Innovation Forum Podcast: Recent Episodes
Innovation Forum
Stephen Brunner, global key relation manager, Bayer explains to Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh the importance of business partnerships for developing more-sustainable sugar supply. He stresses the importance of product stewardship in lessening environmental impacts and on workers in sugar’s value chain. Brunner also argues the case for working with smallholder and medium-sized farms to develop processes of continuous improvement, and why it’s vital the gains from certification offset the additional costs.
Companies find themselves having to engage with emerging human rights legislation and how it affect their business.
In this podcast, Laura Okkonen, head of human rights at Nokia, explains to Ian Welsh her company’s strategy on human rights, and how to be effective when planning an approach to tackling a variety of regulation. She highlights the development and implementation of the UN guiding principles on business and human rights as a key changing point, and an effective tool that business can use to identify best practice.
Top down regulation pressure and a groundswell of litigation is increasing the pressure on companies to do more human rights.
The legal landscapes for businesses regarding human rights are in flux. In this podcast, Michael Quayle, London-based associate at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, and Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh discuss how legislation is driving this change, but why companies also need to consider growing litigation risks and complaints to OECD national contact points.
Quayle outlines the more rigorous reporting requirements that companies are facing. New regulation in France, Australia and elsewhere means that companies are increasingly legally required to not only say more but, importantly, now do more about human rights as well. They discuss why companies are now being held accountable if they don’t properly work towards achieving what they have said they will do.
While it’s no magic wand, developing blockchains can help supply chain transparency and companies meet no-deforestation targets.
In this podcast Jessica Verhagen, vice-president, business development and strategy, Ecosphere+, talks with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about blockchain and how it can help implement corporate policies on deforestation and develop more sustainable supply chains.
Verhagen explains why, with the processes of transparency and consensus built in, blockchain can maintain transparency and ensure that all stages of the value chain benefit correctly from transactions. She explains why getting the right checks and balances into a blockchain can ensure security for all parties, including around commodity certification, and how blockchain can develop the carbon credits market.
In this podcast, Glenn Hurowitz, CEO of Mighty Earth, talks with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about his organisation’s work on trying to break the links between agriculture and deforestation.
They discuss the potential for success for the new soy manifesto in South American grasslands – and why soy sourcing has become a key risk for the international beef sector. The rubber sector is a new area of focus for Mighty Earth – Hurowitz argues that as the rubber sector companies have seen the reputational damage that palm oil sector has suffered in the past few years there is potential for NGO pressure to move the sector forward and engage on its deforestation risks. He also says that the recently announced deal on cocoa in west Africa could be a real game-changer for the sector as it brings all the relevant actors together.
Cutting use of plastic requires smarter design and increasing circularity in waste management processes.
In this podcast with Ian Welsh, Caroline Reid, project manager strategic sustainable development, Ikea, outlines the company’s plastic use and targets to reduce this. She explains the drivers behind them, including a very-aware customer base and strong momentum from the company’s corporate culture.
Reid argues the case for better recycling and waste management processes that make things easier for consumers to help business develop more closed loop processes for plastic and other materials. She says that prolonging product life is a core way to cut resource use, and their design is key to achieving this, such as making products modular so they can be added to or adapted over time.
Emerging technology can help companies monitor their supply chains and track deforestation commitments better. But there is now so much data available, how can companies make sense of it all?
In this podcast, Niels Wielaard, managing director of remote sensing tech firm Satelligence, talks with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about how to get the right insights from satellite image data and identify the landscape changes that are relevant.
Once a company can, for example, identify where on a concession there is oil palm being grown or cocoa trees, and where the protected forests are, it can be much more certain of the deforestation risks in its supply chain. Technology can also link social issues to deforestation through analysis of geo-tagged social media. Looking forward, Wielaard argues that business should focus efforts more on smarter use of existing datasets than looking for evermore data itself.
While we are starting to get the right frameworks in place on business and human rights, better enforcement of existing legislation would be a good place to start.
Global Witness CEO Gillian Caldwell outlines to Ian Welsh some of her top global trends on business and human rights. She points out instances where business goes along too easily with restrictions on freedom of speech and repression by governments, but highlights a clear movement from consumers expecting brands and companies to be properly engaging on human rights.
