Insights Shared by Industry Leaders on Sustainable Innovation at UNGA Science Summit

At UNGA Science Summit Dan Edwards, CEO, Science Group, was joined in a panel discussion by Science Group CTO Forum members: Natasha Santos, Vice President Head of Sustainability & Strategic Engagement, Bayer Crop Science, Nici Bush, Chief Innovation, Science and Technology Officer, Mars, and René Lammers, Executive Vice President & Chief Science Officer, PepsiCo. The panel discussion entitled “Moving Beyond Promises to Performance: Industry CTOs Share Insights on How Science and Innovation Are Enabling a Sustainable Future”, summarised some of the work written about in the Forum’s Growth and Sustainability Playbook which was published earlier this year. Below are some highlights from the panels discussion along with more information about the Growth and Sustainability Playbook.

“Together, Science Group CTO Forum members have created two play books, the first on Net Zero and the second on Growth and Sustainability, with the intention of releasing them inside our companies as playbooks for managers in R&D to execute on the promises that have been made by our CEO’s. Having written and published them we see value in sharing them publicly. Our intention is to get the lessons out.” Dan Edwards, CEO, Science Group.

The discussion panel began to dig into some of the poignant points from the Growth and Sustainability Playbook.

Nici Bush talked about how both growth and sustainability goals can be achieved “Mars have reduced absolute GHG by 16% since 2015, across the whole value chain, whilst growing the business by 60%. One of the things you can do with growth and sustainability is fall into the trap of thinking it’s an ‘either or’ scenario, but what the playbook teaches us is that it can sometimes be an AND.

“Most businesses are looking at targets of reducing by say, 50% by 2030, what I would say in a science forum is that we do have solutions that are available to us to implement, and in some cases to get us to some or all of our targets by 2030, but where the scientists come in is that we’re going to need very different solutions to get from 2030 to 2050 and achieve the targets that will be set in that time frame. It’s that second chapter, we need people working on solutions today that are not yet available.”

Nicki talked about the importance of an organisational structure that is geared towards sustainability, “The role of sustainability is not just one executive in the team, it needs to be very embedded in all roles whether it be in a supply role, a procurement role, or product design for R&D because you’ve got to get going on those things that will be driving change and benefits.”

Nici went on to explain the approach to understanding the next steps they need to take, “The first thing you must do is map. We support the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), and we have a very clear map of where our issues are, which crops we need to focus on and which areas of the supply chain, in some cases agriculture is about 60% of our footprint. So, the first thing we do is make sure we’ve got a good clear set of data.”

Rene Lammers, PepsiCo, talked about how they deal with the challenge of achieving growth and sustainability targets and how it can be used as an opportunity where possible “In the brands I look after Lays, Gatorade, Cheetos, Doritos and many more, the value chain is complex. For PepsiCo, there’s the agro angle with commodities such as oats, corn, potatoes being key, then there’s our large cooking facilities where we have our food application manufacturing which both have their GHG component. It’s also about product design; can we design products with a lower carbon footprint? We’ve looked closely at our packaging, which we share in more detail in the playbook. 

“In the value chain there is a scientific role to play. It’s a challenge knowing which technologies to pick and then as a branded goods company how do we talk with our brands, and by extension our consumer because that’s the way we talk with our consumers 1.5 billion times a day, that the products are becoming increasingly more purposeful. It’s a true end-to-end challenge.”

Rene explains one of the opportunities PepsiCo has seized relating to water efficiency, “When you harvest a potato it contains 80% water and when it’s fried, we capture the water from the condensation, filtrate it and bring it back to safe water. We are saving around 60 million litres per year on every plant we role this out at.

“These technologies must be rolled out across the entire system therefore cost and scalability are key. We also like to work with local communities to give water back and ensure people should have safe access to water which we work on through the PepsiCo Foundation.”

Natasha, Bayer discussed how you focus spend, “You need to work on big bets – the performance transform approach. We look at the markets that matter, if it works and we can scale it we can then roll it out elsewhere.”

Finally, Dan Edwards discussed some of the ways in which organisations might facilitate thinking to come up with new solutions “When you kick off innovation you can stimulate your team to conceive products that deliver business growth and sustainability. In the playbook there is a term ‘flywheels’ which is about how you can stimulate innovators. We came up with 12 inventive principles, one is about being frugal in use. If you think about the product in use (not the manufacture or disposal) and then consider what the next generation product which is more frugal in use might look/feel like, then the chances are you’ll come up with something that is both sustainable and delivers on traditional consumer benefit.”