Program

EVENT PROGRAM

FEB 6 - 8, 2018 PHOENIX, AZ , JW MARRIOTT DESERT RIDGE

Program subject to change. Sessions do not require pre-registration, unless otherwise noted.

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Materiality & Metrics

Tuesday, February 6th, 2018

8:30am to 12:30pm

Tutorial: Fulfilling the Potential of Business to Realize the SDGs (All-Access pass required)

Tutorial

Grand Canyon 10-11

While leading businesses have long been engaged in efforts to integrate sustainability at the core of corporate strategy and decision-making, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide us with a new lens through which to translate global needs and ambitions into business solutions. These solutions will enable companies to better manage their risks, anticipate consumer demand, harness the potential of historic growth markets, secure access to needed resources and strengthen their supply chains, while moving the world towards the delivery of the SDGs and a more prosperous society for all.

While business is not being asked to deliver the SDGs by itself, this complex and urgent agenda will not be realized without involvement at scale by the private sector. Converting the SDGs into meaningful and widespread corporate engagement, and ushering in the inclusive and sustainable economic growth that the Goals represent, will be a sizeable challenge.

Forward-looking businesses are already working towards having a meaningful impact on the SDGs - in particular by:

developing a thorough understanding of how their activities translate into economic, environmental and social impacts in the context of the SDGs;
setting ambitious goals to implement the SDGs, including by incorporating responsible business practices across strategies and operations;
pursuing impactful contributions to the 2030 Agenda through a strong commitment to universal principles in relation to human rights, equality and the environment;
developing business solutions to address sustainability challenges;
collaborating with peers to develop a collective vision and roadmaps to realize substantial sector transformation;
working across sectors to help transform entire economic systems;
disclosing SDG performance and progress;
openly advocating for key policy and finance enablers that will help achieve a tipping point.

This session will delve into the business implications of the SDGs along the spectrum of risks, opportunities, transparency & governance, and collaboration. It will feature insights from leading companies and organizations working toward delivering action.

To see slides from this tutorial, click here.

Tutorial: Leveraging Supply Chain Data to Set Science-Based Targets (All-Access pass required)

Tutorial

Grand Canyon 9

A growing number of companies are setting science-based targets to reduce their GHG emissions in line with the Paris Agreement goals to limit global temperature increase to well-below 2°C. Over 300 have committed to take action through the Science Based Targets initiative. These companies and others wishing to join are expected to set ambitious goals to reduce their scope 3 emissions when significant. According to data collected by CDP, about 40% of the global GHG emissions are driven – or influenced – by companies through their purchases and the products they sell. CDP’s Supply Chain Program offers companies the potential to collect valuable information from suppliers and engage with them using its unique global platform. Come to this workshop to learn about emerging trends in supplier engagement and science-based target setting. This workshop is for companies and other stakeholders interested in setting science-based targets, with an emphasis on collecting data and reducing scope 3 emissions in their supply chain.

GreenBiz 18 In-Depth Tutorials are intensive half-day sessions held prior to the start of the conference. These are designed to offer participants an opportunity to dive deeper into a topic of interest and develop tangible knowledge and skills. In addition, attendees will have a greater opportunity to network with their peers in these interactive sessions. Concurrent tutorials will be held the morning of Tuesday, February 6, and are available only to those who purchase an All Access Pass.

4:00pm to 5:00pm

Reporting SDG Commitments: Harmonizing the Landscape of Tools

Workshop

Grand Sonoran J

When the Sustainable Development Goals were adopted more than two years ago, the private sector was firmly seen as a core component of the strategy needed to successfully meet the world’s agenda for sustainable development. But how do companies appropriately apply quality disclosures and a rigorous reporting process to the SDGs without becoming burdened by ‘reporter fatigue’? Come learn how reporting organizations are working together to harmonize reporting tools to help companies better measure, report and articulate their contributions towards the SDGs.

Strategies for Setting and Advancing Breakthrough Goals

Workshop

Grand Sonoran I

Setting and advancing compelling goals that stretch an organization to greater heights is a challenge across sectors, but getting it right has many benefits. Ambitious goals can accelerate an organization’s success in creating stakeholder value. Carefully crafted public goals reveal your intentions for making your organization and the world better for all stakeholders, while serving as an internal management tool and source of inspiration for employee creativity. How do you know what goals to set, how high to aim and which metrics to use? How do you overcome unforeseen obstacles to implementation? During this session, you will learn strategies for setting and advancing breakthrough goals based on the experiences of panelists from the public and private sector. Panel members will share lessons learned and educational case studies that illustrate how setting and advancing breakthrough goals is inspiring stakeholders, changing industries and creating new sources of value.

