Foresight Sustainability Series Foresight Group

Earlier this year, we launched our sustainability data platform: PACT (Platform Advacing Change Together) - powered by Salesforce and delivered by PWC. The platform allows us to gain access to AI and data-driven insights to enhance reporting across our global corporate business and private equity portfolio. Businesses are under growing pressure to capture broader ESG data, as new regulations, accounting standards and rules aimed at accelerating the drive to Net Zero come into force. SMEs, which account for 99% of UK businesses, often do not have the resources to effectively manage their emissions and broader sustainability imapct. PACT will revolutionise this and transform the Private Equity sector's approach to sustainability, making new forms of data and reporting accessible to smaller companies - a previously underserved market.  In this episode, Lily Billings, Head of Group Sustainability at Foresight, is joined by Keiran Bell, Senior Account Executive at Salesforce, and Matt Cook, Partner at PWC. The group discuss how PACT will transform sustainability analytics across Foresight, mitigate the risk of greenwashing and support organisations to make improved data-driven decisions.  The podcast is for information purposes only and without limitation, does not constitute an offer, an invitation to offer or a recommendation to engage in any investment activity. Listeners should not construe the content of this podcast as investment advice and no reliance may be placed upon the content. The opinions of speakers are their personal opinions and not necessarily those of their respective companies.  Foresight Group LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 198020). Foresight's registered office is at The Shard, 32 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9SG.  

The Foresight Sustainability Forum, held over two days at the Eden Project, brought together leading experts and visionaries to address the fundamental challenges facing our planet and explore innovative solutions to these challenges. The event provided a platform for insightful discussions, thought-provoking panel sessions, and enlightening keynote speeches, all aimed at shaping a more sustainable future for our planet. In this episode, Dan James, Development Director at the Eden Project, Lily Billings, Head of Group Sustainability and Henry Morgan, Infrastructure Sustainable Investment Lead at Foresight unravel some of the key initiatives, thought-provoking discussions, and innovative ideas that emerged from the two days. The podcast is for information purposes only and without limitation, does not constitute an offer, an invitation to offer or a recommendation to engage in any investment activity. Listeners should not construe the content of this podcast as investment advice and no reliance may be placed upon the content. The opinions of speakers are their personal opinions and not necessarily those of their respective companies. Foresight Group LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 198020). Foresight’s registered office is at The Shard, 32 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9SG.

Hydrogen is increasingly being recognised as a key player in the transition towards a low-carbon future. As a clean energy carrier, it has the potential to decarbonise a wide range of sectors including transportation, industrial processes, and heating. Hydrogen can be produced using renewable energy sources, such as wind or solar, and can be stored and transported as required. Its versatility and flexibility make it a useful alternative to direct electrification, particularly in hard-to-abate sectors such as heavy industry, aviation and shipping. However, scaling up the use of hydrogen requires significant investment in infrastructure and technology, and regulatory support from governments to enable its widespread adoption. In this episode, Joe Davis, Associate Director at Foresight Group and William Mezzullo, Head of Hydrogen at Centrica explore the development of hydrogen as a vital part of the energy transition, what stands in its way, and what needs to be done to realise its full potential. Key Takeaways include: Understanding the importance of the UK government’s new suite of policies addressing the drive to net zero. Understanding why a country’s hydrogen policy framework is one of the most important factors for informing investment decisions. Addressing whether the UK government is on the right track for supporting increased investment into hydrogen and whether this is competitive with other countries.  Understand what is meant by hydrogen blending, and some of the main opportunities and challenges associated with it. William Mezzullo is Head of Hydrogen at Centrica Energy Markets & Trading, and Chair of the Renewable Energy Association’s Green Gas & Hydrogen Forum. William is responsible for commercialising hydrogen development opportunities for Centrica. Prior to joining Centrica, he was a Fund Lead at JLEN, a FTSE 250 environmental fund. William has worked in the renewable energy industry since 2010, developing and building commercial-scale green gas anaerobic digestion plants, where he was Head of Projects at Future Biogas, one of the largest anaerobic digestion companies in the UK.  He holds a PhD from the University of Bath in bioenergy. Joe Davis is an Associate Director at Foresight Group and a member of the Supervisory Board for HH2E AG.  Prior to Foresight Group, Joe was an Investment Manager at Pensions Infrastructure Platform Ltd, and a member of the financial modelling and advisory team at DWPF. Joe has an MSci in physics from Nottingham University and is a CFA Charterholder. Joe Davis [00:00:04] Hello, and welcome to Foresight's Sustainability Podcast, a series that explores the sustainability themes that will play a crucial role in shaping our world in the current period of accelerated change. In this series, we'll be sitting down with industry experts to explore some of the major developments in sustainability related fields, and consider the challenges facing businesses in a new decade of climate action. With these sessions, we aim to inform and promote dialogue around the mainstreaming of sustainability. I'm your host, Joe Davis. I'm an Associate Director in the Infrastructure Investment Team here at Foresight. Today I'm joined by Will Mezzullo. Will is Head of Hydrogen at Centrica. Welcome Will, would you like to begin by telling us why Centrica is so interested in hydrogen, and about your role with the company?  Will Mezzullo [00:00:45] Hi Joe. Yeah, thanks very much. And really good to be here and thank you for the invitation. It's always really lovely to speak to you and the Foresight team. So yeah, I look after Centrica's hydrogen activities, across sort of the family of businesses that Centrica owns and looks after. So that's all the way from the whole value chain, from production of energy. So we manage 12 gigawatts of renewables across Europe and we're also building our own, all the way to sort of storing of energy, whether that's in gas or electricity form. We've got

