Program

FEB 15 - 17, 2022 | SCOTTSDALE, AZ JW MARRIOTT CAMELBACK INN

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Net Zero

Tuesday, February 15th, 2022

9:00am to 12:00pm

Tutorial: Looking Beyond the Megawatt in Your Energy Procurement Strategy

Tutorial

Paradise Ballroom 4

As more organizations are turning to clean energy procurements as part of sustainability and net zero goals, the renewable energy market is maturing, with new types of projects and contracts available. Now buyers are able to take into account more holistic criteria when sourcing a new project, ensuring efforts to decarbonize aren’t creating other unintended consequences. Join this session to hear experts share the latest on corporate clean energy trends and join small roundtable discussions to figure out the best next steps for your organization. This tutorial will dive into how to design goals and projects to ensure your sustainability strategy is thoughtful and impactful.

Topics covered will include:

Maximizing avoided emissions through choosing resources and location
Considering land use and habitat to support the local ecosystem
Engaging the local community to create local benefits
Prioritizing energy access and a just transition
Managing materials to ensure technologies have an end-of life plan
Understanding how to prioritize project trade-offs when you can’t have it all

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. An all-access pass is required to participate.

3:30pm to 4:30pm

Building and Executing a High-Impact Net Zero Strategy

Breakout

Paradise Ballroom 4

Targeting net-zero emissions is the new North Star for climate policy, yet doubts remain about the integrity of many corporate targets. Sadly, accusations of greenwashing are too often justified. Some companies are focusing on 2050 instead of taking immediate action. Others are over-investing in carbon offsets. So how can your organization craft a net-zero strategy that brings real climate benefits while also advancing other business objectives? Leading experts from the public and private sectors will unpack the criteria behind high-quality targets and present case studies on how to simultaneously deliver profits and emissions reductions.

Climate-Smart Reforesting After Years of Record-Setting Wildfires

Breakout

Paradise Ballroom 1

Forests are one of our best nature-based solutions to climate change. But after back-to-back years of devastating climate-fueled wildfires in the West, are they still a viable tool? This session explores the consequences for humans, wildlife and the climate when so much forest is destroyed. Should we replant? Will it just burn again? How do wildfires impact companies that use tree-planting to help reach their net-zero goals? Learn how key leaders in post-wildfire restoration are using data to create resilient forests that are more likely to survive an evolving climate. And, we’ll explore the factors companies consider when deciding whether to invest in post-wildfire reforestation.

Wednesday, February 16th, 2022

7:45am to 8:45am

10 Billion Reasons for Sustainable Ag Partnerships

Breakfast Session

Rita's Kitchen

Our purpose starts with the soil and the challenge of feeding nearly 10 billion people by the year 2050. As the world’s largest provider of crop inputs, services and solutions, Nutrien plays a critical role in feeding the future by helping growers to increase food production in a sustainable manner. With a goal to support, track and measure 75 million sustainable and productive acres by the year 2030, Nutrien is moving the agriculture industry and the world forward – today and for generations to come. Hear the reality of what is happening in the field from agricultural experts, and join a network that welcomes collaboration, innovation and candid discussions. Learn more at https://www.nutrien.com/sustainability.

9:00am to 10:00am

Harnessing Internal Support for Impactful Energy Strategies

Breakout

Paradise Ballroom 7-8

Successful corporate energy strategies aren't just the responsibility of energy managers. To be impactful and efficient, they require cross departmental support — such as stakeholders from finance, sustainability teams and buildings. Join this session on how to find common language and strategies to ensure support from across your organization.

Engaging Your Employees on the Path to Net Zero

Breakout

Paradise Ballroom 1

You’ve set audacious carbon neutrality and renewable energy goals. Now what? If you are asking yourself, “How do we actually get there?” this session is for you. We will cover why employees hold the key to achieving net zero and how to engage them to unlock greater impact across the organization on scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, including their personal footprint in hybrid workplaces.

