#SustyTalk Live: Upfield’s Sally Smith and Olio’s Saasha Celestial-One on creating a sustainable food system

Upfield’s global sustainability director Sally Smith, global sustainability director and Olio’s chief operating officer Saasha Celestial-One join edie on the SustyTalk sofa, sponsored by Persefoni, to discuss what steps businesses can take to fix a broken food system.


Launched during the Covid-19 lockdowns, #SustyTalk is an ongoing series of video conversations that keeps edie’s audience connected to the inspirational business leaders who are continuing to drive sustainability and climate action.

Each SustyTalk Live video was recorded at the flagship edie 23 event in London on 1/2 March and the sessions that you’re watching are sponsored by Persefoni. An evolution of the multi-award-winning Sustainability Leaders Forum, edie 23 is the premier annual event dedicated to achieving environmental and social transformations through courageous business leadership.

This is the third in the SustyTalk Live series from edie 23. Watch episode here and episode two here.

For the third of the live SustyTalk series, edie is joined by Upfield’s global sustainability director Sally Smith, global sustainability director and Olio’s chief operating officer Saasha Celestial-One to discuss the sustainability issues facing the food system and what can be done to remedy them.

“There is a lot of challenge in the food system right now,” Smith told edie. “We see it every day…food security challenges, zoonotic diseases, climate, nature loss and biodiversity loss and those challenges are much more prevalent every day.

“I see a huge amount of action in this area though. There are some great solutions coming through for action, like food waste solutions, fantastic plant-based alternatives that actually will help shift the system to something we need to get towards, which is a plant-orientated sustainable food system.”

Later on in the conversation Celestial-One stated that food waste was still a major issue and that behaviour change was a crucial hurdle to overcome.

“I think we are hardwired as humans to really appreciate getting something of value and we don’t like to see something of value go to waste,” she said. “Our biggest challenge, even given that the challenge of food waste is so vast, is getting businesses and people to take that first step…and to take the intervention or action to make sure that food reaches someone.”

Click here to see our catalogue of #SustyTalk interviews.

Want to be featured on a future episode of #SustyTalk? Email newsdesk@fav-house.com. Please bear in mind that our interview calendar is typically booked several weeks in advance. We are now booked for the remainder of March.

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