United Kingdom

Climate change, deforestation and poverty are global issues that go beyond the reach of single companies or governments; it takes public-private cooperation to solve them. We believe the market needs an organisation with the value IDH offers; the ability to be a trusted, independent convenor to deliver results at a rapid pace and ultimately drive systemic change. IDH specialises in supporting various stakeholders in making change happen. We bring together partners such as civil society organisations (CSOs), farmer organisations and governments at a local level to coordinate and drive sustainable change, thus creating the optimal conditions for scaling new business models and unlocking their full impact potential.

IDH UK will seek to identify ambitious actions to drive more resilient and sustainable agricultural systems that mitigate deforestation and environmental degradation, while supporting job creation and improved livelihoods.

Many of IDH’s existing brand partners are headquartered in the UK or have major operations in the UK market. These partners have a desire to convene within the UK pertaining to topic areas to which they are seeking solutions, including, but not limited to deforestation free commodity supply chains, environmental footprint reduction (GHG, water, chemicals), living wage and living income, circularity, and alternative materials with a focus on the textiles sector.

The IDH UK team will initially focus on convening stakeholders on these topics, in close consultation with experts from IDH HQ . Over time, our agenda will potentially expand to cover other topic areas based on stakeholder input.

As we begin our journey in the UK, we invite you to join us for a series of webinar learning sessions. Our webinar series intends to explore the themes and issues above in a pre-competitive forum. We will bring together private partners, CSOs and IDH experts to provide a platform for guided learning and open discussion.

We have planned the following webinars for the coming months:

• Living Wage –  Understand the commitments made by Dutch retailers, and the IDH Living Wage Roadmap.
• Living Income  – Learn about, and contribute to the IDH approach on achieving a living income for smallholders.
• Deforestation free supply chains – Keep up to date with the work of the UK government’s Global Resource Initiative (GRI) and understand implications for your business.
• Alternative materials – Explore current barriers to scaling the use of alternative sustainable materials and understand material priorities for the textiles sector.

We will contact you directly if we have identified this work to be of value to you and your business. Please feel free to contact us if there are other topics you would like us to cover, or if you would like to be added to our mailing list.