12:15pm to 1:15pm

Roundtable Lunch: What is True Climate Impact? Exploring the Value of Nature Based Solutions

Roundtable Lunch

Conserving, restoring and regenerating the life support systems of our planet is the opportunity of our time — and nature based solutions, including the burgeoning market for carbon credits, have a key role to play. Companies leading the voluntary market can incentivize growth in ways that ensure high quality credits are generated. But how do we understand the difference in value between carbon credits, including quantifying the added co-benefits — from ecosystem services to ensured permanence? Join us for a conversation about this, and more!

Roundtable Lunches are interactive lunch discussions, moderated 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. All roundtable lunches are first-come, first-served.

Roundtable Lunch: Prioritizing Your ESG Strategy for Risk Management and Growth

Roundtable Lunch

Sonoran Terrace

More companies are setting decarbonization goals. With various options available to reduce a company's carbon footprint, let's discuss the hurdles to implementing an enterprise-wide strategy and how this ultimately enhances brand, mitigates risk, and drives revenue.

Roundtable Lunch: From Goals to Gold: Moving Your Decarbonization Goals to Implementation

Roundtable Lunch

Sonoran Terrace

During this roundtable, we will discuss how to take the next steps in your sustainability roadmap, moving beyond strategy and goal-mapping into the implementation and execution phase. Focusing on how to create actionable items for behind-the-meter and offsite solutions, we will explore the integrated pathways you can take in order to achieve your goals.

Roundtable Lunch: The Need for Equitable Climate Action

Roundtable Lunch

Sonoran Terrace

Across the globe, we see that no two communities are impacted by climate change the same way. That’s why equitable climate action is essential to sustainable change. Join Kristen Siemen, Chief Sustainability Officer and Vice President, Sustainable Workplaces at General Motors for a discussion about how, in the pursuit of achieving carbon neutral commitments, the public and private sectors can integrate goals for a more inclusive, sustainable world for all.

Roundtable Lunch: Accelerate Your Journey to Net Zero with a Climate Action Plan

Roundtable Lunch

Sonoran Terrace

Join this lunch roundtable with Patrick Flynn, Global Head of Sustainability at Salesforce, for a discussion on how to create a unique climate action plan for your company and leverage your business as the greatest platform for change. Salesforce is Net Zero across its value chain and released its Climate Action Plan (https://sfdc.co/climate-action) to offer a blueprint for others to accelerate their journeys to Net Zero.

Roundtable Lunch: Carbon Accounting and Optimization Tools: An Open Conversation about Best Practices

Roundtable Lunch

Sonoran Terrace

As company commitments to net-zero have tripled over the past two years, so have the number of carbon accounting and optimization tools. According to a recent CNBC report, this $10B business will more than double by 2026.

This roundtable will explore how sustainability leaders make sense of carbon accounting’s exploding marketplace. We will discuss:

Which tools are best suited to diagnosing a company’s more complex carbon output.
How to pin down the Scope 3 attributes of supply chain and client produced emissions.
Which tools recommend climate transition solutions once the footprint has been established.
The ever-evolving alphabet of climate protocols and standards (TCFD, VRF, CDP, SBTi, etc.). What solutions are best designed to deliver accurate and flexible reporting.

Roundtable participants will be able to share their insights, questions, and best practices on how accounting and optimization tools can lead to attaining carbon transition goals and reporting progress.

Roundtable Lunch: How Can the Private Sector Conserve and Regenerate Nature?

Roundtable Lunch

Sonoran Terrace

The emergence of science-based targets has made it easier for companies to set appropriately ambitious emissions goals. But the situation is much less clear when it comes to targets for conserving and regenerating forests, oceans and other ecosystems. GreenBiz Group is planning new events in this space and we would love to hear your thoughts on how we can best accelerate progress. Join the discussion to share news of initiatives and ideas, and get a sneak peak into our plans.

