Innovation Zero celebrates World Environment Day

Marking over five decades of environmental advocacy, World Environment Day stands as a bedrock date for global environmental stewardship. This year’s campaign, hosted by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, will spotlight the fragile state of our planet’s ecosystems, with a dedicated focus on the themes of advancing land restoration, halting desertification and enhancing drought resilience.

The urgency to protect our planet’s ecosystems has never been greater. At this year’s Innovation Zero, the safeguarding of our ecosystems was a theme that featured across several of our discussions, including panels on soil health & sequestration, opportunities in biodiversity markets and nature positivity & net zero, many of which are now available to watch online...

Opportunities in soil health & sequestration: Watch on-demand
Maintaining our soil health is key to achieving our global climate targets and providing the planet with enough food in the future. During this session, we will discuss what farmers and organisations can do to improve soil health through improvements in nutrient management and land-use practices, as well as the technological solutions that can help us achieve this.

• Becky Willson, Business Development and Technical Director - Farm Carbon Toolkit
• Lionnel Alexandre, Carbon Business Lead - EMEA - Bayer CropScience
• Helen Browning, Group Chief Executive - Soil Association
• Claire Mackenzie, Producer - Six Inches of Soil
• Andrew Voysey, Chief Impact Officer - Soil Capital

Nature Positivity and Net Zero: Watch on-demand
In this session, panellists discuss the importance of being nature positive in order to achieve net zero goals, and the value this in turn has for business and planet alike.

• Patrick Begg, Director of Natural Resources - National Trust
• Samantha Deane, Founding Director - Kelp Forest Foundation
• Elena Doms, Head - Earth Plus
• Professor Carwyn Jones, Former First Minister of Wales - Aberystwyth University
   

Delivering Change at Scale: Meeting 21st Century Challenges in Crop Nutrition: Watch on-demand
It has been estimated that 48% of the global population is fed with crops grown with mineral fertilisers, and the world’s population is expected to grow by 20% by 2050. However, fertilisers are responsible for approximately 5% of total greenhouse gas emissions (double that of aviation) and can play a role in soil degradation. How we use fertilisers needs to change while addressing the need for global food security.

• Alexander Schmitt, Chief Marketing Officer - Anglo American Crop Nutrients

Regenerative Agriculture: Challenges and Opportunities for the Sector in Climate Adaptation: Watch on-demand
In this session, panellists consider the full breadth of the challenge we face in achieving a food system that meets future demand, sustains planetary health, and supports the interests of farmers, landscape stewards, corporations, communities and governments worldwide.

• Zitouni Ould-Dada, UN Expert on Climate Change, Food Security & Sustainability
• Dhanush Dinesh, Founder, Executive Director & Chief Climate Catalyst, Clim-Eat
• Emma Keller, Head of Sustainability, Nestle UK&I
• Baroness Natalie Bennett, Green Party Peer and Former Leader of the Green Party of England & Wales
• Shayna Harris, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Supply Change Capital
   

Can Agriculture Save the Planet Before it Destroys it? Watch on-demand

The food system today is both a miracle and a disaster. How we produce, process, prepare and consume food will, literally, determine the fate of the planet. It’s not enough simply to change how we produce food, we also need to change the entire food system, including how we talk about food.

• Jack Bobo, Director Food Systems Institute - University of Nottingham