Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Blog by Tobias Webb, Founder, Innovation Forum ... Tobias Webb speaking at a recent conferenceI'm Toby Webb, founder of Innovation Forum, a sustainability focused research, publishing and events business. I've also been a lecturer on Corporate Responsibility at Kings College London and at Birkbeck, University of London for eight years. I work with large companies all over the world and sit on the sustainability advisory board for Walgreens Boots Alliance. From 2006-9 I lead the development of UK CSR policy, resulting in the Responsibility Deals framework. I can be contacted at Tobias DOT Webb AT innovation-forum.co.uk Sustainability = Smart Business A regular blog about (un) sustainable business. A focus on practical stuff, not blue sky pretentious waffle. Around 6000 regular readers, surprisingly. Home / About me / About my company / twitter / rss Some thoughts after our recent sustainable landscapes conference (to be updated) A couple of weeks ago we held our first sustainable landscapes conference in London. It was a combination of conferences and a culmination of four years work in some ways. We merged our smallholders, deforestation and elements of our agriculture conferences together and somehow it worked. Huge thanks to our many sponsors and supporters of the event. I wasn’t in every session, as I needed to facilitate one of our four tracks, so I missed many of them. I generally heard very positive feedback about the conference. But we know we can always improve on our session structure, facilitation and do more to collect useful outcomes for attendees. Here’s a few thoughts I and my colleague Ian Welsh had during and after the conference, which we spent ten months working on and researching: The landscapes approach is not new, it’s been around for decades. However for many in business and commodities sourcing and sustainability, it represents the most interesting and innovative new idea since the rise and flat-lining of certification. Few companies, if any, have got to grips with it, but aside from in-depth strategic policies and initiatives, such as those by Olam, Golden-Agri, Unilever, and pilots by Nestle and others, it’s an issue that many companies are considering, but so far are not going too public about. That’s not to say others are not involved. From water stewardship and watershed initiatives, to regional crop sourcing, to consideration of wider areas around mines and other heavy infrastructure projects, much is happening, often under different names Landscapes as an idea, gives some shape to notions of collaboration, which everyone is keen on, but many struggle to do on the ground. The idea of a defined area of activity is so much more appealing to business than being asked to be responsible for vague notions of international development or poverty alleviation in developing nations (as many see it) Governments too, are taking an increased interest. The work of important actors such as TFA 2020 is vital here, and we saw thoughtful participation from governments and their agencies, from the UK, to Germany, to Paraguay, Brazil, Indonesia and Surinam. There still doesn’t seem to be consensus around where the (initial) costs for improvements are to be borne. Existing “value chain” models appear unfit for future purpose. Bottom of the chain engagement is extremely difficult. We need greater awareness of how to deliver sustainable landscapes, from the bottom up. The challenges facing a smallholder farmer to provide for his family, then multiplied by thousands of individual cases. The mooted solution of building sustainable rural communities point is the strongest solution on the table. Build a puzzle with defined boundaries, piece by piece. Political economy assessments of landscapes/jurisdictions are vitally important, but I wonder if many methodologies are up to speed with the latest thinking in say, development economics. Is there enough engagement between the two fields? There’s excellent potential for agri-business, brands, producers etc, to engage with non-food actors, such as in mining and heavy industry. Many upcoming mine closures loom around the world, and these represent an excellent opportunity for taking a landscapes approach to sustainable rural living and production. Technology is coming along faster than we can use it, and gets cheaper by the day. Now we can watch live deforestation in a 10 x 10m square area. The question is, how do we use such tools cost-effectively to drive change that lasts? There’s a LOT more I could say here, and as I said, I missed a lot of my own conference, as I was facilitating back to back breakout sessions in a four track conference. I’ve emailed the above to some experienced participants, and will update it as I get responses in the coming days. Meantime, check out all the free podcasts and analysis on our site about all this here: https://innovation-forum.co.uk And here’s our plan for next year, I hope you can join us at some of these, and get involved in the debates and discussions! How business and government can tackle modern slavery 2-3 April, London. Hosted by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Sustainable apparel: How business can drive innovation and supplier engagement 9-10 April, Amsterdam How business can tackle modern slavery and forced labour 30 April-1 May, New York. Hosted by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer The future of food USA 21-22 May, Chicago. Hosted by Walgreens Boots Alliance With a theme of: trust, traceability and transparency, and how business can drive food sustainability, build resilience and deliver on customer expectations The future of food Europe 4-5 June, London With a theme of: trust, traceability and transparency, and how business can drive food sustainability, build resilience and deliver on customer expectations The bio-economy of energy, chemicals and materials: Does it add up? 17-18 or 25-26 June, London How business can measure and manage climate impacts Late June, London How business can manage plastic footprints: innovation and single use in retail October, Amsterdam How business can measure and manage climate impacts October, USA Sustainable landscapes forum 2019 November, London The bio-economy of energy, chemicals and materials: Does it add up? November, USA If you want to know more about any of these, contact me at tobias DOT webb AT innovation-forum.co.uk Nov 22, 2018 | Posted by Toby Webb in Agriculture, Climate Change, CSR and Sustainability, Deforestation, Extractives, Government, Human Rights, Measurement, NGOs, Reporting, Slavery, Smallholders, Stakeholders, Strategy, Supply Chain, Water | 0 comments Add Your Comment Your email address will not be published.