Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

This week: Kené Umeasiegbu, head of environment at Tesco talks about how food retailers can tackle environmental challenges in supply chains, and the benefits of using science-based targets. Plus: mass reforestation and climate change, $1bn green bond for Brazilian soy farmers, more waste returned to Australia, UK LPG switch to biofuels, and the world’s 2bn tonnes of municipal waste problem, in th...

Richard George, head of forests, Greenpeace UK, and Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb discuss the main findings from a new Greenpeace report into what companies have been doing to meet 2020 targets to eliminate deforestation across supply chains. George says that Greenpeace has taken a cross-commodity approach in this latest report as single supply chain campaigns – such as on palm oil – lead to lack o...

Tamara Ansons, behaviour science consultant at Ipsos, and Ian Welsh discuss new research – from Ipsos and Innovation Forum – that shows how consumers, particularly younger consumers, are engaging with corporate sustainability issues. The results show that all demographic groups are interested in making sustainable choices, but conflicting demands makes acting on these a challenge. Ansons argues th...

This week: David Cleary, head of agriculture at The Nature Conservancy, talks with Toby Webb about land conversion challenges for South American forests and other biomes, including the Cerrado. And Rob Waterworth, chief executive of the Mullion Group, discusses with Ian Welsh what the food sector can learn from forestry to improve stakeholder relationships and trust. Plus all the news about what’s...

This week: Golden Agri-Resources’ Anita Neville on how the debate on biofuels is shifting and how palm oil supply chains can become more impact-positive alongside focusing on deforestation. Plus: Arctic permafrost melting far faster than expected; climate change dangers for the Amazon; PepsiCo’s new Latin American recycling programme rolled out in Peru; and Boots replacing plastic bags with paper,...

Libby Bernick, managing director of Trucost Corporate Business, S&P Global, discusses with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh the changing business models required to truly capture the value of food, and the role of better data management in solving this. She argues for taking total environmental and social costs of commodities into account – something that investors are increasingly asking for. Lenders...

David Wilkinson, head of agriculture procurement at PepsiCo, talks with Toby Webb about the technology that, at scale, is growing efficiencies in-the-field in the brand’s supply chains. They discuss the growth of precision agriculture techniques and how Pepsico has been changing how it engages with its farmer-suppliers helping them to benefit from best practices increasing yields and reducing inpu...

Jill Wheeler, head of sustainable productivity Syngenta North America, and Duane Martin, commercial traits manager at Syngenta Seed, talk with Ian Welsh about some specific commodity supply challenges, and innovations that can provide solutions. They discuss how to increase productivity in developed and developing markets, concerns at the rates of soil degradation, how to develop better resource e...

Mariano Lozano, CEO of Danone North America, discusses with Toby Webb about what’s necessary to make the business case for real change in agriculture practices. Lozano talks about the dual challenges of creating value for the company, alongside convincing farmer-suppliers that changing their practices will mean less volatility and greater returns over the long-term. Lozano argues that “sustainabil...

This week: Dan Wolfson, IBM distinguished engineer with the Weather Company, discusses the potential of artificial intelligence for agriculture. And Carole Dubois, food sector lead at Quantis, talks about how companies can use science-based targets to drive business value. Plus: the world’s biggest companies failing on climate targets, plastics driving GHG growth, and new floor cocoa price in west...

Antonio Brunori, secretary-general of PEFC Italy, explains to Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh how the Forests for Fashion initiative helps fashion brands develop transparency in their pulp-based fibre supply chains. The apparel sector’s growing demand for viscose means increasing deforestation risks for the sector – but PEFC’s chain of custody approach helps the industry source certified-sustainable...

Mark Everard, ecosystems services expert and associate professor at the University of the West of England, explains PVC’s sustainable future to Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb. Everard outlines how the vinyl sector has engaged with five key sustainability challenges for over the past couple of decades, and they debate why the developments have been rather under the radar.

This week: Tamara Ansons, behaviour science consultant at Ipsos, on new research that shows how younger consumers are engaging with corporate sustainability issues. And Niels Wielaard, founder of Satelligence, on how using remote sensing data can help brands with tropical supply chains reduce deforestation risks. Plus: 50m hectares more deforestation says Greenpeace, plastic ingestion dangers, and...

Peter McAllister, executive director, Ethical Trading Initiative, and Ian Welsh discuss trends in how companies are engaging with modern slavery in supply chains, and why forced labour keeps appearing in new places. McAllister argues the case for transparency and normalising in consumer eyes that there are going to be problems and it’s how they are fixed that’s important. He outlines why businesse...

Tensie Whelan, director, NYU Stern Centre for Sustainable Business, and former president of Rainforest Alliance discusses with Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb her work helping future business leaders embed sustainability in operations and demonstrate the causality of the relationship between good ESG performance and economic return. Whelan argues that company accounting is currently designed to value...

This week: David Wilkinson, head of agriculture procurement at PepsiCo, on the technology that, at scale, is growing efficiencies in-the-field in the brand’s supply chains. And Libby Bernick, managing director of Trucost Corporate Business, S&P Global, on why market mechanisms currently don’t reflect the true cost of food, and the role of better data management in solving this. Plus: Waitrose tria...

Andreas Streubig, director, global sustainability, at Hugo Boss discusses with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh how the fashion business organises its supply chains, developing more transparency. Streubig argues the case for sector-wide platforms and pre-competitive collaboration to deal supply chain challenges, and to combat the risks of a fragmentation of approaches. Customers, he says, are ever-mor...

Justin Pariag, head of sustainable business at Dutch retailer De Bijenkorf, talks with Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb about how such a business can influence the sustainable apparel movement. They discuss the role of department stores in driving sustainable change through engagement with both end consumers and the brands. Pariag argues that story-telling is crucial to engage the former with products...

This week: Mariano Lozano, CEO of Danone North America, speaks to Toby Webb about making the business case for real change in agriculture practices. And Jill Wheeler and Duane Martin from Syngenta talk with Ian Welsh about specific commodity supply challenges and innovations that can provide solutions. Plus: plastic waste gets political in the Philippines and Malaysia, river antibiotic pollution,...

Vanessa Di Cuffa, UK people change director, ABP Food, talks with Ian Welsh about how modern slavery legislation has driven behaviour change in the meat industry in the UK, and in particular on point-of-recruitment risks. She argues that transparency and establishing personal relationships with supply chain workers are crucial. They also debate how to get around the forced-labour challenges for fo...

François-Ghislain Morillion, co-founder of trainer brand Veja, explains to Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh how the business has developed short and sustainable supply chains for materials in its shoes, which now includes recycled polyester from plastic bottles. They debate the challenges in finding new source materials that are truly sustainable, and the design pitfalls around product development. Af...

Sebastian Siegele, managing director of Sustainability Agents (SUSA), discusses with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh how to improve factory conditions in the apparel sector by developing best practice examples that demonstrate clearly the economic and productivity benefits from getting beyond social compliance. He argues for redirecting of resources from endless social auditing to demonstrating to fa...

This week: Antonio Brunori, secretary-general of PEFC Italy, explains to Ian Welsh how the Forests for Fashion initiative helps fashion brands develop transparency in their pulp-based fibre supply chains. And Mark Everard, ecosystems services expert and associate professor at the University of the West of England, explains PVC’s sustainable future to Toby Webb. Plus, in the news digest: CDP’s citi...

David Schilling, senior programme director at the Interfaith Centre on Corporate Responsibility, discusses with Ian Welsh the challenges for apparel sector businesses that remain six years on from the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh. Schilling explains why the Bangladesh government is keen to move on from the company-led Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety that developed after...