Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

How to use climate science to drive board level engagement

Telva McGruder, director, workplace engineering and operations solutions at General Motors, talks with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about the cross functional effort and frank internal conversations about what is possible that have been necessary for GM to engage properly with its impacts.

She outlines why establishing a number of goals on different time frames is useful as a company moves towards zero emission. They discuss the need to use language that internal stakeholders can understand if you want them to listen and ultimately accept the need for policy change. And, as GM moves towards producing ever-more electrical vehicles, McGruder explains the challenges the business faces persuading consumers to make the swift from traditional options.

Webinar – How does landscape conservation/restoration work on the ground? An Indonesian case study

The focus of this discussion-based webinar is the Kampar Peninsula ‘Production: Protection’ approach. This involves a $100m dollar commitment, for an area twice the size of Singapore, by APRIL, a large Indonesian resource company.

During the webinar, the panel discuss how a large company can make landscape scale protection and restoration happen in Indonesia, the challenges, the opportunities and the progress made so far, for the business, and the environment and communities. The focus is on how to make credible, verifiable progress happen, and work in collaboration to show how a scaled approach can succeed. The panel also look at the potential lessons-learned from this project, known as Restorasi Ekosistem Riau (RER) for other landscapes and the commoditie produced in them.

Speakers include:
• Lucita Jasmin, director of sustainability and external affairs, APRIL
• Justin Adams, executive director, Tropical Forest Alliance 2020
• Fitrian Ardiansyah, executive chairman, IDH (Inisiatif Dagang Hijau) Indonesia
• Brad Sanders, deputy head of conservation, APRIL

Moderated by Toby Webb, founder, Innovation Forum

Weekly podcast: How business is using science-based targets to drive performance

This week: Nathan Shuler, sustainability solutions architect with Schneider Electric, debates the clear benefits that science-based targets can have for companies keen to really tackle their environmental impacts. And, Gotz Martin, head of sustainability implementation at Golden Agri-Resources, discusses how best to encourage and develop sustainable smallholder farmer communities.

Plus: palm oil politics in Malaysia and India, Oxfam highlights stark labour risks for supermarket brands, and Thai Union’s insect based protein innovation, in the news digest.

Hosted by Ian Welsh

Weekly podcast: Can companies monetise a sustainable business approach?

This week: Kevin Eckerle from NYU Stern School of Business explains how companies can identify the corporate advantages of a sustainable business approach and monetise them. And another chance to hear insight from Ben Vreeburg, Bunge Lockers Crocklan, on palm oil supply chain transparency challenges.

Plus: Adidas takes back and recycles more apparel and footwear, Dove cuts plastic, and deforestation jumps 97% in Brazil, in the news digest.

Hosted by Ian Welsh

Forest preservation’s multifaceted social and environmental challenges

Speaking in the forests on the east coast of Sumatra, APRIL’s deputy head of conservation Brad Sanders explains to Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb what the pulp and paper giant does to protect areas of pristine forest and restore degraded ecosystems in Indonesia.

Sanders explains the importance of water management to keep the forest moist and prevent the peat from drying out. And they discuss some of the social issues relevant to forest preservation – including working with local indigenous peoples to enable sustainable use of the forest lands and river systems.

Weekly podcast: Who consumers trust to tell them the truth about brands

This week: a panel of millenial consumers from the University of Michigan and Columbia University join Meghann Jones, senior vice-president, Ipsos, and Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh to discuss where they find information about brands, and how company policies and engagement on sustainability issues affect their buying choices. Making up the panel: Anya Shapiro, Mayur Bandekar, Connor Larkin and Caitlin Brooke Harris.

And another chance to hear from David Cleary, director for agriculture at the Nature Conservancy debating deforestation and farming with Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb.

Plus: Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Nestlé and PepsiCo cutting virgin plastic use, Carlsberg’s paper bottle, and RSPO’s new plan to insist brands buy sustainable palm oil.

Hosted by Ian Welsh

Bayer on the technology that can ensure future food security

Ronald Guendal, Bayer Crop Science’s global head of food security and advocacy, talks with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about the trends in use of farming techniques and agriculture inputs – including fertilisers and pesticides and the development of new seeds – that are designed to sustainably boost productivity.

A particular focus for Bayer is to help the agriculture sector produce more food that is climate resilient. As Guendal points out, farming is both a driver, and a victim, of climate change.

Weekly podcast: GM’s evolving engagement on operational and product efficiencies

This week: Telva McGruder, director, workplace engineering and operations solutions at General Motors talks with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about how environmental impacts have been embedded into GM’s business plans. They debate why use of business language is how to have internal conversations about sustainability, and to engage externally with investors and other stakeholders. And they talk about the reasons why companies will typically make strong commitments on impact only when they can see a route to delivering them.

Plus, news about Innovation Forum’s upcoming plastics, sustainable landscapes and apparel supply chain events.

Weekly podcast: How to preserve and restore degraded Sumatran forests

This week: APRIL’s Brad Sanders explains to Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb what the pulp and paper giant does to protect areas of pristine forest and restore degraded ecosystems in Indonesia. And Greenpeace’s Louise Edge on the challenges around effectively tackling plastic pollution, and what business should do about it.

Plus: Nestlé and P&G to fall short of 2020 goals, big brands linked to deforestation palm oil (again), and US acts on modern slavery teeth, in the news digest.

Hosted by Ian Welsh

Could political economy analysis have saved Indonesia's palm oil pledge?

Peter Stanbury-Davis, principal of Frontier Practice, talks with Toby Webb about how thinking about political economy can help business engage with the motivations of local peoples in areas of deforestation and landuse-change risk.

In this context, they discuss why the Indonesian palm oil pledge – IPOP – ceased working, and some of the underlying misunderstandings that may have led to its demise. Using a political economy analysis approach may well eliminate some of the unintended consequences of actions, however well-meaning they may be.