Podcasts about consumer goods forum

It might be Liberation Day today, but according to Paul Rice, founder of US Fair Trade and author of Every Purchase Matters, Trump's tariffs are dumb. Rice firmly distances Fair Trade from Trump's controversial trade policies, calling them "backward" and "bad for American business." He explains how Fair Trade - which has expanded beyond coffee to include 40 products, from produce to furniture - certifies products through rigorous standards ensuring workers receive fair wages and environmental protections. Every purchase does indeed matter. And, in contrast with Trump's short sighted tariffs, Rice's Fair Trade movement is worth celebrating today. Five Key Takeaways * Fair Trade is fundamentally different from Trump's tariff policies - Rice strongly distinguishes between Trump's "big stick diplomacy" approach to trade and Fair Trade's focus on equitable market transactions that benefit workers and the environment.* Fair Trade certification involves rigorous standards - Products earn certification through a 200-point checklist covering social, labor, and environmental criteria, with independent annual audits ensuring compliance.* Sustainable products don't necessarily cost more - Rice challenges the "fallacy" that ethical products must be more expensive, citing companies like NatureSuite that have adopted Fair Trade standards without raising consumer prices.* The Fair Trade movement is expanding rapidly - What began with coffee has grown to encompass approximately 40 product categories including tea, produce, apparel, furniture, and even cosmetics, with fresh produce being the fastest-growing segment (32% growth last year).* Ethical consumption is a form of everyday activism - Rice promotes the idea that Every Purchase Matters, suggesting consumers can "vote for change" through their purchasing decisions rather than waiting for political elections.Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Paul Rice is a pioneer in the global Fair Trade and sustainability movements. Raised with a deep sense of compassion for the poor, Paul has spent 40 years fighting poverty and environmental destruction. The quintessential social entrepreneur, this passion led him to develop innovative models that harness the power of consumers and business to improve people's lives and protect the planet. Paul launched Fair Trade USA (formerly known as TransFair USA) in late 1998 in a one-room warehouse in downtown Oakland, California. Under his leadership, Fair Trade USA became the leading certifier of Fair Trade products in North America, enlisting the support of over 1,700 major brands and retailers who sell everything from coffee and chocolate to apparel and seafood. By 2024, the organization and its partners had generated over $1.2 billion in cumulative financial impact for over 1 million farmers, workers and their families in 70 countries worldwide. Before founding Fair Trade USA, Paul worked with family farmers for 11 years in the highlands of Nicaragua, where he founded and led the country's first Fair Trade organic coffee export cooperative. This deep, firsthand experience with the transformative impact of Fair Trade in the lives of farmers and their communities ultimately inspired him to return to the United States with the dream of mainstreaming the movement in this country. Paul has been named Ethical Corporation's 2019 Business Leader of the Year and has been recognized four times as Social Capitalist of the Year by Fast Company magazine, which dubbed him a “rebel in the boardroom.” He is also a recipient of the prestigious Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, the World Economic Forum's Social Entrepreneur of the Year, and the Ashoka Fellowship. He has spoken at the World Economic Forum, Clinton Global Initiative, Skoll World Forum, Conscious Capitalism CEO Summit, TEDx, Consumer Goods Forum, and numerous universities and conferences around the world. Paul is regarded as one of today's leading visionaries and practitioners for sustainable sourcing and conscious capitalism.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting the daily KEEN ON show, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy interview series. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Thanks for reading Keen On America! This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

Lisa Gralnek is a brand builder and business strategist with over 20 years of experience creating and operationalizing innovative strategies that help companies grow and transform. Equally left- and right-brained with a strong analytical mind and still stronger intuition—Lisa combines keen skills of observation with a learner's mindset and powerful ability to get things done. Honing creative instincts during the first part of her career working as a talent agent and producer in the world of high fashion, Lisa went on to hold senior management roles in marketing, innovation and operations at Chobani, adidas, Walmart, moo.com, and The Boston Consulting Group. Lisa grew up in California, has lived in six US states and seven countries, and speaks three languages. She thrives on tackling new challenges and working with good people to solve complex problems that move our world in a positive forward direction. Lisa's words and voice have been featured by SOCAP Global, The Consumer Goods Forum, Financial Times Moral Money, Sustainatopia, INSEAD Knowledge, and others. She is a member of SheSource and a Founding Member of Chief. Lisa holds a BA in Political Science and French from Bates College, and an MBA from INSEAD. Contact Lisa: https://www.lvg-co.com/who Linkedin: @lisavgralnek, @lvg-co-strategy IG: @futureofxyz, @lisavgralnek FB: @lgralnek Recommendations: Podcast: All There Is, Anderson Cooper; Future of XYZ, Lisa Gralnek Books: Harry Potter

This week: As a preview of the 2023 future of plastics and packaging conference in Amsterdam, hear from Ignacio Gavilan, formerly of the Consumer Goods Forum, Jodie Roussell from Nestlé, Eastman's Camiel Steffanie and Sofie Vergucht, Jenny Wassenaar from Trivium Packaging and Christina Dixon from the Environmental Investigation Agency as they reflected with Innovation Forum's Ian Welsh last year on how business can build plastics and packaging strategy that delivers impact at scale.   Plus: Wakinya Samuel, smallholder coffee farmer from the Bushika Integrated Area Cooperative Enterprise in Uganda, speaks with Innovation Forum's Bea Stevenson about how farmers can best be supported to counter climate change impacts and the potential for agroforestry to deliver sustainable supply security.   And, the UK government makes a U-turn on key environmental policies; European Union's new regulation to tackle corporate greenwashing; many big plastics companies not linking executive pay to sustainability metrics, according to Planet Tracker; and, Equitable Earth Coalition launched to develop new voluntary carbon market standard to drive finance to forest communities to halt deforestation, in the news digest.   Host: Ian Welsh

Paul Martin, Global Head of Retail at KPMG joins us this week to go over the "Retail's Delicate Balance", the firm's latest industry report. Tune in to learn about: Paul's passion for a "tangible" industry like FMCG and Retail Key take away's from the Consumer Goods Forum in Kyoto and the talk of the town in the industry Company collaboration from farm to fork The 3Ps of Retail: Profit, People and Planet Finding balance through Purpose

The USAID Research Community of Practice Sub-Group on Food Loss and Waste (FLW) aims to share research and knowledge with USAID staff and implementing partners interested in the implications of and approaches to addressing FLW. In this episode of the monthly USAID FLW Podcast, Kelley Cormier, Food Safety Division Chief at USAID, interviews Ignacio Gavilan of the Consumer Goods Forum. Ignacio shares his perspectives on the role of the private sector in reducing FLW and the potential trade-offs to be considered. Additionally, the importance of date labeling in FLW efforts is explored. For more information on the podcast or contribute to an episode, contact Nika Larian at USAID (Nlarian@usaid.gov).

During Innovation Forum's recent future of plastics and packaging event in Amsterdam, some of the expert participants spoke with Ian Welsh, reflecting on conversations from the conference and focusing in particular on how business can build packaging solutions that deliver impact at scale. Hear from the Consumer Goods Forum's Ignacio Gavilan, Jodie Roussell from Nestlé, Camiel Steffanie and Sofie Vergucht from Eastman, Trivium Packaging's Jenny Wassenaar and Christina Dixon from the Environmental Investigation Agency.

This week: Mike Senior and Abraham Baffoe from Proforest discuss how landscape approaches can work in practice, and the growing momentum over the past few years from companies making commitments and investments – through the Consumer Goods Forum's Forest Positive Coalition for example. They talk about the leadership that is necessary from grower country governments, and why science-based targets for nature are going to be a key future innovation. Collaboration will be necessary, they argue, to ensure incentives for sourcing companies are aligned with countering deforestation and land use change in higher risk regions. Plus: Mondelēz International's new $600m investment in cocoa sourcing sustainability; deforestation rates slowed 6.3% in 2021 according to latest Forest Declaration Assessment; H&M, Unilever, and Nestlé among those calling for mandatory nature impact and disclosure by 2030; and, the UK's Financial Conduct Authority proposes new clampdown on greenwashing in 2023, in the news digest from Innovation Forum's Bea Stevenson. Host: Ian Welsh

This week: Rupert Day, farmer livelihoods advisor at Cargill cocoa and chocolate, discusses some of the sector innovations that are making a real difference for producer communities, and why keeping farm incomes considerations front and centre of supply chain strategy remains vital. Plus, comment from Christina Dixon, Environmental Investigation Agency, and Jenny Wassenaar, Trivium Packaging, both speaking at the recent future of plastics and packaging conference in Amsterdam. In the news digest: biodiversity crisis outlined in WWF's Living Planet Report; Consumer Goods Forum's plastic coalition predicts 800,000 tonnes of chemically recycled plastic required in 2030; and, Net Zero Tracker compares public and private companies. And, Innovation Forum's Hanna Halmari gives an update on Innovation Forum's upcoming sustainable landscapes and commodities conference, in Amsterdam on 1st-2nd November. Host: Ian Welsh

This week: Veronique Bovee, senior project manager, and Mila Nuh, southeast Asia regional landscape coordinator, at Proforest, talk about why preserving forests and ecosystems can mean adopting taking a pragmatic approach in working landscapes. They discuss some of the challenges encountered at projects in Indonesia, the importance of collaboration with indigenous communities and how to ensure transparency to maintain trust. And, comments and insights from the future of plastics and packaging forum in Amsterdam with the Consumer Goods Forum's Ignacio Gavilan, Nestlé's Jodie Roussell, and Camiel Steffanie and Sofie Vergucht from Eastman.   Host: Ian Welsh  

This episode welcomes CEO of Pure Value Europe, Bram van Schijndel to discuss supply-chain issues in managing promotional displays in retail stores with Director of E2E at the Consumer Goods Forum, Rudy Hagedorn.

Join us as Miriam Molino Sanchez, Stibo Systems and Director of E2E at the Consumer Goods Forum, Rudy Hagedorn discusses current marketplaces in retail and the challenges that retailers face in identifying key indicators for success in todays global markets, this time in English

The FoodNavigator Podcast speaks to the Consumer Goods Forum about what the food and beverage industry is doing to tackle plastic pollution and work towards a future free from plastic waste.

This episode marks the second Spanish collaboration between the End-to-End Value Chain coalition and Stibo Systems. Join us as Miriam Molino Sanchez, Stibo Systems and Director of E2E at the Consumer Goods Forum, Rudy Hagedorn discusses current marketplaces in retail and the challenges that retailers face in identifying key indicators for success in todays global markets.

EPISODE 14, SEASON 3: COVID forced a lot of change in the world. Amidst the chaos and loss, one positive outcome is the "perfect storm" of awareness and readiness by leaders, consumers and employees alike to move global business towards more responsible growth. Learn more from the Managing Director of the Consumer Goods Forum, a member group of the world's top retailers and manufacturers with combined annual sales of $5 trillion, who employ nearly 100 million people. The wave is coming; get ready.ABOUT THE SERIES: Future of XYZ is a weekly interview series dedicated to fostering forward-thinking discussions about where we are as a world and where we want to go. FOR MORE INFORMATION: Visit future-of.xyz and follow on social media... LinkedIn: @lisagralnek, @lvg-co-strategy | Twitter: @lgralnek | IG: @futureofxyz

In this episode of the CGF Sustainability Podcast, host Madelaine VanDerHeyden speaks with Leslie Huksha, Senior Vice President of Global Corporate and Social Responsibility at The Bumble Bee Seafood Company, which is one of the newest members of The Consumer Goods Forum and its Human Rights Coalition - Working to End Forced Labour. Madelaine speaks with Leslie about the social sustainability landscape in the seafood sector, and how businesses can take action to address major challenges. Learn more about the CGF's work on human rights at www.tcgfsocial.com.

In this session, recorded at Innovation Forum's sustainable landscapes and commodities conference, an expert panel examines how landscape approaches are developing. They discuss the work of the Consumer Goods Forum's forest positive coalition of action and how to set effective and realistic definitions and deadlines. Joining Innovation Forum's Toby Webb are Barry Parkin from Mars, Magdi Batato from Nestlé, Olivier Tichit from Musim Mas and Christine McGrath from Mondelez International.  

In this episode of the E2E Podcast Series from The Consumer Goods Forum, E2E Director Ruediger Hagedorn speaks to Jeff Behn of Stibo Systems about the importance of master data management within the consumer goods industry supply chains.

In this episode of The Consumer Goods Forum's End-to-End Value Chain (E2E) podcast series, Justin Honaman, Amazon's Head of Worldwide Business Development, Consumer Products - Food & Beverage, has a lively discussion with E2E Director, Rudy Hagedorn, about some of the biggest trends observed in the consumer packaged goods industry today.

In the latest daily update on the COP26 meetings in Glasgow, Ian Welsh reports from the three-day Global Landscapes Forum, where he was joined by the Hon Gary Juffa, governor of Oro province in Papua New Guinea, and Tony Simons, executive director of CIFOR-ICRAF, the body formed by the merger of the Centre for International Forestry Research and the World Agroforestry Centre. They talk about a new initiative supported by the national and local governments in Oro province showcasing the importance of nature-based solutions, preserving biodiversity while helping indigenous communities realise the value of their landscape. Plus: news of what to look for as the COP negotiations move into the second week, and a significant announcement from the Consumer Goods Forum's Forest Positive Coalition of Action.

In the latest episode of the CGF Sustainability Podcast, host Louise Chester is joined by Chris Daly, Chief Sustainability Officer at PepsiCo to talk all things circular economy, health, carbon neutrality and consumer behaviour. Chris will also be joining a panel discussion on at The Consumer Goods Forum’s sixth annual Sustainable Retail Summit taking place on October 13th and 14th, for those listeners who may be interested in continuing the climate conversation directly with him!

In this episode of The Consumer Goods Forum's End-to-End Value Chain (E2E) podcast series, Mark Chadwick, Managing Director, Sustainability Solutions, ENGIE Impact, shares what are some of the biggest supply chain sustainability challenges facing the consumer goods industry today, how technology can be leveraged to address these critical challenges, and why collaboration - and events such as WinterComes, where their pilot project was presented - is so important to help drive positive change for businesses, people and the planet.

In this episode of The Consumer Goods Forum’s End-to-End Value Chain (E2E) podcast, Mattias Praetorius, Global Head of FMCG, and Jeppe Kobbero, Senior TradeLens Product Manager at Maersk join to share insights on their TradeLens pilot project, featured on the E2E WinterComes event’s online store. The Maersk team is gearing up to showcase their innovative pilot in Sitges, Barcelona this September / October 2021 at the first edition of the exciting event. Have a listen to hear how TradeLens plans to tackle some of today’s biggest industry challenges, transform CPG logistics, and more!

In the latest episode of the CGF Podcast, host Louise Chester talks to Carlos Mario Giraldo Moreno, CEO of Grupo Exito, and Board member of The Consumer Goods Forum. Carlos Mario shares his thoughts on corporate responsibility in the post-covid world, the company’s work on sustainability and health, as well as consumer and retail trends in Colombia and Latin America.

In the latest episode of the CGF Podcast, host Louise Chester talks to Özgür Tort, CEO of Migros Ticaret, and outgoing co-chair of The Consumer Goods Forum’s Board of Directors. Özgür shares his insights from his time as co-chair during a time of great transition, as well as his thoughts on the big industry questions of the moment.

In this episode of The Consumer Goods Forum's End-to-End Value Chain (E2E) podcast, Director Ruediger Hagedorn joins to share news on the latest updates at E2E and with the Product Data Coalition of Action. He also give insight into the exciting new WinterComes event coming up in September / October 2021.

In this episode, Rajesh Ray from IBM India returns to the E2E podcast of The Consumer Goods Forum to explore sustainability in the consumer goods industry, with a focus on the supply chain and its implications.

In this episode, Isabelle Grosmaitre, Catalyst at Danone, and Co-Chair Collaboration for Healthier Lives at Consumer Goods Forum, discusses how the company defined its “One Planet. One Health” vision, what it took to embed sustainability into the core of the business and innovation, and how companies should rethink how they engage stakeholders to create real, systemic impact and realize business advantage.

Episode 92 of the Sustainable Business Covered podcast marks five years since the Sustainable Development Goals were ratified by the UN, providing an overview of progress and challenges to date - particularly in light of Covid-19. It features exclusive interviews with UN Global Compact Network's executive director for the UK, Steve Kenzie, and with the Consumer Goods Forum's Didier Bergeret Ignacio Gavilan.

In this episode of The Consumer Goods Forum's Podcast, guest Lynn Evison from Alvarez and Marsal shares insights on the evolving landscape of the retail industry from the group's latest report. The report, "The Shape of Retail: Consumers and the new normal", offers details about how retailers have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on consumer behaviour. Listen in for more details about what consumers value most in the "new normal" and how retailers can adapt to build resiliency as the industry continues to change.

In this episode of The Consumer Goods Forum's Podcast, guest Lynn Evison from Alvarez and Marsal shares insights on the evolving landscape of the retail industry from the group's latest report. The report, "The Shape of Retail: Consumers and the new normal", offers details about how retailers have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on consumer behaviour. Listen in for more details about what consumers value most in the "new normal" and how retailers can adapt to build resiliency as the industry continues to change.

The Consumer Goods Forum’s End-to-End Value Chain (E2E) podcast series shares insights from industry experts on collaborative solutions that benefit the entire value chain. In this episode, we hear from Taddy Hall, Senior Partner of Innovation at Lippincott. Taddy shares his thoughts on driving success in the retail and consumer goods industry, consumer behaviours, fresh products and more.

The Consumer Goods Forum’s End-to-End Value Chain (E2E) podcast series shares insights from industry experts on collaborative solutions that benefit the entire value chain. In this episode, Alexander Pöhl, Principal at Oliver Wyman, shares his insights on driving consumer satisfaction in the fresh industry, ahead of the February 2020 E2E SpringBoard event in Lisbon, Portugal on the Future of Fresh.

In this month’s episode, we talk to Veronika Pountcheva, Global Director of Corporate Responsibility and Senior Vice President at METRO AG, and co-chair of The Consumer Goods Forum’s Sustainability Initiative. Veronika explains how METRO is contributing to shaping the future of food in the face of a changing climate, and shares her wisdom on how innovative partnerships and collaborative action can drive progress on today's big challenges.

In this month’s Sustainability Podcast Series, Sander Defruyt, who leads the New Plastics Economy Initiative at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, digs into the topic of plastics and offers his insight in to our industry’s progress on this urgent issue, the power of collective action, and the organisation’s circular economy vision. Find out more about The Consumer Goods Forum’s endorsement of the New Plastics Economy vision here.

Welcome to the Voice of Retail for the week of July 1, 2019 I'm your host Michael LeBlanc and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada. In this episode…live from the main stage at RCC's #STORE2019 conference my exclusive interview with Walter Robb, former co-CEO of Whole Foods. We chat about the nature of consumers on both sides of the border, the zen of Amazon then, now and in the future, the current state of grocery retail across North America and trends for the future. Then a return visit from Michele Sexsmith Senior Vice President Retail, Retail Estate and Entertainment sectors with Environics Analytics talking about using modern data and sophisticated mobile-based analytics to help guide retailers in their site selection and understanding customer insights. Next we'll cover off Retail This Week including Ontario celebrating with a 50, can the Goose continue to soar, Amsterdam's HEMA in Canada, Dollarama goes south (American), Canopy/Tweed/Tokyo Smoke CEO Bruce Linton outside and talking, SportCheck more inclusive, Man/Sask testing same day cannabis delivery, Ireland's Primark celebrates 50 & 372, Robots rub off on the humans at Amazon warehouse, and Galen Weston gets serious on sustainability at the Consumer Goods Forum global summit. But first, let's listen in to my interview with live from the big stage at #STORE2019 with Walter Robb Thanks to Walter for generously giving me the thumbs-up to put our interview on the podcast, Layla at CAA for helping me pull this episode together, and Michele for being my special guest. Now let's hit the highlights from Retail This Week eNewsletter, biggest retail weekly in Canada and you can subscribe on www.retailcouncil.org for free. That's a wrap on this edition of The Voice of Retail, if you liked this podcast you can subscribe on iTunes or your favourite podcast platform, and be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail industry. You can also ask your favourite home devices, Amazon Echo, Google home to play the most recent edition. I'm Michael LeBlanc, Founder and President of M.E. LeBlanc and Company Inc. and you can learn more about me on www.meleblanc.co or of course on LinkedIn

Welcome to The Consumer Goods Forum Global Summit special edition of the Voice of Retail I'm your host Michael LeBlanc and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada. An elite organization that brings consumer goods retailers and manufacturers together globally, the Consumer Good Forum's Global Summit is a CEO-led group that aligns the world's retailers and consumer goods manufacturers together, alongside other key stakeholders, to secure consumer trust and drive positive change, including greater efficiency. Check out this recent article: http://www.canadiangrocer.com/top-stories/galen-weston-to-the-food-industry-lets-get-serious-on-sustainability-88156 This year their Global Summit was held in Vancouver in June, and since I was in the neighbourhood (Victoria giving a keynote presentation on the state of global grocery eCommerce) I grabbed a Harbour Air float plane from Victoria for the fun and picturesque half hour flight over to Vancouver harbour. Highly recommend taking this trip if you have not had the opportunity btw. At the Global Summit I had the opportunity to mix and mingle with about 900 of the biggest thinkers and the brightest minds in retail, brand and strategy game, so of course took the opportunity to do some chitting-and-chatting for The Voice of Retail on and around the conference floor, in the media room and even on the EY thought-leader”ship” yacht parked behind the Vancouver Conference Centre. First up a conversation with Kristina Rogers, Global Consumer Industries Leader: Consumer Products, Retail, Agribusiness. Based out of Chicago but born and raised in Canada, Kristina is responsible for global business leadership across multiple consumer industries and we talked about global eco-systems, risk and the nature of innovation. Next, two global Canadian loyalty leaders who speak on an international stage: Caroline Papadatos, Global Loyalty Consulting Leader for Loyalty One, and Bryan Pearson, CEO of Loyalty One and a frequent (and frequently quoted) contributor to Forbes and thought leader in the loyalty space. In a wide ranging interview we talk about Big L loyalty and Little L loyalty, what has changed in the loyalty space in 25 years, the nature of modern retail loyalty & technology and the richness of the tools. You can reach Caroline at CPapadatos@loyalty.com and BPearson@loyalty.com Lastly, and interview with two retail strategists as we talk about their thoughts on the latest in retail brand marketing strategy and consumer insights. This interview was recorded on the EY yacht parked in Vancouver Harbour, so the background is pretty noisy with Harbour Air flights coming and going, but stay with us as the conversation is really worth it. But first, here is my conversation with Kristina Rogers from EY: That's a wrap on this special Consumer Goods Global Summit edition of The Voice of Retail, if you liked this podcast you can subscribe on iTunes or your favourite podcast platform, and be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail industry. You can also ask your favourite home devices, Amazon Echo, Google home to play the most recent edition. I'm Michael LeBlanc, Founder and President of M.E. LeBlanc and Company Inc. and you can learn more about me on www.meleblanc.co or of course on LinkedIn Until next time, have a great week

Doug McMillon (IG: @dougmcmillon) is president and chief executive officer of Walmart, a company that, if it were a country, would be the 25th largest economy in the world. Walmart serves 265 million customers weekly in 27 countries across more than 11,000 stores and online, and the company employs roughly 2.2 million associates worldwide, which would equate to the second largest army in the world (behind China) if it were tasked with defending that 25th largest economy.75 percent of Walmart's store management team began as hourly associates, and Doug is no exception. He started out in 1984 as a summer associate in the Walmart distribution center, and in 1990 while pursuing his MBA, he rejoined the company as an assistant manager in Tulsa before moving to merchandising as a buyer trainee. He worked his way up, and from 2005 to 2009 he served as president and CEO of Sam's Club (owned and operated by Walmart) with sales of more than $46 billion annually during his tenure.From February of 2009 to 2014, Doug served as president and CEO of Walmart International, a fast-growing segment of Walmart's overall operations. He has served on the board of directors for Walmart since 2013 and is currently the chair of the executive and global compensation committees. In addition, he serves on the board of directors of the Consumer Goods Forum, the US-China Business Council and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. He also serves on the executive committee of the Business Roundtable and the advisory board of the Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management in Beijing, China.This episode was recorded live at the Heartland Summit in Bentonville, AR, surrounded by the jaw-droppingly mind-blowing Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Please enjoy!This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn and its job recruitment platform, which offers a smarter system for the hiring process. If you've ever hired anyone (or attempted to), you know finding the right people can be difficult. If you don't have a direct referral from someone you trust, you're left to use job boards that don't offer any real-world networking approach.LinkedIn, as the world's largest professional network — used by more than 70 percent of the US workforce — has a built-in ecosystem that allows you to not only search for employees, but also interact with them, their connections, and their former employers and colleagues in a way that closely mimics real-life communication. Visit LinkedIn.com/Tim and get $50 off toward your first job post!***If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews!For show notes and past guests, please visit tim.blog/podcast.Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (“5-Bullet Friday”) at tim.blog/friday.For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.Interested in sponsoring the podcast? Please fill out the form at tim.blog/sponsor.Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books.Follow Tim:Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferrissFacebook: facebook.com/timferriss YouTube: youtube.com/timferriss

Interviewing Ignacio Gavilan of the Consumer Goods Forum on key insights in sustainability. Send comments to hello@papabaiden.com or Tweet: @papakowbaiden See series question list here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19c46L3vy9yq3V61GRfDMlblwIvsDrxqu98XobiNsaeU/edit#gid=0

Teaser NARRATOR Donuts, deodorant, buns and burgers. They're killing us -- and not just because of what they do to our bodies. No, it's because of what the soy, beef, and palm-oil that they're made of -- and they paper they're packaged in -- do to the environment. More specifically, it's because of the way way we get these commodities -- by chopping or degrading forests -- which is one reason that tropical forests now emit more greenhouse gasses than they absorb, according to a study published last month in the journal Science. But what if I told you we could end this by 2020 -- just two years from now? I'm not saying we can end all deforestation by 2020, but what if I told you we can purge deforestation from these four commodities -- the ones that drive most of the world's deforestation -- by ramping up ten activities that we're already engaged in -- and have been for decades: that these activities are time-tested, and they're lined up like dominoes, ready to be activated? It's like a giant, simmering pot ready to boil. Would you believe me? I hope so, because that's exactly what I'm saying, and it's not just me saying this. It's more than 250 economists, ecologists, and agronomists from around the world, and they're drawing on the experience of environmental NGOand small farming communities from Africa to Asia to Latin America -- as well as the big agribusinesses -- who are, quite frankly, the critical actors in all of this. Today we're looking at these ten activities, how they fit into 100 more that are getting a lot of attention these days -- as well as where they came from, why they work, and how you can learn more about them.   NARRATOR Earth. We broke it. We own it -- and nothing is as it was. Not the trees, not the seas - not the forests, farms, or fields -- and not the global economy that depends on all of these. But we can restore it. Make it better: greener, more resilient, more sustainable. But how? Technology? Geoengineering? Are we doomed to live on a... Bionic Planet? Or is Nature itself the answer? That's the question we address in every episode of Bionic Planet, a podcast of the Anthropocene -- the new epoch defined by man's impact on earth -- and nowhere is that impact more deeply felt than in the forests, farms, and fields that recycle our air and provide our food. Today we're looking at lists: two of them, to be specific. One involves 100 solutions that can not only slow climate change, but end it and even reverse it. The other involves ten activities that can accelerate a cluster of the big 100. In between our examination of these two lists, you're going to have to sit through a little history class -- because you won't understand where we're at or where we're going if you don't understand where we came from and how we got here. Act I NARRATOR I'm opening today's show with a book review of sorts -- a very short one like the ones that Sister Mary Ann used to ask us to deliver in her English class at Christ the King school in Chicago. It compares and contrasts two best-sellers related to Climate Change. One is called "Drawdown", and it's a recipe book of sorts... for saving the planet. I love this book. The other is called "This Changes Everything", and it's a mess. I hate it -- even though it's more entertaining than the first. What I love about Drawdown, which is edited by environmentalist and entrepreneur Paul Hawken, is that it focuses on concrete, doable ways of fixing the mess. Specifically, it summarizes 100 solutions that can not only slow climate change, but -- cumulatively -- end it and even reverse it. Of these 100, 80 already exist and are even being implemented, while 20 are listed as "coming attractions". He categorizes about a quarter of the solutions under either "food" or "land use", and they include things like green agriculture, forest protection, and indigenous peoples' land management -- all of which I cover in this podcast What I hate about "This Changes Everything" is that it's shrill, sloppy, and dismissive of workable solutions. Its basic story arc is this: "Gee, I just realized this climate stuff is serious, and so I spent a year or so investigating it, and I found that all of the so-called solutions out there only fix part of the problem... none of the fix the whole thing. We need something radical! A total reset of human nature! And I'm just the person to tell you how to do it, and it involves the post office." On the one hand, in writing the book, Naomi Klein sounded the alarm, which is great, and she even pointed out that we need to radically alter the way we run our economy... which is true... but then she dismisses anything that isn't a magic bullet like the ones that kills vampires... or is it warewolves? Anyway... and either way, she ends up floating a solution that's just as imaginary as those two creatures, while not just ignoring but actively dissing and dismissing solutions like the ones that Hawken highlights in his book  Now, I get the Daniel Burnham aspect of this -- he's the Chicago architect who said, and I quote, "Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized." So, I can see why Klein -- and, in fact, most mainstream writers -- steer clear of wonky, tedious solutions. They're boring. But our job as reporters isn't just to entertain. It's to act as a kind of scout... going out into the wilderness, seeing what's happening there -- what the threats are, how to avoid them... and then reporting back in a way that clear and concise. I'm excited about Drawdown for two reasons: first, because it achieves this, and second, because it's become a best-seller -- and it should, because these wonky, tedious solutions aren't little. Each is massive in its own right, and Drawdown looks at 100 of them. What's more, the book's goal isn't just to slow climate change, but to actually end it and reverse it. If that doesn't stir your heart, I don't know what will -- and on that note, I'd to share with you the second half of that quote, which we almost never hear. "Make big plans," he says. "Aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty." Nothing there about being simple and pithy, and the emerging solutions to the climate challenge are not always simple, but they are noble, logical, orderly, and beautiful. The Paris Agreement, for example, is a masterwork of diplomacy -- a massive mosaic of thousands of smaller agreements that respect every country and culture on the planet. Likewise, the solutions I'll be examining today emerge from diverse sectors and societies, yet they all fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, and they're also integral to the success of the Paris Agreement. I'm focusing mostly on the corporate sector, because that's where we need to focus our attention if we're going to fix this mess. The ten solutions we'll be examining in the final segment come from Tropical Forest Alliance 2020. But what is Tropical Forest Alliance 2020, and how does it influence corporate activities?  Act 2 Marco Albani We're basically a platform for private-public collaboration NARRATOR That's Marco Albani who runs Tropical Forest Alliance 2020.  MARCO ALBANI Created by US government and CGF MUSIC: Zydeco NARRATOR We're going to be focusing on two organizations today, and the Consumer Goods Forum is one of them. It's a coalition of CEOs and top managers from more than 400 retailers, manufacturers, and service providers in 70 countries. It coalesced in 2009, but traces its origin to the aftermath of World War I, when French food merchants were beginning to engage in international commerce again, and needed to know that they were getting good stuff. But they soon learned that the "war to end all wars" achieved nothing of the kind, and it wasn't until 1953 that the International Committee of Food Chains was born. This was a commercial enterprise focused on making sure farmers in far-away places were delivering good food to merchants and shopkeepers closer to home, but the parameters of quality control gradually expanded to include labor conditions and environmental impact. By the 1990s, environmental pressure groups had forced the creation of certification standards for the sustainable production of palm oil and timber & pulp, while other industry groups emerged to promote general food safety. Then, in 2009, just as climate negotiators were gathering for year-end talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, three of these industry groups -- the Global Commerce Initiative, the Global CEO Forum, and the International Committee of Food Chains -- merged into the Consumer Goods Forum, which is dedicated to promoting fair labor and environmental practices among companies whose sales add up to $3.5 trillion per year. Now, I'm not so naive as to believe that these companies are all selfless and beneficent. In fact, I even think many of them are selfish and sociopathic, as legal scholar Joel Bakan maintains. But there are ways of changing that, and these multilateral organizations are one. In fact, research from the Forest Trends Supply Change initiative shows companies that belong to organizations like the Consumer Goods Forum not only make more environmental commitments than companies that don't, but they're also much better at reporting progress towards delivering on those commitments, which is why this matters: MARCO ALBANI 2010 GCF Resolution NARRATOR Beef, soy, palm oil, and pulp & paper. There they are again -- the big four commodities responsible for most of the world's deforestation, because farmers around the world are chopping forests to grow them. So it's a pretty big deal when 400 companies line up behind a specific pledge to end that.  