Accelerating resource consumption, biodiversity loss and climate change are damaging the planet's ability to support life. In order to secure a sustainable future, we must adopt new ways of thinking and addressing complex problems. System thinking represents one of society’s best bets for making real progress towards the sustainability transition by viewing all natural and human systems as interdependent.  In this episode, Sophie Warren, Sustainability Manager at Foresight Group and Lola Bushnell, Sustainable Futures Strategist at Arup, discuss what is meant by system thinking, and how the Earth's natural and built systems can be designed in a way to co-exist and co-evolve to benefit society and the environment.  Key Takeaways include: Understanding what systems thinking is and how can it help us to achieve a sustainable future Understanding how well systems thinking principles are currently integrated within industry Identifying what policies are driving systems thinking Understanding what is meant by regenerative design and the benefit of it Addressing the main barriers to achieving true regenerative design in infrastructure Lola is a Sustainable Futures Strategist at the global design and engineering firm, Arup. Lola sits in the Foresight team, Arup's internal think tank, and is focused on influencing the wider industry toward nature-led, regenerative design practices and systemic decarbonisation strategies that produce net positive outcomes for people and the planet.  The podcast is for information purposes only and without limitation, does not constitute an offer, an invitation to offer or a recommendation to engage in any investment activity. Listeners should not construe the content of this podcast as investment advice and no reliance may be placed upon the content. The opinions of speakers are their personal opinions and not necessarily those of their respective companies. Foresight Group LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 198020). Foresight’s registered office is at The Shard, 32 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9SG. {TRANSCRIPT} Sophie Warren [00:00:04] Welcome to Foresight's sustainability podcast, a series that explores sustainability themes that will play a crucial part in shaping our world in the current period of accelerated change. In this series, we will be sitting down with industry experts to explore some of the major developments in sustainability related fields, and consider the challenges facing businesses in a new decade of climate action. With these sessions, we aim to inform and promote dialogue around the mainstreaming of sustainability. I'm your host, Sophie Warren. I'm the Sustainability Portfolio Manager at Foresight in the Infrastructure Department. And today I'm joined by Lola Bushnell. Lola is a Sustainable Future Strategist, at Arup. Welcome Lola, would you like to begin by introducing yourself?  Lola Bushnell [00:00:42] Hi Sophie, thanks so much for having me. Yeah, so I'm coming from Arup, which is a global design firm made up of a breadth of technical specialists working to solve some of the world's most challenging problems. And we range from ecologists to structural engineers to urban planners. And I sit within Foresight, which is essentially our internal think tank, which is focussed on supporting the long term transformation and adaptation of our firm, and that includes the future market opportunities, emerging risks, future skill requirements and the wider transformational needs of our firm. And we have framed the firm around being a sustainable development focussed company. So much of the work that we do is exploring how we can actually build a better world.  Sophie Warren [00:01:33] Brilliant, thanks for the intro Lola. So today we're going to look at about systems thinking and how that relates to regenerative design, which the Foresight team at Arup look at. So we're going to go through a number of questions. Firstly, looki