Wednesday, February 7th, 2018

8:30am to 9:30am

Why Your Company Needs a Water Replenishment Strategy

Workshop

Grand Sonoran I

Coke recently announced its achievement of 100% water replenishment for its operations. Now, other beverage companies are following suit. Intel recently announced plans to restore 100% of its water use - the first tech company to do so. This workshop will share learnings from the early movers, helping participants understand how to define water replenishment, establish a program, avoid potential pitfalls, and develop effective criteria for evaluation and success.

Closing the Sustainability–Financial Performance Gap

Workshop

Grand Canyon 12

There is a growing recognition among the mainstream investment community that ESG practices have a significant impact on a company’s financial performance. This has resulted in a growing demand for ESG performance data from companies by investors. To date, company ESG data has been inconsistent and unreliable due to a lack of clear standards and metrics. Groups like the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board provide sector-specific ESG standards that enable industry-comparable data on issue that matter most to performance management and communications with investors. As sustainability practices evolve, so does the gap between business functions, including the sustainability team, the finance department, investor relations and the investment community. This panel will look at how the sustainability team can build alignment and close the gap with the finance department, investor relations and the investment community.

12:15pm to 1:30pm

GreenBiz Guru Lunch: Growing Global Regulations for Corporate Non-Financial Reporting

Lunch

Sunset Lawn

From 2013 to 2016 the amount of mandatory or voluntary regulations that either require or encourage organizations to report sustainability related information more than doubled from 180 to 383 regulations. And the number continues to grow. How can companies keep track and know that they are meeting all the required regulations? Join us as we discuss this growing phenomenon and how companies can meet the expectations while also benefiting from disclosure in our complex global economy.

Join like-minded attendees for interactive moderated lunch discussions around a particular topic. Each table discussion will be led by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants.

GreenBiz Guru Lunch: Soil Health – A Practical Approach for Achieving SDGs

Lunch

Sunset Lawn

Farmers and ranchers manage approximately 70% of the land in the United States. To them, sustainability is an abstract concept - soil health is not. Improving soil health can help farmers and ranchers build resilience to climate change, reduce energy use and economic risk, and increase profitability. Practices that promote soil health increase carbon sequestration, improve water quality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and increase nutrient densities in our food supply. The Soil Health Institute is partnering with leaders in industry, scientists, producers and key stakeholders by providing them with science-based information, decision support tools, and measurement standards to increase adoption. We invite you to join us for a conversation on how to make the most of soil health in your organization and take advantage of a win-win situation for producers and the public. This discussion will be most valuable for sustainability professionals in the food and agriculture industry.

GreenBiz Guru Lunch: Under Pressure - How Will Companies Respond to Demands for Better Reporting on Climate Risk?

Lunch

Sunset Lawn

We are seeing increased pressure from investors for companies to enhance and standardize their climate risk disclosure to enable more effective pricing of climate risk. Pension funds are divesting from fossil fuels. City governments are suing oil companies for damage to their cities. Citizens are demanding more transparency. What will this year’s financial and sustainability reporting reveal about level of awareness and actions being taken by companies to identify and manage climate risks? How do companies move from boiler-plate disclosure to decision-useful information?

GreenBiz Guru Lunch: Carbon Neutrality - Is it Still Relevant?

Lunch

Sunset Lawn

Former United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres managed expectations for the 2015 Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris at the Lima negotiations by making the point that carbon neutrality is in fact what policy and regulation will have to deliver by the end of the century, if not sooner. But is setting and achieving a net zero emissions goal still relevant to business? An obvious consideration for any company publicly committing to bold climate targets is the value it will deliver for the business and its stakeholders. The company may want to showcase its leadership, engage its employees and investors, and differentiate from its competitors. But with options including carbon neutrality, net positive impact, 100% renewable energy, an internal price on carbon, and engagement with the Sustainable Development Goals among others, how can these programmes be customised to deliver the most value across the organisation?