Roundtable Lunch: Roadmap to Net Zero: Practical Decarbonization Pathways

Roundtable Lunch

Sonoran Terrace

Black & Veatch’s Deepa Poduval, Vice President and Global Advisory Leader, will open the floor to a moderated discussion on practical strategies to achieve Net Zero emissions. Participants will discuss real-world questions and answers about how to realistically achieve their decarbonization goals, from initial planning stages to solutions currently underway on the ground.

Roundtable Lunch: Going Retro to Reduce Carbon & Fix the Climate Crisis

Roundtable Lunch

Sonoran Terrace

30% of the energy used by commercial and industrial buildings is wasted through inefficiency. Here’s the good news. Companies can start saving energy and reduce their carbon footprint today. The solution is a simple one: Prioritize the implementation of energy efficiency, monitoring, measurement, and verification complemented with sustainable solutions. Pete Shimkus, Vice-President of Commercial Solutions from Redaptive will share their top tips on how to get started.

Roundtable Lunch: Building a Successful Climate Action Plan

Roundtable Lunch

Sonoran Terrace

You’re facing pressure to reduce emissions from investors, employees and customers. They want to see meaningful climate action, not just promises in a press release. But, the reality is that defining and delivering impactful climate goals is not that easy. Join this roundtable to explore what it takes to define and implement successful climate action plans at scale with speed. Helene Dieck, Sustainability Manager for Neste, will host this discussion and share lessons from Neste's pioneering green swan transformation journey, which saw the company evolve from a regional oil refiner to a leading provider of renewable solutions and become recognized as one of the world's most sustainable companies. You'll hear more about looking at the full lifecycle of emissions, forming strategic partnerships, and measuring your carbon footprint AND handprint can enable meaningful climate action now

Roundtable Lunch: Financing the Net Zero Transition

Roundtable Lunch

Sonoran Terrace

COP26 put a new emphasis on the importance of private sector finance to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy. Financial institutions are taking steps to work with clients, and Wells Fargo has committed to support clients in their climate transitions on the path to net zero by 2050. The company will deploy $500 billion in sustainable finance by 2030. Join Ramsay Huntley, Sustainable Finance Strategist at Wells Fargo, for a discussion on ways to direct finance to sustainable businesses and projects.

1:30pm to 2:30pm

Leveraging Circular Strategies to Reach Net Zero

Breakout

Paradise Ballroom 3

How can circular initiatives be leveraged in pursuit of net-zero emissions? If deployed at scale, circular economy strategies could remove billions of tons from our global carbon footprint, while also cutting costs and regenerating natural systems. Yet very few companies have combined circular projects with emission-reduction roadmaps. In this session, leaders from organizations that have pioneered such approaches will explain how they overcame barriers to integrating these two critical areas of sustainability strategy, and what they have achieved by doing so.

Exploring the Market for Nature-Based Solutions

Breakout

Paradise Ballroom 7-8

The explosion of interest in carbon offsets has helped drive a proliferation of different nature-based solutions. Companies can buy credits that promote sustainable forestry, delay timber harvesting, create new forests, sequester carbon in farmland soils or even grow kelp.

To help figure out which of these options is right for your business, we’ve assembled leaders from the companies behind some of the highest-quality nature-based solutions available. In this interactive session, short presentations on the offsets will be followed by an opportunity for small-group discussion with each of the companies.

How Multi-Stakeholder Innovation Can Unlock New Solutions for Climate-Resilience Outcomes

Breakout

Paradise Ballroom 2

Climate change is here, and we are feeling its effects in communities across the US. In developing effective responses, how do you get the proper stakeholders involved – from business to community leaders – and ensure real impact for those who need it most? Hear from organizations building innovative solutions, and a key White House advisor on climate resilience, to help answer these questions and more.

