Companies v Climate Change

I’m fortunate to be attending ‘Companies v Climate Change’ in Brussels, an event organised to mirror a similar conference run for the first time last year in the USA. It is very interesting to compare and contrast the views and approaches of organisations in different countries in a range of regulatory regimes. One of the most impressive features of the event is the openness of the speakers; none of the all-too-common slick marketing promo content but instead real insights and learnings. The organisers have managed, across an ocean, to assemble a speaker line-up from some large and influential European companies covering a whole range of sectors including retail, food & beverage, chemicals, heavy manufacturing and others. And all that is set in midst of a beautiful and historic city. Highly recommended and the good news is that the organiser is planning on repeating the conference in 2018.

The future of food

I attended a seminar at the University of Leeds earlier this week, which included some interesting and thought-provoking talks from a number of perspectives around the food system. The academic content ranged in scope from the very, very small (from an expert in nutrient transport at molecular level) to the very, very large (an overview of the global food system and its vulnerability to shocks). As a counter-point to the academic content, the founder of The Real Junk Food Project described how he is challenging some of the norms in food waste and inspiring social entrepreneurs across the globe to take on the issue in their own communities. The Q&A, excellently chaired by polymath journalist Jay Rayner (see below), brought the audience into the debate and it’s encouraging to know that Leeds, in association with a number of other universities across the north of England, have plans for more work researching options, opinions and decisions around the food system.

The event marked the culmination of a 3-year research programme which concluded that multi-stakeholder collaboration, the use of new technologies and multi-channel communication all have a crucial part to play in long-lasting behaviour change towards a more sustainable agri-food system. That short description rather under-sells the effort that has gone into reaching those conclusions, but it is perhaps heartening that we already have some of the solution in our collective grasp. Everything we do within food and agriculture has to work with the expectations of society at large, and the sociological insights from this type of work are an essential companion to the ‘hard’ issues of sustainability. It was also refreshing to see the organisers encouraging delegates to take the remaining food from the buffet lunch away with them to eat later or donate to others, rather than have it go to waste. There is a lesson in that for us all.

Fighting food waste

I’m pleased to have contributed to a recent article in Food Manufacture looking at extracting value from food waste. Clearly the priority has to be reducing the amount of waste arising in the first place but some waste, such as vegetable trimmings, is genuinely unavoidable. In those circumstances the waste can often be used as the raw material for further processing. I’ve seen this from both sides, working within food businesses that generate waste product and also on the Management Committee of FoodWasteNet which works to put together waste producers and users with technology developers. This is one of a number of groups funded by BBSRC which act as the core of networks bringing together industrial and academic partners. You can find the text of the article at this link: http://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Manufacturing/Food-waste-to-receive-added-value-to-combat-costs

Natural capital

Along with a group of other guests from industry, retail, regulators and the third sector, today I joined one of Business in the Community’s ‘Seeing is Believing’ visits, themed around natural capital. We started with a visit to a farm near Cambridge which has recently been converted to a no-till system. With lower input costs (diesel usage down by 70%, for instance) and yields that have barely been affected, it is a very convincing argument for no-till. One of the major benefits of no-till is improvement in soil quality, evidenced by an increase in earthworm numbers and water capacity. With water held in the soil, run-off is much reduced resulting in less contamination of water courses and lower flood risk. As well as the economic benefit to the farming business, the farm is home to increased numbers of a range of endangered species including water voles.

The second stage of the visit was to an Anglian Water reservoir which also serves as a nature reserve and recreation site. Preserving the natural capital value at the site manages all of those benefits, but is clearly not without its challenges. AW have recently embarked on a consultation programme to ensure that how they juggle these various considerations properly reflects their customers’ priorities as well as those of other stakeholders. It is encouraging that natural capital features so strongly in their forward plans. With the significance of water to a healthy landscape, this was an inspiring day and I look forward to working with the other attendees again.

Collaboration in action

I’ve just rounded off a busy few days by speaking at edie’s conference on responsible procurement and supplier engagement. My talk was in a session entitled ‘driving change through engagement and collaboration’ with the (admittedly laborious!) title of “engaging and encouraging SMEs to collaborate effectively through the value chain” followed by an audience Q&A alongside other speakers from Galliford Try, Travis Perkins and Heathrow Airport. edie’s events are always good value and this one drew a mixed audience from academia and a whole range of industry sectors. I am always encouraged by the openness of sustainability professionals in sharing ideas and experience.

