Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

This week: Steven Bethell, co-founder of Bank & Vogue and Beyond Retro, talks about the growth of circular economy models re-using and re-purposing pre-used textiles and apparel, including innovation in fibre-to-fibre recycling. He outlines why “used” is increasingly being accepted as an input to “new” and why the need for designing for multiple re-use is a growing trend. Plus: draft new European...

Prof David Grayson, campaigner and former director of the Doughty Centre at Cranfield School of Management, talks with Ian Welsh about some of the changing demands for business around the climate crisis, global inequality and the impacts of globalisation. Grayson also talks about some of the key challenges for companies in making real progress and the opportunities for the investment community shi...

This week: David Pettet, global human rights and sustainable supply chain director at Reckitt, talks about the critical matters that companies must ensure are embedded into their approach to tackling operation and supply chain human rights risks. He discusses how Reckitt identifies the regions and markets where resources should be focused, as part of a holistic cross-business approach to human rig...

Mario Rafael Rodriguez, senior associate for LandScale at the Rainforest Alliance, and José Luis López, palm oil and biodiversity programme manager at Solidaridad, talk with Ian Welsh about use of the LandScale system in the Ocosito landscape in Guatemala. In particular they discuss how LandScale has helped identify instances of child labour and forced labour, and other human rights violations.

Innovation Forum’s Bea Stevenson talks with Salla Saastamoinen, director for civil and commercial justice, DG Justice and Consumers at the European Commission about how the EU proposed directive on due diligence corporate accountability will be implemented. They discuss what companies should expect, and how they can align climate and social strategies to meet the new regulation’s requirements.    

This week: Jenny Costelloe, chief executive of the Ethical Tea Partnership, discusses how the sector is tackling its environmental and social challenges, and why tea has not been subject to the attention other commodities have had. Costelloe explains why the traditional tea plantation model is becoming outdated, with smallholder farmers becoming principal sector suppliers – and all the farm income...

Innovation Forum founder Toby Webb talks with Jon Entine, director of the Genetic Literacy Project, about the rise of the use of gene editing in agriculture, and how fact-based debate has led to a broader acceptance of such techniques. In a wide-ranging discussion they also highlight how the war in Ukraine will significantly impact global food supply and argue the case for GMO grain to help ease t...

Craig Mills, CEO of Vizzuality, talks with Ian Welsh about how companies are changing the process of engagement with supply chain data. They discuss what best use of corporate sustainability data looks like, and how a move to AI and machine learning has transformed what can be done with it. Mills also outlines how the work of the World Resource Institute and Global Forest Watch has transformed tra...

This week: Freshfield Bruckhaus Deringer’s Elizabeth Forster and Innovation Forum’s Bea Stevenson talk about some of the new areas of legal risk relating to human rights and environmental impacts that companies need to be aware of, and some of the measures that they can take to mitigate them. Plus: Oxfam and Save the Children highlight the food supply crisis in west Africa; IPCC’s mitigation repor...

IDH’s Matthew Spencer, Proforest’s Ruth Nussbaum and Conservation International’s John Buchanan talk with Ian Welsh about how the SourceUp platform can improve the distribution of value in commodity supply chains, bringing corporate boardrooms and grower communities together. They argue the case for companies engaging more closely with the landscapes they source from and how positive impacts can b...

Niels Wielaard, founder of Satelligence, and Ian Welsh talk about traceability-to-plantation innovation in palm oil and cocoa supply chains. Wielaard explains why appreciating the complexity of the challenges is important and, crucially, why companies should not shift from sourcing from higher risk countries as a reaction to EU and other due diligence legislation. This could, he argues, simply shi...

This week: David Grayson, campaigner and former director of the Doughty Centre at Cranfield School of Management, and co-author of the new Sustainable Business Handbook, talks with Ian Welsh about the evolving role of business in tackling climate change, global inequality and the impacts of globalisation. Grayson outlines how shifts in emphasis from the investment community in terms of ESG screeni...

Megan Passey, head of knowledge and learning at the International Cocoa Initiative, talks with Ian Welsh about use of cash transfer to farmers to target hazardous child labour in Ghana. They discuss why regular funds direct to farmers can be more effective than single lump sums, and why disconnecting them from payments for their cocoa crop is important.  

