The profound, intersecting issues of climate change, social injustice, and health require a new approach to systemic problem solving that empowers individuals to manifest their potential. To achieve this goal, we need to design for new cultural conditions in our organizations and communities that create the platform for more people to contribute fully and in reciprocal relationship with others. This session will explore how when we bring our full selves forward and connect as whole people, we give rise to biodiverse and resilient societies that have the capacity to thrive in the face of change.

Imagine: You’re the CEO of a global food company. You wake up one morning to a concerning headline: “Water shortages threaten crop production, prices spike 40%.” You get nervous. You know that this can impact your supply chain’s productivity and key business outputs. What do you do? How do you respond? What’s the best course of action for your business today? In 10 years? 25 years? Quantis has designed an interactive simulation to help business leaders navigate these high-stakes situations while remaining within planetary boundaries. In all sectors, planetary boundaries are the backbone of business resilience. They give guidance on how to safely use Earth’s resources so that humanity can thrive for generations to come. Yet, businesses often neglect to consider these boundaries in their strategies. When leaders understand that aligning their business with planetary boundaries is the key to future-proofing their company, they see the necessity — and value — of taking action. In this session, get in the game! Test your ability to deliver business results while building the foundation for a resilient future. A responsive dashboard will help you discover how environmental and social challenges will affect your business decisions and their consequences. You’ll walk away from our time together with insights into how current decisions impact future performance, a clear vision on why aligning with planetary boundaries can help your business play the long game, and experience collaborating with other business leaders.

We spend so much time thinking about corporate sustainability and planetary sustainability. But what about human sustainability? How do we maintain the energy we need to pursue what matters most to us—especially when our life’s work is something as challenging as protecting the earth’s climate and natural resources? This interactive workshop will help you develop strategies to connect into your purpose, maintain your energy, and develop focus to continue the work that really matters.

Climate action and social justice are inextricably linked, incredibly complex, and at a global scale and scope. While an individual organization can and must make progress on its own, cross-sector collaboration is essential for transformative change and momentum towards a world that is sustainable, just and equitable. How can companies and NGOs effectively partner to move the needle across industries and sectors? What are the primary levers and drivers of substantive change? What do sustainability professionals need to know to contribute to meaningful change at this intersection? How must companies support local organizations and communities, and how can the sustainability function drive maximum impact in these partnerships? Join this session to hear from corporate and NGO leaders on how to drive meaningful change towards an equitable and just society that benefits both planet and people.

How can circular business models help companies decrease manufacturing and its environmental impact while increasing profit? From lighting fixtures and furniture to clothing and accessories, more companies are exploring models for providing products-as-a-service through such arrangements as rental or leasing, pay-per-use and subscriptions. By redefining ownership, can these models reduce the need for “new” in lieu of fewer, better and more durable products? Can they reduce waste and the environmental impacts associated with production by revisiting disposability and obsolescence? Will these new models hinder or ensure sustainable revenue streams? Join this session to tackle these questions and explore how selling less, might just translate to earning more. 

On top of the incredibly devastating human impact, COVID-19 brought unparalleled disruption to supply chains around the globe. How can the global supply chain prepare for and withstand the next, unexpected, shift in supply and demand? First and foremost, every company must take actionable steps and implement strategies to help navigate this crisis, mitigate negative impacts and leverage data to ultimately position their supply chain to succeed in this era of turbulence. This includes reevaluating its capacity for supply chain resilience and putting a risk management plan in place, which in turn will directly improve its ecological, ethical and economic sustainability. By examining the landscape of turbulence, factoring in risks including geopolitical shifts, cyberthreats, resource depletion, climate change, and pandemics, supply chains can better prepare for the next disruption. Join this session to learn about how companies are building new adaptive, resilient, and shock resistant supply chains that are strategic and real-time responsive. By looking toward the future and anticipating what risks lay on the horizon, supply chains can build stronger, long-term relationships across the value chain, reduce supply chain fragility, and increase sustainability and resiliency.

