Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

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.

BSI on what company leaders need to know about food fraud

David Horlock, managing director for global food and retail supply chains at BSI, and Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh discuss how the development of rigorous standards can help businesses build resilience in operations and supply chains. To tackle food supply security, and food fraud, Horlock outlines his CEO stress test, which can help company leaders identify the points of critical risk. Often, he argues, companies still don’t really know who their suppliers are.

Satelligence on how data analysis has tracked the Amazon fires

Niels Wielaard, co-founder and CEO of Satelligence, explains to Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh how satellite data has been used to track the Amazon fires over the summer, and analysing the vegetation types that have been burning.

He clears up some of the confusing statements that have been spread – including that there have been more fires in other years – but stresses that this year is particularly significant because of the number of fires in a year with average rainfall. Previous high fire outbreaks have been associated with much drier conditions.

Weekly podcast: Bayer on the innovations that drive food sector security

This week: Ronald Guendal, Bayer Crop Science’s global head of food security and advocacy, on the factors influencing change in food supply security, and emerging trends in farming techniques and use of inputs that are designed to sustainably boost productivity. And CottonConnect CEO Alison Ward on how to develop engaging projects – such as CottonConnect’s partnership with Primark – that can empower smallholder farmers at scale.

Plus: climate change at the UN, Bolsonaro hits back at critics, IPCC assesses warming impacts, Japanese seafood, and Coca-Cola’s switch to cardboard packaging, in the news digest.

Hosted by Ian Welsh

Weekly podcast: How standards counter food fraud and supply chain fragility

This week: David Horlock, managing director for global food and retail supply chains at BSI, demonstrates how a CEO stress test, and following rigorous standards, can help food sector businesses tackle supply chain security challenges effectively. And insight from Cargill’s Kate Clancy on what drives smallholder farmer viability.

Plus: slow progress on climate change readiness and New York Declaration on Forests, the possible $4.5tn upside from a truly innovative new economy, and the plight of the UK’s modern slavery helpline, in the news digest.

Hosted by Ian Welsh

Weekly podcast: The story behind the Amazon fires

This week: Niels Wiellard from Satelligence on how satellite data analysis can provide crucial details about why the Amazon fires have hit record numbers this year. And Schneider Electric’s Nathan Schuler on the rise and rise of science-based targets.

Plus, in the news digest: Greenpeace drops Wilmar, Unilever and Mondelez; cocoa sustainability to be regulated in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire; mineral mining exploitation; and, $11tn now divested from fossil fuels.

Hosted by Ian Welsh

Why food companies must innovate to cut impact

Jon Dettling, global director for services and innovation at Quantis, and Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh discuss some of the challenges for businesses in the food supply industry, and how they have to innovate to make the necessary change to control impacts.

Dettling points out the requirement for measuring and tracking benefits – as there is no point in developing a ‘sustainable’ product that ends up being a business failure. And they discuss how the potentially game-changing switch for consumers to plant-based alternatives to meat might eventually reflect a overall trend towards long-term sustainable food supply.

Weekly podcast: How business can realistically cut plastic use

This week: Nestlé’s Anna Turrell, Plastics Europe’s Eric Quenet and Closed Loop Partners’ Kate Daly on the wholesale business changes necessary to reduce corporate plastic footprints. And Cargill’s Marie Lavialle-Piot, PepsiCo’s Natasha Schwarzbach and Proforest’s Sophie Higman on the benefits of a landscape approach for sustainable palm oil.

Plus: brands banning Brazilian leather, Blackrock linked to deforestation, India’s single-use plastic ban, and animal protein suppliers don’t meet brands’ commitments, in the news digest.

Hosted by Ian Welsh