Innovation Forum Podcast

With 2020 fast approaching, companies are facing increasing pressure in cleaning up their supply chains and ensuring the sustainable sourcing of commodities.. In this webinar, experts from Olam, Coca-Cola and Unilever debate the landscape approach – where companies spanning multiple sectors work together to address land use issues – and how it can help solve this incredibly complex and sensitive issue. But how can we ensure that we are not only focusing on environmental impact, but also on the social and economic outcomes across regions and jurisdictions? Panel: Christopher Stewart, head of corporate responsibility and sustainability, Olam Ulrike Sapiro, senior director, water stewardship and sustainable agriculture, Coca-Cola Company Melissa Miners, senior global advocacy manager – forests, Unilever Hosted by Toby Webb, founder, Innovation Forum

This week: Christine McGrath from Mondelez International and Meghann Jones from Ipsos talk with Ian Welsh about the impacts of Mondelez’s Cocoa Life programme in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire and debate why a holistic approach is required to achieve corporate deforestation and social goals. And Innovation Forum’s Tanya Richard speaks to Cyndi Rhoades, CEO of Worn Again Technologies, about the apparel sector’s circular economy potential and impacts on plastic pollution. Plus, in the news digest: what business must do to achieve the IPCC 1.5C goals; investor fossil fuel divestment; and, the good and bad from Know the Chain’s new food and beverage benchmark. Hosted by Ian Welsh

Sara Wingstrand, new plastics economy research analyst from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, talks to Ian Welsh about plastics and the essential transition from a linear to a circular economy. They discuss why plastic is a resource and how circular economy principles can develop a restorative economy by design. Wingstrand argues that business models need to change, and companies need to think about how they can eliminate single use plastic products. She highlights how some companies are changing to have re-use business models, focusing on the service they provide and new ways to deliver it.

Anita Neville, Golden Agri-Resources’ vice-president of corporate communications and sustainability relations, talks with Ian Welsh about GAR’s new ‘Extraordinary Everyday’ series. This aims, through story-telling, to highlight aspects of the palm oil sector beyond the bad news around deforestation and ecosystem destruction that dominates the news agenda. Neville outlines why GAR wants to talk about some more positive aspects of the industry, and how compelling narratives can help palm oil companies both engage consumers but also provide reassurance and confidence for other stakeholders including the financial community.

This week: Daniella Foster, senior director for global corporate responsibility at Hilton, and Jennifer Marsman, principal software development engineer at Microsoft, talk with Ian Welsh about how to piece together the narratives for future-proofing business models. They discuss the business cases that really make sceptical board directors sit up and help drive forward smart solutions. Foster and Marsman debate how to get beyond the obvious answers and make billion-dollar savings. Plus: why California will require women directors on corporate boards; initiatives on gender empowerment, modern slavery, and food and land use at the UN General Assembly; and, changing public attitudes to plastics, in the news digest. Hosted by Ian Welsh

This week: insight from the recent Innovation Forum webinar on the business challenges in developing realistic alternatives to plastic packaging, with Iceland’s Ian Schofield, Surfdome’s Adam Hall and CupClub’s Safia Qureshi. Plus an in-depth discussion between Greenpeace forest campaigner Richard George and Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb on where the business and deforestation debate is going and why progress has been slow. And news of the new World Benchmarking Alliance, palm oil trader Wilmar pushing back against deforestation allegations and more supermarket pledges on plastic us, in the regular roundup. Hosted by Ian Welsh

Stephanie Brown Cripps global sanctions counsel, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, talks with Ian Welsh about how governments – particularly the US – are increasingly using sanctions as tools to influence corporate behaviour on human rights and modern slavery. Brown Cripps outlines some of the civil and criminal penalties that can be imposed on business, and they discuss how companies can become inadvertently in breach of sanctions regulation.