1:30pm to 2:30pm

Purpose-Driven Disclosure and Reporting

Breakout

Grand Canyon 13

Purpose-driven disclosure focuses on how external mainstream corporate reporting influences investors in their resource allocation decisions and practices. How does disclosure of ESG information affect the achievement of sustainable outcomes within companies through investment decisions and actions? Hear from leaders in WBCSD’s Redefining Value program and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s Conservation and Financial Markets Initiative on how this approach can ensure disclosure supports decision-making and action on ESG matters by companies and investors; aligns corporate disclosure on ESG with the demands and needs of financial market participants; supports disclosure that reflects true economic impact, including the impact of ESG on financial performance; and ensures that disclosure supports wider policy goals (like the Paris Agreement and transition to a low-carbon economy), green financing, and sustainable outcomes.

How Climate Resilient is Your Company?

Workshop

Grand Sonoran I

Senior management and boards are facing growing pressures from investors, customers, and regulators to be able to answer this question: what is climate change doing to your organization? In response, management teams will need a clear and common framework to assess and report on related risk, strategy and opportunity associated with climate resilience. This session will provide an overview of why your company needs to define its climate resilience and approaches it can adopt to assess its climate resilience, including the implications of the recommendations of the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the application of scenario stress-testing to assess climate resilience. Join this session to hear how organizations are working to apply these recommendations, the challenges they have faced in assessing climate resilience, and solutions they have developed.

Leveraging Data and Technology to Advance Corporate Citizenship and Competitiveness

Workshop

Grand Sonoran K

What if corporations had an intelligent and automated real-time way to secure large-scale, last mile data on their CSR and Sustainability performance from across geographies? How are corporations scaling social impact without losing sight of all that goes into a citizenship or a sustainability program? Join this panel discussion with leaders from Fortune 500 companies to understand how technology is transforming impact measurement and management, by ensuring that every development dollar is made to work harder.

2:45pm to 3:45pm

Integrating ESG Risks into Enterprise Risk Management

Workshop

Grand Canyon 10

Sustainability risks are, at the end of the day, business risks. Although they can be new and emerging, complex and longer term, issues such as climate change, human rights or resource scarcity all have the ability to impact an organization’s profitability, success or even survival. This session will provide insights on how to leverage existing ERM activities, company processes and ESG tools and frameworks to better identify, assess, manage and report on ESG-related risks.

Coinciding with the release of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures and the updated COSO Enterprise Risk Management Framework: Integrating with Strategy and Performance, this session will be a timely launch of a WBCSD-COSO report detailing practical guidance for companies looking to integrate ESG-related risks into risk management activities. This guidance is aimed at addressing a number of issues plaguing successful management of ESG-related risks - including limited knowledge of ESG risks, lack of integration between ESG and those responsible for risk management or strategic activities, and difficulties quantifying ESG risks.

How to Engage Your Investor Relations Team

Workshop

Grand Sonoran J

The financial markets continue to embrace ESG investment strategies, which in turn drive the increasing demand for corporate disclosure of ESG information. For CSOs inside publicly traded companies, the Investor Relations Officer (IRO) can be an amazing ally for ensuring sustainability performance is truly recognized by the markets and other key internal colleagues, like the General Council and the Corporate Secretary. Hear leading CSOs explain how they evolved their sustainability roles to engage more effectively with key internal partners and how active engagement with IROs and GCs lead to enhanced engagement with investors.

Are You Letting Nature Drop Off Your Priority List?

Workshop

Grand Canyon 13

Markets and businesses are already receiving sustainability information, but is natural capital dropping off priority lists too easily? Making decisions based on only partial information leaves investors and companies open to risks and missed opportunities. In this interactive session you’ll explore the link between natural capital, finance and decision-making by jumping into the shoes of a decision-maker who needs to manage trade-offs, preferences, risks and opportunities with the information you have at hand.

Thursday, February 8th, 2018

8:30am to 9:30am

Contextualizing Sustainability Performance: Tools for Corporate Strategy-Making and Goal-Setting

Workshop

Grand Canyon 13

Join this hands-on workshop to hear learning from the Embedding Project’s Global Corporate Community of Practice on Contextual Strategy-making. Organizations are increasingly being asked to provide more than a materiality assessment to ‘contextualize’ their sustainability performance. While there are various initiatives and tools designed to aid this process, including the Future-Fit Benchmark, Net Positive, Science-Based Targets, and the MultiCapital Scorecard, corporate organizations have asked for more information about how they all fit together and what the shift to context might look like in practice.

In response, the Embedding Project has been working together with organizations and experts and developed a guide that explains the road to context. The guide provides guidance to help companies integrate real and relevant socio-ecological thresholds into their strategy and goal-setting processes. A companion casebook was developed that highlights how early pioneers are applying these ideas in practice. Hear what early leaders are doing and how this concept can be applied to your own organization and work.