Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

At Innovation Forum’s recent sustainable apparel and textiles conference, Textile Exchange COO Claire Bergkamp talked with Ian Welsh about what she hopes will be the positive impacts from the upcoming COP26 meeting for the apparel sector. They talk about some of the key potential policy changes that might emerge and what business leaders should be doing to prepare for them.   Textile Exchange was...

Antje Fehling, brand services manager for Europe at Bluesign talks with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about the difficulties in data alignment in apparel sector supply chains. Their discission includes insight into how brands can work towards minimising social and environmental risks, identifying knowledge gaps, and the importance of engaging with suppliers as long-term partners.   Bluesign was a s...

To reach net zero by 2050, companies must deliver on tough scope 3 climate targets through innovation, circular systems and natural climate solutions. This webinar explores what this means in practice within the food industry. We delve into the role that natural climate solutions play in company climate strategies to 2050, exploring the challenges and opportunities of such intervention in companie...

Steven Bethell, founder of Bank & Vogue and Beyond Retro, talks with Ian Welsh about the massive potential for what can happen to all the apparel items that are donated to charities that can’t be re-sold. Bethell outlines how repurposing can maximise the value in what has traditionally been regarded as “waste” and argues the case for “innovative solutions to the crisis of stuff”.   Bank & Vogue wa...

This week: Eduardo Rojas-Briales, forestry professor at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, and a board member of PEFC, on the potential for forests to provide sustainable regenerative fibre for the apparel sector at scale, and why this could be a solution to be the microplastics pollution problem. Plus: International Energy Agency calls for immediate end to fossil fuel development; Shell shar...

Anastasia Volkova, CEO of Regrow, outlines to Ian Welsh the benefits for farmers who can transparently prove to their customers and other stakeholders the changes and innovations they implement, such as regenerative agriculture and other improvements – including accessing carbon markets. For buyers and brands, transparency brings greater certainty while working towards long-term sustainability tar...

This week: Representatives from Rainforest Alliance, agriculture commodities trader Ecom and finance provider Norandino discuss the implementation of a LandScale programme pilot in a coffee and cocoa growing region in Lamas Province, northern Peru. They talk about how to establish landscape-level targets, assessments and incentives, tackle deforestation, and build more resilient ecosystems and lon...

The Genetic Literacy Project’s Jon Entine and Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb talk about why gene editing has yet to make significant impact in the agriculture sector. Entine explains how gene editing mimics what happens in nature, enhancing qualities and eliminating problems. They discuss the differences between gene editing and genetic modification, and why the former should not be bundled together...

This week: Antje Fehling from Bluesign on some techniques that help apparel companies really get to know their supply chain – and why it’s unavoidable that this necessary process requires significant effort. And, Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb and forests expert Simon Lord talk about some of the unintended consequences of simply just planting trees to counter deforestation. As they explain, it’s a l...

Jim Gawron, manager in the Ford commercial vehicle team, talks with Ian Welsh about how electrification of corporate fleets can be taken to scale – tackling corporate scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions in the process. Gawron outlines why the commercial vehicle sector in particular is one where electric vans and trucks can be very competitive when compared with combustion-based alternatives, taking entire...

This week: Textile Exchange’s COO Claire Bergkamp on how to prepare for this year’s COP26 meeting, the outcomes that are likely, and her hopes for the apparel sector. Plus Steven Bethell, co-founder of Bank & Vogue and Beyond Retro, on the huge resource potential in post-consumer textiles. In parallel with maximising resale and upcycling, he outlines how chemical recycling techniques and better da...

National Wildlife Federation’s Simon Hall, senior manager for tropical forests and agriculture, talks with Ian Welsh about what the route to getting to grips with deforestation risks can look like. The first step is to get away the reactionary crisis management approach and, rather, take a more mature approach with a supplier engagement programme that includes thoughtful incentives to drive behavi...