But, of course, it doesn't end there. Just as the Kyoto Protocol showed us that government can't do this on its own, common sense tells us that the global, profit-driven corporate sector isn't going to fix our problems on its own, either, despite what free-market fundamentalists like to believe. We need government, we need NGOs, we need indigenous groups... we need them all working together. So, in 2012, the Consumer Goods Forum and the US government launched the group we're primarily focusing on today: Tropical Forest Alliance 2020 -- or TFA 2020 -- to get all these sectors working towards the goal of changing the way we produce the big four deforestation commodities, so that by the year 2020 we no longer chop forests to do so. MARCO ALBANI And since then grown... more than 400 partners... business, producers to consumers. MUSIC: zydeco? NARRATOR So, you've got the Consumer Goods Forum representing business, and you've got Tropical Forest Alliance 2020 -- or TFA 2020 -- representing all of these diverse interests. Then, in 2014, as climate negotiators were gearing up for the Lima talks, things get serious. UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon holds a massive rally in New York designed to turbocharge TFA 2020's mission. The result is the New York Declaration on Forests, which is a pledge to cut the global rate of deforestation in half by 2020, and to end deforestation by 2030 while restoring hundreds of millions of acres of degraded land. The pledge is endorsed by 36 national governments,  20 sub-national governments -- meaning states and cities -- 15 indigenous organizations, 53 environmental NGOs, and 52 multinational corporations. The list of companies is interesting: it includes traditional good actors like Danone, Unilever, and Kellogg's -- but also companies with a reputation for doing the wrong thing, like Asia Pulp and Paper -- a longtime environmental pariah once known for grinding pristine forest into pulp. Dewi Bramono turn story around NARRATOR That's Dewi Bramono, Asia Pulp and Paper's Director of Sustainability and Stakeholder Engagement, who we'll hear from later in the show. Most of the audio in today's show comes from an event that Forest Trends hosted in September during New York Climate Week, and Dewi Bramono's presence in that room is proof that companies can change. The New York Declaration on Forests is a big deal, because you got all of these companies publicly committing to tackle deforestation, and the declaration isn't just a simple statement, but is actually 10 specific goals that -- like all of those 100 solutions in Drawdown -- feed on and reinforce each other. The challenge is holding these companies to their word. MUSIC: ends Now we come to 2015: you've got these two global networks and this very public commitment -- how do you turn this into action? In part by getting everyone on the same page, so the governments of the UK and Norway ramped up funding for TFA 2020, and the World Economic Forum essentially adopted it -- giving it a place to live in Switzerland. That same year, the organization I work for -- Forest Trends -- launched the Supply Change initiative -- that's Supply-Change.org -- to track not just corporate commitments, but the progress that companies report, and you may have noticed I use them as a resource quite a lot. Now we come to last year -- 2016. You've got all of these commitments and all of this transparency, and TFA 2020 needed to pull it all together so we could see how far we were from the goal. They asked a dozen leading NGOs to help out, and they put a research-oriented group called Climate Focus in charge. Then, at last year's climate talks in Marrakesh, they published two reports: one focused on progress towards all ten of the goals outlined in the New York Declaration on Forests, and one focused exclusively on Goal Number Two, which says that, by 2020, we will no longer be chopping forests to produce the big four deforestation commodities. MUSIC: End zydeco MARCO ALBANI Goal Two Assessment - 1 NARRATOR Specifically, it's a mixed bag. Using Supply Change data on almost 700 companies, they found less than half of the companies that had made commitments were actually disclosing progress -- although those that did report progress were usually on track to meet their goals. They also found huge variance from company to company -- meaning some great success stories, some shining examples, and a lot of lessons-learned.  MARCO ALBANI Goal Two Assessment - 2 NARRATOR It's crunch-time, and we need to very quickly harvest the lessons of the last eight years to see what works and what doesn't. Then we need to scale up what works, and do it fast. So Tropical Forest Alliance 2020 called in "Climate Focus". They're the research-oriented NGO that led the creation of the two earlier assessments. CHARLOTTE STRECK We started with the New York Declaration NARRATOR That's Charlotte Streck, who runs Climate Focus. CHARLOTTE STRECK Then we had a series of workshops... FADE OUT NARRATOR You get the picture. They didn't just pull this out of thin air, but instead they talked to more than 250 organizations, put their findings out for review, adjusted them, and finally presented them in New York. SOUND: fade charlotte back in MUSIC: pensive NARRATOR So, let's pause again to get our bearings. We started with 100 activities that can reverse climate change, and we dove into one of them: ending deforestation, which we realized is part of a cluster of activities related to land-use and agriculture. We in turn found that this cluster was broken into ten specific goals of its own, enshrined in the New York Declaration on Forests. Then we dove into one of those ten goals -- Goal Number Two, the most immediate one: purging deforestation from the big four commodities by the year 2020 -- and we found it's doable. And now, after diving down to this one goal... we're going to open things up again... to look at the ten priority areas that can help us achieve the goal of purging deforestation from these four key commodities in just two years, which will in turn help us achieve the other 9 goals in the New York Declaration on Forests, which will in turn help us achieve a few dozen of the 100 activities that will help us reverse climate change. MUSIC: END NARRATOR Before we move on, some key points. First: Charlotte Streck This is not a step-wise approach NARRATOR And also, if we do achieve the 2020 goal, the game isn't over.  , MARCO ALBANI Need to keep long-term MUSIC: ?? NARRATOR I'm about to unveil the ten priority areas, but first I have a question for you: do you like this show? If so, would you like more episodes -- maybe better produced to boot? With a second set of ears and more time for editing? You can make that possible by giving me a good rating on iTunes or wherever you access the show; you can tell friends about me. Or, best of all, you can become a patron at bionic-planet.com I've set the patronage page up so you can support me per episode, but with a monthly cap. So, if you think $5 per month is good for a five-episode month, you can pledge $1 per episode, but with a $5 monthly cap. That way, if I don't manage to generate five episodes in a month, you're not paying for something you didn't get, and if I go nuts and deliver 20 episodes one month, you won't get whacked, either. By the same token, you can offer $5 per episode... or 10 or 50 or whatever.  I'm sitting on a ton of material -- Interviews and audio I gathered as far back as June -- and I'm itching to share it with you in ways that make sense. But I've got a day job, and I've got to pay the bills, too, and I'm not even close to breaking even on the podcast. I like the idea of being listener supported, but am also open to big sponsors, advertisers, or investors to cover my costs, hire some help, and scale this up. The web site, again, is bionic-planet.com, or you can e-mail me at steve@bionic-planet.com MUSIC: end music Act 3 SOUND: drumroll NARRATOR And now, the moment you've all been waiting for. The ten priority areas for purging deforestation from the supply chains of the big four deforestation commodities by the year 2020. Beginning with  SOUND: gong CHARLOTTE STRECK point 1 NARRATOR So, what does this mean? I'll let Michael Jenkins explain it. He runs Forest Trends, which means he signs my checks... but I think the group does good work, too, which is why I work for them. Michael Jenkins Forest Trends Illegality Report 1 NARRATOR He means illegal conversion of forests to farms or fields. MICHAEL JENKINS Forest Trends Illegality Report 2 NARRATOR Let that sink in for a moment. In fact, let's hear it again. MICHAEL JENKINS Forest Trends Illegality Report echo NARRATOR So, while we do need better legal frameworks, we also need to enforce the laws already on the books -- as Brazil showed when it slashed deforestation 70 percent between 2004 and 2014. If you listened to Episode 20, you heard how good-acting companies can also support enforcement -- something Charlotte also alluded to. CHARLOTTE STRECK companies can help NARRATOR Companies that are good with the law can also boost their bottom line by building up trust with importers abroad -- as Asia Pulp and Paper is doing in Indonesia. DEWI BRAMONO legality NARRATOR It's the right thing to do -- and it certainly can't hurt their status with global buyers. SOUND: drumroll NARRATOR And that brings us to... SOUND: Gong CHARLOTTE STRECK 2- palm certificatin NARRATOR Palm oil is in everything from donuts to soap to after-shave. You probably use it but don't even know it. CHARLOTTE STRECK Palm Oil is one of the main drivers NARRATOR Remember we talked about certification on the start? Supply Change data shows that of the big four commodities, companies are making the most progress in reducing deforestation around two of them: palm oil and timber and pulp -- mostly because we started seeing certification of these back in the 1980s. Today, about 21 percent of palm oil is certified by the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil, or RSPO. The challenge is twofold: getting consumers to pay a premium for this, and extending certification to more forests. CHARLOTTE STRECK We don't have sufficient demand SOUND: drumroll NARRATOR Then comes the next priority SOUND: gong CHARLOTTE STRECK 3 beef intensification NARRATOR "Sustainable intensification of cattle grazing"... that basically means raising more cows on the same piece of land, so that you don't have to keep chopping forests to graze them.  