Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

This week: Leah Samberg, Rainforest Alliance's lead scientist, global policy, and lead on the Accountability Framework initiative, and Pete Garbutt, sustainability director, nature and climate, at McDonald’s, discuss just-released guidance developed by AFi in partnership with the Science Based Targets initiative and Green House Gas Protocol. They talk about how the guidance can support companies i...

Tiphaine Aries, consultant at the Carbon Trust, talks with Ian Welsh about how companies are responding to the pressures from stakeholders to plan for net zero emissions, set targets and be transparent on progress. They discuss the new Route to Net Zero Standard from the Carbon Trust, the specific challenges tackling scopes 1, 2 and 3 emissions and some pointers to look for that demonstrate succes...

All materials have impacts. Whether it be fossil fuel inputs, land and chemical use, or human rights issues, brands are keen to show verifiable, data driven improvements in their sourcing choices. There are emerging solutions, and materials with lower impact coming on the market at scale today. Presently, we need a more honest conversation about the factors driving brand choices, and the circular...

This week: Insight from Rahul Raj, co-CEO of Indian vegetable supplier Sasya Produce. The company specialises in high quality packaged products and is working to integrate regenerative agriculture techniques with smallholder farmers in its vertically integrated supply chain. Plus: new International Energy Agency and International Renewable Energy Agency report into decarbonisation rates; the EU’s...

Goetz Martin, director for sustainability and strategic projects at Golden Agri-Resources, discusses with Ian Welsh why companies are now really taking emission reductions seriously. They talk about  the role of monitoring and carbon pricing in tackling deforestation, what good collaboration looks like, and why working with indigenous communities is essential for impact on tackling deforestation a...

This week: Owen Bethell, environmental impact lead, global public affairs, at Nestlé, talks about the company's decarbonisation strategy, and the need for corporate climate advocacy, working with governments, peer companies and suppliers. He argues that this collaboration is integral to bringing increased sustainability impact and making progress at scale towards Nestlé’s net-zero targets.   Plus:...

Britvic’s supply chain director Nigel Paine talks with Ian Welsh about how the £2bn soft drinks business goes about identifying its material impacts, setting targets to reduce them in collaboration with supply chain partners, and how net zero strategy should focus on efficiencies. They discuss how, for example, making bottles lighter can cut thousands of tonnes of plastic in packaging, and the imp...

Chiara Vitali, senior consultant at Robertsbridge, discusses with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh some new research into trends in patterns of meat eating and how consumer behaviour is changing in different markets. They talk about the environmental and healthy-eating concerns that encourage consumers to turn to more plant-based diets including meat alternatives, and the public and business policy le...

This week: Renata Nogueira from Cargill discusses how to work with suppliers in Brazil to prevent land conversion and report degraded ecosystems. And Tiphaine Aries from the Carbon Trust talks about corporate net zero planning and a new route to net zero standard. Plus: Selfridges builds its resale, repair, rental and refill model; brands still have cotton sourced from Xinjiang in apparel lines; t...

Assistant professor of environmental policy at ETH Zürich Rachael Garrett and Musim Mas’s director of sustainability Olivier Tichit talk with Ian Welsh about their collaboration engaging smallholder farmer communities to deliver the data and traceability that palm oil buyers require. They discuss the importance of not divesting from higher risk sourcing regions and why there is still work to be do...

Environment and human rights expert Etelle Higonnet, formerly senior advisor at the National Wildlife Federation, talks with Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb about how environmental and human rights regulations are changing worldwide, in particular around procurement and importation of commodities and products linked with high-risk production regions. They discuss the pressing need for regulatory harm...

This week: Goetz Martin, director for sustainability and strategic projects at Golden Agri-Resources, talks about how ambitious brand targets are now driving emissions reductions in palm oil supply chains. Investors and palm oil customers are asking lots of questions about the GHG impact of the commodity, and expect data verification and transparency.   Plus: new Diageo scheme to incentivise regen...

Krishna Manda, vice-president for corporate sustainability at Lenzing, the textile sector fibre manufacturer, talks with Ian Welsh about how the business has established a net zero strategy. They discuss the importance of board-level ownership and incentives, how to establish science-based targets, the need to signal to stakeholders that you are serious and the importance of near-term target setti...