Innovation Forum’s “Innovation Accelerator” action research programme recently published ground-breaking research on how companies can enable smallholder development beyond siloed purchasing and initiatives. Through 80+ interviews with those on the front lines of smallholder engagement, we uncovered opportunities for sourcing companies to link directly with smallholders growing a variety of crops....

This week: Anastasia Volkova, CEO of Regrow, talks about the challenges for producers to be able to demonstrate implementation of regenerative agricultural practices, and other improvements, to the rest of the value chain, and why this will increase in importance as carbon markets develop. Plus: US to cut emissions by 50% this decade, UK to cut 78% by 2035; Land O’Lakes, McDonald’s, General Mills...

Five years on from the Behind the Brands campaign, Oxfam America’s Matt Hamilton talks with Ian Welsh about progress in the food and beverage sector. They talk about the contrasts between the stretching targets companies set at the top and the difficulties implementing those at the local level. Their discussion includes land rights, climate change, the locations where companies are doing well and...

Cargill’s sustainability director for animal nutrition and health, Heather Tansey, talks with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about how methane emissions from cattle can be mitigated and controlled. There are a number of techniques that can help, including rumen modifiers added to cattle diets that significantly reduce the methane – a highly potent greenhouse gas – that cattle belch while eating. Car...

This week: To eliminate emissions in operations – and to tackle scope 3 supply chain emissions – widespread electrification of corporate fleets is pretty much essential. Jim Gawron, from Ford’s electric commercial vehicles team, talks about the potential for the new products coming to the market. Companies think in terms of total cost of ownership – and electric trucks and vans have low on-going c...

Gotz Martin from Golden Agri-Resources catches up with Ian Welsh about some of the big palm oil sector's challenges and reflects on the findings from the recent Innovation Forum led research into smallholder farmers. Martin argues that smallholder farming remains stuck in a poverty trap because demands for low costs at buyer companies are not sufficiently linked to sustainability targets, and they...

This week: Simon Hall, senior manager for tropical forests and agriculture at the National Wildlife Federation, discusses why the best approach to company deforestation risks have evolved from dealing with immediate reputation crises into a more thoughtful and strategic approach. There’s a need to think about units of production, traceability through supply chains, reporting and providing informat...

Jon Entine, who leads the Genetic Literacy Project, a science communication non-profit, joins Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb to discuss chemicals and science in agriculture. Their robust discussion covers topics such as glyphosate, copper sulphate, gene editing and the science and impacts of both synthetic and organic chemicals in food and wine. Sign up to the Innovation Forum newsletter for free he...

This week: Oxfam America’s Matt Hamilton discusses the conclusions from the new Shining a Spotlight report into progress on commitments and implementation at the world’s biggest food and beverages brands. This looks into progress over the five years since Oxfam’s Behind the Brands campaign that focused attention on brand supply chain impacts on climate change, and environmental and social issues m...

In the first of an occasional podcast series, sustainability expert Simon Lord and Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb talk about some of the challenges around reforestation and forest restoration. They discuss why it’s often simpler to just plant more trees rather than try to restore degraded forest – but that just planting without proper planning can lead to monoculture and will not recreate biodiversi...

Jeff Tkach, chief impact officer at the Rodale Institute, and Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb talk about how regenerative apparel should be defined, and what can be learnt from the innovation in regenerative agriculture more broadly. They also debate why regenerative is not reinventing the sustainable apparel wheel or the latest greenwash fad. This discussion was part of a workshop held by Innovation...

This week: Heather Tansey, sustainability director for animal nutrition and health, talks about the innovations that can tackle methane emissions in dairy and beef cattle. And, Ruth Farrell, textiles marketing director at Eastman Naia talks with Andrés Ortolana, chain of custody manager at FSC Italy about developing sustainable wood fibre supply for the apparel sector. Host: Ian Welsh   For more c...

Reflecting on recent Innovation Forum research, one of the project partners, Silke Peters, team leader in the sustainable agriculture supply chains and standards programme at GIZ, talks with Ian Welsh about some of the solutions that make a difference to smallholder farm incomes. She highlights diversification of crops, with essential access to markets and long term relationships with buyers, as c...