A regular blog about (un) sustainable business. A focus on practical stuff, not blue sky pretentious waffle. Around 6000 regular readers, surprisingly.
A few months back, I facilitated a session with Goetz in Accra, Ghana, at the TFA 2020 conference, on rural sustainability initiatives that will scale. It was a fascinating 45 minutes or so, and his company, *Golden-Agri Resources, seems to me to be leading the way, with a few others, in this area. The evolution in…
Here’s our take on the latest in and around Soy sustainability. Proud to work with colleagues Ian Welsh and Tom Idle on this piece, although I must say I had little to do with it, other than suggesting we go more in-depth than the usual 500 words. Tom and Ian have delivered some excellent analysis…
Following my previous posts: “The ten most important issues in…business and plastic pollution/innovation“ and “The 13 most important issues in…business, modern slavery, forced labour and human rights” let’s move on to the topic of sustainable commodities sourcing and landscape approaches to sustainability. So here’s what our research came up with as some of the key issues…
Following my previous post: “The ten most important issues in…business and plastic pollution/innovation“, moving onto the topic of business, modern slavery, forced labour and human rights, here’s what our rigorous and market-tested research came up with as some of the key issues. (Excuse the click-bait headline but it got your attention) It’s not all of…
At Innovation Forum, the team and I spend a lot of time working out the complex answers to one simple question in each of the areas we work in. That question is: “What are the most difficult issues/challenges in this particular area?”. We then spend months, often longer (given events are often repeated) working that…
Public speaking varies considerably, so I’ll stick in this post to proferring unsolicited advice on speaking at business conferences. Speaking is probably the wrong word. Contributing critically, thoughtfully and pragmatically would be a better, if lengthier term. Based on my experience of creating, running/chairing business conferences since 1999 (I think the total is probably well…
Hello there. Innovation Forum would like to invite you to the upcoming webinar: How brands can drive sustainable innovation in plastics and packaging The webinar will take place on Thursday 6th September at 9am EDT / 2pm BST. If you can’t make that time, register anyway and we’ll send you a recording. You can sign…
By Chris Eves, forestry officer at the Zoological Society of London Speaking recently, Christophe Deloire, secretary general of Reporters Without Borders, stated that: “None of the main issues which humanity is facing will be resolved without access to information”. With 2017 the second worst year on record for tropical tree cover loss, now is a good…
I haven’t posted on here for a while. We’ve been busy publishing on the main Innovation Forum site, which has hugely increased traffic in the last few months. We think this is due to our audio content, which is proving extremely popular, we think because a) its pretty good and b) its a flexible format…
Innovation Forum’s Modern slavery, forced labour and human rights: The business case beyond compliance takes place on 18th-19th October 2018 in London. This forum is designed to provide the practical tools to protect human rights and mitigate the risk of abuses in company supply chains. The two day discussion will equip business delegates with the guidance to develop and…
Trade “wars” (actually skirmishes) are all over the news at the moment. Alongside the political posturing of Trump and his economically-unhinged cohorts, there may be, as mentioned before on this blog, a sustainability-related one brewing too. I’m referring, of course to palm oil, the EU and deforestation. This headline from the Asia Times gives you…
Here’s what we’re up to for the rest of 2018 @ Innovation Forum. Plastics, Modern Slavery, Landscapes and Commodities, Measurement and ROI conferences in London, Amsterdam, Detroit: How business can measure the impact – and ROI – of corporate sustainability How to make the business case to your board, define materiality, and measure the impacts…
Reading this from WEF, “Are you breathing plastic air at home? Here’s how microplastics are polluting our lungs”, all it needs is a few credible studies to confirm this, and global textile, home furnishing and manufacturers could have a major issue on their hands, and fast. Research needed into scope of the problem, and viable…
It’s not often I sit down to write a post that could well annoy almost everyone I know. This is one of those. But it’s a risk worth taking. Someone needs to say, I think, what I am going to say here. Scott Poynton blogged about this area recently, and I had the same conversation…
First, and for a long time, we had philanthropy, and there was no need to measure that, except in cash given, and tax breaks received. Then we had early CSR, let’s say at some point in the 1980s, and that was about happier communities, some more motivated employees, the odd bit of PR and some…
I'm Toby Webb, founder of Innovation Forum, a sustainability focused research, publishing and events business. I've also been a lecturer on Corporate Responsibility at Kings College London and at Birkbeck, University of London for eight years. I work with large companies all over the world and sit on the sustainability advisory board for Walgreens Boots Alliance. From 2006-9 I lead the development of UK CSR policy, resulting in the Responsibility Deals framework. I can be contacted at Tobias DOT Webb AT innovation-forum.co.uk
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