Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

At the recent Innovation Forum Future of Food conference, Nicko Debenham, vice president and head of sustainability at Barry Callebaut, and Taco Terheijden, director, cocoa sustainability at Cargill and talked about supply chain traceability and use of data with Toby Webb. They discussed the importance of getting quality data about smallholder farmers without disrupting farm activities, and why it...

This week: Nestlé’s Jodie Roussell, senior public affairs manager for packaging and sustainability, talks about challenges developing lower-impact packaging and thinking about how to encourage re-use and refill solutions, and the dangers of unintended consequences of simply switching away from using plastic. Plus, an update from Innovation Forum’s Hanna Halmari about the upcoming climate action co...

Daniel Baertschi, food and agriculture sector lead at Quantis, argues the case for developing a whole-system approach to developing food supply that is less impactful. Talking with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh, he points out some practical steps in product diversification and ingredient sourcing that can make a big difference, including thinking more strategically around shortening supply chains a...

This week: Myles McCarthy, director for implementation and e-mobility at the Carbon Trust, talks about the big climate challenges for business in the run-up to COP26. He argues that while there are some big step-change targets being set across industries, the challenge now is in making the progress necessary at scale and pace, and developing the technology and models that will be required. And, To...

Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb and Peter Stanbury talk about why entire value chains have to be sustainable and that a narrow focus just on smallholder farmers in isolation is not the best approach. They discuss some of the factors that encourage more resilient rural development and farm income encompassing market forces – including a necessary move from just a “don’t cut down the forest” conversati...

Epidemiologist Jason Glaser, CEO of La Isla Network, talks about the risks for any company with commodity supply chains around high temperatures and agricultural worker health. While these have been researched in tropical regions for some time, climate change impacts mean that agricultural workers in more temperate zones are now at risk. There are some simple strategies to follow – but, as Glazer...

Eunice Oduro, project manager at anti-poverty NGO CARE, and Samuel Apana, Cargill’s cocoa sustainability lead in Ghana, talk with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about the long-term collaboration project between Cargill and CARE to improve the livelihoods of smallholder cocoa farmers in west Africa. Among the issues the collaboration has targeted include increasing yields and farm incomes, empowering...

Samuel Avaala, general manager of Benso Oil Palm Plantation in Ghana, talks with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about how the business uses the Accountability Framework to help engage non-certified suppliers so they align with BOPP’s no deforestation, no damaging of peat lands and no exploitation commitments. They talk about how the framework can be complementary to membership of the Roundtable on S...

This week: Daniel Baertschi, food and agriculture sector lead at Quantis, discusses how making the right choices for food companies – thinking about regenerative agriculture practices and a strong focus on soil health – can make significant impacts on reducing carbon emissions. While urgent action is required right now, the necessary changes to food production processes may take, he argues, a gene...

At Innovation Form’s recent Future of Food conference, Erin Priddle, northern Europe regional director at the Marine Stewardship Council, Tracy Cambridge, responsible sourcing director for Europe at Thai Union, Mark Zimring, director, large scale fisheries programme at The Nature Conservancy and Dave Robb, SeaFurther sustainability programme lead at Cargill, discuss with Ian Welsh how the seafood...

This week: Taco Terheijden, director, cocoa sustainability at Cargill, and Nicko Debenham, vice president and head of sustainability at Barry Callebaut, talk with Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb about how companies can have positive impacts in supply chains through enhancing traceability and the data necessary to achieve this. The discussion, focusing on the cocoa sector, was recorded at the recent I...

At the recent future for climate action conference, Marie-Pierre Bousquet Lecomte, science-based targets implementation director at Danone, Robert Horster, global sustainability lead for agricultural supply chains and food ingredients at Cargill, Conor McMahon, climate delivery manager at Nestlé, and Joshua Tosteson, president, Everland, joined Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb to talk about how to imp...

Felicitas Weber from the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre talks with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about some of the key conclusions from the recently-published latest Know the Chain benchmark into the forced labour risks in big apparel sector companies and investors. The good news is that all the companies benchmarked have improved their performance at least a little. The less good is tha...