This week: Phil Bloomer, executive director of the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, on why companies just can’t afford to have modern slavery in their operations or supply chain, not least because the investment community is now properly addressing human rights risks. And highlights from Innovation Forum’s recent business and materiality webinar featuring Fiat Chrysler’s Bill Hall, Kellogg’s Amy Braun and the Erb Institute’s Terry Nelidov. Plus, $6.4tn worth of asset managers focusing on beef and deforestation, big brands still linked to dirty palm oil according to Greenpeace and how insects are spreading plastic microfibres, in the news roundup.  Hosted by Ian Welsh

Sustainable rural economies are critical to the sustained success of global agri-businesses. After all, smallholder farming accounts for the largest share of food production worldwide. However, these farmers and their local communities lack opportunities to improve their income, food security and livelihoods. To drive resilience and safeguard supply, business must work to deliver positive social outcomes for rural communities. Leading this webinar discussion on what business can do to ensure sustainable agricultural communities, focusing in particular on palm oil supply chains, are: Anita Neville, vice president of corporate communications and sustainability relations, Golden Agri-Resources Rashyid Anwarudin, principal sustainability officer, Sime Darby Ruth Thomas, director, strategy and operations, Global Agribusiness Alliance Introduced and moderated by Ian Welsh, Innovation Forum  

Harriet Howey, global sustainability reporting executive at Diageo, explains to Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh how the company measures return on investment on its programmes across water and other resource use, gender empowerment, and its social and environmental impacts in general. Howey outlines how the business develops the right KPIs to ensure value from investment and bottom line financial benefits, and also why it has developed an in-depth social impact assessment framework.

This week: Sara Wingstrand from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation on how better plastic product design can help business develop essential more-circular value chains and systems. And Golden Agri-Resources’ Anita Neville on why the palm oil industry should engage stakeholders through better, relatable, story-telling. Plus the $26tn to be made from sustainable development, a tree-ownership initiative for Ghana cocoa farmers, H+M’s technology that can separate cotton and polyester and better news for human rights in Qatar, in the weekly news roundup. Hosted by Ian Welsh

Speaking at the recent RSPO meeting in Paris, Mickael Blais from the French Alliance for Forest Preservation and Toby Webb, Innovation Forum, discuss how different commodity supply chains – including palm oil, rubber and soy – can work together to impact deforestation. They debate the challenges around separating the crops-for-food and crops-for-fuel debates given the different pressures on each.

In this webinar, practitioners from Iceland Foods, Surfdome and CupClub take a pragmatic look at what brands are doing to face the challenges around plastics, packaging, and sustainable innovation. They discuss the new approaches they have taken to packaging, including working to eliminate plastic entirely in the case of Iceland, business benefits and how best to engage all stakeholders to drive forward reduction in plastic waste and pollution. Joining Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh are: Ian Schofield, own label and packaging manager for Iceland Foods; Adam Hall, head of sustainability at Surfdome; and Safia Qureshi, founder and CEO, CupClub.  

Valentina Gurney, associate programme director, Interfaith Centre on Corporate Responsibility and Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh discuss trends in how the investment community is dealing with potential forced labour risks in investor portfolios. They debate the pros and cons of soft and hard laws, and how regulatory approaches are moving from reporting to due diligence requirements. Gurney also outlines the differences between a faith-based approach and an ESG approach to investment, and the moves she sees towards the use of the sustainable development goals for investor screening.

This week: some highlights from Innovation Forum’s recent webinar on what business needs to know about forced labour risks at the point of recruitment, and the employer pays principle, featuring Coca-Cola’s Brent Wilton, Walmart’s Doug Nystrom and ETI’s Cindy Berman, introduced by Ian Welsh. And, Mighty Earth’s Glenn Hurowitz speaking with Toby Webb on soy supply chains and deforestation in the Brazilian Cerrado grasslands. Plus: drinks brand Lucozade’s trialling of edible sachets, new Californian investor regulation on climate risk, and apparel sector communicating on supply chain sustainability, in the news roundup. Hosted by Ian Welsh.

Erik Meijard, founder of Borneo Futures, discusses why the palm oil sector has such a bad reputation on biodiversity impacts with Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb. Meijard shares some of the highlights from recent research, and argues there is much the palm oil sector as a whole can learn from the best plantations, which can perform well on biodiversity. And they debate why the palm oil sector is targeted for its impacts while coconut and banana plantations, with similar or worse impact, are not subject to the same level of activist criticism.