The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) released its first set of finalized sustainability and climate disclosure standards at the end of June 2023. In this episode of the Sustainable Leading Edge, we deep dive into the new ISSB Standards – what they are, why they're important, where companies can start, and much more.

Don’t miss this discussion on the ISSB Standards with host David Bottos, Product Solutions Specialist at FigBytes, and Emily Freure, Business Analyst at FigBytes.

The Sustainable Leading Edge explores how business can be the driver for the shift to the net positive, regenerative, and inclusive economy and society we require to recognize the changes we want to see in the world.

Learn more about FigBytes Sustainability Platform at https://figbytes.com/

In this episode of the Sustainable Leading Edge, we are joined by Peter Kelly, Group Director of Sustainable Operations at ISG Ltd., a global construction and engineering company, to discuss his sustainability journey, the relationship between the construction industry and sustainability, the future of sustainability,

Don't miss this discussion on sustainability, ESG, and more, hosted by Zita Stefan, Solutions Engineer at FigBytes.

The Sustainable Leading Edge explores how business can be the driver for the shift to the net positive, regenerative, and inclusive economy and society we require to recognize the changes we want to see in the world.

Learn more about ISG Ltd. here: https://www.isgltd.com/

With the complexity of Scope 3 emissions, it’s no surprise that many people and organizations are unsure what they are or why they are important. In this episode of the Sustainable Leading Edge, we deep dive into Scope 3 – what it is and isn’t, why it’s important, where companies can start, and much more.

Don’t miss this discussion on Scope 3 with host Lyndsay Deckert, Vice President of Marketing at FigBytes, and FigBytes’ experts Andy Bastien, Product Manager, and Holly Crawford, Client Success Manager.

The Sustainable Leading Edge explores how business can be the driver for the shift to the net positive, regenerative, and inclusive economy and society we require to recognize the changes we want to see in the world.

In this fifth episode of The Sustainable Leading Edge podcast, Kate Cacciatore, talks with Luwayo Biswick, co-founder of the Permaculture Paradise Institute, a social enterprise in Malawi that is leading one of the most exciting projects in the Regenerative Agriculture space, with the goal of creating 100,000 food forests by 2025.

A small, land-locked country in South-Eastern Africa, Malawi is one of the world’s least-developed countries. The economy is heavily based on agriculture, primarily the cultivation of maize using conventional farming practices and a heavy use of pesticides. The country is afflicted by severe poverty, malnutrition and unemployment, and it faces challenges in the area of environmental protection, education and healthcare.

In 2017, having experienced these challenges first-hand, Luwayo and his wife, Grace Davidson, decided to leave their jobs in the city and move to a rural village. They set out to create a model of regenerative agriculture that would empower local farmers and households, teaching them how to create food forests with multiple species of native trees, plants and crops that would provide a plentiful source of healthy natural foods all year round. At the same time as countering poverty and malnutrition, the food forests were quickly seen to replenish the land and natural resources, transforming the arid deserts resulting from maize monoculture into lush forests that support biodiversity and contribute to mitigating climate change.

During the discussion, Luwayo tells the story of how poverty and hunger drove him and Grace to seek a solution that would satisfy their basic needs and learn to do themselves what they were seeking to teach others. He describes how the integrated homestead food forests are designed, putting the needs of human beings and their communities at the centre of the approach and respecting strong ethical principles that ultimately lead to self-sufficient model villages and regions with robust local governance – a key element of their vision for Malawi to become a ‘Permaculture Nation’ by 2060.

Luwayo also shares some of the secrets of their success in scaling up the food forests, including the power of personal story as a living testimony that everyone can do this and that it is possible to take your passion and make it your way of life. He describes the key factor of community spirit and how the pooling of resources and skills as well as mutual support and togetherness make all the difference.

Finally, Luwayo talks about the influence that their initiative is having at a global level and the global-local principle they are following to both teach and learn within diverse cultural contexts. He shares his hope that in the future government policies to support regenerative agriculture will be implemented and that academic studies will be translated into more and more practical demonstrations of how farming practices can be transformed for the benefit of people, their economies and the planet.

To learn more about the Permaculture Paradise Institute click here: https://permacultureinstitutemw.com/

To see videos of the Institute’s activites, click here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdRlzZuk37pdMxR3Wk1mVfw

In this fourth episode of The Sustainable Leading Edge podcast, FigBytes’ Head of Sustainability, Kate Cacciatore, talks with Martin Lok, Executive Director of the Capitals Coalition, a multi-stakeholder initiative whose ambition is to mainstream the inclusion of natural capital, social capital and human capital in decision-making across all sectors in order to deliver a fairer, just and more sustainable world.

Well-known for its role in spear-heading the creation of the Natural Capital Protocol and Social & Human Capital Protocol, the Capitals Coalition was one of the key contributors to the COP 15 process and the creation of the Global Biodiversity Framework. It sees its role as a convenor and connector of different parts of the system to “accelerate momentum, leverage success, connect powerful and engaged communities and identify the areas, projects and partnerships where we can collaboratively drive transformation.”

Prior to joining the Capitals Coalition, Martin spent over 30 years in the Dutch government, notably in the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature & Food Quality, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs, where he sought to move the needle on policy issues relating to the integration of sustainability into the way we govern and do business.

During the discussion, Martin talks about what motivated him to move from government to civil society, with a focus on collaborating with front-runners in the private sector to lead the way, but also to support companies and Small & Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the mainstream to change the way they make decisions. He also talks about his reflections – drawn from his own experience – on what is needed to get business to move, and how all sectors can overcome the insular thinking that often hampers collective progress.

Later in the conversation, Martin shares his first-hand experience of the key moments and factors of success leading up to the historic agreement between UN member countries at the COP 15 event in Montreal in December 2022. This includes the vital role played by representatives of the business and finance sectors, who had the courage and conviction to speak with one voice and call on governments to raise the ambition and act decisively on behalf of nature and people. He talks about the significance of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and the targets it contains, which aim to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 and to enable people to live in harmony with nature by 2050.

Finally, in addition to sharing his vision for the future, Martin offers some enlightening perspectives on the implications of the GBF for companies, along with some practical advice and guidance about where to start and how to ensure they go beyond disclosure to actually transform the way they do business.

For more on the Capitals Coalition, see their website: https://capitalscoalition.org/

To learn more about the ACT-D framework, click here: https://capitalscoalition.org/high-level-business-actions-on-nature-launched-at-davos-by-capitals-coalition-partners/

To access the free digital training course for business offered by the Capitals Coalition, click here: https://capitalscoalition.org/capitals-approach/protocol-training-resources/

In this third episode of The Sustainable Leading Edge podcast, FigBytes Head of Sustainability, Kate Cacciatore talks with Sonja Haut, Head of Impact Valuation at the multinational pharmaceutical company, Novartis, which is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland.

Sonja is the author of the new book, The Case for Impact: A Guide to Creating Value in a World of Social and Environmental Challenges, which has been described as a “clarion call for the adoption of impact measurement” and “an essential guide for those who want to understand the importance of impact in staying ahead of the curve”. Sonja’s pioneering work in the practice of impact valuation is immensely valuable to the field of Sustainability and to anyone seeking to learn about the state of the art when it comes to turning an organization’s purpose and its desire for positive impact into reality.

During the discussion, Sonja tells the story of her journey into the field of Impact Valuation within Novartis, building on her background as a mathematician and her professional roles in IT and Accounting. She shares her experience of the first pilots she led in Kenya and China, and how early methodologies for Environmental Profit & Loss statements began to be applied to considerations around social impact, notably on the social impact of medicines, which is at the heart of Novartis’ purpose “to reimagine medicine to improve and extend people's lives”.

Along the way, Sonja talks about the key ingredients in the process that enabled her and her colleagues to scale up the approach across different countries – guided by a framing of the four capitals: financial, natural, social and human – leading to an aggregated view of the social, environmental and economic impact of Novartis as a whole. This impact is expressed in monetary terms in their annual integrated company reports, thus bringing externalities from the supply chain into the picture and providing a solid basis for meaningful stakeholder dialogue, forward-thinking strategic plans and purpose-driven decision-making.