The basis of good water stewardship is intuitive: responsible use today = equitable future availability. Companies can follow a number of paths to reach this ideal, but guideposts were established by the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) International Standard. This framework helps businesses move beyond their fence line to define the water-related context of their operations (from hydrologic balance to stakeholder sentimentality and beyond) and identify the appropriate areas for investment to address Shared Water Challenges and advance the Five Outcomes of AWS. It will help you avoid buying sunglasses when your stakeholders would have most valued a rain jacket. Join this conversation with two companies at the forefront of AWS certification in North America to discuss the benefits and lessons learned from applying the AWS Standard.

Join GreenBiz 21 roundtables to connect with like-minded participants for interactive virtual discussions around a big question or hot topic. Select your topic of interest to join a group discussion hosted by experts. Bring your own challenges, questions and ideas to these interactive discussions. Cameras on!

How can organizations embark on their digital ESG governance journey to optimize performance and compliance while creating business value? With the mounting emphasis from investors and other stakeholders, more and more companies disclose their ESG risks, impacts, and practices through company sustainability reports. Join this roundtable to discuss why digital ESG governance is at the intersection of the integrated company reporting, shifting market standards, and investor outlook.

Join GreenBiz 21 roundtables to connect with like-minded participants for interactive virtual discussions around a big question or hot topic. Select your topic of interest to join a group discussion hosted by experts. Bring your own challenges, questions and ideas to these interactive discussions. Cameras on!

Learn about sector-based tactics for going beyond your SBT, and tools like the internal carbon tax. Visit our booth to join the session.

How do circular packaging initiatives advance — or hinder — carbon reduction goals, and how should companies approach and align these strategies? Climate commitments and circular packaging goals can often reflect two pillars under one company's sustainability strategy, yet these initiatives are rarely aligned and sometimes at odds. Some circular strategies like reusable packaging or selecting  widely recyclable materials (like PET versus plastics films) can sometimes come with a higher upfront environmental cost despite life cycle emission reductions — though this calculus can be difficult to quantify. This session will explore  how companies have aligned their circular initiatives with GHG reduction goals, and approached these strategies holistically. We’ll learn what circular projects have provided emission reductions, and how companies are measuring success.

Traditional risk management approaches have failed to arm companies with the appropriate processes to address and strategically respond to high impact ESG-related events and risks. Despite recognition of the potentially catastrophic impact of a global pandemic, very few companies recognized infectious disease as a high-risk factor, and organizations were woefully underprepared to strategically and operationally respond to COVID-19. As organizations revive and revise their business models, they must implement more robust operational models and processes focused on resiliency and the management of business vulnerabilities. Organizations need to better plan and prepare for the impacts and challenges of addressing global disruptions and worldwide networks of interconnected ESG-related risks. Join this session for insights and tools to assess the vulnerability of your organization to ESG-related risk, extend traditional risk management activities to address dynamics and connectivity of risks, and build resiliency to critical and emergent ESG-risks.

Decarbonization commitment is just the start for companies working to reduce their GHG emissions.  Join EY moderator Matt Handford and guests from Cox Enterprises, JP Morgan Chase, and BAE Systems for a breakout session focused on how closing the gap between strategy to execution positions companies for successful decarbonization outcomes. This session will explore how strategic intent is only the start of a low/zero carbon transformation and the importance of execution priorities against established time horizons. It will explore different enablers companies can leverage to achieve their carbon reduction goals and how outcomes and value realization should be defined early stage to drive continual improvements. 

Many companies inadvertently create competition among their innovation and transformation efforts, but some are seeing the value in teaming up to drive better scaleable outcomes. Join this session to learn how company leaders are finding ways to connect diversity, equity and inclusion, corporate responsibility, sustainability and other transformation efforts to greater effect.

In spring 2020, GreenBiz research found the number of women in sustainability leadership positions had grown dramatically over the past decade: 58% of sustainability executives in large companies are female, as are 54% in smaller firms. But the economic downturn hasn’t been gender-blind. Layoffs triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic have hit women — especially women of color — hardest. Systemic workplace issues, such as the lack of affordable child or elder care, have been exacerbated, making historical work-life balance issues even more difficult. Join this session for insights from resilient, compassionate female sustainability leaders who are rising above this challenge. Our dialogue will address how to lead with empathy in a time of crisis; how to navigate systemic corporate obstacles such as pay equity and lack of diversity within management; how to address the heightened balancing act women face between housework, childcare and their careers; and how to develop effective mentoring networks for women and people of color.

