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.

View by Day:

Filter by Track:

Purpose & People

Tuesday, February 6th, 2018

3:30pm to 4:00pm

Your Coaching Corner: Realize the Impact You Really Want to Have

Grand Saguaro Foyer

During a 15-minute personalized one2one coaching session with ICF-certified leadership coach and GreenBiz columnist, Shannon Houde, you will have time out to get perspective on what you personally want to be achieving in your work and life. You could:

Discover what is blocking you from achieving the impact you really want,
Get strategic about the next steps of your impact career, or
Challenge your leadership perceptions to be a game changer in these challenging and complicated times.

Signups will be available on site at GreenBiz 18, with two coaching sessions available during each networking break.

4:00pm to 5:00pm

Creating a Movement of Diversity and Inclusion

Breakout

Grand Sonoran H

Organizations with diverse teams perform better. Diversity brings innovation, growth, and cultural strength. Organizations are now recognizing the importance of fostering these values as a business imperative and are coming together to tackle this issue pre-competitively, as a movement of colleagues working together. How can you really embed these values in your organization and act on your goals to achieve meaningful, long lasting change? Hear from PwC and other leaders who have pledged to act on supporting more inclusive workplaces via the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion.

Wednesday, February 7th, 2018

8:30am to 9:30am

To B or Not to B? Inside the B Corp Movement

Workshop

Grand Canyon 11

A new generation of “benefit corporations” are emerging among both smaller and larger firms. At the same time, the B Corp certification, once the realm of small businesses, is being pursued by the likes of Campbell’s and Unilever, including by gobbling up smaller B Corps. DanoneWave is poised to become the world’s first multi-billion dollar B Corp, potentially setting a new bar for corporate responsibility. This workshop will describe the difference between the public benefit corporation and B Corp certification, and how companies are leveraging both as a force for good.

9:30am to 10:00am

Your Coaching Corner: Realize the Impact You Really Want to Have

Grand Saguaro Foyer

Discover what is blocking you from achieving the impact you really want,
Get strategic about the next steps of your impact career, or
Challenge your leadership perceptions to be a game changer in these challenging and complicated times.

Signups will be available on site at GreenBiz 18, with two coaching sessions available during each networking break.

12:00pm to 1:30pm

Leadership through the Lens of Sustainability

Break

ASU Booth, Grand Saguaro Foyer

Join Bruno Sarda, VP of sustainability for NRG and professor of practice at ASU, along with alumni of ASU’s Executive Master of Sustainability Leadership program for a discussion on the role of leadership, communications, strategy and global perspectives in the development of fiscal and sustainability strategies for your organization.

12:15pm to 1:30pm

GreenBiz Guru Lunch: Wow Your Audience with a 30-second Elevator Pitch

Lunch

Sunset Lawn

During this facilitated lunch discussion, Executive Coach and Talent Advisor Shannon Houde will challenge you to answer the simple question - “what do you do?” - in just 30 seconds. You will learn how to:

Push through your fears of networking angst
Practice your pitch (and get critiqued) in a small and safe group
Walk away with a tool to continue perfecting your own elevator pitch

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: Using Strategic Foresight to Accelerate the Convergence of Sustainability and Corporate Strategy

Lunch

Sunset Lawn

Profound and accelerating changes such as climate disruption, artificial intelligence, and automation are rapidly transforming the landscape for both business and sustainability. Businesses that thrive in the future will be those that figure out how to harness innovation to address real human needs amidst disruptive change. Sustainability leaders have a crucial role to play helping companies navigate these emerging issues and build more resilient strategies, rather than simply integrating sustainability into strategies built by others. Join Jacob Park, Director of BSR’s Sustainable Futures Lab, to discuss how futures thinking, or strategic foresight, offers a powerful tool to demonstrate how topics like women’s empowerment, climate resilience, and quality employment are not only sustainability issues, but core to successful business strategy.

