How to Lead a Sustainable Business with Alannah Weston

Alannah Weston, Chairman of Selfridges Group, speaks to leaders who are driving systems change to reinvent their sectors for a future that is regenerative and just.

 

This week is a special episode: rather than exploring an economic sector, Alannah looks at the possibility of rethinking race in conversation with Emma Dabiri.

 

Emma is an academic, broadcaster and author of two highly acclaimed books on the

subject: Don’t Touch My Hair and What White People Can Do Next: From Allyship to

Coalition. She offers a clear-thinking analysis of the construction of race and how through coalition and solidarity we might dismantle this system and build one that benefits both people and planet.

 

How to Lead a Sustainable Business is brought to you by Selfridges Group and Intelligence Squared. If you enjoy this episode, please take a moment to rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts.

Alannah Weston, Chairman of Selfridges Group, speaks to business leaders who are

reinventing their sectors for a sustainable and just future.

This episode explores the shocking world of food waste. More than a third of the world’s food is thrown away and in the developed world, half of food waste takes place at home.

Tessa Clarke, CEO of OLIO, an app that redistributes food that would otherwise be wasted, discusses how her business galvanised 50,000 volunteers to tackle waste, and the ways in which society needs to

re-think its relationship with food if we are to win the race to net zero.

How to Lead a Sustainable Business is brought to you by Selfridges Group and Intelligence Squared. If you enjoy this episode, please take a moment to rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts.

Alannah Weston, Chairman of Selfridges Group, speaks to business leaders who are reinventing their sectors for a sustainable and just future.

In this episode, she is joined by Christian Benimana, Senior Principal and Managing Director of MASS Design Group in Rwanda. Its mission is to research, build, and advocate for architecture that promotes justice and human dignity. MASS believes that architecture has a critical role to play in supporting communities to confront history, shape new narratives, collectively heal and project new possibilities for the future. 

Christian introduces a new concept of beauty, one that moves beyond the aesthetic and only really blossoms when it brings social and environmental value to communities. 

How to Lead a Sustainable Business is brought to you by Selfridges Group and Intelligence Squared. If you enjoy this episode, please take a moment to rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts.

Alannah Weston, Chairman of Selfridges Group, speaks to leaders who are driving transformational change towards sustainable industry.

In this episode, Alannah is joined by Leslie Johnston, CEO of the Laudes Foundation, which catalyses systems change in the worlds of fashion, finance and the built environment, towards a new economy that values all people and nature.

Leslie discusses the twin motivators of fear and inspiration when trying to change mindsets, and explains why the second is the more effective tool. She talks about the complexity of changing systems but outlines that it is possible to make a climate-positive transition without leaving behind the people whose livelihoods rely on systems which are currently damaging our planet.

How to Lead a Sustainable Business is brought to you by Selfridges Group and Intelligence Squared. If you enjoy this episode, please take a moment to rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts.

Alannah Weston, Chairman of Selfridges Group, speaks to leaders who are driving transformational change towards sustainable industry. In this episode, Alannah is joined by the person behind the first B-Corp certified luxury fashion house, Riccardo Bellini, CEO of Chloé.

Riccardo lifts the lid on how to turn positive intention into concrete reality, with insight into how Chloé overhauled its supply chain to move away from PVC and champion low-impact regenerative raw materials, and to work with partners that have a transformation social impact on the group at the heart of Chloé’s purpose - women.

How to Lead a Sustainable Business is brought to you by Selfridges Group and Intelligence Squared. If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts.

Alannah Weston, Chairman of Selfridges Group, speaks to leaders who are driving transformational change.

In this episode, Alannah is joined by her friend colleague and long-time collaborator, Anne Pitcher, Managing Director of Selfridges Group.

They share their experiences of the company’s sustainability journey from fur to fish, from Project Ocean to Project Earth. Anne reflects on what it takes to embed a vision and purpose deep inside an organisation, and how the most powerful partnerships are not always the ones you expect.

How to Lead a Sustainable Business is brought to you by Selfridges Group and Intelligence Squared. If you enjoy this episode, please take a moment to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Back for a third series, Alannah Weston, Chairman of Selfridges Group, speaks to inspiring leaders driving transformational systems change to put sustainability at the heart of their businesses.

In this episode, Alannah is joined by Andy Cato, co-founder of Wildfarmed. Andy is a Grammy-nominated musician, one half of the incredible Groove Armada. In 2006, he read an article about the dire state of industrial food production, which ended with the line “If you don’t like the system, don’t depend on it.” Andy sold his music rights, bought a farm, and has spent his life since finding a more restorative and sustainable way of growing food.

Together, they discuss how following natural systems for soil health leads to abundance and how it can transform our ailing agricultural system.

How to Lead a Sustainable Business is brought to you by Selfridges Group and Intelligence Squared. If you enjoy this episode, please take a moment to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts.

In this COP26 Special, Alannah is joined by Henry Dimbleby. Henry spent time as a journalist, cook and management consultant, before co-founding the healthy fast-food restaurant chain, Leon. He created the Sustainable Restaurants Association and London Union, a network of some of London’s largest street food markets. His philanthropic work includes campaigning tirelessly for healthy meals for school children, and he set up the Hackney School of Food. Most recently Henry was appointed lead non-executive board member at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), where he has led the National Food Strategy, publishing a ground-breaking review of the UK food system in 2020. Together they reflect on the Glasgow summit and discuss the role of government in combating the climate crisis.

Alannah Weston, Chairman of Selfridges Group, speaks to inspiring leaders at the forefront of sustainability and business to find out what it takes to lead change and how businesses can put sustainability at their core. 

In this episode, Alannah is joined by Andrew Waugh, a founding partner of Waugh Thistleton Architects. He has designed award winning schemes from synagogues to social housing and is one of the world experts on timber construction. They discuss the merits of wood for human and environmental reasons and how it can transform the entire system of building. Together they consider whether steel and cement are the fossil fuels of the future. 

How To Lead a Sustainable Business is brought to you by Selfridges Group and Intelligence Squared. If you enjoyed this episode please take a moment to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. 

Alannah Weston, Chairman of Selfridges Group, speaks to inspiring leaders at the forefront of sustainability and business to find out what it takes to lead change and how businesses can put sustainability at their core. 

In this episode Alannah is joined by Safia Qureshi, founder and CEO of CLUBZERO, an award-winning returnable packaging system for food and beverage brands globally. Safia is an architect, designer and innovator who decided to take on the redesign of one of the most challenging aspects of the food service industry system: the lowly single use coffee cup. She speaks to Alannah about disrupting single use plastics, the role of legislation in regulating packaging and the challenges women in leadership positions face.  

How To Lead a Sustainable Business is brought to you by Selfridges Group and Intelligence Squared. If you enjoyed this episode please take a moment to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts.