Podcast

In this episode, we explore current agricultural supply chain risks and mitigation measures. We cover:

• Emerging threats: The macro and micro risks and  specific commodities most vulnerable to climate-related disruptions.
• Building resilience: Strategies to strengthen your supply chain.
• Environmental data impact: The impact on your environmental data and the role of technology to mitigate these risks.
• Business case: How to value and communicate risk to bolster your sustainability business case.

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Saif Hameed and Jesica Sansom, Sustainability Director at Huel discuss how to set up product carbon footprints (PCFs) to deliver real business value.

We cover:

• Data collection: The challenges and workarounds in collecting the granular data needed for reliable PCFs
• Actionable insights: Best practices for using PCF to inform sustainable product design
• Supplier collaboration: How Huel are fostering innovative solutions with suppliers e.g., rethinking ingredient production methods & running field trials with oat farmers
• Claims & comms: How to communicate and demonstrate sustainability progress and why product labelling is not the silver bullet solution.

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Camilla Riddiford, Head of Sustainability at Arla UK, shares her advice on how to turn colleagues from bystanders to sustainability champions (without breaking the bank or your sanity).

In this episode, we discuss:

• Tailored communication strategies for diverse audiences
• Effective content formats that resonate
• Balancing data and narratives for a compelling business case
• Prioritising upskilling, and training programs for key teams

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• What is a supply shed, and how can it help you overcome challenges in reduction tracking
• The benefits of using supply sheds include incentivising traceability and enabling collaboration.
• Challenges to consider, like changes in your supplier base and attribution of reductions.
• Recommendations for companies, from identifying key suppliers to monitoring interventions.
• Is the supply shed here to stay?

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How to: 

• Define a bold and impactful communication style
• Walk the line between “greenwashing” and “green hushing”
• Approach on-pack PCFs
• Capitalise on the commercial opportunities of carbon labelling

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• Myth 1: We should be fazing out plastic
• Myth 2: Feed supplements are the silver bullet to methane reduction
• Myth 3: The future of ‘green transportation’ should be electrified.

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• Saif's Journey: Lessons from activism, government work, NGO experience, and business ventures inform a robust approach to sustainability‍
• Engaging Stakeholders: Collaboration techniques across activists, government officials, NGOs, and suppliers to accelerate change,‍
• Why Altruistiq: The inspiration behind Altruistiq and what makes it different.

• Balancing trade-offs between product functionality and sustainability
• EPR policy inconsistencies and how to manage these across 150+ markets.
• Prioritising packaging initiatives: no brainer vs higher cost initiatives
• Strategies for collaboration with packaging suppliers
• Investing in innovative packaging solutions

• How different companies are approaching CSRD
• Which team(s) should own the CSRD reporting process
• Double materiality assessment best practices
• What to do with all the data that you're not ready for
• How to move beyond compliance and make CSRD impactful

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• Sustainability Linked Bonuses: Company-wide vs leadership (learnings from LEGO Group)
• Topic Deep Dive: Internal Sustainability Training Program
• Success Characteristics: The characteristics that distinguish a good training program from a transformative one
• Prioritising Teams: Which teams will benefit most from sustainability training and how to prioritise
• Creating Compelling Content: How to tailor content to resonate with specific team needs whilst making it scalable
• Engagement Levers: The most effective tools. initiatives and experiences to engage leadership teams and company-wide.

• Strategic Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) generation
• Trends catalysing supplier asks for PCFs
• How to use PCFs to re-engineer your product
• How to pitch your PCF internally (to R&D, Marketing, and commercial teams) and externally (to customers and consumers)

• Key regulatory reporting trends: the evolving landscape, AI and what it means for your business.
• How to optimise your reporting team: best practices for setting up a high-performing, reporting team.
• Collaboration tips: strategies for working effectively with finance and legal on reporting.
• How to streamline your approach: tools, data infrastructure and ways of working to improve your reporting process.

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• Measuring impact: the key indicators and data points needed to track and demonstrate progress against regenerative agriculture
• Building strategic partnerships: principles for identifying and developing partnerships (that will last)
• Farmer engagement toolbox: how to successfully engage farmers and make regenerative agriculture attractive
• Financial solutions: innovative financing solutions to tackle upfront costs
• Communication strategy: compelling B2B and B2c communication techniques to drive engagement and commercial value.

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• “Action first - reporting second”.
• Qualities of the “best” kind of decarbonisation initiatives
• Data transparency is very different between B2B vs B2C

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• How to make sure your circularity initiative is revenue-generating
• How to set a carbon cost
• How do you utilise carbon pricing when data in the supply chain at the product level is sparse?
• When is a carbon price most defensible
• Carbon pricing success stories

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• The principles of a successful insetting project
• The level of data accuracy needed for compliance vs action
• How to track and account for carbon removals (when standardisation is lacking)
• Best practices for monetising carbon insetting projects

• How the SEC’s climate disclosure ruling impacts your business
• How to build a strong business case for sustainability
• How to optimise team set up to unlock resources
• How to boost company-wide sustainability literacy and buy-in

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• Corporate black sliding on climate pledges: is this even a surprise?
• The Greenwashing clamp down: how to make water-tight claims
• Topic deep dive: Effective sustainability data comms
• Internal communication and engagement tactics for sustainability data buy-in
• External comms: how to demonstrate progress to stakeholders

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• Launch effective Farmer Reduction Plans: Lessons from McCains and Innocent
• Prepare for supply chain disruptions, drawing learnings from the recent coffee crisis
• Navigate insetting challenges, specifically how to avoid competitors ‘free riding’ off your reduction initiatives
• Maximise the value of your insets
• Make reductions work at farm level (multi year contracts)

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• Latest market highlights: the corporate sustainability report frenzy and the u-turn on CSDDD - is this even a bad thing?
• Upskilling your procurement team, including: 

• How to embed sustainability into procurement's BAU
• The tools and training to enable the procurement team
• The incentives to put on the table

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• Mission build fundamentals
• How to tailor your mission across a global market
• The big tech innovations to watch out for
• The benefits of building a meaningful mission

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• Prioritise data sets and manage against targets
• Solve for digitisation, granularity, flexibility, and usability in your infrastructure build
• Streamline interactions with other systems and organisations
• Establish optimal relationships with tech teams and third-party providers

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• What’s happening today: Mass surveying, “one platform rules them all” and an unrealistic push for “universal primary data”.
• Where we want to get to: data you can actually use.
• How to get there:  supplier contracts, blended procurement models, strategic upskilling, secure supplier data exchange (PACT)
• Key learnings from the transition

• Regenerative agriculture: what exactly regenerative agriculture means, how to fund it and how to implement it
• Optimising for supplier engagement and primary data use
• How far corporate influence goes when it comes to sustainability regulations, frameworks and standards

• Who's here (and who's not)
• What everyone is thinking, but not saying
• Where the real progress was made
• Reasons for optimism

• Primary vs secondary data collection strategies
• What primary and secondary data is
• Why we believe the "hybrid approach" is most effective
• How to implement a hybrid approach at scale

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• Team design: Create a clear strategy and vision, identify the optimal structure and organisational set-up for your team and understand where to resource and unlock budget.

• ‍Roles and responsibilities: Define the different roles and responsibilities needed, identify the skills and experience required for each role, find and recruit the best talent.