian Welsh

How to make the sustainable business intangibles tangible

Kevin Eckerle, director for corporate research and engagement at NYU Stern School of Business and Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh discuss how companies can find a methodology of monetising the “soft” intangibles that keep companies from building a solid business case for their sustainability agenda.

Eckerle outlines some case study examples, using Stern’s return on sustainability investment methodology, that demonstrate how to find the data points and future scenario planning that engages corporate boards.

Weekly podcast: Can the apparel sector grasp technology’s opportunities?

This week: Rubana Huq, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, discusses the milestones of progress in the country’s apparel sector in the six years since the Rana Plaza disaster, and argues that the garment businesses needs to be continually evolving and innovating to maintain its position in world markets. She talks about the challenges that new technologies, and industry 4.0, bring to a labour-intensive sector.

Plus: Maple Leaf goes carbon neutral, sugarcane’s potential Amazon expansion, and why the ideal daily diet is beyond 1.6 billion’s pockets, in the news digest.

Hosted by Ian Welsh

Weekly podcast: How to make tropical forest restoration work

This week: Lucita Jasmin and Brad Sanders from Indonesian resources company APRIL, Fitrian Ardiansyah from IDH and Indonesia, Justin Adams from Tropical Forest Alliance 2020, and Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb discuss the role of business in making landscape-level conservation and restoration work effectively.

Plus: the latest research from ZSL’s SPOTT analysis on palm oil traceability, global energy demands hit climate goals, modern slavery dangers for Cambodia’s apparel sector and new radar remote sensing initiative to bring deforestation transparency, in the news digest.

Hosted by Ian Welsh

Do millennials trust brands?

Speaking with Ian Welsh at Innovation Forum’s recent business and impacts conference in Detroit, Meghann Jones, senior vice-president, Ipsos, discusses research into the attitudes and actions of younger people towards business sustainability, and environmental and social issues.

They are joined by a panel of under-graduate and post graduate students from the University of Michigan and Columbia University who debate where they and their peers find information about products, what they trust and why.

Making up the panel: Anya Shapiro, Mayur Bandekar, Connor Larkin and Caitlin Brooke Harris.