Net Zero Festival: Changing diets for a changing climate

BusinessGreen staff
clock • 2 min read

VIDEO: Mike Barry hosts a discussion with a host of experts on delivering a more sustainable food system including Nomad Foods' Annelie Selander; PepsiCo's Chris Daly, Nando's Henry Unwin, University of Oxford's Michael Clark, and the Food Foundation's Rebecca Tobi

The food system has many long, complex supply chains with huge numbers of different producers and retailers spanning the journey from farm to fork. But it is a system that is facing huge threats from the physical impacts of climate change such as drought, floods and crop failure, while disruption from the growing interest in plant-based alteratives to meat and dairy products also poses a threat to the status quo.

It is, in short, a sector that is ripe for disruption, and one that is crucial to delivering the world's climate goals, by fostering a shift to more sustainable diets among consumers marked by less meat and dairy, and produce that does not fuel deforestation. But that means big changes for consumers, and only with their backing can those changes take place. So how can businesses bring them onside to the net zero transition in food?

In a discussion chaired by former M&S director of sustainable business Mike Barry, who is now a senior associate at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), a number of leading figures and thinkers on the changing food system gave their views on how to shift towards more sutainable, resilient diets as part of the transition to net zero. They included: Nomad Foods' group sustainability director Annelie Selander; Chris Daly, VP for strategy, sustainability and transformation in the supply chain at PepsiCo Europe; Nando's head of sustainability Henry Unwin; University of Oxford researcher Michael Clark; and Rebecca Tobi, project manager at the Food Foundation. The fascinating discussion can be watched in full above.

All of the panel debates, keynote speeches, and presentations from the world's first Net Zero Festival - which took place over three days from 30 September featuring hundreds of top speakers from business, politics and academia - are now available to watch again on demand through the Net Zero Festival website.

More on Supply chain

Credit: iStock

Coca Cola Europacific Partners reveals how it is working to 'move the needle' on supply chain sustainability

Vice president of procurement at the world’s biggest independent Coca Cola bottler reflects on the first year of the company's programme for rewarding suppliers that embrace climate action

Stuart Stone
clock 16 November 2023 • 13 min read
'New cropland cannot come from deforestation': McKinsey raises alarm over growing land use pressure

'New cropland cannot come from deforestation': McKinsey raises alarm over growing land use pressure

New report claims behaviour change, reductions in food waste, and new innovations likely to prove essential if growing food demand is to be met without fuelling further deforestation

James Murray
clock 08 November 2023 • 4 min read
Feeding the future: The challenge of transitioning to sustainable food systems

Feeding the future: The challenge of transitioning to sustainable food systems

The food sector is a major contributor to environmental problems - and yet it lacks an obvious pathway to transition, writes WTW's Ada Kinczyk

Ada Kinczyk, WTW
clock 03 November 2023 • 5 min read