This week: Insight from soft drinks manufacturer Britvic’s supply chain director Nigel Paine into the company’s carbon reduction and net zero strategy, developing better supply chain relationships. He talks about how Britvic’s brands are moving to lightweight recycled plastic bottles, and how to ensure that efficiencies in one area don’t cause greater impacts elsewhere. And Robertsbridge’s Chiara...

Ian Suwarganda, head of policy and partnerships at Golden Agri-Resources, talks with Ian Welsh about how regulatory changes in the EU, US and elsewhere are impacting the palm oil sector. In particular, they discuss how well-meaning rule changes can in fact de-incentivise companies to encourage the changes they should at suppliers and, rather, encourages them to divest and source from markets with...

At the recent online future of food conference, Anastasia Volkova, CEO of Regrow, Britt Lundgren, director of organic and sustainable agriculture at Stonyfield Farm, and Carmen Barker Lemay, head of strategic partnerships at the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction, joined Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb. They talked about how business can drive effective action on soil health throughout a...

This week: Palm oil company Musim Mas's director of sustainability Olivier Tichit, and assistant professor of environmental policy at ETH Zürich Rachael Garrett, talk about the evolving role of smallholder farmers in supplying the palm oil sector, and the risks that some farmers may be excluded from certain markets as buyers and brands demand ever-greater supply chain traceability. Plus: fruit pic...

At Innovation Forum’s recent sustainable apparel and textiles conference Toby Webb was joined by Anurag Gupta, managing director at Usha Yarns, and Madeleine Michell, social conscience communications officer at Toast. They discussed how to overcome the barriers to circularity, and in particular how companies can facilitate and simplify recycling infrastructure to persuade companies to take part.

This week: Krishna Manda, vice-president for corporate sustainability at textile sector fibre manufacturer Lenzing talks about what an effective net zero strategy looks like. This includes getting interim targets right, aligning incentives across the business and with suppliers, and how to avoid tensions between short term targets and long term goals.   Plus: Brazilian cerrado green bond scheme fo...

Zalando’s CEO Robert Gentz has stated that the apparel industry must “abandon the fast fashion business model within the next ten years”. The steep environmental costs of the take-make-waste system are obviously incompatible with the recent net-zero pledges of countries, cities, and businesses. If this is the start of the end of fast fashion, what does the apparel business model of the net-zero fu...

James Ede, group sustainability lead for starches, sweetners and texturisers at Cargill, and Andrew Voysey, head of impact and carbon at Soil Capital, talk with Ian Welsh about why regenerative agriculture has become so much a part of the food sector’s decarbonisation plans. They discuss how regen agri brings together the opportunities to deal with carbon emissions, as well as water use, soil heal...

This week: Representatives of the winning projects from WWF and Tesco’s Innovation Connections programme for agricultural supply chain entrepreneurs, receiving up to £150,000 each, talk about their projects and how they will impact at scale. Talking with Ian Welsh are Casey Woodward, founder and CEO of AgriSound, Branston agronomy director David Nelson, Oliver Kynaston, carbon calculator manager a...

Dr Suwanna Gauntlett, founder and CEO of anti-deforestation NGO Wildlife Alliance, talks with Ian Welsh about how protection of forests on the ground is essential to halt deforestation in Cambodia. They discuss the drivers of deforestation in the country, not least from speculators clearing forest for illegal land sales. In addition, they talk about how REDD+ projects provide carbon market finance...

Birgitte Holter, head of green and low carbon fertilisers at Yara, and Claes Johansson, head of sustainable development at Lantmännen, talk with Ian Welsh about how their collaborative approach is enabling lower emission fertilisers for fossil-fuel-free food supply chains. The creation of green ammonia using hydrogen from electrolysing water, using renewable electricity, is the key process that Ya...

Ian Suwarganda, head of policy and partnerships at Golden Agri-Resources, speaks to Ian Welsh about going beyond compliance with new due diligence regulations, to transform entire supply chains for better worker safety and wellbeing. They discussed the role of government and the value-driven consumer, and reasonable expectations for consumer-facing brands in supply chain transformation. Plus: emis...