Innovation Forum Podcast

Epidemiologist Jason Glaser, CEO of La Isla Network, talks about the risks for any company with commodity supply chains around high temperatures and agricultural worker health. While these have been researched in tropical regions for some time, climate change impacts mean that agricultural workers in more temperate zones are now at risk. There are some simple strategies to follow – but, as Glazer argues, significant collaboration is necessary, now. And, forests expert Simon Lord and Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb debate some of the challenges around reforestation and forest restoration. Host: Ian Welsh

Eunice Oduro, project manager at anti-poverty NGO CARE, and Samuel Apana, Cargill’s cocoa sustainability lead in Ghana, talk with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about the long-term collaboration project between Cargill and CARE to improve the livelihoods of smallholder cocoa farmers in west Africa. Among the issues the collaboration has targeted include increasing yields and farm incomes, empowering women farmers and encouraging younger farmers to stay in the sector, and people-centred community action plans.   For more information on the Decade of Impact in Cocoa Communities report click here

Samuel Avaala, general manager of Benso Oil Palm Plantation in Ghana, talks with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about how the business uses the Accountability Framework to help engage non-certified suppliers so they align with BOPP’s no deforestation, no damaging of peat lands and no exploitation commitments. They talk about how the framework can be complementary to membership of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil’s certification scheme.    This is latest in a series of content supported by the Accountability Framework initiative. The Accountability Framework – set up by a coalition of 24 members to accelerate progress and improve accountability for ethical supply chains in agriculture and forestry – has recently passed the second anniversary of its launch. A number of the coalition members have recognised the achievements of the past two years – click here for more information.    

This week: Daniel Baertschi, food and agriculture sector lead at Quantis, discusses how making the right choices for food companies – thinking about regenerative agriculture practices and a strong focus on soil health – can make significant impacts on reducing carbon emissions. While urgent action is required right now, the necessary changes to food production processes may take, he argues, a generation to become a reality. Plus: growing spat over detail of EU climate plan; Science Based Targets initiative fully shifts to 1.5C trajectory; FSC drops Indonesian palm oil’s Korindo; and, Greenland cancels all oil and gas sector development, in the news digest. Host: Ian Welsh  

At Innovation Form’s recent Future of Food conference, Erin Priddle, northern Europe regional director at the Marine Stewardship Council, Tracy Cambridge, responsible sourcing director for Europe at Thai Union, Mark Zimring, director, large scale fisheries programme at The Nature Conservancy and Dave Robb, SeaFurther sustainability programme lead at Cargill, discuss with Ian Welsh how the seafood sector should respond to growing market concerns about the impact of climate change, overfishing and biodiversity loss. Among the discussion they consider how fishing quotas and fishing management plans should be set in the face of shifting wild fish stocks and increasing demands from consumers. They also talk about the role of aquaculture and of certification.  

This week: Taco Terheijden, director, cocoa sustainability at Cargill, and Nicko Debenham, vice president and head of sustainability at Barry Callebaut, talk with Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb about how companies can have positive impacts in supply chains through enhancing traceability and the data necessary to achieve this. The discussion, focusing on the cocoa sector, was recorded at the recent Innovation Forum Future of Food conference. Plus: UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s Paris-style goals; insurance sector’s new net zero alignment; independent governance body to be established for voluntary carbon markets; and, the US gets tougher on companies with China forced labour risks, in the news digest.  Host: Ian Welsh

At the recent future for climate action conference, Marie-Pierre Bousquet Lecomte, science-based targets implementation director at Danone, Robert Horster, global sustainability lead for agricultural supply chains and food ingredients at Cargill, Conor McMahon, climate delivery manager at Nestlé, and Joshua Tosteson, president, Everland, joined Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb to talk about how to implement natural climate solutions. While many of these have been around for a while, their alignment within climate change strategy, combined with better collaboration and focus is now where best practice is.

Felicitas Weber from the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre talks with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about some of the key conclusions from the recently-published latest Know the Chain benchmark into the forced labour risks in big apparel sector companies and investors. The good news is that all the companies benchmarked have improved their performance at least a little. The less good is that there remains generally a significant difference between what companies say they should be doing compared with what they are doing in practice – with luxury brands not typically performing well. Sign up for the free weekly Innovation Forum newsletter here: https://www.innovationforum.co.uk/sign-up-to-our-newsletter  

This week: Samuel Avaala from Benso Oil Palm Plantation in Ghana, talks about how to work with suppliers to improve traceability and transparency from non-certified sources, to tackle deforestation and ensure sustainable supply. The discussion includes how initiatives and tools, including the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and the Accountability Framework help, and the need for careful alignment of farmer incentives so the entire value chain benefits.   Plus: new food eco labelling scheme, backed by Nestlé, Tyson Foods, Sainsbury’s and others, to cover all environmental impacts; southeast Asian working group on standards for corporate communications on sustainability; and, PepsiCo backing PET bottles with unlimited recyclability, in the news round up.     Host: Ian Welsh

Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb talks with Sir Ian Boyd, professor of biology at the University of St Andrews, and former chief scientific adviser to the UK government on food, environment and rural affairs. They discuss why food production is one of the hardest sectors to decarbonise and the massive challenges around resource inefficiencies, and why techniques like controlled system farming might become essential to unlock food sector efficiency. And they debate the pros and cons of regenerative agriculture. Please note: this interview was recorded in late May.