Biomimicry, the design and production of materials, structures, and systems that are modeled on biological entities and processes, is a pathway to creating sustainable and environmentally friendly designs. Biomimicry can also be lucrative and disrupt entrenched industries. Join a panel conversation with two investors turned entrepreneurs as they share why they launched nature-inspired companies that are good for the planet and for profits, and how you can apply these concepts to your own work. You'll hear from Chad Wasilenkoff, CEO of Helicoid Industries, Sissi Liu, CEO of Metalmark Innovations, and Jared Yarnall-Schane, Entrepreneurship Director of the Biomimicry Institute.

What is the current and future role of nature-based solutions in carbon drawdown and net zero pledges? Join SilviaTerra and Verra experts to talk about the market landscape of nature-based solutions. With demand for carbon offsets accelerating and more and more corporations pledging net zero, how can we ensure forest carbon credits are real, transparent and have high impact? What trends in forest carbon and nature-based solutions are we expecting to see in the short and long term?

Join GreenBiz 21 roundtables to connect with like-minded participants for interactive virtual discussions around a big question or hot topic. Select your topic of interest to join a group discussion hosted by experts. Bring your own challenges, questions and ideas to these interactive discussions. Cameras on!

How can circular supply chains and sourcing be brought up to scale? The circular economy connects each step of the value chain from material extraction to material recovery. Every product reaches the end of its useful life. A discarded product becomes a potential source of raw materials able to cycle back into the economy, either immediately (recycling) or later through recovery from stockpiles or landfills. How can discarded products and secondary raw materials be captured and reintegrated into the economy? Join this discussion to learn about the challenges in developing circular supply chains, from local infrastructure to product development, and what trade-offs will need to be made to ensure a truly circular economy can be recognized. This discussion will start with insights from International Copper Association's latest research into the promises and limits of urban mining and how these learnings can be applied to circular sourcing strategies across materials.

Join GreenBiz 21 roundtables to connect with like-minded participants for interactive virtual discussions around a big question or hot topic. Select your topic of interest to join a group discussion hosted by experts. Bring your own challenges, questions and ideas to these interactive discussions. Cameras on!

Stop by our booth for a session on how to embed the SDGs with resources and accelerators from the UN’s corporate sustainability initiative.

While the sustainability field has long recognized the importance of social issues over the course of its evolution as a discipline, the past year of COVID-19, alongside movements such as Black Lives Matter and #MeToo, has dramatically shifted the ESG conversation toward the “S” and “G.” This has included an increased focus on taking care of employee health, safety, and wellbeing as people return to and continue work in the new normal, in addition to caring for an extended universe of stakeholders (employees’ families, contractors, suppliers, and the communities in which we work). Yet in many regards this is nothing new – and what is considered “human capital management” in the field of sustainability has been the core work of safety and health professionals for over 100 years. This session will explore the dynamic evolution in how businesses, investors, and partners in the NGO community are re-defining and elevating this interdisciplinary topic – and its critical importance to the sustainability community in the future world of work.

2019 saw many leading businesses take a renewed focus on the purpose of the corporation with the updated statement from the Business Roundtable and launch of the Principles for Purposeful Business. In 2020, the WEF focused on stakeholder capitalism and the COVID-19 pandemic has demanded a ‘great reset’ as business considers how it must evolve and respond to the societal challenges that the year has posed. What is the role of the board in understanding, managing, and responding to a crisis such as this? How can board members be better informed and equipped to ensure business resilience? How can the board ensure that it is taking account of all stakeholder views and using this to inform decision making and generate value for all stakeholders aligned with the purpose of the corporation, whilst still managing ESG-related risk and opportunity? This session will seek to answer some of these questions and provide attendees with an opportunity to hear from legal and corporate experts who will share their experiences on engaging with the board as they begin to reflect on how modernizing their approach to governance will support more successful and sustainable business.

