Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

Biome Maker's co-founder and chief scientific officer, Alberto Acedo, talks with Ian Welsh about the company's BeCrop soil health testing technology to drive more sustainable farming. They discuss the benefits of testing soil health, allowing farmers to monitor their production, and the biological and chemical conditions of soil to improve their agricultural management practices.

This week, Christina Dixon, ocean campaign leader at the Environmental Investigation Agency talks with Innovation Forum’s Bea Stevenson about the prospects for a United Nations global pact on plastic pollution as the first negotiation session commences. They discuss why voluntary measures have not tackled the plastic pollution problem, despite its high public profile. Plus: more than half major pa...

Circularium Africa lead advisor and Global Plastic Action Partnership consultant Clem Ugorji talks with Innovation Forum's Bea Stevenson about how to improve the current waste collection infrastructure in west Africa, and communicating with consumers about end-of-life disposal. They discuss the challenges caused by a lack of waste segregation talk about the opportunities that can realise the value...

During Innovation Forum’s recent future of plastics and packaging event in Amsterdam, some of the expert participants spoke with Ian Welsh, reflecting on conversations from the conference and focusing in particular on how business can build packaging solutions that deliver impact at scale. Hear from the Consumer Goods Forum’s Ignacio Gavilan, Jodie Roussell from Nestlé, Camiel Steffanie and Sofie...

This week: Business and climate journalist Mike Scott reflects with Ian Welsh on the recent COP27 climate conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, evaluating the outcomes and commitments made. They discuss the progress on loss and damage, why commitments on phasing out fossil fuel use were weakened and assess the chances of maintaining a 1.5C warming pathway. There is an ever-greater need for climate adapta...

Proforest's Africa regional director, Abraham Baffoe, and deputy director for conservation and land use, Mike Senior, talk with Ian Welsh about what effective landscape approaches look like in practice. They identify positive nature, social and climate implications and opportunities for multi-stakeholder collaboration. They discuss what good policies look like to ensure producer voices are heard,...

This week: Isabella Tonaco, vice-president for strategy execution and marketing, renewable polymers and chemicals at Neste, and Mezbah Sabur, founder of Circularise, talk with Innovation Forum's Toby Webb about the two companies’ partnership to establish digital solutions for a transparent and traceable chemistry value chain. They discuss how blockchain transparency can counter challenges in mass...

Rupert Day, farmer livelihoods advisor at Cargill Cocoa and Chocolate, talks with Ian Welsh about how the Cargill Cocoa Promise programme is designed to help smallholder farmers become “agripreneurs” that are more resilient to shocks, while building community capacity. They discuss the continuing need to focus on farm incomes, and what good multi-stakeholder initiatives that help drive active coll...

Reckitt’s global head of sustainability David Croft gives some in-person insights from the COP27 meetings in Egypt. He reflects, talking with Ian Welsh, on what progress was made in the opening few days as the conference leaders scrambled to keep the 1.5C warming pledge fully in focus. They discuss the importance of non-siloed solutions, some reasons for optimism, and what future COP meetings shou...

This week: Alberto Acedo, co-founder and chief scientific officer at Biome Makers, talks about how the company’s BeCrop technology can test soil health to drive improvements in agricultural sustainability. He discusses the benefits of identifying the soil metrics that help farmers identify and monitor biological and chemical properties of soil to provide effective solutions for sustainable agricul...

Proforest's deputy director for company collaboration Veronique Bovee, and landscape coordinator for Indonesia Mila Nuh, talk with Ian Welsh about their landscape and livelihoods programmes. These tackle deforestation and human rights issues, and facilitate smallholder inclusion. They discuss the importance of multi-stakeholder collaboration between district and national governments, local communi...

This week: Clem Ugorji from the Global Plastic Action Partnership, formerly vice-president for public affairs communications and sustainability for west Africa at Coca-Cola, talks with Bea Stevenson about the reality of waste collection infrastructure in the region, and ways to create value and incentives for plastic collection and waste segregation.  Plus, insight from Tesco’s Anna Turrell, APRIL...