CHARLOTTE STRECK Beef is responsible for more... NARRATOR In episode 7 of Bionic Planet, we saw how Kenyan farmers are using agroforestry to increase milk production -- they plant trees in among their crops to pull nitrogen from the air and infuse it into the soil, and they turn the leaves into silage for their cows. That's just one solution, and there are dozens of them. Ideally, we should all eat less beef, but for now we can reduce the amount of land used to raise the ones we do have. CHARLOTTE STRECK we know that we can SOUND: drumroll SOUND: gong NARRATOR Which brings us to... CHARLOTTE STRECK 4 palm and cocoa intensification NARRATOR Cocoa is not one of the big four, but it's a huge contributor -- and it's mostly produced by small farmers working in cooperatives. CHARLOTTE STRECK More than 30 percent of palm oil and 90 percent of cocoa NARRATOR The report shows that small palm-oil producers can increase their productivity 85 percent without chopping more trees. CHARLOTTE STRECK  These smallholders NARRATOR So, that gets us through three of the big four, plus cocoa -- or cacao, as the threes themselves are called. Ignacio Gavilan what about soy - 1 NARRATOR Yes -- what about soy? That, by the way, is Ignacio Gavilan, Director of Sustainability, for the Consumer Goods Forum. IGNACIO GAVILAN what about soy - 2 SOUND: drumroll NARRATOR And that brings us to... SOUND: gong   CHARLOTTE STRECK 5 sustainable soy NARRATOR Up until 2006, farmers across the Brazilian Amazon were chopping forest like mad to grow soy, but then something changed: Companies like McDonalds -- responding to pressure from groups like Greenpeace -- voluntarily stopped buying soy from Amazon farmers who chop trees to grow the stuff. The soy moratorium is just one example of a successful multilateral effort to fix the climate mess.  CHARLOTTE STRECK it is important NARRATOR Certification programs are ridiculously expensive and notoriously difficult to manage -- I mean, this is really complex stuff. A company like McDonalds buys beef from slaughterhouses like Marfrig or JBM, and those slaughterhouses buy from thousands of small farmers. To really do this right, we have to scale up  SOUND: drumroll NARRATOR And that's where the next priority area comes in SOUND: gong CHARLOTTE STRECK 6 - accelerating implementation of jurisdictional NARRATOR "jurisdictional" means governmental -- it can be federal, it can be state, it can be county, or even city. If you get an entire state like Sabah in Malaysia or California in the United States to make sure it's farmers are producing fruits and veggies in a sustainable way, companies can buy there without spending a fortune to certify each producer individually. CHARLOTTE STRECK we have screened 34 NARRATOR The state of Sabah, in Malaysia, for example, is working with several NGOs that have coalesced into an alliance called "Forever Sabah" Cynthia Ong jurisdictional 1 NARRATOR That's Cynthia Ong, who runs a group called "Land, Empowerment Animals, People" or LEAP. She's also one of Forever Sabah's co-executive directors. CYNTHIA ONG jurisdictional 2 NARRATOR Even big companies like Asia Pulp and Paper have realized they can't access certified material on a large scale one plantation at a time. DEWI BRAMONO landscape jurisdiction NARRATOR There are scores of efforts underway -- the Rainforest Alliance is also doing great work, which you can learn about if you listen to episode 23 -- that episode will have the raw audio from this event without me interjecting every few minutes. It's kind of long, but if this episode sparked your interest, I think you'll find the full event worth listen to. SOUND: drumroll NARRATOR But for now, we move on to... SOUND: Gong CHARLOTTE STRECK 7 - land security and land rights NARRATOR This is another one we've addressed here before: indigenous and traditional communities tend to have a strong connection to their land. Studies have shown they usually -- not always, of course, but usually -- maintain their forest and want to keep it, but their legal rights to the forests are often in limbo. That leaves them vulnerable to speculators, and also less willing to invest too much in the forest CHARLOTTE STRECK Uncertainty of land. NARRATOR Another thing to remember: people in developing countries buy stuff, too SOUND: drumroll NARRATOR Which brings us to: SOUND: gong CHARLOTTE STRECK Goal: Mobilizing demand in emerging markets NARRATOR Remember earlier, when we talked about certification? We learned that 21 percent of all palm oil is certified by the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil, or the RSPO. One reason it's not higher is that people still, for the most part, buy whatever is cheapest, so it's not worthwhile for producers to spend all that money getting certified -- and that's even more so in developing countries. Kavita Prakash-Mani of WWF is working to change that. Kavita Prakash-Mani 21 percent CHARLOTTE STRECK In addition to this: domestic demand NARRATOR We're getting near the end here, folks -- so far, we've talked a lot about producers and consumers, but what about investors? SOUND: drumroll NARRATOR That brings up our next priority area: SOUND: Gong CHARLOTTE STRECK Redirecting Finance NARRATOR This is something we cover a lot on bionic planet, and it's the core of what we cover at Ecosystem Marketplace. Investors are still backing the bad actors, and they'll continue to do so until they realize that environmental bad actors are also financial bad risks -- but they'll only realize that if we all hold the bad actors accountable and support the good ones. We've seen some progress on this front over the past year, with HSBC manning up to some investments that led to deforestation and pulling the plug. You can learn more about that in an article I wrote for Ecosystem Marketplace called "Why HSBC's Recent Response To Greenpeace Really Is A Very Big Deal", and I link to that in show notes for this episode, which is episode 22 at bionic-planet.com. We're also seeing governments like Norway's stepping up with finance for sustainable forest management. Stina Reksten private-sector-capital 1 NARRATOR That's Stina Reksten of Norway's International Climate and Forest Initiative. She's helping to launch a new fund, together with the Global Environment Facility, Unilever, and IDH -- which is a Dutch sustainable trade initiative. STINA REKSTEN private-sector-capital 2 NARRATOR But that's just a sneeze in a hurricane compared to the $55 trillion global economy CHARLOTTE STRECK we have the finance NARRATOR But finance doesn't flow with guidance SOUND: drumroll NARRATOR And that brings us to... SOUND: gong CHARLOTTE STRECK data NARRATOR This is where we come in. I already mentioned Supply Change -- that's supply-change.org -- and we did another episode -- episode 11 -- focused on a platform called TRASE, which lets you trace soybeans from specific municipalities in Brazil to ports around the world. There are plenty of other efforts, and Nicole Pasricha of Rainforest Alliance outlined one that they're participating in. Nicole Pasricha point 10 NARRATOR That might sound boring and wonky, but the whole issue of comparability is critical -- because if you can't compare what different countries, companies, and counties are doing, you can't reject -- or reform -- the bad guys and reward the good Remember Ignacio Gavilan of the Consumer Goods Forum? He pointed out that member firms didn't know how much soy they used. So his group created a solution IGNACIO GAVILAN soy ladder NARRATOR Ignacio Gavilan wrapping up this edition of Bionic Planet -- which is a bit different than most episodes. I usually like to dive deep into an issue, but this time, we kept it pretty high-level. I hope to revisit all of these activities in more detail, and if you think that would be of value, be sure to help me out by sharing Bionic Planet with friends and giving me a good rating on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you access podcasts. You can also help by becoming a patron at bionic-planet.com -- where you can show your appreciation for as little as $1 per month. If today's show sparked your curiosity, be sure to download episode 23 as well. That one will contain the full audio from the Climate Week session that I harvested for this. If you're a paid patron, I will not be charging for episode 23, but rather just uploading that as a public service. Until next time, I'm Steve Zwick in Rotterdam. Thanks for listening!