Toby Webb and Peter Stanbury reflect on Nestlé’s new strategy for the cocoa sector, with the ambition to get to grips with child labour risks, increase farm income and achieve full traceability in the cocoa sector. This will involve farmers having the ability to earn more for their crop alongside making improvements in other areas, including diversifying income and encouraging school enrolment. Th...

This week: José Luis López, palm oil and biodiversity programme manager at Solidaridad, and Mario Rafael Rodriguez, senior associate for LandScale at the Rainforest Alliance talk about a collaboration project in the Ocosito landscape in Guatemala using the LandScale framework. In particular, they discuss how LandScale – a new system for measuring sustainability at a landscape level, led by Rainfor...

Textile Exchange’s COO Claire Bergkamp and director of Climate+ strategy Beth Jenson talk with Ian Welsh about some impacts of climate change for the apparel and textiles sector. They discuss the challenges around getting to a net zero position by mid-century, via a 45% cut in emissions by 2030, and the willingness of the sector to make the innovations necessary.  

This week: Salla Saastamoinen, director for civil and commercial justice, DG Justice and Consumers at the European Commission, talks with Innovation Forum’s Bea Stevenson about how the new EU due diligence directive for companies regarding human rights and environmental impacts will be implemented. They discuss how companies can work to prepare their strategy now to ensure alignment with the propo...

Leony Aurora, landscapes and partnership lead at the Tropical Forest Alliance, and Patrick Mallet, director of innovations at ISEAL, talk with Ian Welsh about newly released guiding practices from ISEAL designed to help companies address critical sustainability challenges collectively and at scale. The guidance covers where is makes the most sense to invest, how to maximise impact, how to measure...

Ian Suwarganda, Golden Agri-Resources’ head of policy and partnerships, sustainability and communications, and Róisín Mortimer, Tropical Forest Alliance lead private sector engagement and programming, talk with Ian Welsh about the impacts of the EU’s importing regulations. While the establishment of a level playing is welcome, they argue that there should be greater awareness of the challenges for...

This week: Niels Wielaard, founder of Satelligence, talks about how financial institutions are ratcheting up how they expect companies to engage with their supply chains. He outlines the importance of accurate and up to date data as companies take a due diligence approach to what are complex and challenging issues, and the unforeseen circumstances of simply shifting out of sourcing from higher-ris...

In this session, recorded at Innovation Forum’s sustainable landscapes and commodities conference, an expert panel examines how landscape approaches are developing. They discuss the work of the Consumer Goods Forum’s forest positive coalition of action and how to set effective and realistic definitions and deadlines. Joining Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb are Barry Parkin from Mars, Magdi Batato fro...

Through sequestration, soil plays a pivotal role in mitigating climate change. Improved agricultural practices that promote soil sequestration can help reverse climate change while improving the livelihoods of farmers. However, there is currently no commonly used business standard or approach for measuring carbon in soil. There are many emerging approaches, and more are on the way. So which curren...

Michal Zrust, founder of Lestari Capital, talks with Ian Welsh about the Rimba Collective, a palm oil sector led initiative – involving Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, Nestlé, Wilmar and others – set up to achieve forest conservation at scale. Zrust argues why conservation needs to be a core part of doing business and how the project plans to deliver $1bn to protect or restore 500,000 hectares of fores...

This week: Patrick Mallet, director of innovations at ISEAL, and Leony Aurora, landscapes and partnership lead at the Tropical Forest Alliance, discuss some new guiding practices for companies engaging in supply chain landscape approaches and jurisdictional initiatives – including how actions can best contribute to performance and how to communicate the results of these actions. Plus: palm oil def...

Insight into challenges in the natural rubber sector from: Karen Steer, manager at the Rainforest Alliance and rubber lead for the Accountability Framework; Stefano Savi, director of the Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber; Philippe de Groot, head of agronomy at SOCFIN; and, Ana Arce, senior manager for corporate sustainability governance at Bridgestone Americas, talking with Innovation...