What if the secret to unbreakable supply chain resilience isn't squeezing your suppliers for the lowest price, but actively paying them to heal the planet?

In this episode of the State of Sustainability, host Saif Hameed is joined by David Croft, former sustainability lead at Reckitt, Diageo, Waitrose, and Cadbury, to explore the critical shift from short-term agility to long-term resilience in global supply chains.

David shares his extensive experience in building sustainable procurement strategies, emphasising the 'triple win' concept: an approach that delivers value for the business, the supplier, and the planet.

A core focus of their discussion is the changing dynamic between large organisations and primary producers, such as farmers in the cocoa and latex industries. By rewarding sustainable land management, such as nature-based solutions that sequester carbon or prevent downstream flooding, companies can secure reliable, high-quality resources while mitigating significant ecological and financial risks.

Ultimately, this episode offers a compelling look at how addressing environmental externalities head-on is no longer just a compliance exercise, but a fundamental driver of future business growth and resilience.

What are your thoughts on this? I'd love to hear from you. Email Saif@altruistiq.com

Ready to transform your sustainability reporting? Start your journey at Altruistiq.com

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.

Just 25% of industry experts believe the standalone sustainability function will exist in five years. So what is the next great frontier for sustainability leaders?

In this episode, host Saif Hameed asks a provocative question fresh from hosting the Chicago State of Sustainability Summit: Will corporate sustainability functions still exist in five years? To help answer, Saif breaks down the three massive shifts currently challenging the sustainability professional's day-to-day workflow.

First, integrating green goals into mainstream roles means CFOs, procurement officers, and supply chain teams are absorbing sustainability tasks - a double-edged sign of success.

Second, rapid advancements in automation and agentic AI is likely to completely overtake routine tasks like carbon accounting, data aggregation, and stakeholder reporting in the coming years.

Finally, a macro backlash against corporate sustainability has stifled the ambitious blue sky thinking that characterised the late 2010s, leaving behind more mundane compliance work.

The good news, as Saif explains, is an exciting new horizon for the profession: Volatility Management. Driven by geopolitical conflicts and the terrifying reality that seven of our nine planetary boundaries are now breached, businesses face unprecedented high price variability in crucial commodities like rice, wheat, and cocoa. True business resilience now requires constant transformation and stabilisation to survive these shocks.

Saif explains how sustainability professionals can secure their future by repositioning themselves as volatility managers. By leveraging their three bedrock skills - systems thinking, data insight, and storytelling - and combining them with deep business context, sustainability experts can build the crucial playbooks CEOs need to navigate an increasingly unpredictable world.

What are your thoughts on this? Are you already pivoting towards volatility management as a way of insulating yourself from these developments in the sustainability space? I'd love to hear from you. Email Saif@altruistiq.com

Ready to transform your sustainability reporting? Start your journey at Altruistiq.com

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.

Are sustainability teams about to be automated out of existence, or will they lead the food industry's next big shift?

Saif Hameed records this episode on the road ahead of the State of Sustainability Summit in Chicago. His argument: traditional sustainability workflows are increasingly vulnerable to AI automation or absorption by procurement and finance. To stay relevant, sustainability professionals need to move into new territory - specifically, nutrition and nutrient density.

Saif walks through the commercial pressures making health credentials non-negotiable for food and beverage companies right now. Retail access is being gated by evolving health standards. GLP-1 weight-loss drugs are changing how consumers eat. Clean labels are commanding a premium. Big corporations are responding: Danone and Unilever have both made recent acquisitions to strengthen their health and wellness positions.

That creates an opportunity for sustainability professionals. Product formulation has traditionally sat in R&D, but Saif sees a real gap for sustainability teams to step into - applying the same data and systems thinking they've used for packaging optimisation and EPR reporting to nutritional complexity and portfolio-level decision-making.

Sustainability, he argues, is a transformation capability. This episode makes the case for what that looks like in practice.

We'd love to get your thoughts on this topic. Email saif@altruistiq.com and if you enjoyed this podcast, don't forget to share it with a friend.

Ready to transform your sustainability reporting? Start your journey at Altruistiq.com

This podcast is produced by The Podcast Coach.