Soil is the foundation upon which life is built. Soil puts food on the table, purifies our water, stores vast amounts of the worlds carbon, and protects us against floods and droughts. We are intrinsically linked; when soil’s health is at risk, so is our own. In this episode, Lily Billings, Head of Group Sustainability at Foresight Group discusses why soil is so essential to life, and what needs to be done to protect it with Mark Nason, head of professional practice at the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management. Key Takeaways include: Understanding what soil actually is and why it’s so essential to life Understanding the different ecosystem services that soil provides Addressing some of the key threats facing soil health Understanding what we can do to improve the health of soil Mark Nason is Head of Professional Practice at the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM), and has over 25 years of experience in environmental research and education.  The podcast is for information purposes only and without limitation, does not constitute an offer, an invitation to offer or a recommendation to engage in any investment activity. Listeners should not construe the content of this podcast as investment advice and no reliance may be placed upon the content. The opinions of speakers are their personal opinions and not necessarily those of their respective companies. Foresight Group LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 198020). Foresight’s registered office is at The Shard, 32 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9SG.   {TRANSCRIPT} Lily Billings [00:00:04] Welcome to Foresight Sustainability Podcast, a series that explores the sustainability themes that will play a crucial part in shaping our world in the current period of accelerated change. In this series, we will be sitting down with industry experts to explore some of the major developments in sustainability related fields, and consider the challenges facing businesses in a new decade of climate action. With these sessions, we aim to inform and promote dialogue around the mainstreaming of sustainability. I'm your host, Lily Billings, and I'm the Head of Sustainability at Foresight Group. I'm responsible for the corporate sustainability strategy, and everything from emissions reporting down to nature recovery and social responsibility. I'm joined today by Mark Mason. Mark is a soil expert and he's here today to talk to us about all things to do with soil and how it relates to carbon and nature recovery as well. So welcome, Mark. Would you like to introduce yourself?  Mark Mason [00:01:01] Hello. Yeah, thanks, Lily. So I, well, I've worked in environmental research and education in some shape or form for my whole career, and that's involved lots of teaching, writing new degrees and apprenticeships, and doing research into soils and ecology. And so this month I started a new job as Head of Professional Practice at the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management. And so in that role, I'm really excited about it. I'm basically here to support and challenge people working in ecology and environmental management, to be ambitious for themselves and for nature.  Lily Billings [00:01:40] Brilliant. Well, we're really happy to have you here today because I think so many of us are starting to realise just how important soil is when we're thinking about how we might tackle climate change and also the impact that nature has experienced over the last few hundred years, really. So is it possible for you to tell us a little bit more about your day to day job? Obviously you've moved recently, but how you get involved with what you do around soils. It would be really interesting to hear what's a normal day look like for you.  Mark Mason [00:02:11] Yeah, well, I'm not entirely sure yet, but so basically I'm responsible for helping to evolve the training programme for CIEEM. So w

In this episode, Molly Galloway, Sustainable Investment Associate at Foresight Group discusses the importance of engaging, enabling and empowering people and organisations to work together in the pursuit of social, economic and environmental wellbeing with Guy Battle, CEO of Social Value Portal. Key Takeaways include: Understanding what social value is, and how this differs from the ‘S’ in ESG Addressing the controversial shelving of the EU’s proposed Social Taxonomy Understanding why quantifying social value in financial terms will accelerate capital toward sustainable outcomes Guy Battle is the Chief Executive of Social Value Portal – an online solution that allows organisations to measure and manage the contribution that their organisation and supply chain makes to society. The podcast is for information purposes only and without limitation, does not constitute an offer, an invitation to offer or a recommendation to engage in any investment activity. Listeners should not construe the content of this podcast as investment advice and no reliance may be placed upon the content. The opinions of speakers are their personal opinions and not necessarily those of their respective companies. Foresight Group LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 198020). Foresight’s registered office is at The Shard, 32 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9SG.   {TRANSCRIPT} Molly [00:00:04] Welcome to Foresight Sustainability Podcast, a series that explores the sustainability themes that will play a crucial part in shaping our world in the current period of accelerated change. In this series, we will be sitting down with industry experts to explore some of the major developments in sustainability-related fields and consider the challenges facing businesses in a new decade of climate action. With these sessions, we aim to inform and promote dialogue around the mainstreaming of sustainability. I'm your host, Molly Galloway, I'm a Sustainable Investment Associate in the infrastructure team at Foresight Group, an Infrastructure and Private Equity Investment Manager. Today I'm joined by Guy Battle. Guy is the Chief Executive of the Social Value Portal, an online solution that allows organisations to measure and manage the contribution that their organisation and supply chain makes to society. Welcome Guy, would you like to begin by introducing yourself? Guy [00:00:57] Good afternoon, everybody. Or good morning. My name is Guy Battle, I am the Chief Executive of the Social Value Portal. Molly [00:01:05] Great. Thank you for that. Let's jump right into it then with our first question. So the topic of this podcast is social value, but what do we actually mean by the term social value and what's the difference between social value and the social aspect of ESG, which stands for environmental, social and governance, or sustainability? Guy [00:01:26] There's a lot of jargon, alphabet soup of terms and terminologies and acronyms. So, you got ESG, as you mentioned, environmental, social governance, we've got sustainability, we've got social value, we've got social impact, we've got CSR, which stands for corporate social responsibility. There's so much jargon in this space, but I will try and explain where social value sits in it in simple terms. So if you imagine sustainability as being the overarching definition, overarching term, and that kind of comes from the Brundtland report way back in 1987, that defined sustainability as the social, economic and environmental well-being or impact, if you like. So the first takeaway from all of this is that social value and everything else is all about three elements - social, economic and environment. Within that, you've then got ESG, and ESG grew from a sort of investor analyst, and really ESG is all about risk analysis. What risk sits in your supply chain or in a business you might be investing in with respect to environmental, social and the governance side of things? Ne