When UK retailer Marks & Spencer launched its ambitious sustainability strategy in early 2007, it dubbed the strategy “Plan A” to remind us that we have just one planet, so there is no Plan B. Plan A amounted to nothing less than a complete restructuring of the company’s supply chain – from the thousands of small farmers who produce its raw materials to the millions of people who buy its products – and it launched with an ambitious list of 100 commitments covering everything from the way it treats its partners to the health and well-being of its employees. Despite the name, Plan A was designed to change over time, with an initial five-year phase ending in 2012 and leading to a more ambitious second phase, and then another after that. By late 2009, however, it was clear that the project had succeeded in galvanizing the workforce and winning over suppliers, but it wasn’t resonating with customers. “Internally, Plan A has been a powerful change brand, helping 75,000 M&S employees and 2000 suppliers to see the links between activities as disparate as taking trans fats out of food, reducing energy use and promoting Fairtrade,” wrote Mike Barry, the company’s director of sustainability, in a 2009 piece for the UK marketing magazine “Campaign”. “Consumers buy more deeply into sustainability when they are engaged in change, and not just told about it,” he continued, explaining the company’s 2009 decision to add a consumer-facing tagline: “Doing the right thing”, coupled with an education campaign. Overhaul for the Long Haul The 2008 banking crisis hit the retail sector hard, but by late 2009 Plan A had achieved 45 of its 100 commitments; and in 2010, auditors attributed £50 million of extra profit to Plan A – mostly because of energy efficiency and streamlined procurement costs. But Rose decided to leave the company that year, and one of his final acts was to initiate an early end to the phase one so that the sustainability team could harness the lessons learned for a new five-year phase through 2015, with regular five-year intervals after that. “It might take 20 or 25 years to build a truly sustainable Marks & Spencer, and you can’t have a 25-year plan in retail,” says Barry. “Things change by the day, the week, the month.  So what we had to have is a recognition that every few years – and five’s a nice cycle – we’d update the plan, and think about where to go next with it.” Rose’s successor, Marc Bolland, recommitted to Plan A, which added 80 more commitments for the 2010-2015 period. By 2012, Plan A was delivering a net benefit of £105 million, according to that year’s annual report. “The substantive part of this benefit comes from improved resource efficiency, although we are now deriving extra benefits from initiatives that drive our existing business and from new revenue streams,” it said. To engage customers, they decided to crystallize their strategy into distinct Plan A Attributes, “and we decided that every M&S product has to have a Plan A story to tell by 2020,” says Barry. What is a Plan A Attribute? “In most cases, a Plan A attribute will be a well-recognized external environmental and social standard such as Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certified wood or Fairtrade certified cotton,” the 2011 annual report said. “Where external standards don’t exist we work with others to develop our own approach which is credible and robust.” The annual reports hint at rigorous internal debates over what is and is not a Plan A Attribute, and each attribute is clearly defined and documented. Even before settling on a list of Attributes, however, the company agreed make sure that half of all products sold had one by 2015. By 2012, they had identified 55 attributes – 40 for M&S food and household products and 15 for M&S clothing and home products. By 2013, that number had risen to 70, and by 2014 – one year ahead of schedule – 56 percent of all products sold had at least one attribute. Peruse their shelves today, and you’ll find familiar standards like Fairtrade as well as in-house standards like Forever Fish, but Barry says the company has a long way to go. “Metaphorically, we are but 25% sustainable,” he says. “At least 75% of the journey lies ahead.” And that journey, he says, can’t progress in a meaningful way unless we fix the entire ecosystem within which M&S operates. After all, the company’s $23 billion in revenue amounts to a rounding error in the $100 trillion global economy. “Tiny little M&S is not going to make the world’s palm oil production sustainable on its own,” says Barry. “It needs to work with Unilever, with Coke, with Pepsi, with Walmart and all the others to make sure we can move the industry together.” All of those companies have joined multilateral sustainability groups like the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), where M&S plays a leadership role. A “System Change” “We have to be part of a system change, and that system change is, in part, because all of the retailers that we work with at the Consumer Goods Forum and Sustainable Brands line up and specify the same high standard of expectation of their supply chains,” Barry says Such cooperation does seem to be generating results, according to a report called “Tracking Corporate Commitments to Deforestation-Free Supply Chains, 2017”, which the Forest Trends Supply-Change published in March. The initiative looked at 35 collective efforts and found that at least 95% of the companies participating in such groups had pledged to reduce their impact on forests. Meanwhile, Plan A continues to evolve. Earlier this month, current CEO Steve Rowe unveiled the plan through 2025, and it includes a plan to support 1,000 communities and benefit 10 million people – making M&S one of more than 100 companies to explicitly  

Ignacio Gavilan, sustainability director, the Consumer Goods Forum, talks with Ian Welsh about the CGF's anti-deforestation programmes and sustainable palm oil sourcing guidelines