Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

Matt Hamiltion, senior advisor on traders and inclusive value chains at Oxfam America shares with Ian Welsh some results from Oxfam's latest Moving the Middle report, assessing big agribusinesses on their policies and implementation plans. The companies are evaluated across five issue areas: women's empowerment, land inequality, smallholder equity and transparency. They also debate the need to go...

In order to hit targets on sustainability issues such as emissions, waste and ethical work conditions, companies must work with suppliers to implement changes on the ground. Asking suppliers to shift behaviour and protocol can be challenging, and so incentives are often needed. As part of the theme for Earth Day 2023 to “Invest in Our Planet”, this special webinar had panellists share the differen...

In this week's preview of what's coming up, Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh and Bea Stevenson talk about the ten-year anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory collapse, and why despite the best efforts of many in the apparel sector, the same challenges persist a decade later. They also discuss the upcoming webinar Innovation Forum is hosting with Nestlé on 27th April, at 3pm CEST, with the focus on rege...

This week: Scott Kelly, senior vice president, Risilience shares guidance with Ian Welsh on how apparel brands can implement effective net-zero plans by 2050. They discuss the importance of measuring carbon emissions first, then creating a concrete plan to reduce emissions with interim targets set along the way.   Plus: Greenpeace and other groups take the European commission to court over green i...

Hear some on-the-spot reflections at the recent responsible sourcing and ethical trade forum in London from Clifford Chance’s Rae Lindsay, Fiona Wheatley from Bakkavor and the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre’s Phil Bloomer, talking with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh. They highlight the importance of mandatory human rights due diligence in supplier engagement through in-depth investigation...

In this week’s preview of what’s coming up, Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh and Bea Stevenson talk about the 6th Nordic Conference on Climate Change Adaptation where stakeholders share key lessons learned from their policy approaches in adaptation across cities and municipalities. They also discuss potential impacts from the Extinction Rebellion four-day peaceful protest at the UK houses of parliamen...

This week: Anurag Gupta, managing director of Usha Yarns, talks with Ian Welsh about products the company is developing from pre-consumer recycled cotton combined with PET plastic. They discuss the potential for sustainable fibres becoming mainstream, the importance of increasing the value of waste and developing products that don’t require virgin material use. Plus: further reflections from the r...

Olivier Tichit, director of sustainability at Musim Mas, talks with Ian Welsh about the potential for “verified deforestation-free” programmes to counter the challenges generated by the impending EU deforestation-linked products ban. They discuss the need to proactively halt deforestation by working at a landscape level and engage in multi-stakeholder collaboration, alongside verification to recog...

In this week’s preview, Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh and Bea Stevenson talk about the World Bank annual spring meetings discussing the global economic outlook with a focus on climate change and sustainable development. They also discuss the urgent need to improve traceability in the cocoa sector with continued issues of deforestation and child labour.   Plus, Innovation Forum’s Tanya Richard share...

This week: Matt Hamilton, senior advisor for inclusive value chains at Oxfam America, highlights the key insights from Oxfam's latest behind the brands report benchmarking the activities of the world’s biggest agribusinesses, including on empowering women, land rights, transparency and accountability. He shares its findings and provides recommendations for global agribusiness, downstream companies...

Andreas Hansen, senior policy advisor of ocean and conservation finance at The Nature Conservancy, talks with Innovation Forum's Bea Stevenson about the new UN framework to protect marine biodiversity in international waters. They discuss the potential business impacts for seafood supply chains and how the treaty recognises the oceans’ role in climate change mitigation.

In this week’s preview of what’s coming up, Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh and Bea Stevenson talk about why the World Health Organisation, celebrating its 75th anniversary this week, is focusing on climate change in this year’s World Health Day, and business implications. They also discuss the potential implications of impending carbon tax increases in Canada and how this reflects carbon pricing tre...

This week: During Innovation Forum’s responsible sourcing and ethical trade event in London, some of the expert participants spoke with Ian Welsh, reflecting on conversations from the conference. They discussed the continued need for multi-stakeholder collaboration, conducting deep-dive research on suppliers and ensure due diligence is not just a box-ticking exercise. Hear from Rae Lindsay from Cl...

Brendan May, sustainable business commentator and chair of Robertsbridge, talks with Ian Welsh about the key sustainable business trends from corporate net-zero models and evolution of how companies tackle climate change and other pressing challenges. They discuss the need for deforestation to be flagged in multilateral trade deals, the unintended consequences of regulatory tightening, why banning...

We know that upcycling, recycling, and the use of recycled materials are pillars of a circular apparel industry. However, challenges to scale remain around the downgrading of recycled materials, powerful vested interests in virgin fibre production, and rapid growth in fashion consumption. Apparel brands must play a significant role in tackling these issues to limit the use of virgin fibres, and re...

In a preview of what's coming up this week, Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh and Bea Stevenson talk about what to look out for in the UK government's refreshed net-zero strategy, and contrast it with other approaches in in the US and EU. They also discuss the first international zero waste day to be held on 30th March to raise awareness of zero waste initiatives. And, Catie Ball provides further infor...

This week: Olivier Tichit, director of sustainability at Musim Mas, talks with Ian Welsh about some unintended consequences of EU’s new regulation banning the import of deforestation-linked products into the bloc. They discuss how the development of “verified deforestation-free” programmes, with third party verification, might be a solution that keeps markets open for imports from higher risk grow...

Bayer’s head of ethics and social impact, Janina Lukas, talks with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about how business can adapt and engage in changing legislation on ethics and social impact. They talk about the continued need for companies to go beyond compliance, and how regulation can create a level playing field. However, they also discuss the flaws in a “one size fits all” approach.

In a new preview of what’s coming up, Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh and Bea Stevenson talk about what to look out for in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest report summing up its recent conclusions in what should be a crucial policy document. They also discuss the upcoming UN water conference in New York where the Water Action Agenda will be launched. And Hanna Halmari provides i...

This week: Senior policy advisor for ocean and conservation finance at The Nature Conservancy, Andreas Hansen, talks with Innovation Forum’s Bea Stevenson about the new UN draft agreement to protect offshore marine biodiversity. They talk about the new framework on environmental impact assessment in the high seas and its business impacts. Plus: CDP investors now request corporate plastics pollutio...

Tom Thackray, director of decarbonisation at the Confederation of British Industry, talks with Ian Welsh about the role of UK business in driving forwards on net zero commitments, and the inevitable challenges the necessary transition will throw up. They discuss the opportunities for greater energy efficiency and affordability from low-carbon technologies, the need for increasing accessibility for...

This week: Brendan May, sustainable business commentator and chair of Robertsbridge, reflects with Ian Welsh on the key sustainable business global trends and challenges, and how companies should engage on them. They discuss the dangers of complacency when tackling climate change and biodiversity loss, and how greenwashing-derived sensitivity has led to greater corporate transparency. Plus: defore...

Recently, corporate use of voluntary carbon markets and verified emissions credits has come under intense scrutiny and debate. On one side, reporting in the Guardian and elsewhere has claimed that most certified credits do not represent genuine carbon reductions. On the other side, certifying bodies and others supporting the use of voluntary carbon markets and projects tackling deforestation have...

Peter McAllister, executive director of the Ethical Trading Initiative, talks with Ian Welsh about the complexities of ethical trade and emerging corporate engagement to untangling the risks within these systemic issues. They discuss what good regulation looks like and some of the unintended consequences of corporate human rights due diligence.

This week: Janina Lukas, head of ethics and social impact at Bayer, talks about the impacts of ethics and social policy on business. Talking with Ian Welsh, she discusses the challenges of corporate due diligence and the importance of peer collaboration and putting people at the core of risk management. Plus: US measures to crack down on child labour; final talks for UN High Seas Treaty; Golden Ag...