Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

Anita Neville, senior vice-president group corporate communications, Golden Agri-Resources, and Ian Welsh discuss the challenges for the palm oil sector in developing the crop as a biofuel feedstock. Neville argues that there is not a level playing field for potential inputs into biofuels, and a lack of life cycle analysis into relative impacts of different crops.

They also discuss supply chain deforestation risks, and reasons why most companies are going to miss 2020 targets, despite significant innovation in use of technology to, for example, identify areas of tree loss and land use change.

Kené Umeasiegbu, head of environment at Tesco, talks with Ian Welsh about how the business has used science-based targets to catalyse action in its operations and supply chains.

He argues for setting environmental targets that are stretching while realistically achievable – and points out the importance of setting milestones so that progress can be demonstrated to both internal and external stakeholders.

Over the past decade, sustainable and impact investing has grown from a niche form of financing to being implemented by practically every major financial institution.

Companies such as COFCO and Wilmar have secured substantial loans tied to their sustainability efforts. Similarly, BNP Paribas announced it would use $10bn in capital by 2025 for projects that are committed to improving social and environmental impact in developing countries. The World Bank also recently doubled its five-year climate investments to around $200bn.

However, the impact of this growing interest in sustainable finance still remains unclear and there is still no real consensus on how to measure it.

In this hour long webinar, we assess how finance is engaging in sustainable commodities and ask our speakers questions such as:

• Has sustainability finally started to take centre stage within financial institutions?
• What type of information, metrics, targets and KPIs are investors seeking?
• Which sustainable financing options are now available?
• How are investors factoring climate impacts into their decision making?

Speakers:
• Dick Ligthart, associate director – green, social and sustainability bonds, ABN Amro
• Maria Lombardo, head of responsible investment EMEA, Invesco
• Anita McBain, head of responsible investment and ESG, M&G Investments

Moderated by Toby Webb, founder, Innovation Forum

The past two years have seen rapid progress in the emergence of norms and best practices for setting and implementing commitments to eliminate deforestation, ecosystem conversion and human rights abuses from supply chains. There has also been a proliferation of tools and approaches for the evaluation of company progress and performance.

In this webinar, we’ll discuss how companies can use newly available tools and platforms to deliver on their supply chain commitments. We’ll also assess how they can accurately and effectively measure and demonstrate that success. We’ll discuss:

• What is the Accountability Framework, and how can it be used to strengthen and accelerate company commitments?
• What are the latest developments and new norms around supply chain transparency?
• How the Accountability Framework and Supply Change guide corporate reporting
• How companies can measure progress and outcomes related to corporate commitments

Speakers:
• Dr Leah Samberg, Staff Scientist with the Rainforest Alliance and the Accountability Framework Initiative
• Philip Rothrock, Senior Associate with Forest Trends Supply Change Initiative

Introduced and moderated by Ian Welsh, publishing director, Innovation Forum

This week: Stephen Wetmore from the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials and Ian Welsh discuss biofuel feedstocks and their role in moving to a low carbon economy. And Anant Ahuja from Good Business Lab talks with Innovation Forum’s Haafizah Khodabocus about his organisation’s work in Indian apparel factories and worker empowerment.

Plus: latest OECD/FAO agri supply chain predictions; companies with $1.3tn commit to 1.5C warming; CDP hits out at deforestation transparency; and, Inditex’s 100% sustainability pledge, in the news digest.

Hosted by Ian Welsh

David Cleary, head of agriculture at The Nature Conservancy, talks with Toby Webb about the shifting patterns of deforestation in South America, and land conversion challenges for forests and other biomes, including the Cerrado grasslands.

They discuss the impacts of different commodities on land use change, including soy, and specifically the Cerrado manifesto and the barriers to moving to a full agreement. And they talk about the beef sector’s impact on deforestation and why its fragmentation leads to greater challenges.

Rob Waterworth, chief executive of the Mullion Group, discusses with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh what the food sector can learn from forestry to improve stakeholder relationships and trust.

Waterworth argues that challenges being faced by the food sector now reflect many that forestry faced in the 1970s and 1980s, in Australia in particular.

While technology is providing exciting opportunities, there is a danger of there being too many solutions looking for problems. Choosing the right technology to answer specific questions is a better approach, if a challenge in itself, he says.

The Mullion Group was a sponsor of the recent Innovation Forum Future of Food conference in London.

This week: Nils Hermann Ranum, head of the drivers of deforestation programme at Rainforest Foundation Norway, talks with Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb about biofuel feedstocks, including palm oil, the associated land use change and its potential impact on forests and indigenous communities. And, another chance to hear from Joe Franses, vice-president, sustainability at Coca-Cola European Partners, talking with Ian Welsh about deposit return schemes for plastic bottles, and other plastic use challenges.

Plus: EU trade deal links to Amazon deforestation, apparel sector circularity progress, and academic groups declare climate emergency, in the news digest.

Hosted by Ian Welsh

 

Carole Dubois, senior sustainability consultant and food sector lead at Quantis, talks with Ian Welsh about how companies can use science to develop the targets that will drive business value in the food and agriculture sectors.

She outlines some of the challenges to set the right science-based targets and the disruptive, bold solutions required for all business if the 1.5C limits to global warming are to be achieved. This will need, she argues, the establishment of more meaningful data to help set baselines and then to track progress.

Quantis was a sponsor of the recent Innovation Forum Future of Food conference series.

 

Dan Wolfson, IBM distinguished engineer with the Weather Company, discusses the potential of artificial intelligence for agriculture.

As an example, Wolfson explains how smart visual recognition techniques can help farmers identify problems, such as disease, in the field – without even the need for online connection. Satellite and drone imagery also have exciting potential, he argues, pointing out that AI doesn't replace human activity, but is more "another tool in the box".