Sustainable Business Podcast by Innovation Forum

Nathan Shuler, sustainability solutions architect at Schneider Electric Energy & Sustainability Services, and Ian Welsh debate the continued rise in importance of science-based targets for progressive business. They talk about how companies have had to change approach to switch to targets that are focused on making a proportionate difference to corporate impacts rather than just a PR-based number...

This week: Franco Costantini, managing director of Control Union UK on how and why certification can help companies rationalise their use of plastics in packaging. And Irache Pardo, finance and treasury director for Spanish hi-tech business CIE Automotive on the impacts of sustainability and industry 4.0 technology on the manufacturing sector. Plus: more work required to keep warming to 1.5C, Ikea...

Conference minipod: Justin Adams, executive director of the Tropical Forest Alliance, talks with Ian Welsh about some of the critical factors in developing a landscape approach, including multistakeholder collaboration, measuring progress, transparency and finding the right incentives for producers. This one of a series of short podcasts summarising conference sessions recorded at Innovation Forum...

Conference minipod: Peter Stanbury-Davis, principal at the Frontier Practice, and Ian Welsh discuss some of the main talking points from a landscapes approach workshop. Main challenges include the complexity of the issues, the lack of local-level capacity, and finding the right way to simply get things started. This one of a series of short podcasts summarising conference sessions recorded at Inno...

Conference minipod: Laurence Ruffieux, director of operations, sustainability, at Philip Morris International, tells Innovation Forum’s Tom Idle why she thinks smallholder farmers have a long-term future, and the role of big business in ensuring the viability of farm income streams. This one of a series of short podcasts summarising conference sessions recorded at Innovation Forum's sustainable la...

Conference minipod: Stephen Donofrio, director of Forest Trends’ Supply Chain Initiative, talks with Innovation Forum’s Tom Idle about the importance of business methodologies that engage with smallholder farmers and build long-term relationships. This one of a series of short podcasts summarising conference sessions recorded at Innovation Forum's sustainable landscapes and commodities event in Lo...

Conference minipod: Jonathan Horrell, director for sustainability at Mondelez International, explains to Innovation Forum’s Tom Idle how the multistakeholder Cocoa and Forests Initiative aims to reverse deforestation trends in Ghana and Côte D’Ivoire while protecting farmer livelihoods, and the lessons learned that can be implemented in other sectors. This one of a series of short podcasts summari...

Conference minipod: Frances Way, chief strategy officer at CDP, explains to Innovation Forum’s Tom Idle the extent she sees sustainability taking centre stage at financial institutions. She picks out green bonds, sustainability-linked loans and blended finance as the innovations to watch. This one of a series of short podcasts summarising conference sessions recorded at Innovation Forum's sustaina...

Conference minipod: Michael Gidney, CEO of the Fairtrade Foundation, and Helen Browning, chief executive of the Soil Association, talk with Ian Welsh about why smallholder farmers represent an enormous opportunity for global commodity supply chains. This one of a series of short podcasts summarising conference sessions recorded at Innovation Forum's sustainable landscapes and commodities event in...

Conference minipod: Nic Sheen, chief technology officer at Authenticate, describes to Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh how a blockchain can work in practice, taking as an example a Parma ham case study Authenticate has developed. Sheen also outlines the four key elements to a blockchain. This the first in a series of short podcasts summarising conference sessions recorded at Innovation Forum's sustain...

This week: Justin Adams, executive director of the Tropical Forest Alliance discusses the challenges working with on-the-ground commodities producers in developing economies who are facing poverty every day. Adams critiques lessons-learned from the Amazon Soy Moratorium that can be applied elsewhere, and analyses why landscapes are not a silver bullet solution. And Frédéric Garcia, advisor for ind...

Kevin Eckerle, director for corporate research and engagement at NYU Stern School of Business and Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh discuss how companies can find a methodology of monetising the “soft” intangibles that keep companies from building a solid business case for their sustainability agenda. Eckerle outlines some case study examples, using Stern’s return on sustainability investment methodolo...

