While in India, Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb spoke with CottonConnect’s CEO Alison Ward and global supply chain director Dawa Dorje about their sustainable cotton programme that focuses on delivering a supply chain with end-to-end transparency. They discuss the importance of smallholder inclusion and how they benefit from a transition to a more regenerative approach such as through reduced input costs and improved yields.

To learn more about the cotton value chain in India, watch this documentary created in partnership with CottonConnect.

Amanda Archila, executive director at Fairtrade America, and Anna Mann, associate director of responsible business at Fairtrade Foundation, discuss the food price and value gap, and highlighting the root cause of the issue from the producer's perspective. In conversation with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh, they talk about what constitutes fair pricing and how to evenly distribute costs along value chains.

Fairtrade Foundation and Fairtrade America will be at Innovation Forum’s future of food and beverage conference series in Amsterdam (13th-14th May) and Minneapolis (29th-30th May). Click for registration details to join us.

Decathlon's chief sustainability officer, Anna Turrell, reflects on the recent Innovation Forum sustainable apparel and textiles conference in Amsterdam with Ian Welsh. They discuss growing resale business models within the industry and the power of consumers in unlocking the potential from circular economy models.

Plus: Innovation Forum's Natasha Bodnar shares the latest updates for the upcoming scope 3 innovation forum, taking place in person this year in Amsterdam on 12th-13th June. Click here for more information and register now to benefit from the €200 early bird discount.

This week: John Murphy, technical director for Europe at Hohenstein Laboratories, talks with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about certification standards for the apparel sector and the supply chain reassurances they can provide. They discuss the current apparel sector's approach to material certification and what the future of the sector can look like.

Plus: Christine Goulay from Sustainabelle Advisory Services and Amy Nguyen from Sustainable & Social highlights key takeaways from this week's sustainable apparel and textiles conference with Ian. They talk about the continued significance of circularity and innovation in implementing extended producer responsibility.

Host: Ian Welsh

Niamh McCarthy, director for climate-related risk at Climate Advisers talks with Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh about what's coming up for the Brazilian cattle sector and shares some of the conclusions from the latest report from Orbitas, a Climate Advisers initiative. They discuss the opportunities for farmers to increase yield and diversify revenue streams, and the risks to avoid.

We'll be discussing findings of the Orbitas research into both the cattle and soy sectors in Brazil at a virtual event on 30th April. See here for the agenda and click here for full registration details.

Innovation Forum’s Ian Welsh and Hanna Halmari talk about what’s coming up this week at the sustainable apparel and textiles conference in Amsterdam. They highlight new features at the conference this year and some of what attendees should expect over the two days.

Plus: Marina Ettl, director of funded projects and regenerative agriculture business intelligence at Norway-based fertiliser company Yara International, talks with Savanna Razzaque about what to expect at the upcoming webinar discussing the role of fertilisers in regenerative agriculture. Register for free to join live on 25th April at 2-3pm CEST. 

And, Innovation Forum’s Emily Heslop shares more information about the future of food and beverage conference returning to Minneapolis this year on 29th-30th May. Register before Friday 26th April for a $200 discount on conference passes.

This week: Kaley Roshitsh, editorial director at Cascale (formerly the Sustainable Apparel Coalition), talks with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about incoming regulation that companies in the apparel sector should be looking out for. They discuss the resulting challenges and opportunities, and what the future trends in the apparel sector might be, including from the rise and rise of regenerative agriculture.

Plus: Science Based Targets initiative receives backlash on its change of policy on carbon credit offsetting for scope 3 emissions; Earthwatch alleges some Better Cotton certified crop links with land grabbing and illegal land use change in Brazil; and, the Global Wind Energy Council says global wind power capacity is accelerating, but not yet fast enough to meet COP28 goals, in the news digest.

Host: Ian Welsh

Cascale is the knowledge collaborator for this year's sustainable apparel and textiles conferences in Amsterdam and New York. Click for more information

Joseph D'Cruz, CEO of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, and Olivier Tichit, chief sustainability officer at Musim Mas, talk with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh about the European Union's deforestation regulation and its resulting reverberations across the palm oil sector and beyond. They discuss the complexities this black or white regulation will bring, including the potential removal of smallholder farmers from EU supply chains. They explain how they expect EUDR’s  implementation to play out and discuss the future of sustainability regulations.

Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh and Niamh McCarthy from Climate Advisers introduce an upcoming virtual event where findings from new soy and cattle reports from the Orbitas initiative will be discussed. The event will incorporate perspectives from stakeholders across Brazil's soy and cattle sector. Click here to register to join live on Tuesday 30th April at 3pm CEST. Live Portuguese translation will be available.

Plus: Innovation Forum's Catie Ball talks about what to expect at the sustainable apparel and textiles USA conference in New York in June, ahead of its EU counterpart taking place next week. For full registration details for the sustainable apparel and textiles conference in New York, click here. Register by Friday 19th April and save $300.

Host: Ian Welsh

This week: Niamh McCarthy, director for climate-related risk at Climate Advisers, talks with Ian Welsh about the launch of a new report from the Orbitas initiative on the Brazilian cattle sector and the impact of climate transition. They discuss the sector’s risks and opportunities amid climate transitions, and the impacts of the incoming regulatory change. 

And, Ian talks with Amanda Archila, executive director at Fairtrade America, and Anna Mann, assistant director of responsible business at the Fairtrade Foundation, about pricing pressures in food value chains. In particular, they discuss how to ensure that they don't always impact growers unfairly.

Plus: the European Court of Human Rights calls out the Swiss government for insufficient action on climate change; lack of government support and insufficient funding hinders SME companies to take climate action; and, UK retailer Waitrose partners with Tony's Chocolonely Open Chain initiative for responsibly sourced cocoa, in the news digest.

Host: Ian Welsh

To discover further analysis from the Orbitas report, join expert panelists at an Innovation Forum webinar on 30th April at 3pm CET. Click here for full registration details.