Leah Samberg, lead scientist, global policy, at Rainforest Alliance, and McDonald's sustainability director, nature and climate, Pete Garbutt, talk with Ian Welsh about new guidance developed by the Accountability Framework initiative in partnership with the Science Based Targets initiative and Green House Gas Protocol on land use change and further target setting, accounting for impact and disclo...

This week: Mike Senior and Abraham Baffoe from Proforest discuss how landscape approaches can work in practice, and the growing momentum over the past few years from companies making commitments and investments – through the Consumer Goods Forum’s Forest Positive Coalition for example. They talk about the leadership that is necessary from grower country governments, and why science-based targets f...

Juliet Ermer and Sarah Laidler from the Carbon Trust talk with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about decarbonisation in the packaging sector, and what is needed to enable recycled plastic content to compete with virgin. They discuss the prospects for a legally binding UN plastics treaty by 2024 and consider legislation on extended producer responsibility, pros and cons of chemical recycling and what...

For companies working towards their net-zero and nature-positive commitments, the need for clear and reliable intelligence on natural capital is vital. Innovative remote-sensing solutions can be an important enabler for improving business decisions with such data. This webinar, our expert panel discussed how remote-sensing data can be utilised to support company action for net-zero and nature-posi...

This week: Rupert Day, farmer livelihoods advisor at Cargill cocoa and chocolate, discusses some of the sector innovations that are making a real difference for producer communities, and why keeping farm incomes considerations front and centre of supply chain strategy remains vital. Plus, comment from Christina Dixon, Environmental Investigation Agency, and Jenny Wassenaar, Trivium Packaging, both...

Rahul Raj, co-founder of Sasya Produce talks with Ian Welsh talk about the company's priority to support farmers to implement sustainable agricultural practices and open new international markets. They discuss the future of food supply chains and the company’s five-year plan for regenerative agriculture and improving smallholder farmer livelihoods. 

Farmers are at the core of sustainable commodities production; however too often, they are not given a seat at the table. Ahead of our Sustainable Landscapes and Commodities conference in November, our online panel of farmers from across the globe discussed: • The challenges they have faced this year and are likely to face in the year ahead. • Their priorities for the future of their farms and fam...

Owen Bethell, environment impact lead from the global public affairs team at Nestlé, talks with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about Nestlé's priorities in climate advocacy through engaging with all stakeholders within the supply chain to achieve net zero by 2050. They discuss companies' duty to collaborate with farmer organisations, governments and most importantly peer companies to create collecti...

This week: Veronique Bovee, senior project manager, and Mila Nuh, southeast Asia regional landscape coordinator, at Proforest, talk about why preserving forests and ecosystems can mean adopting taking a pragmatic approach in working landscapes. They discuss some of the challenges encountered at projects in Indonesia, the importance of collaboration with indigenous communities and how to ensure tra...

Innovation Forum and Everland present a podcast focusing on the Wildlife Alliance Southern Cardamom REDD+ Project from the recent webinar, How REDD+ is working to save Cambodia's forests.   The project is located in the Cardamom rainforest landscape, one of the last unfragmented rainforests remaining in southeast Asia and is a critical part of the Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot. We’ll hear about...

Renata Nogueira, South America sustainability lead at Cargill, talks with Ian Welsh about partnering with farmers in Brazil in developing the sustainable agricultural practices necessary for the company to become deforestation and conversion-free by 2030. They discuss how farmer-driven programmes and collaboration benefit all stakeholders within food value chains, with environmental regularisation...

This week: Sarah Laidler and Juliet Ermer from the Carbon Trust talk about the evolving impacts of packaging, what good policy looks like, and potential routes to packaging decarbonisation. They also discuss the significant challenges that remain preventing plastic packaging moving to truly circular reuse and recycling models.    Plus: CEOs expect recession in 2023 and contemplate pausing ESG prog...

Rhett Butler, founder of Mongabay, and Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb talk about the latest trends in tackling deforestation in the world’s tropical forests. They discuss the increasing focus on nature-based solutions and the necessity for indigenous communities to be involved in conservation projects. Butler also explains why the move from simply thinking about tree planting to sophisticated ecosys...