Innovation Forum Podcast

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 agricultural supply chains and reduce environmental impact in line with net zero targets.

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 pickers for UK supermarkets found to be paying recruitment fees; UN oceans treaty on the horizon; implications of new US climate legislation; and, lab-based palm alternative to come to market, in the news digest. And, Innovation Forum’s Hanna Halmari gives an update on how November’s sustainable landscapes and commodities conference is coming together. Host: Ian Welsh

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 for farmers backed by Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose and Barry Callebout; Stockholm University study shows all rainwater contaminated; big apparel brands’ offcuts firing polluting brick kilns; and, University of Oxford rates impacts of 57,000 UK food and drinks product lines, in the news digest.   Host: Ian Welsh  

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 future look like?  In this opening panel from Innovation Forum’s recent sustainable apparel and textiles conference, leading sustainability professionals from across the apparel industry debate the business model transformation required and what sustainable growth looks like.  Session panel, led by Innovation Forum's Toby Webb: La Rhea Pepper, CEO, Textile Exchange José Arguedas, head of corporate responsibility and sustainability, River Island Liz Hershfield, senior vice-president of supply chain and sustainability, J Crew Group Lucita Jasmin, director of sustainability and external affairs, APRIL

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 health and biodiversity risks. What’s crucial, they argue, is the need for verified data that provides farmers and their customers with the evidence they are progressively cutting carbon emissions and other impacts.

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 at Farm Carbon Toolkit, Chirrup project lead Conrad Young, and Future by Insects chief executive Evelyn Peters. Plus: concerning new road development in the Amazon; indigenous rights impacts from land speculators; India’s new carbon market for heavy emitting sectors, and UK retail chain Morrisons goes carbon neutral in its egg supply chain, in the news digest. Host: Ian Welsh

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 that enhance indigenous people’s livelihoods through economic development as well as funding for professional law enforcement personnel.

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 Yara has developed in partnership with Lantmännen.

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: emissions from power generation to decline by 0.3%; Brazil’s Supreme Court rules Paris Agreement a human rights treaty; IMF launches a new gender strategy; and Dow and Mura Technology partner to scale advanced plastics recycling in EU and US, in the newscast.

At IF's Future of Climate Action Conference, Rob Cameron, global head of public affairs and ESG engagement at Nestlé, spoke to Ian Welsh about why companies need to continue to focus on carbon, take immediate action at scale, and the potential benefits from regenerative agriculture. He argued that there will be no transition to a low carbon economy unless it is a “just transition”, and put the case for always following the science in corporate action on climate change.  

Josh Tosteson, president of Everland, outlines a new plan to tackle deforestation at scale through rapidly developing new REDD+ forest projects in threatened landscapes around the world, and accessing the unprecedented levels of climate finance via the voluntary carbon markets. He also addresses the main criticisms of REDD+ projects; how to prevent deforestation from simply leaking outside the project boundary, and how to establish baselines to measure deforestation reduction.

This week: Sam Szoke-Burke, senior legal researcher at the Columbia Centre on Sustainable Investment in New York, and Ikal Ang’elei, co-founder and director of Friends of Lake Turkana in Kenya talk about the impact of the renewable energy sector on the human rights of local peoples during the deployment phase of wind and solar projects. Land rights abuses are among the key risks for companies and their suppliers.   Plus: microplastics found in beef and pork by new Plastic Soup Foundation sponsored research; the Lisbon Declaration signed by 150 nations at UN oceans conference; Mighty Earth keeps pressure on the soy sector and links to Cerrado biome conversion; and, Volvo set to leave European auto industry group over speed of conversion to all-electric vehicles, in the news digest. Host: Ian Welsh

Nick O’Flaherty, director of UNSTUCK, and Sarah Maurer, head of new product development at Chobani, talk with Innovation Forum’s Emily Heslop about UNSTUCK’s market-driven model that partners with consumer brands to enable suppliers to support refugees with employment, and to help them rebuild often shattered lives. They discuss the importance of identifying suppliers that are already working with refugees, and how consumer brands can use such initiatives to engage their customers.  

At Innovation Forum’s recent sustainable apparel and textiles conference, Toby Webb was joined by Anke Ehlers, managing director for global corporate responsibility at Aldi Süd, and Remco Kouwenhoven, social innovation lead at Fairphone, for a session where the discussion focused on what the apparel sector can learn from living income programmes in other industry sectors.

This week: James Ede, Group Sustainability Lead for Starches, Sweetners and Texturisers at Cargill, and Andrew Voysey, Head of Impact and Carbon at Soil Capital, speak to Ian Welsh about why both businesses and farmers are increasingly interested in the shift towards regenerative agriculture. They discussed how actors are working together within supply sheds to enable farmers to evidence regenerative outcomes; demonstrating the business case for regenerative farming; and the proof and features of growth in the area. Plus: The US Supreme court rules against the EPA; India’s single-use plastics ban; The EU, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana come together with the cocoa sector for an Alliance on Sustainable Cocoa; and The Sustainable Apparel Coalition pauses its use of the Higg Index. Host: Bea Stevenson  

Ian Welsh talks to business and climate strategy expert Iain Watt about some of the challenges for companies in getting to net-zero emissions. He argues the need to recognise that science mandates that timeframes are very tight for 1.5C and 2C pathways – and that leading companies may have to do more than their fair share, to stay within our carbon budget. 

This week: Dr Suwanna Gauntlett, founder and CEO of anti-deforestation NGO Wildlife Alliance, talks about how better law enforcement to prevent illegal forest clearance, combined with developing better economic prospects for local communities, can really impact deforestation. She talks about the importance of bringing benefits to these local people, through REDD+ project development, for example, which provide the finance via the global voluntary carbon markets that is necessary. Plus: UN continues to push for biodiversity agreement; Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance’s new research into what realistic carbon pricing needs to look like; and, Blackrock calls for proposed SEC reporting guidelines to align more closely with the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures, in the news digest. And, Innovation Forum’s Emily Heslop gives an update on the upcoming plastics and packaging conference, coming up in Amsterdam in October. Host: Ian Welsh   

As companies strive to meet their net-zero targets, they must rapidly reduce their supply chain emissions. Leading companies are beginning to go one step further to develop ‘insetting’ programmes that actively remove carbon from the atmosphere. In the complex world of carbon accounting, it is still unclear who can count a carbon removal and when.  This webinar assessed the frameworks that are needed to incentivise the right actions from brands. There was discussion on how business can balance emissions reductions and removals in an effective climate strategy, with some examples of current reductions and removals programmes. An expert panel also considered:  the headline challenges around calculating and claiming supply chain emissions removals;  the opportunities to cut carbon, enhance land use, and claim benefits; and potential unintended consequences to avoid in developing guidance.   Panel members: Conor McMahon, global climate delivery manager, Nestlé  Dr Goetz Martin, director, sustainability and strate

This week: Rob Cameron, global head of public affairs and ESG engagement at Nestlé, talks about why companies need to continue to focus on carbon, take immediate action at scale, and the potential benefits from regenerative agriculture. He also argues that there will be no transition to a low carbon economy unless it is a “just transition”, and puts the case for always following the science in corporate action on climate change.   Plus: Carlsberg’s new fibre bottle pilot; US Xinjiang product ban’s impact on cotton supply chains; UK pension scheme transparency on 1.5C targets; and, EU to crack down on greenwashing, in the news digest. Host: Ian Welsh