Deloitte Climate & Sustainability Competency Lab 2025

January 30 2025; 10:30 – 12:00 

Lee Ann Jackson

Evolving landscape of food systems policies: how shifting policies are transforming the agrifood sector

The lecture will highlight new developments in food systems policies, including EU agri-food policies, and how these policies incentivize transformation towards sustainable outcomes. The diversity of approaches creates opportunities as innovative policies can have positive cascading effects within the agri-food sector. At the same time there is need for supply chain actors to work together to avoid possible fragmentation associated with diverse reporting requirements.
It will be held by Dr. Lee Ann Jackson with the contribution of Randy Jagt (Partner at Deloitte Netherlands and the Future of Food leader for Deloitte Global).

Lee Ann Jackson is the Head of the Agro-food Trade and Markets Division in the OECD’s Trade and Agriculture Directorate. She leads the work examining the links between policies and outcomes on food and agricultural markets. She has over 20 years of experience working in the area of trade and agriculture, including 16 years working at the WTO, where she served as the Secretary to the Committee on Agriculture, advising WTO member countries on issues related to agricultural trade policy and multilateral negotiations. She has served as a consultant for leading international organisations involved in agriculture policy and trade, including the Food and Agriculture Organization and the Consultative Group for International Agriculture Research.

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February 20 2025; 10:30 – 12:00

Ben Groom

Nature positive impacts in business organisations: measuring and valuing biodiversity

In this lecture, Ben Groom will discuss the importance of measuring and valuing biodiversity for decision making. Drawing from numerous studies including the Dasgupta Review, he will highlight the multiple ways of measuring biodiversity and the multiple economic values of biodiversity ranging from supporting and regulating ecosystem services, insurance/resilience services alongside cultural, bequest and option values. The difficulties of economics valuation of biodiversity lead to a cost-based proposal for biodiversity valuation to inform government investment appraisal and even private sector disclosure. The approach will be illustrated using examples from Europe and the tropics.
The webinar will also feature a contribution from Daniele Strippoli, Partner at Deloitte Climate & Sustainability and Nature Service Leader at Deloitte North-Southern Europe.

Ben Groom has a PhD in economics from the Department of Economics at University College London, and he joined the University of Exeter from the London School of Economics in 2020 as the Dragon Capital Chair in Biodiversity Economics.
He is a member of the HM Treasury Biodiversity Working Group, which looks at how to ensure biodiversity is accounted for Cost benefit Analysis of public policy and investment, and has advised governments across the world on their approach to long-term policy and investment in relation to environmental issues such as biodiversity and climate change. He has also worked as a consultant to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Pakistan and the OECD.
His research interests include biodiversity and climate change economics, land-use change, and the causes of deforestation, habitat, and biodiversity loss.

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April 10 2025; 11:00 – 12:30

Ben Caldecott

Financing the energy transition: when and how

This lecture will explore how finance and investment influence the energy transition and, in turn, how the energy transition shapes financial decisions. It will also examine the expected trajectory of this shift and the role of corporate transition planning in supporting global decarbonization efforts.

Ben Caldecott is the founding Director of the Oxford Sustainable Finance Group and the Lombard Odier Associate Professor of Sustainable Finance at the University of Oxford. Ben is also the founding Director and Principal Investigator of the UK Centre for Greening Finance & Investment. He is a Visiting Professor at the Wealth Management Institute in Singapore. In November 2024 he became Chair of the International Transition Plan Network (ITPN) Advisory Group, launched at COP29. He currently serves as a Trustee of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and on the UK Climate Change Committee, as well as on DBS Bank’s Board Sustainability Committee, UK Export Finance’s Export Guarantees Advisory Council, and the SBTi Technical Council.

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May 15 2025; 11:00 – 12:30

Teresa Domenech

Circular economy transformation in organisations 

The Circular Economy proposes a new way to create value in organisations by transforming the way they operate to maintain circular flows of resources, based on regenerative and sustainability approaches. In this session we will explore key principles of CE in organisations, key drivers and challenges of the transition towards circularity and discuss pathways for implementation and adoption of circular practices.

Teresa Domenech is an Associate Professor in Industrial Ecology and the Circular Economy at the University College of London (UCL) and founder director of the UCL Circular Economy Lab and the UCL Plastic Innovation Hub. She has contributed to leading international research in the areas of sustainable industrial development, decarbonization pathways and the circular economy. Her expertise covers resource and energy implications of industrial sectors including construction (metals and cement), plastics, textiles and the bio-economy. She has also explored the resource implications (e.g., critical materials reliance) of green mobility (e.g., EV batteries) and renewable technologies. Her work also explores resource flows in cities and sustainable urban transitions.

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