She also argues that there is a wider realisation for companies that as they have made human rights a C-suite concern it is an area where best practice has business wide positive benefits.
They discuss the importance of a fast yet fair transition to a low carbon economy. Caldwell stresses that it’s those who have contributed least to climate change who will be impacted most. But, there are risks involved in the transition, not least in [...]
Business responds well to clarity, simplicity and consistency, and these three things are not hallmarks of plastics recycling and pollution prevention policy in many countries. Various approaches have been trialled by various governments and regional authorities to tackle plastics pollution, without much success.
In this podcast Delphine Lévi Alvarès, European coordinator of the #BreakFreeFromPlastic movement, Zero Waste EuropeZero Waste Europe talks to Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about how the different piecemeal pieces of legislation can best be effective. They discuss when levies, such as the UK’s 5p plastic bag charge, can be effective, or when banning certain products in some circumstances are is the right way to go. Alvarès argues that consumers have lost a sense of value in plastics and legislation, with business support, can help bring this back.
For brands and companies with commodity supply chains, ensuring sustainable sourcing is no longer just a corporate responsibility issue – it’s one of long term security of supply.
But with diverse and globalised supply chains, and the myriad certifications and guidelines schemes, what are some practical steps companies can take to help ensure what they source is produced sustainably? What are the key tools and initiatives that can help, and how can companies access them?
On this webinar, taking the coffee sector as a case study, four experts focus on how companies are collaborating together with partners, and using technology, to work towards Sustainable Coffee Challenge commitments. They discuss how partners can best work together to develop more sustainable supply chains and explore how to build brand equity through transparency and impact metrics.
Panel:
Bambi Semroc, senior strategic advisor, Center for Environmental Leadership in Business, Conse [...]
Plastic is everywhere. Its versatility, low weight and low cost have made our lives easier. However, one of its most remarkable properties – its durability – is also its main pitfall when it ends up in the environment, not least in the oceans. The numbers are scary. The World Economic Forum predicts that kilo for kilo there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050. Other research from the University of Georgia says that 8.6m tonnes of plastic end up in the oceans every year. In many respects ocean plastic pollution is essentially everyone’s fault and everyone’s problem. Therefore, it will require a multi-stakeholder approach to drive the necessary innovation, scale and speed to meet the challenge head on.
In this webinar discussion join:
Kirstie McIntyre, director, global sustainability operations, HP
Adam Hall, head of sustainability, Surfdome
Will McCallum, head of oceans, Greenpeace UK
Nicholas Mallos, director, Trash Free S [...]
Cocoa farming is one of the critical drivers of deforestation and becoming ever-more the target of activist campaigning, but what can the cocoa sector do to drive real progress?
In the west African nations of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, where the majority of the world’s cocoa beans are harvested, there is significant deforestation due to cocoa farming. Changing weather patterns from climate change are forcing farmers to expand into new areas or to relocate, leading to even more deforestation. Deforestation itself is, of course, a significant climate change driver.
Mondelēz, has developed a programme to address these challenges, and some partner organisations – including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Impactum – have provided crucial help along the way.
In this webinar, panelists from Mondelēz International, UNDP and Impactum debate cocoa supply chains and deforestation. The panellists share their experiences addressing deforestat [...]
In the past, companies have viewed human rights risks as a reputational risk – if abuses are found, the impact on the company’s reputation has been at the forefront, making them act. But, is this still the case?
In this Innovation Forum webinar experts from the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre and Hilton International discuss the new legislation designed to keep companies in check, such as the UK modern slavery act, and ask how far these rules and regulations really go. Are they, in fact, driving change in corporate behaviour?
What are the other motivators for business to protect human rights? And how far do corporate human rights policies go in safe guarding the rights of those in their operations and supply chains? What role can other stakeholders play in encouraging (and helping) business to take proactive action on human rights?
Ultimately, what does make companies act?
With Mauricio Lazala, deputy direc [...]