This week: Rubana Huq, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, discusses the milestones of progress in the country’s apparel sector in the six years since the Rana Plaza disaster, and argues that the garment businesses needs to be continually evolving and innovating to maintain its position in world markets. She talks about the challenges that new technologies,...

This week: Lucita Jasmin and Brad Sanders from Indonesian resources company APRIL, Fitrian Ardiansyah from IDH and Indonesia, Justin Adams from Tropical Forest Alliance 2020, and Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb discuss the role of business in making landscape-level conservation and restoration work effectively. Plus: the latest research from ZSL’s SPOTT analysis on palm oil traceability, global energ...

Speaking with Ian Welsh at Innovation Forum’s recent business and impacts conference in Detroit, Meghann Jones, senior vice-president, Ipsos, discusses research into the attitudes and actions of younger people towards business sustainability, and environmental and social issues. They are joined by a panel of under-graduate and post graduate students from the University of Michigan and Columbia Uni...

Telva McGruder, director, workplace engineering and operations solutions at General Motors, talks with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about the cross functional effort and frank internal conversations about what is possible that have been necessary for GM to engage properly with its impacts. She outlines why establishing a number of goals on different time frames is useful as a company moves towards...

The focus of this discussion-based webinar is the Kampar Peninsula ‘Production: Protection’ approach. This involves a $100m dollar commitment, for an area twice the size of Singapore, by APRIL, a large Indonesian resource company. During the webinar, the panel discuss how a large company can make landscape scale protection and restoration happen in Indonesia, the challenges, the opportunities and...

This week: Nathan Shuler, sustainability solutions architect with Schneider Electric, debates the clear benefits that science-based targets can have for companies keen to really tackle their environmental impacts. And, Gotz Martin, head of sustainability implementation at Golden Agri-Resources, discusses how best to encourage and develop sustainable smallholder farmer communities. Plus: palm oil p...

This week: Kevin Eckerle from NYU Stern School of Business explains how companies can identify the corporate advantages of a sustainable business approach and monetise them. And another chance to hear insight from Ben Vreeburg, Bunge Lockers Crocklan, on palm oil supply chain transparency challenges. Plus: Adidas takes back and recycles more apparel and footwear, Dove cuts plastic, and deforestati...

Speaking in the forests on the east coast of Sumatra, APRIL’s deputy head of conservation Brad Sanders explains to Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb what the pulp and paper giant does to protect areas of pristine forest and restore degraded ecosystems in Indonesia. Sanders explains the importance of water management to keep the forest moist and prevent the peat from drying out. And they discuss some of...

This week: a panel of millenial consumers from the University of Michigan and Columbia University join Meghann Jones, senior vice-president, Ipsos, and Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh to discuss where they find information about brands, and how company policies and engagement on sustainability issues affect their buying choices. Making up the panel: Anya Shapiro, Mayur Bandekar, Connor Larkin and Cai...

Ronald Guendal, Bayer Crop Science’s global head of food security and advocacy, talks with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about the trends in use of farming techniques and agriculture inputs – including fertilisers and pesticides and the development of new seeds – that are designed to sustainably boost productivity. A particular focus for Bayer is to help the agriculture sector produce more food tha...

This week: Telva McGruder, director, workplace engineering and operations solutions at General Motors talks with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about how environmental impacts have been embedded into GM’s business plans. They debate why use of business language is how to have internal conversations about sustainability, and to engage externally with investors and other stakeholders. And they talk ab...

This week: APRIL’s Brad Sanders explains to Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb what the pulp and paper giant does to protect areas of pristine forest and restore degraded ecosystems in Indonesia. And Greenpeace’s Louise Edge on the challenges around effectively tackling plastic pollution, and what business should do about it. Plus: Nestlé and P&G to fall short of 2020 goals, big brands linked to defores...

Peter Stanbury-Davis, principal of Frontier Practice, talks with Toby Webb about how thinking about political economy can help business engage with the motivations of local peoples in areas of deforestation and landuse-change risk. In this context, they discuss why the Indonesian palm oil pledge – IPOP – ceased working, and some of the underlying misunderstandings that may have led to its demise....