On Thursday I attended an agro-forestry conference at Cranfield University (pictured below)  which featured a number of SME livestock farmers plus academics from the UK and around the world. Organised by the Soil Association, Woodland Trust and Royal Forestry Society, the event attracted a wide range of attendees, primarily from the world of agriculture. The case studies were hugely instructive and inspiring; for example Woodland Egg production and the use of shelter belts on a family-run hill farm to reduce mortality rates at lambing time.  There was also a great presentation from an arable farmer who has planted trees to combat soil erosion.  There seems not to be a definitive view of exactly what constitutes agro-forestry (some of the examples were more about using trees to support agriculture rather than having a real ‘forestry’ component) but excellent nonetheless.

On Wednesday I was part of an invitation-only workshop at the Institute of Engineering and Technology in London looking at future sustainable manufacturing. The event was held under the Chatham House Rule, so I can’t talk too much about it, but there were attendees from some prestigious universities, manufacturers and civil society. The output will be a briefing paper that will be available to inform policy. Watch this space for more when the report is published.

The busy week began last Tuesday at a workshop run by two member institutions of the N8 University group as part of their agri-food initiative (see http://n8agrifood.ac.uk/) looking at how ‘Brexit’ will impact the sector. There are a few more stages to go, but ultimately, this research will also produce a briefing paper aimed at helping policy-makers reflect the views of organisations in and around agriculture and food production in future strategy for the UK for when the Common Agricultural Policy no longer applies to UK farming.

‘Greener Hustings’ event

Last night I was fortunate to be part of an invited audience at the Royal Society in London to hear politicians from a number of parties put forward their position on the environment and respond to questions from the audience. The group behind the event, Greener UK, is an umbrella organisation comprising 13 environmentally-focused membership bodies such as the Woodland Trust and RSPB (full list at www.greeneruk.org) campaigning for effective environmental regulation after the UK leaves the EU. The event was ably and entertainingly hosted by Clive Anderson and featured Kate Parminter for the LibDems, Therese Coffey for the Conservatives, Barry Gardiner for Labour and Caroline Russell for the Greens (the latter 2 pictured below).

One of the key points in the discussion was the challenge of managing the transition from the current regime of CAP payments to a post-EU scheme. The significance of these payments varies from farm-to-farm but can be very significant to their commercial viability (see https://fullfact.org/economy/farming-subsidies-uk/). There was a surprising level of agreement across the parties that a future payment mechanism was necessary, and that it should be linked to protection of natural capital and provision of ecosystem services. The devil is in the detail, of course, but whatever the outcome of the election next week, we can expect to see something of this sort being put in place.

A real-world illustration of what any new payment system needs to address can be found in Derbyshire’s Peak District. The landscape exists largely as a result of beef and dairy herds such as the one shown above, and attracts large numbers of visitors every year – between 17 and 27 million visitor days per annum depending on which figures you read. There is no direct linkage between the costs of running the farms that create much of the landscape and the benefits enjoyed by the visitors and it will be a challenge to achieve it fairly.

One of the concerns in any such scheme is that there may be unintended consequences from funds being withdrawn by parties which were not intended to be the primary recipients. Arguably, this has happened with solar PV FITS where large-scale solar farms rather than domestic roof-top installations have been significant beneficiaries. There is also controversy around some recipients of existing EU payments.

This is just one of the many significant changes in the UK’s agri-food system that will arise from Brexit. Staying close to developments will be vital for any businesses in the sector.

edie live

I’ve been at the NEC in Birmingham today for edie live 2017, mostly for the conference sessions. I’ve spoken at a number of their events and have another in the diary for June. They typically get a good line-up of speakers and address meaningful topics.

The day started with some stimulating presentations on policy, Brexit and the  SDGs which in turn prompted some insightful questions from the audience. With Brexit negotiations yet to start it is, of course, still too early to make predictions about their outcome for sustainability. What we can do, though, is to look at what is being said by the various political parties in their manifestos, and the expectations of consumers. With a growing world population, demand for resources is only going to increase so organisations need to consider resource security in their strategic planning. Where the experience isn’t available internally, external specialists can be invaluable in helping to shape the best responses.

The role and responsibility of business is a recurring theme. There is sometimes a narrative which seems to imply that business sits outside society and acts independently. The reality, though, is that business is part of broader society and is in constant interaction with other stakeholders. An organisation in conflict with too many other groups will struggle to find employees and investors, for instance. This theme was also discussed in some of the presentations and an external perspective can often help focus businesses on how to engage with other stakeholders.

ISO20400 launches

ISO have published their new guidance on sustainable procurement. Although this standard will not, in its current form, lead to formal accreditation along the lines of 14001, 50001 and so forth, it provides useful guidance on how to approach and manage risks in the supply chain.

First blog post

Very pleased to have set up the business and welcome on board the first two clients (although I can’t name them yet!). I’m looking forward to working with more companies over the coming months, especially smaller businesses which might so far have found it hard to engage with sustainability.