CHINA, CONGO, CORNWALL Insights for Nature Finance, Supply Chains & Data Integrity
A grounded, solutions-focused evening examining the realities behind ESG claims in global supply chains.
Drawing on first-hand experience from the DRC, Cambodia, China and Indonesia, speakers Grace Smith and Kate A Larsen explore data integrity, critical minerals, human rights due diligence, regenerative investment and what genuinely responsible value chains require.
SupplyESChange and Inverra Consulting invite you to join them during London Climate Action Week for an honest conversation about what ESG looks like from the ground up.
Global sustainability claims are everywhere — the ground-level reality is far more complicated. As demand for critical minerals and ethical supply chains grows and reporting obligations tighten, the gap between stated commitments and verifiable impact has never been more consequential.
Together, Grace and Kate will explore how the minerals in your phone, the carbon credits in your portfolio, and the supply chains behind everyday manufacturing are connected by the same failures — and how better finance, honest data, deeper stakeholder engagement, and genuine ethical accountability can begin to fix them, ensuring that money meant to drive change actually reaches the communities and ecosystems that need it most.
The evening will cover:
Critical minerals, mining transparency and natural resource governance in the DRC
Data integrity failures in carbon credits, factory audits and ESG reporting
Human rights risks in battery and manufacturing supply chains
Human Rights and Environmental due diligence and evolving EU (CSDDD, CSRD, EUDR, EUFLR) regulations, and US forced labour import bans
Lessons from Cambodia — citizen science, plastic pollution and digital innovation
China forced labour and environmental insights
Financing and realising ethical value chains for community and value chains resilience
Regenerative investment: benefits from circular economy, local manufacturing and on-shoring.
Participants will leave with:
Ground-truthing from the field — First-hand accounts from practitioners who have worked directly with communities, governments, workers and NGOs across the DRC, Cambodia, China and Southeast Asia.
An honest assessment of data integrity risks — Concrete examples of falsification, fake records, inadequate monitoring and incentive failures across carbon markets, factory audits and mineral supply chains — and what organisations can do.
Practical frameworks for responsible sourcing — An introduction to the RIGOUR Framework for human rights and environmental due diligence, and to project-level tools for community engagement, traceability and environmental compliance.
Connections between global regulation and local reality — Clarity on how the EU CSDDD, CSRD, EUDR, EUFLR, UK MSA, and USA TEFTA and UFLPA and other frameworks apply to real sourcing decisions, with focus on investor levers and downstream company action.
Solutions-focused takeaways — Including macro approaches (ILO Better Work, Fair Cobalt Alliance, community partnerships) and local alternatives such as responsible onshoring and Cornish Lithium as a live example of traceable, lower-footprint supply.
This is a Clean drinks (alcohol free) event.
Main Panelists
1- Grace Smith - Founder & CEO, Inverra Consulting. Grace is a senior environmental and natural resource management specialist with 15+ years across Africa and Asia. Grace has led ESG, governance and traceability projects for the World Bank and SAGINT, with expertise spanning critical minerals, circular economy systems and environmental policy across the DRC, Cambodia, Indonesia and Brazil.
2- Kate Larsen - Founder, SupplyESChange. Kate is the creator of the RIGOUR Framework for supply chain human rights and environmental due diligence. She specialises in responsible sourcing, China supply chains, forced labour risk and ESG governance, helping organisations navigate CSDDD, CSRD and responsible business conduct requirements.
Guest Speaker
Dr. Marcelo de Andrade is a Brazilian sustainability entrepreneur and founder of Pro Natura International. With more than three decades of experience, he has led sustainable development initiatives across emerging markets and developed the Shared Value Platform model, which aligns corporate investment with social and environmental outcomes. He has also advised leading multinational companies and co-founded several sustainability-focused investment platforms.