Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

On 30th April, IF hosted a virtual event in partnership with Orbitas, a Climate Advisers Initiative, to discuss the financial risks and emerging opportunities that current actions to transition to a low-carbon future will bring. We focused on Brazil and the effects on the country’s key agricultural sectors, cattle and soy, and to wider global value chains. We heard valuable insights from:  Niamh M...

This week: Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh further reflects with expert participants at the sustainable apparel and textiles conference in Amsterdam. He is joined by Hasan Uz Zaman from Aldi Sud and Mauro Scalia from Euratex, and they discuss the human rights risks in the apparel sector and what’s coming up in policy terms to shake up fast fashion for the future.   Plus: Innovation Forum’s Hannah Obo...

This week: Lisa Spicka de Bevacqua, global director of sustainability consulting at auditor and certifiers NSF, talks with Ian Welsh about the trends in sustainability regulation in Europe and beyond. They discuss challenges in reporting and taking action, and how the impact differs for larger companies and SMEs.   Plus: Mike Shoemaker, CEO of farm data analysts Vayda talks with Ian about the ever...

Kaley Roshitsh, editorial director at Cascale, formerly known as the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, talks with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about major apparel industry trends including challenges of compliance with incoming regulation and the regenerative transition. They discuss what companies should look out for, the opportunities they should grasp and what best practice looks like.   Cascale i...

On 25th April, IF hosted a webinar in partnership with Yara International to discuss sustainable crop nutrition Regenerative agriculture is an evolving, science-based and outcome-focused approach to farming, and has a significant role to play in safeguarding food security and sustainable nutrition. Central to this approach is the strategic utilisation of fertilizers.  While fertilizers have histor...

This week: Raviv Turner, founding member of the Nature Tech Collective and member of the nature data working group at the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, talks with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about the dangers of being too carbon focused when thinking about impacts. They discuss how companies can move towards biodiversity and nature disclosure and, ultimately, action.   Plus:...

While in India, Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb spoke with CottonConnect’s CEO Alison Ward and global supply chain director Dawa Dorje about their sustainable cotton programme that focuses on delivering a supply chain with end-to-end transparency. They discuss the importance of smallholder inclusion and how they benefit from a transition to a more regenerative approach such as through reduced input c...

Amanda Archila, executive director at Fairtrade America, and Anna Mann, associate director of responsible business at Fairtrade Foundation, discuss the food price and value gap, and highlighting the root cause of the issue from the producer's perspective. In conversation with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh, they talk about what constitutes fair pricing and how to evenly distribute costs along value...

Decathlon's chief sustainability officer, Anna Turrell, reflects on the recent Innovation Forum sustainable apparel and textiles conference in Amsterdam with Ian Welsh. They discuss growing resale business models within the industry and the power of consumers in unlocking the potential from circular economy models.   Plus: Innovation Forum's Natasha Bodnar shares the latest updates for the upcomin...

This week: John Murphy, technical director for Europe at Hohenstein Laboratories, talks with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about certification standards for the apparel sector and the supply chain reassurances they can provide. They discuss the current apparel sector's approach to material certification and what the future of the sector can look like.   Plus: Christine Goulay from Sustainabelle Adv...

Niamh McCarthy, director for climate-related risk at Climate Advisers talks with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about what's coming up for the Brazilian cattle sector and shares some of the conclusions from the latest report from Orbitas, a Climate Advisers initiative. They discuss the opportunities for farmers to increase yield and diversify revenue streams, and the risks to avoid.   We'll be discu...

Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh and Hanna Halmari talk about what’s coming up this week at the sustainable apparel and textiles conference in Amsterdam. They highlight new features at the conference this year and some of what attendees should expect over the two days.   Plus: Marina Ettl, director of funded projects and regenerative agriculture business intelligence at Norway-based fertiliser company...

