A regular blog about (un) sustainable business. A focus on practical stuff, not blue sky pretentious waffle. Around 6000 regular readers, surprisingly.
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“….
I’m not a fan of conspiracy theories. And so I usually regard anything coming out of the Anonymous collective with quite a bit of suspicion. But this video, all fifteen minutes of it, is pretty compelling. In it, Chamath Palihapitiya, former senior Facebook exec, clearly lays out (edited of course!) his fears and concerns about social media,…
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…
The coverage of the Trump administration’s roll-back, or attempted roll-back, of social and environmental regulations is well documented. But are there some benefits to his election? It could be that I’m looking for a silver lining here, and I liked the idea of a bit of a clickbait headline. But also I think there is some…
Josh Prigge, CEO of Sustridge and most recently sustainability head at Fetzer Vineyards, says there’s no doubt that studying sustainable wine has benefits for other business sectors. Josh has spoken at a couple of Innovation Forum conferences in the last few years. I found what he had to say highly interesting, and I was curious about a…
Happy New Year to all readers, and I hope you had a restful festive break. I was in rural Somerset with the family, where it rained a lot, but the local food and (mostly imported) wines were superb. Part of my New Year resolutions (along with more gym, fewer carbs and glasses of wine in…
The critical business issues coming up at Innovation Forum Many companies are poised to make real progress on the key corporate sustainability challenges. So, at Innovation Forum we are planning plenty of engaging discussion and insight to help find what’s coming next, and the solutions we’ll need. Over the next few months, through the first…
Sabine Benoit and Julia Hartmann at the Surrey Business School at the University of Surrey have been researching consumer perception of sustainability in supply chains (video here) They have been researching the question of whom consumers hold responsible and blame in case of irresponsible supplier behaviour and the subsequent reactions in consumer behaviour. The publication that’s the foundation of…
Here’s a Q&A with Nicky Amos and Dr Rory Sullivan, editors of the new book The Business of Farm Animal Welfare and architects of the Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare. 1) Why is animal farm welfare a significant business issue today? Who does it actually affect? Nicky Amos: The reasons why companies should care about…
Here’s an upcoming event from us at Innovation Forum and Bonsucro, on the above topic. We’ve run this twice before, and last year’s conference was generally regarded as pretty good. It’s packed with big companies and key NGOs, and I hope you can join us. Here’s a bit more on the conference, and the brochure…
Cocoa has been in the news a lot in recent years. It’s one of those soft commodities that everyone cares about and feels they have a stake in. Who doesn’t like chocolate? I spent a few days in the forests of Ghana, back in 2010, with executives from what is now Mondelēz (then Cadbury/Kraft) some years…
If, like me, you have a folder on your desktop with 20-50 unread 80-120 page reports on sustainable commodities, you may find a shorter, sharper version of many of the issues and solutions in this area, quite useful. So here’s a link to one, written by Climate Focus and published by TFA 2020. It’s something…
Here’s an exclusive Q&A with Kiki Taufik, head of the Indonesia Forest campaign, Greenpeace. Well worth a few minutes to read. As you may know, Greenpeace has played a key role in raising awareness of the challenges faced in saving Indonesia’s remaining forests and peatlands. Whilst not all company executives might agree with their methods,…
In advance of our upcoming Jakarta conference, with TFA 2020, here’s a Q&A with their director, Marco Albani, on their work, the changes they’ve observed and current/future issues. TW: For those unfamiliar with TFA 2020, tell us a little about the work your group is doing, your history and objectives MA: TFA 2020 is a…
Here below are some recent analysis and podcasts from us at Innovation Forum. It’s all free. You don’t need to register or anything. Just click and enjoy. We’ve got a lot coming up in the second half of 2017 and if you enjoy our analysis, please consider attending one of our events and supporting our…
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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