Finally, Sonja shares her thoughts on how emerging standards for Sustainability disclosures, such as those being developed by the International Sustainability Standard’s Board (ISSB), and the field of Impact Valuation are likely to converge in the future around sector-specific material issues, key performance indicators and data that illustrate tangible outcomes and impacts in the real world. She also shares her vision for the Impact Economy of the future and how Impact Valuation can serve as a practical tool and a common language to enable businesses, governments, civil society and investors to co-create value that recouples the interests of business and society.

To discover more about Sonja’s book, The Case for Impact, click here: https://www.amazon.com/Case-Impact-Creating-Environmental-Challenges-ebook/dp/B0BMNGRY7G

To access the many resources and use cases published by Novartis in their “Virtual Exhibition”, click here: https://www.cci-summit.com/

In this episode of The Sustainable Leading Edge podcast, FigBytes Head of Sustainability, Kate Cacciatore, talks with Jessica Jones, Sustainability Manager at Bühler Group. Bühler Group is a global family-owned Swiss company that creates equipment and technology for food processing and mobility solutions, and that is driven by its purpose of bringing “Innovations for a Better World”. To give an idea of the scale of the company’s activities and potential impact on society, two billion people get their daily food processed on Bühler’s equipment, and the mobility of around one billion people is based on parts made with Bühler’s technology.

In addition to her operational role in Bühler Group, Jessica is also Managing Director of One Young World Switzerland. One Young World is a civil society organization that has flourished into a global youth movement dedicated to empowering and developing young leaders to build a fair, sustainable future for all. One of Bühler Group’s key innovations, which we hear about in this episode, is its courageous willingness to invite its employees – particularly young leaders - to actively participate in shaping how sustainability is embedded in the company’s core business as an expression of its purpose.

During the discussion, Jessica describes how Bühler Group’s purpose, values and governance reinforce a culture of innovation for sustainability and gives some concrete examples of how this translates into an evolution of its business and product and service offering. She also talks us through some of the key features of Bühler’s sustainability strategy, including its “50-50-50” goal to help reduce energy, water and waste in their customers’ value chains by 50% and understand the impact of their products.

Finally, Jessica shares her vision for how Sustainability will become as fundamental to business as Finance, and offers some advice to companies looking to invite the young generation to participate in shaping and implementing their sustainable business strategy.

You can find out more about Bühler Group at www.buhlergroup.com  and about One Young World at www.oneyoungworld.com

In this episode of The Sustainable Leading Edge podcast, FigBytes Head of Sustainability, Kate Cacciatore, sits down with Volkert Engelsman, CEO of Eosta, an international distributor of fresh organic and fair fruits and vegetables, headquartered in the Netherlands. Not only is Eosta a pioneer in the sustainability space, seeking to have a positive impact through its business and to act as a catalyst to transform the agribusiness sector as a whole, but it combines this profile with being a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME)!

For example, Eosta is leading the newly launched Business Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture, together with Climate Farmers, bringing diverse stakeholders together to accelerate the transition to regenerative agriculture and create market incentives for farmers to offer vital ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, water preservation and enhanced soil quality for nutrient-rich foods.

In this discussion, Volkert shares the story of his personal sustainability journey, his sense of purpose, and how that tied in with the evolution of Eosta from a start up in the 1990s to becoming a European leader in organic fresh produce. Kate and Volkert also discuss Eosta’s sustainable business strategy in some detail, including its Nature & More transparency system - designed to enable customers to understand the impact of the food they buy and learn more about the farmers who grow it – and its “Sustainability Flower” and “5 M’s” framework: “Determine Materiality, Measure Impacts, Manage Practices, Market Products and Monetise Impacts”.

Finally, Volkert shares his vision for the future, including his thoughts on how a “coalition of the willing” can make a difference and how we can stay resilient in challenging economic times. Volkert also offers some insights and advice for companies looking to boost the integration of sustainability in their business strategy.