Many companies, large and small, have made commitments to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains by 2020. Now, with only two more years to deliver on 2020 targets, the pressing question is: will it happen? To help address this need, Climate Focus on behalf of TFA 2020, has prepared the Commodity and Forests Agenda 2020: Ten Priorities to Remove Tropical Deforestation from Commodity Supply Chains. The report is a framework for action at the global and regional level in order to accelerate progress in addressing commodity-driven deforestation.
In this webinar join experts from TFA, Proforest and Supply Change debate the new report’s conclusions, and how companies can up the pace in really eliminating deforestation risk from their operations and supply chains.
With
- Marco Albani, director Tropical Forest Alliance 2020
- Isabella Vitali, Latin America co-director, Proforest
- Stephen Donofrio, senior advisor, Supply Change (a Forest T [...]
Across the apparel, FMCG, electronics, home furnishings and other consumer goods sectors, how factories can develop to secure supply and be more sustainable is a crucial business risk issue. In this Innovation Forum webinar, hear an expert panel outline some effective and current collaboration initiatives that are helping to create alignment between companies and their partners working on factory improvements in emerging markets.
Senior practitioners from Better Work, Fair Factories Clearinghouse, EICC and Social and Labour Convergence debate the visions and goals that are essential for these partnerships, how they are working towards them, the lessons that can be applied across sectors and the future role of companies in making the process work
John Morrison, chief executive of the Institute for Human Rights and Business, talks to Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about some of the human rights challenges emerging for business from big data.
They debate what companies need to be aware of when they use data, particularly aggregated data, and the human rights risks they now run, and how the moves towards transparency in supply chains, for example, can have unintended privacy consequences for small suppliers and individuals. Morrison argues that there is a potential backlash looming for companies about the data they hold unless they properly engage with stakeholders on the data they hold and how they use it.
Steve Gray, CEO, Earthwatch, talks with Ian Welsh, Innovation Forum, about how companies can engage their employees linking better corporate practises, lessening environmental and social impacts, with core business purpose.
Gray argues that overall corporate strategy is becoming increasingly the core focus of employee engagement – linking individuals’ roles to their business’s overall impacts and how these link into the bottom line. He says that it is crucial to establish personal context for employee engagement – how their and the company’s impacts can make a difference both to wider stakeholders and to themselves. This trend is reflected in the move away from philanthropic approaches to employee engagement to a desire to change motivation and inspiration across businesses.
Dave Robb, sustainability manager, Cargill Aqua Nutrition, talks to Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about corporate impact measurement, and the importance of establishing baselines and the topics that are most relevant, and then measuring progress against them.
Companies need to establish what relevant and challenging goals look like, set targets and then make progress towards achieving them. Maintaining progress is very important so that companies can see the clear benefits of making positive change. Robb argues that businesses also need to remember that they can’t do everything, and that they should choose to focus efforts where their impact is greatest.
Beth Holzman, Good World Solutions, and Dan Viederman, Humanity United, talk to Innoation Forum’s Ian Welsh about the new West Principles for worker engagement on forced labour.
Companies don’t know what is going on in their supply chains on human rights and forced labour and social audits have proved to be inadequate. The Worker Engagement Supported by Technology (West) Principles are a set of guidelines for technology-driven efforts to engage workers in global supply chains. Technology has the capacity to scale worker engagement and data collection, and to help business better understanding migration patterns. The eight principles fall into four distinct stages: design, engage, analyse and utilise data.
They aim to maximize the impact of technology-driven efforts to engage workers in global supply chains and ensure they can work with dignity and free from abuse. Initiated by a group of technology providers, the principles seek to engage stakeholders at all l [...]
Rob Lederer, executive director, Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition talks with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about EICC’s new Responsible Labor Initiative. The new initiative is designed to facilitate cross-sector collaboration, exporting EICC’s due diligence tools to other industries. Lederer points out that forced labour issues are not unique to the electronics sector and, as such, there is much that other sectors can benefit from the electronic sector’s work. He admits that many were caught off guard by the issues of modern slavery and forced labour – and explains how EICC has worked hard to move from a reactive to proactive approach to the challenges. With the prospect of the repeal of the Dodd-Frank legislation in the US, the imperative for industry to stay on top of these issues is more important now than ever.