Dear reader, I’ve been writing ‘blog’ posts on and off, for about 15 years. There’s probably more than 2000 posts archived on this site, many …
CSR and Sustainability
Sustainable agricultural commodities: To decrease sourcing risk, focus on enabling social opportunity
Sourcing companies providing cash incentives to farming families is a good start, yet there much more to do, write Dr Peter Stanbury and Tobias Webb …
What is Regenerative Agriculture and how is it being implemented?
Here’s a 35 minute talk I gave to students of the Stockholm School of Economics in December 2021. I covered definitions, approaches, the organic vs …
The complexity, and simplicity, of forest restoration in Riau, Sumatra
In this post I consider what restoration means on the ground in the province of Riau, Sumatra. Shortly before the pandemic lockdown, I visited a …
How business can drive forest positive action and community resilience in smallholder farming landscapes
By Dr Peter Stanbury and Toby Webb Over recent years the “landscape approach” to addressing sustainability has become the buzz phrase. Yet, as our recent …
Materials innovation and sustainability: 2021 business opportunities
This is a summary of a recent panel discussion with experts from Neste, Covestro, Unilever and the European Commission talking about scalable, affordable solutions to …
Cocoa and smallholders: The Living Income Differential is a failure, so where next?
Last year many in business, including the authors, correctly predicted the problems which are now besetting the Living Income Differential in West Africa. Now in …
Smallholder supply chains: how to make sustainability sustainable
Innovation Forum recently published ground-breaking research exploring what is really needed to build genuinely sustainable smallholder supply chains. This identified a clear set of issues …
Next generation smallholders: what’s required to empower youth and the farmers of the future
Last month we held a 40 person online workshop on the above topic, and here some notes from that, without attribution. Attendees were from brands, …
Preventing deforestation: How to incentivise smallholders and rural communities to protect forests
Innovation Forum held an online workshop on this difficult yet vitally important topic, over three hours, on September 9th 2020. Some bullet point notes, unattributed, …
Europe’s planned deforestation reduction laws present serious challenges
Here’s an insightful blog post from the excellent Chain Reaction research team on what may lie ahead when it comes to policy measures around imported …
A brief update on Innovation Forum’s work in 2020: Cross commodity research, stakeholder engagement and digital promotion
This post is a quick update for you on current plans that might be relevant for you, from Innovation Forum in 2020. At Innovation Forum, …
Sustainable supply chains. Why new approaches are needed to smallholder farming
Here’s an update on our action research to drive effective action on smallholder resilience, food security and how procurement will be transformed by both sustainability …
Chaos and Covid-19: investor lessons from a pandemic
Covid-19 has made it blindingly clear that companies and business processes are inextricably tied up with the wider social, political and environmental contexts in which …
Smallholders, rural poverty and Covid-19. Collective action to create durable supply chains: our new research initiative
In the below article, Dr Peter Stanbury and Tobias Webb outline how Innovation Forum , through our Innovation Accelerator initiative, has developed a research coalition …