This week: Kaley Roshitsh, editorial director at Cascale (formerly the Sustainable Apparel Coalition), talks with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about incoming regulation that companies in the apparel sector should be looking out for. They discuss the resulting challenges and opportunities, and what the future trends in the apparel sector might be, including from the rise and rise of regenerative ag...

Joseph D'Cruz, CEO of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, and Olivier Tichit, chief sustainability officer at Musim Mas, talk with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about the European Union's deforestation regulation and its resulting reverberations across the palm oil sector and beyond. They discuss the complexities this black or white regulation will bring, including the potential removal of smal...

Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh and Niamh McCarthy from Climate Advisers introduce an upcoming virtual event where findings from new soy and cattle reports from the Orbitas initiative will be discussed. The event will incorporate perspectives from stakeholders across Brazil's soy and cattle sector.  Click here to register to join live on Tuesday 30th April at 3pm CEST.  Live Portuguese translation wi...

This week: Niamh McCarthy, director for climate-related risk at Climate Advisers, talks with Ian Welsh about the launch of a new report from the Orbitas initiative on the Brazilian cattle sector and the impact of climate transition. They discuss the sector’s risks and opportunities amid climate transitions, and the impacts of the incoming regulatory change.    And, Ian talks with Amanda Archila, e...

Saif Hameed, CEO of Altruistiq, and Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh talk about how companies should engage suppliers on their scope 3 emissions and the challenges that inevitably arise. They discuss how companies can avoid some common mistakes in tackling scope 3 emissions and how to work on the granularity of their carbon emissions at a product level.

This week: a preview of what's coming up including an interview with Climate Advisers on their new Orbitas' report on the Brazilian cattle sector, and an initial look at the gap between price and value in supply chains with Fairtrade America and Fairtrade Foundation. Full interviews will be available later this week. Plus: Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh and Hannah Oborne talks about what to expect a...

This week: At the recent responsible sourcing and ethical trade forum in London, Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh spoke with some of the expert participants to reflect on the conversations that took place. Hear from Sam Ludlow Taylor from the John Lewis Partnership, Peter McAllister from the Ethical Trading Initiative and Wayne Jordash from Business and Human Rights Compliance.   Plus: During his rece...

Gerard Barron, CEO of deep sea mining exploration business The Metals Company, talks with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about a seabed alternative to traditional metal and mineral extraction methods that has lower environmental and social impacts. They discuss the potential future demand for these materials, which are critical for manufacture of the renewable energy infrastructure necessary for dec...

This week: Joseph D'Cruz, CEO of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, and Olivier Tichit, chief sustainability officer at Musim Mas, talk with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about the impact of the EU's deforestation regulation on the palm oil sector. They discuss its potential unintended consequences, such as impacting smallholder farmers’ market access and the development of segregated supply c...

Jessica Sansom, sustainability director at Huel, talks with Innovation Forum's Hannah Oborne about how food brands are devising new means of balancing sustainability with accessibility and nutrition. They discuss how the future of food will be impacted by changes in consumer trends and share advice on how brands can be successful in the convenience food industry and to generate consumer trust.   J...

Max Dougherty, carbon business development lead at Bayer Crop Science, talks with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about the importance of a farmer-centric approach to regenerative agriculture and how to foster effective multi-stakeholder collaboration. They discuss some case studies on what good regenerative agricultural practices look like and the potential routes to funding for agricultural transit...

This week: Ian Welsh and Diana Kim reveal details of the complimentary Innovation Forum webinars  coming up in the next few weeks. They discuss what to expect at the  Brazilian agribusiness case study webinar , held in partnership with Orbitas on the 30th April. They also talk about the importance of sustainable crop nutrition ahead of a webinar on the role of fertilisers in regenerative agricultu...

This week: Saif Hameed, CEO of Altruistiq, talks with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about the challenges for companies tackling their scope 3 supply chain emissions. They discuss how to identify scope 3 hotspots, avoid the common mistakes companies make and more.   Plus: during Innovation Forum’s responsible sourcing and ethical trade event in London, some of the expert participants spoke with Ian,...