Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

At Innovation Forum’s sustainable commodities and landscapes conference in Amsterdam, Ian Welsh spoke with a number of the expert panellists and delegates attending the event.  Joseph D’Cruz, CEO, Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil Palavvi Sharma, agriculture commodities sector lead, Global Rights Compliance  Anita Neville, chief sustainability and communications officer, Golden Agri-Resources  Gi...

In this week's briefing, Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh and Bea Stevenson talk about the conversations coming up at COP28 this week, including themes of finance, energy and just transition, land-use, food and agriculture, and more. They also discuss Oxford University's latest analysis of the costs of putting carbon capture and storage solutions too much at the centre of decarbonisation strategies.  ...

Over the coming decades, smallholder farmers throughout Africa will play a pivotal role in supporting the continent’s economic development and enabling food security. However, these farmers currently face numerous constraints that hinder their productivity and profitability. Challenges include a lack of support and access to resources such as financing, technology, inputs, and markets. Acceleratin...

This week: Charlotte Bande, global food and beverage sector lead at Quantis, talks with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about how to improve the weak points in mainstream corporate sustainability decision making within the food and agriculture sector. They discuss the continued importance in peer-to-peer collaboration and share guidance on what a good just transition could look like.   Plus: on-the-s...

Forests activist Julia Butterfly Hill talks with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about progress and further opportunities for companies and government in forest and biodiversity protection. They highlight the importance of corporate investment towards carbon market projects such as REDD+. Julia also shares an urgent message for world leaders convening in Dubai for the COP28 climate talks.   For more...

IDH's regional director for Asia landscapes, Chi Tran, and senior programme manager for coffee, Tessa Meulensteen, talk with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about what the incoming EU's deforestation regulation will mean for the coffee sector. They discuss the opportunities and challenges to this regulation, including potential smallholder farmer exclusion and diversity loss in supply chains.

In this week's briefing, Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh and Bea Stevenson talk about the key issues up for negotiation at COP28, which begins this week in Dubai. In particular, they discuss the different positions around clean energy agreements, and the need to establish a new loss and damage fund.   Bea Stevenson talks to Gotz Martin, director of sustainability and strategic projects at Golden Agri...

This week: Rodrigue Kreilmann, corporate sustainability governance manager at Mars, and Veronique Bovee, deputy director for responsible sourcing at Proforest, talk with Ian Welsh about how companies can help accelerate progress towards nature, people and climate goals on a landscape level. They discussed the importance of corporate leadership to drive this and peer collaboration.   Plus: At the r...

Deloitte's senior manager for sustainability, climate and equity, Nabarun Sengupta, talks with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about the evolving corporate approaches to nature-related risks and disclosures. They discuss the role of the new Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosure Framework, and highlight the opportunities of nature-based approaches.

In this week's briefing, Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh and Bea Stevenson talk about the first ever world sustainable transport day on 26th November. Designated by the UN General Assembly, the day aims to raise awareness on lower emission and energy-efficient sustainable transportation to achieve the sustainable development goals. They also discuss what a more sustainable Black Friday could look lik...

This week: At the recent sustainable commodities and landscapes forum, Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh spoke with Pallavi Sharma from Global Rights Compliance, Olivier Tichit from Musim Mas and Giorgio Budi Indrarto from Madani. They talked about the evolving impacts and unintended consequences of the incoming EU deforestation regulation and what it means for non-EU supply chain stakeholders.   Plus:...

Jack Hurd, executive director of the Tropical Forest Alliance and Emily Kunen, senior director, positive agriculture capabilities and forest risk at PepsiCo, talk with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about importance of scaling the use of landscape and jurisdictional approaches for sustainable land use. They discuss the findings from the TFA's latest report, including the unintended consequences of E...

In this week's briefing, Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh and Bea Stevenson talk about Asia-Pacific Climate Week, being held in Malaysia to showcase solutions and innovations to tackle climate challenges in the lead up to COP28. They also discuss the EU council's upcoming adoption of farm sustainability data network regulations for collecting environmental and social data of food systems for companies...

This week: At Innovation Forum's future of climate action conference in Washington DC, Ian Welsh and Bea Stevenson discuss the key talking points from the opening day of the event. They highlight the impact of evolving legislation and the ongoing corporate struggle to turn climate commitments and targets into credible action plans to deliver real progress. Plus: During Innovation Forum's recent su...

During Innovation Forum's recent future of plastics and packaging conference in Amsterdam, some of the participants spoke with Ian Welsh, reflecting on the conversations from the two days. These conversations focused in particular on the latest packaging trends and how the sector is shifting towards tougher and mandatory compliance standards, and the role of recycle and reuse schemes. Hear from Jo...

In this week's briefing, Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh and Bea Stevenson talk about the launch of this year's UNEP Production Gap report, which tracks the gap between governments' planned fossil fuel production and the Paris Agreement goal of 1.5C. They also discuss the international day for preventing the exploitation of the environment in war and armed conflict on 6th November, which sheds light...

This week: Jack Hurd, executive director of Tropical Forest Alliance, and Emily Kunen, senior director, positive agriculture capabilities and forest risk at PepsiCo, talk with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about how companies can act to develop a more sustainable approach to land use at scale. They discuss research conclusions and key takeaways from the Tropical Forest Alliance's latest report on c...

Bex Hall, head of consulting at Sedex, talks to Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about how decreasing food prices, coupled with increasing input costs, can create a squeeze that puts supply chain workers at risk. They discuss how food costs could be spread more equitably across value chains, and the opportunities that could arise from this. 

This week: Deloitte's senior manager for sustainability, climate and equity, Nabarun Sengupta talks with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about the role of the new Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosure (TNFD) Framework, and how companies are approaching nature-related risks and disclosures. They discuss some reasons to be hopeful about positive momentum on nature-based approaches.   Plus:...

Successful REDD+ projects that protect forests and preserve biodiversity must work in partnership with Indigenous Peoples and local communities to safeguard and enhance their rights. Improving livelihoods by providing basic needs and alternative income opportunities is critical to forest conservation that is equitable.   Projects require close and extensive community consultation and strong engage...

In part two of our farmer voice series, Innovation Forum's Bea Stevenson speaks with Deborah Osei-Mensah from the Asunafo Cocoa Cooperative in Ghana. They talk about how farmer like Deborah are experiencing extreme and unpredictable weather patterns on the ground, and in particular how this can disproportionately impact women farmers.

In the first part of our farmer voice series, Wakinya Samuel, a smallholder coffee farmer from Bushika Integrated Area Cooperative Enterprise (BIACE) in Uganda, speaks with Innovation Forum's Bea Stevenson about some of the challenges he faces as a result of climate change, including pests and diseases, and lower yields. He also explains how farmers are using innovative practices such as agrofores...

In this week's briefing, Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh and Bea Stevenson talk about the upcoming European Climate Stocktake on EU and global progress on meeting the Paris Agreement, in the leadup to the Global Stocktake. They discuss the Inter-agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators' 14th meeting, held in Denmark, which will include discussions around SDG reports, data pa...

This week: IDH's regional director for Asia landscapes, Chi Tran, and senior programme manager for coffee, Tessa Meulensteen, talk with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about the potential impact of the EU's deforestation regulation on the coffee sector and the unintended consequences that may arise. Plus: UBS and Santander’s “green" bonds linked to Brazilian deforestation; Musim Mas to stop sourcing...

Heather Tansey, vice president for environmental sustainability at Cargill, spoke with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about how to move towards a higher-yield, lower impact food supply system to ensure future supply security. They discuss the importance for the sector to prepare for the inevitable system shocks such as climate change and geopolitical events.