This week: Eunice Oduro, project manager at anti-poverty NGO CARE in Ghana and Samuel Apana, Cargill’s cocoa sustainability lead in Ghana, talk about their long-term partnership that has helped secure the sector’s long term future, building farm resilience and empowering rural communities. Plus: Target’s new targets; University of Cambridge’s plastic polymer from soy proteins; International Monetary Fund calls for $75 carbon price; and Lego bricks from recycled plastic bottles, in the news digest. Host: Ian Welsh  

At Innovation Forum’s recent future for climate action conference, Julia King, Baroness Brown of Cambridge, chair of the Carbon Trust, and chair of the adaptation sub-committee of the UK’s Committee on Climate Change – the statutory non-departmental body set up to advise the United Kingdom and the devolved UK governments and parliaments on tackling and preparing for climate change – speaks with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh. Their wide-ranging discussion includes prospects for the upcoming COP26 meeting in Glasgow, the urgent need for business to adapt to climate change and the possible implications for public policy around corporate greenhouse gas emissions. 

In 2010, Nestlé made a commitment to end deforestation in its supply chain. In this webinar, join Nestlé's forest and sustainable sourcing leaders along with additional experts who will discuss what is needed to achieve a ‘forest positive’ future. They will consider how land rights intersect with conservation; the role satellite monitoring can play in combatting deforestation; and, how we can go beyond fighting deforestation to support active reforestation where it's needed most. Panellists: Emily Kunen, climate delivery leader for forests, Nestlé Bastien Sachet, executive director, Earthworm Foundation Benjamin Ware, head of sustainable sourcing and climate delivery, Nestlé Andy White, coordinator, Rights and Resources Initiative Fabiola Zerbini, regional director for Latin America, Tropical Forest Alliance Moderator: Toby Webb, founder, Innovation Forum This webinar was supported by Nestlé.  

This week: Expert insight from Cargill’s Dave Robb, Thai Union’s Tracy Cambridge, the Marine Stewardship Council’s Erin Priddle and the Nature Conservancy’s Mark Zimring on how the seafood sector should respond to market concerns on climate change and shifting fish stocks, and the role of business in managing these effectively. And the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre’s Felicitas Weber discusses the key findings in the latest Know the Chain benchmark research into big apparel sector companies and the forced labour risks in their supply chains. Host: Ian Welsh

Pina Gervassi, FSC’s climate director, talks with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about the benefits from transparency in forest-based raw material supply chains, and the innovation in newly certified sectors including rubber and bamboo. They discuss the credibility that can come with certification and how growers can develop value from ecosystem services by moving from thinking about performance to impact. FSC was a sponsor of the recent sustainable apparel and textiles conference. Sign up for the free weekly Innovation Forum newsletter here: https://www.innovationforum.co.uk/sign-up-to-our-newsletter

Danone’s Marie-Pierre Bousquet Lecomte, Nestlé’s Conor McMahon, Cargill’s Robert Horster, and Everland’s Joshua Tosteson join Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb to discuss how to implement natural climate solutions that deliver large scale greenhouse gas reduction. The panel talks about why such solutions are featuring ever-more prominently at the forefront of corporate commitments and strategy.   Plus: investors worth $41tn demand greater government effort on climate change via the Investor Agenda; Global Witness links Chinese banks with deforestation; US egg farmers embracing regenerative agriculture; and Waitrose ups recycled plastic in packaging, in the news digest. Host: Ian Welsh  

Patricia Quijandría, director for the tropical Andes at Rainforest Alliance is joined by project partners Camila Olmedo, from agriculture commodities trader Ecom, and Jose Carlos Apaéstegui from finance provider Norandino to discuss with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh a LandScale programme pilot project in Lamas Province, northern Peru. They discuss the challenges aligning stakeholder expectations and targets, and how taking a landscape approach can help provide solutions. This podcast is supported by LandScale.

Eduardo Rojas-Briales, forestry professor at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, and a board member of PEFC, talks with Ian Welsh about the potential for the forestry sector providing sustainable fibre for the apparel sector and others. They also debate the role of properly managed forests in biodiversity preservation and tackling climate change.   PEFC was a sponsor of Innovation Forum’s recent sustainable apparel and textiles conference.

This week: Sir Ian Boyd, professor of biology at the University of St Andrews, talks with Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb. Their discussion includes the potential impacts of COP26 on agriculture and food supply systems, and why the food sector needs to become between five and 10 times more efficient. Plus: brand and retailer coalition calls for stronger EU anti-deforestation regulation; consumer concern on climate and biodiversity increasing, says Economist Intelligence Unit and WWF report; Pirelli launch FSC-certified tyres; paper-based bottles from Absolut, Carlsberg and Diageo; the rise of green steel; and, ExxonMobil and Chevron mugged by shareholder activists, in the news digest. Host: Ian Welsh     Please note that Innovation Forum’s future of food event, referred to in the podcast, is from 15th-17th June. Click here for details.

This week: Julia King, Baroness Brown of Cambridge, chair of the Carbon Trust and from the UK’s Committee on Climate Change, talks about what business should hope for from COP26. Strong policy measures are necessary for the acceleration to net zero, but companies need to be ready to adapt to changes that will come even within a 1.5C pathway. Baroness Brown was speaking at Innovation Forum’s Future of Climate Action conference. Plus: Pina Gervassi, FSC’s climate director, discusses how visibility and transparency in supply chains can deliver on climate and deforestation targets. She gives insight into how rubber suppliers, for the apparel sector and others, are working hard to lower impacts. And she outlines how businesses – for example in the wine sector – can access value from ecosystem services. Host: Ian Welsh Sign up for the free weekly Innovation Forum newsletter here: https://www.innovationforum.co.uk/sign-up-to-our-newsletter