A regular blog about (un) sustainable business. A focus on practical stuff, not blue sky pretentious waffle. Around 6000 regular readers, surprisingly.
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…
So here’s some of our recent analysis, podcast and webinars published on https://innovation-forum.co.uk in recent weeks. I hope you find them useful. All designed to be short, sharp, insightful and practical. And all free. You can’t argue with that. See below. The radical supply chain transparency solution The latest palm oil supply disclosures from Unilever and…
While investors recognise the risks in the palm oil sector, there are some key things they can do to engage with the industry more effectively. Toby Webb meets with Abigail Herron, global head of responsible investment at Aviva Investors, and Clara Melot, SPOTT engagement and impacts manager at ZSL, to discuss how palm oil is…
One of the things people find annoying about online comments and letters sections, is so few people see substantive responses to original postings. So here I’m posting one below, after my recent post: “Response to my post: 1000 days to go…the six most difficult questions for consumer brands around ‘zero’ deforestation palm oil by 2020“….
Palm oil is much in the news again early in 2018, with headlines appearing such as: EU heading for ‘zero palm oil’ in transport by 2021 Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand ready to retaliate on EU palm oil ban Palm oil: Malaysia can argue for exclusion from European ban Proposed ban on palm oil: Felda to…
Here’s some of the interviews, insight and analysis, recently added to https://innovation-forum.co.uk The below is a mixture of written and audio content, usually recorded at/around our events from the first half of 2017. I hope there’s some useful insights here somewhere for readers. Happy summer break to all! HSBC’s noble stand on palm oil No…
Here are some of the highlights from Innovation Forum’s audio channel over the past few months. To subscribe to the Innovation Forum webinar and podcast stream on iTunes click here. Business and deforestation – are companies going to meet their supply chain commitments? In this webinar, the findings from two new reports from Forest Trends’…
Here’s the latest of the podcast series Scott Poynton, founder of TFT (The Forest Trust) and I are doing this year. In this edition we talked about the demise of the Indonesian Palm Oil Pledge, the IOI vs. RSPO lawsuit closure, Resolute vs. Greenpeace (briefly), why talking to critics is really the best way. We…
IPOP has been disbanded, but despite its demise companies say they will stick to their commitments The Indonesian Palm Oil Pledge is no more. The six palm oil multinationals that comprised its signatories said on 1st July that they would phase out the arrangement because “recent groundbreaking policy developments in Indonesia have fulfilled the purpose of…
(From the weekly Innovation Forum business brief. Sign up free, no registration needed, at: http://innovation-forum.co.uk We publish a piece like this, every week) IOI’s decision to take RSPO to court sets a dangerous precedent and brings established corporate-certification body relationships into question The hot dispute between Malaysian palm oil business IOI Group and certification body the…
Innovation Forum now has a free podcast channel on various topics related to our events and publishing. The direct link is here and there’s a few below. Here’s the iTunes link too. We keep them to 5-15 minutes generally, and focus on business roles in helping solve some of these very tricky problems. Here’s a few recent ones:…
Chatham House have a new report, just out, titled: “Agricultural Commodity Supply Chains, Trade, Consumption and Deforestation” As with past publications by the think-tank, this report has some helpful insights within, and some great facts and figures one can make use of in a business. The report is here, and the summary is below. The infographics underneath…
Campaigners have long called for the palm oil industry to cut its links with deforestation. Numerous strategies – not always complementary – are being adopted to improve standards across the industry’s complex supply chain. This three page mini briefing on the topic of sustainable palm oil, is taken from Innovation Forum’s new Supply Chain Risk &…
Last week the Consumer Goods Forum published some new palm oil sustainability guidelines. I sent their director of sustainability, Ignacio Gavilan, a few questions about them. Here’s his responses below: Tobias Webb: What do the new guidelines say? What’s new in them? Ignacio Gavilan: “This is the first time our industry has published a set of sustainable…
Just the other day, I was listening to the BBC Radio 4 podcast “In our time”, hosted by the inimitable Melyvn Bragg. The particular podcast is on Utilitarianism, popularly associated with Jeremy Bentham and later John Stuart Mill and others. Utilitarianism is at once both simple and complicated. The phrase “greatest good of the greatest…
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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