London Seminar 2023 Seminar

5 Jul 2023 09:30–17:30 London

Join us at this year's Seminar, with the theme Transparency: an Open Book. We'll explore the increasing expectations on companies to gather, share and disclose information on their sustainability impacts across the value chain - for example to understand the impacts on nature, ensuring commodities are deforestation free, human rights due diligence, Greenhouse Gas emissions, and options to make our books more circular.

The seminar is our annual event where we bring the publishing community and our stakeholders together from across book supply chains to discuss the hot issues, be inspired by the latest innovations, and make new connections. The event will be attended by staff from the 28 publishers that participate in the Book Chain Project, as well as representatives from the pulp & paper mills, printers, certification bodies, NGOs and other stakeholders who we engage with.

The Seminar will be a full day of activities, guest speaker presentations and opportunities for networking and catching up, including a guided tour around the Wetland Centre.

Attendance is limited, please register below and we will confirm your place.
Please email us if you have any dietary requirements.

This event is in the past

Downloads & Links

Engaging the value chain sustainability
5 Jul 2023 10:00–10:45 London

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Joanna Yarrow
Chief Sustainability Officer, Founding Partner, M&C Saatchi Group, M&C Saatchi LIFE

Joanna is an international expert in sustainable living & a respected voice in sustainable business.

She is Chief Sustainability Officer for the M&C Saatchi Group (the world’s largest independent creative solutions company) & Founding Partner of M&C Saatchi LIFE – a strategic creative consultancy making sustainable living mainstream. She is also NED at sustainable placemaking company Human Nature (designing & places that make sustainable living easy & attractive) & sits on P&G’s global sustainability advisory board.

With over 25 years’ experience in applying sustainability principles to projects ranging from household makeovers to multinational business strategies, Joanna brings confidence, humour, vision & clarity to the challenges of net zero, ESG & healthy, sustainable living.

Biodiversity
5 Jul 2023 10:45–11:30 London

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Jake White
Head of Legal (Advocacy & Campaigns), WWF-UK

Jake White trained at a regional commercial law firm and then moved into the City to practise intellectual property. However that didn’t suit hence he joined government where he had 10 very stimulating years in the Government Legal Service advising on a range of areas from outer space, State aid to nuclear energy. Jake left government to join the third sector in 2012 where he worked first with Friends of the Earth and most recently at WWF where he is head of legal advocacy.

He has a particular interest in equality and human rights and has worked with NGOs in the Middle East and for Britain’s equality and human rights regulator (the Equality and Human Rights Commission). He is particularly interested in exploring this intersection in his work including in relation, for example, in relation to the great forests of the world and the peoples that live in them.

Human Rights
5 Jul 2023 11:45–12:30 London

Human Rights

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Francesca de Meillac
Advisor, Shift

As an Advisor at Shift, Francesca works with companies and financial institutions to support their implementation of the UN Guiding Principles (UNGPs).

Francesca was previously Principal Consultant at Environmental Resources Management (ERM), where she led ERM’s UK human rights team, and global technical community on modern slavery and human rights. Francesca advised multinational companies to assess and address human rights risks, build internal capacity and develop and implement fit-for-purpose policies and management systems. She also worked closely with financial institutions including development finance institutions (DFIs), commercial banks, export credit agencies and private equity on assessing and managing human rights risks in accordance with international standards including the UNGPs, IFC Performance Standards and Equator Principles IV.

She has international work experience across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America including on-the-ground experience conducting stakeholder consultation, human rights impact assessments (HRIA), environmental and social due diligence (ESDD) and monitoring. Francesca is also experienced in designing and delivering training and capacity building on social performance, human rights and sustainable finance.

Francesca holds an MSc in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and a MA in Social and Political Sciences from Cambridge University. She is from Trinidad & Tobago.

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Zuzana Mocilenkova
Advisor, Shift

As an Advisor at Shift, Zuzana works with companies and other strategic partners to support their implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs).

Prior to joining Shift, Zuzana worked as an independent business and human rights consultant, and as Principal Consultant at Labor Solutions, a social enterprise using technology to advance human rights throughout company value chains. In these roles, Zuzana supported businesses across different sectors to use worker voice tools and developed training content on effective grievance mechanisms in line with the UNGPs.

Prior to being a consultant, Zuzana was Head of Ethical Trade and Human Rights at Stella McCartney for over 7 years. In this role, Zuzana led the practical implementation of the UNGPs across the full due diligence spectrum and traveled extensively throughout the company’s sourcing regions in Europe and Asia. Here she gained hands-on experience working with suppliers, workers and local experts to identify root causes of human rights risks and design and deliver capacity building programs. This included carrying out stakeholder engagement, improving purchasing practices and encouraging company participation in collaborative industry programs. Zuzana has particular expertise in small, artisanal and informal fashion supply chains.

Zuzana holds a Master of Applied Human Rights from the University of York. In her thesis, she researched participatory approaches to addressing discrimination against the Roma minority population in Slovakia. Zuzana is a Slovak and British national.

Deforestation-free pulp & paper
5 Jul 2023 14:00–14:45 London

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Jade Saunders
Executive Director, World Forest ID

Jade Saunders is the Executive Director of World Forest ID, an international non-profit, with the mission to build a global reference database of forest risk commodities including timber, to aid verification of species and harvest origin of products in global trade.

Jade has over 20 years of experience working on forest governance, trade and environmental crime, most notably as an Associate Fellow of the Environment and Society Programme at Chatham House and as Senior Policy Analyst at Forest Trends. She has also served as strategic advisor to ForestMind and policy analyst at the European Forest Institute FLEGT Facility.

At World Forest ID, in addition to developing the organization's overall strategy, Jade's main focus is on overseeing the data science and machine learning workstream. She works closely with governments and industry on mainstreaming scientific testing for supply chain traceability and promoting the practical application of the World Forest ID reference database.

Climate action in the supply chain
5 Jul 2023 14:45–15:30 London

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Lydia Elliott
Supply Chains Manager, We Mean Business Coalition

As Supply Chains Manager at the We Mean Business Coalition, Lydia Elliott works across supply chain climate action and net zero strategy. For the SME Climate Hub, a core initiative of the We Mean Business Coalition, Lydia works to enable large companies value chain action and helps to develop the tools that small and medium sized businesses need to take climate action.

Breakout sessions
5 Jul 2023 16:00–17:00 London

Venue