GreenBiz Guru Lunch: The B Corp Movement - Tools for Embedding Purpose into Your Organization

Lunch

There are now over 2,300 Certified B Corps and more than 5,000 benefit corporations around the world. If you've ever wondered about B Corp or want to know how to get involved, join this discussion to learn how the B Corps are leading the global movement of people using business as a force for good. We will discuss how the B Corp movement is helping companies embed purpose into their organizations, what the future of the movement looks like, and how your company (large or small) can get involved.

GreenBiz Guru Lunch: Beyond Green Teams - Integrating Sustainability through Corporate Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)

Lunch

Sunset Lawn

Successfully integrating sustainability into culture and practice at the corporate workplace requires the commitment of every employee. While Green Teams have long occupied this space as internal drivers, companies are finding that their sustainability efforts remain somewhat siloed. Increasingly, sustainability executives are starting to tap into their company’s ERG structure to drive and integrate sustainability inside their companies. Join this luncheon discussion to explore the potential of leveraging ERGs as a powerful advancement platform for cross-functional collaboration and building support for your company’s initiatives.

GreenBiz Guru Lunch: Integrating Social Impact into Your Business and Culture from Day 1

Lunch

Sunset Lawn

Companies with a clear sense of purpose and social impact are increasingly attractive to today’s workforce. Those that effectively integrate social and environmental impact into their businesses also enjoy better employee engagement, productivity and retention. Join this discussion for a deep dive on Salesforce's 1-1-1 integrated philanthropy model and how pledging just 1% of resources and employee time early on can help build a culture of community engagement and establish a strong foundation for additional corporate impact programs as your company matures.

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.

2:45pm to 3:45pm

Applying Biomimicry Principles to Create Successful Partnerships

Workshop

Grand Sonoran K

Leading change for a sustainable world is not a solo task. Whether you partner with another department, a company, NGO, government or academia, partnerships are critical to the success of sustainability initiatives. Partnerships can make or break your efforts. Over several billion years, nature has been perfecting the art of partnerships. Join this session to learn nature’s key criteria for enduring mutualisms and how to apply them to our work as sustainability change agents. In this session, you’ll work through an assessment tool designed to help enhance your current partnerships and structure new and future partnerships to yield the successful outcomes you seek.

3:45pm to 4:15pm

Your Coaching Corner: Realize the Impact You Really Want to Have

Grand Saguaro Foyer

Discover what is blocking you from achieving the impact you really want,
Get strategic about the next steps of your impact career, or
Challenge your leadership perceptions to be a game changer in these challenging and complicated times.

Signups will be available on site at GreenBiz 18, with two coaching sessions available during each networking break.

Thursday, February 8th, 2018

8:00am to 8:30am

Leadership through the Lens of Sustainability

Break

ASU Booth, Grand Saguaro Foyer

8:30am to 9:30am

Getting Companywide Buy-in for Your Sustainability Program

Workshop

Grand Canyon 9

Getting broad internal buy-in on sustainability is a challenge most companies face. Whether the impetus for sustainable business comes from the top, bottom or middle — there are good examples of each — pushing it out to the entire organization can be a significant barrier to success. Presenters at this workshop will share their strategies and experiences that took their programs to a new level. The session will conclude with an interactive exercise that will provide attendees with fresh approaches to driving engagement at their organization.

The Power of Purpose to Elevate Sustainability

Workshop

Grand Sonoran K

Purpose driven organizations look at every initiative through the lens of their Purpose. When sustainability doesn't naturally link to the over-arching Purpose of the organization, it risks being relegated to a box to check on a leader's to do list. In this workshop, we'll explore how to engender true commitment to sustainability at the top by making it inextricably linked to the fulfillment of the Purpose of the organization.

9:30am to 10:00am

Your Coaching Corner: Realize the Impact You Really Want to Have

Grand Saguaro Foyer

Discover what is blocking you from achieving the impact you really want,
Get strategic about the next steps of your impact career, or
Challenge your leadership perceptions to be a game changer in these challenging and complicated times.

Signups will be available on site at GreenBiz 18, with two coaching sessions available during each networking break.