The need for companies to address and improve diversity, equity and inclusion has long been a priority, and the events of 2020 have intensified the urgency of this imperative. In addition to prioritizing diversity in hiring, companies must cultivate inclusive and equitable cultures. What role should the sustainability professional play in creating inclusive workplace cultures? How should sustainability leaders collaborate with their colleagues in diversity and inclusion? What is the relationship between sustainability and D&I, and how should these be integrated? What will it take to achieve meaningful progress? Join this session to learn why this must be part of your work and the approaches companies and organizations are taking to drive transformative change.

The business impacts of COVID-19 are teaching us all some hard lessons: First, the value of resilience for businesses and their value chains, and the importance of improving sustainable practices. Second, the need to help companies optimize capital and cash flow as payment terms get extended due to the crisis. Managing these processes are essential for building a robust and resilient business and value chain. What if one program could address both? Join this session to hear about the next wave of innovative programs where organizations are partnering with banking and finance leaders to take action on both fronts at the scale needed for global impact. We’ll explore:

• How combining global sustainability ratings with an innovative new breed of loan and financing programs can boost working capital and accelerate cash flow for suppliers, while providing incentives for suppliers to improve sustainability performance.

• The latest developments with sustainability ratings that enable suppliers — including SMEs and non-listed companies — to benchmark performance, improve management systems to tackle challenges like diversity and anti-discrimination, working conditions, health and safety, environmental and climate impacts such as scope 3 GHG emissions, waste, and resource use.

• Examples of sustainability-linked programs such as reverse factoring of invoices, supply chain finance, and commercial loans, that use these ratings as a mechanism for offering incentives in the form of reduced lending and discount rates, or investment due diligence at global scale.

Successful leaders do not sit back and wait for new, completely formed leaders to arrive. They consciously recognize people with leadership potential and find ways to cultivate that promise. Through storytelling and interactive discussions in breakout sessions, the panel will foster an important dialog about the lifelong impact of mentoring. Participants will develop a deeper understanding of the values of leadership through mentoring and its lifelong impact and benefits, as well as tips on how to get started or deepen a mentorship practice you already have. Join this session to learn how to be a multiplier and amplifier, and leave a legacy beyond yourself.

Join this session to hear from mainstream companies with strong sustainability and CSR practices on lessons learned in bringing purpose into their businesses and the impacts they're seeing on their companies. Using a story-telling approach, three business leaders will share the drivers of their pivot to purpose, how they engaged employees, management and the board, and how they are now implementing their purpose. They will share how and why this is a quantum leap from CSR and sustainability, and why becoming a for-purpose company has become so important to their brand. Finally, panelists will provide a few tips on how a sustainability practitioner can start this conversation going at their organization.

What type of change management is required to integrate environmental sustainability in business operations? How can we best communicate the value of environmental sustainability in the workplace? And what are the performance indicators that show we have created a culture of environmental sustainability? Join this roundtable discussion to share ideas with fellow participants on what it takes to create long-term value and a culture for environmental sustainability at companies, including strategies for innovative thinking and engaging internal advocates throughout your company.

Join GreenBiz 21 roundtables to connect with like-minded participants for interactive virtual discussions around a big question or hot topic. Select your topic of interest to join a group discussion hosted by experts. Bring your own challenges, questions and ideas to these interactive discussions. Cameras on!

In the wake of a global pandemic, political and economic instability and calls for social justice, how are companies quantifying their impact in a way that is meaningful for employees and recruits, and useful for investors, raters and rankers? Join this roundtable for a discussion on how some companies are starting to turn the corner of intent vs. action and supporting that with new disclosures, programs and more. What does meaningful disclosure look like? Is including D&I metrics in your ESG report enough? And how do we balance data with narrative to show authenticity? This discussion will give you an opportunity to explore these questions and hear from your peers to help you determine what approach will be right for your company.

Join GreenBiz 21 roundtables to connect with like-minded participants for interactive virtual discussions around a big question or hot topic. Select your topic of interest to join a group discussion hosted by experts. Bring your own challenges, questions and ideas to these interactive discussions. Cameras on!