Register now: Executive sustainability training

Registrations are now open to attend the International Executive Programme (IEP) on Sustainable Sourcing & Trade 2025 series of events for sustainability professionals.

Organised by the International Trade Centre (ITC) in partnership with Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform (SAI Platform), the second-last event of the month-long series is a field day at BFH-HAFL on Monday 24 March.

International Agriculture research associate Ingrid Fromm is coordinating the full-day event, which will include inputs from HAFL experts and visits to local farms. HAFL lecturer in sustainability Jan Grenz, International Agriculture lecturer Gurbir Bhullar, International Agriculture research associate Alessandra Giuliani and crop production lecturer Bernhard Streit are also involved.

The IEP is created in collaboration with a network of leading academic institutions in the field of sustainable agriculture and global value chains.

“We plan to share our expertise on the topics,” Ingrid said, “and show international participants, who are mostly executives from the food and beverage industries, some best-case examples of regenerative agriculture, sustainable sourcing and more.”

During the field trip, which is the only in-person event during the online programme conducted weekly between 25 February and 28 March, participants will have the chance to learn about regenerative agriculture, sustainability and value chains.

Any person working in sourcing, agribusiness and other related fields can enrol to attend. There is no membership requirement for professionals interested in the topic; SAI Platform members pay a reduced fee for the course. Key topics include:

• Megatrends impacting supply chains globally (led by Gabriela Alvarez).
• Nature-positive economy and sustainable trade towards carbon neutral and climate resilient agri-food systems (led by Gabriela Alvarez).
• Sustainability regulation and market requirements (led by Mathieu Lamolle).
• Tools and methodologies to improve sustainable management of agriculture supply chains (led by Mathieu Lamolle).
• Use of comparable data to demonstrate impact of sustainability measures across supply chains, in order to meet ESG requirements (led by Sandra Cooper).
• Regenerative agriculture and sustainable agriculture practices from theory to practice: learning from the field (involving the BFH-HAFL staff previously mentioned).

The course offers heads of sustainability, procurement executives, and strategy and brand marketing professionals the tools to identify sustainability risks and opportunities within global value chains, and guidance on integrating sustainability into corporate agendas.

---
Find out more and register here.
Access a pdf of the full programme.
Any HAFL staff and students who would like to be involved in the field trip are encouraged to contact Ingrid soon.

Text by Angela Wade