This week: Samuel Avaala from Benso Oil Palm Plantation in Ghana, talks about how to work with suppliers to improve traceability and transparency from non-certified sources, to tackle deforestation and ensure sustainable supply. The discussion includes how initiatives and tools, including the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and the Accountability Framework help, and the need for careful alignme...

Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb talks with Sir Ian Boyd, professor of biology at the University of St Andrews, and former chief scientific adviser to the UK government on food, environment and rural affairs. They discuss why food production is one of the hardest sectors to decarbonise and the massive challenges around resource inefficiencies, and why techniques like controlled system farming might be...

This week: Eunice Oduro, project manager at anti-poverty NGO CARE in Ghana and Samuel Apana, Cargill’s cocoa sustainability lead in Ghana, talk about their long-term partnership that has helped secure the sector’s long term future, building farm resilience and empowering rural communities. Plus: Target’s new targets; University of Cambridge’s plastic polymer from soy proteins; International Moneta...

At Innovation Forum’s recent future for climate action conference, Julia King, Baroness Brown of Cambridge, chair of the Carbon Trust, and chair of the adaptation sub-committee of the UK’s Committee on Climate Change – the statutory non-departmental body set up to advise the United Kingdom and the devolved UK governments and parliaments on tackling and preparing for climate change – speaks with In...

In 2010, Nestlé made a commitment to end deforestation in its supply chain. In this webinar, join Nestlé's forest and sustainable sourcing leaders along with additional experts who will discuss what is needed to achieve a ‘forest positive’ future. They will consider how land rights intersect with conservation; the role satellite monitoring can play in combatting deforestation; and, how we can go b...

This week: Expert insight from Cargill’s Dave Robb, Thai Union’s Tracy Cambridge, the Marine Stewardship Council’s Erin Priddle and the Nature Conservancy’s Mark Zimring on how the seafood sector should respond to market concerns on climate change and shifting fish stocks, and the role of business in managing these effectively. And the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre’s Felicitas Weber di...

Pina Gervassi, FSC’s climate director, talks with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about the benefits from transparency in forest-based raw material supply chains, and the innovation in newly certified sectors including rubber and bamboo. They discuss the credibility that can come with certification and how growers can develop value from ecosystem services by moving from thinking about performance to...

Danone’s Marie-Pierre Bousquet Lecomte, Nestlé’s Conor McMahon, Cargill’s Robert Horster, and Everland’s Joshua Tosteson join Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb to discuss how to implement natural climate solutions that deliver large scale greenhouse gas reduction. The panel talks about why such solutions are featuring ever-more prominently at the forefront of corporate commitments and strategy.   Plus:...

Patricia Quijandría, director for the tropical Andes at Rainforest Alliance is joined by project partners Camila Olmedo, from agriculture commodities trader Ecom, and Jose Carlos Apaéstegui from finance provider Norandino to discuss with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh a LandScale programme pilot project in Lamas Province, northern Peru. They discuss the challenges aligning stakeholder expectations a...

Eduardo Rojas-Briales, forestry professor at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, and a board member of PEFC, talks with Ian Welsh about the potential for the forestry sector providing sustainable fibre for the apparel sector and others. They also debate the role of properly managed forests in biodiversity preservation and tackling climate change.   PEFC was a sponsor of Innovation Forum’s rece...

This week: Sir Ian Boyd, professor of biology at the University of St Andrews, talks with Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb. Their discussion includes the potential impacts of COP26 on agriculture and food supply systems, and why the food sector needs to become between five and 10 times more efficient. Plus: brand and retailer coalition calls for stronger EU anti-deforestation regulation; consumer conc...

This week: Julia King, Baroness Brown of Cambridge, chair of the Carbon Trust and from the UK’s Committee on Climate Change, talks about what business should hope for from COP26. Strong policy measures are necessary for the acceleration to net zero, but companies need to be ready to adapt to changes that will come even within a 1.5C pathway. Baroness Brown was speaking at Innovation Forum’s Future...