Broaden Your Scope: Engaging Your Suppliers to Drive Action and Transparency Throughout the Value Chain

Breakout

Paradise Ballroom 1

For years, businesses have focused on tracking, measuring and reducing their own direct carbon emissions — and for good reason. That’s where change starts. But in this vital decade of climate action, it’s imperative for companies to accelerate progress by looking beyond their own walls. To achieve a net zero future, today’s companies must use their platform to build a more sustainable business ecosystem. This means not only leading by example but providing partners, suppliers and other stakeholders with the tools to activate data-driven climate action strategies of their own. This session will explore how companies can broaden their scope by driving climate action and transparency throughout the entire value chain. Executives from Salesforce and other leading companies will explore the growing importance of the customer-supplier relationship in fighting climate change and share insights and learnings from leading supply chain solutions like Salesforce’s Sustainability Exhibit, a newly launched program that integrates climate commitments into supply chain contracts.

4:15pm to 5:15pm

Accelerating Progress on Scope 3 Emissions

Breakout

Paradise Ballroom 7-8

Join this session to explore why addressing Scope 3 emissions is so critical to overall net zero ambition, and how best to make significant and impactful progress. Why and how should you bring suppliers along in your net zero journey? How can you engage suppliers in setting Science-Based Targets? And what is the role of technology in creating actionable insights for both buyers and suppliers? You'll hear from corporate experts who have led these efforts at their companies and how you can apply these learnings to your own strategies.

What’s Next for Net Zero?

Breakfast Session

Rita's Kitchen

Many companies have made Net Zero pledges, but few have laid a solid path to zero carbon emissions. Salesforce has achieved Net Zero and is empowering others to do the same. In this interactive breakfast, hear from Kevin Vranes, Senior Director, Product Management, Net Zero Cloud, and Michael Herman, Principal, Owner at KPMG Advisory, as they share their expertise and key insights on the journey to Net Zero. Then, make your voice heard in an interactive audience dialogue as you dive into your most pressing challenges around technology, business, and sustainability. You’ll leave with defined areas of growth and a solid business case for achieving Net Zero.

9:00am to 10:00am

Ensuring Integrity in Carbon Credits

Breakout

Paradise Ballroom 7-8

Two words of advice for any carbon credit buyer: caveat emptor. Carbon credits can deliver emissions reductions and removals that are critical to the fight against climate change. Yet over the past few years, academic studies and investigative reporting have revealed that some carbon credits have little or no impact on greenhouse gas levels. How can your company make sure that the credits it buys are of the highest quality?

Thankfully, help is at hand. Carbon market experts at the World Wildlife Fund, Environmental Defense Fund and Okeo Institut have developed an advanced, open-source methodology for evaluating the integrity of carbon credits. Come to learn what their early assessments are telling us about the quality of the carbon credits in the market and how you can use their guidelines to purchase a portfolio of credits that has real impact.

Planning for an Energy Resilient Future

Breakout

Paradise Ballroom 3

How are companies planning for and mitigating climate risk within their operations? In this session, experts will cover how to understand the impact climate chaos may have on your facilities and how to keep the lights on through the unpredictable.

Program

Net Zero

Tutorial: Looking Beyond the Megawatt in Your Energy Procurement Strategy

Building and Executing a High-Impact Net Zero Strategy

Climate-Smart Reforesting After Years of Record-Setting Wildfires

10 Billion Reasons for Sustainable Ag Partnerships

Sponsored: Building a Scalable Sustainability Platform

Harnessing Internal Support for Impactful Energy Strategies

Sponsored: Tipping the Scale Towards Planet Positive

Engaging Your Employees on the Path to Net Zero

Roundtable Lunch: What is True Climate Impact? Exploring the Value of Nature Based Solutions

Roundtable Lunch: Prioritizing Your ESG Strategy for Risk Management and Growth

Roundtable Lunch: From Goals to Gold: Moving Your Decarbonization Goals to Implementation

Roundtable Lunch: The Need for Equitable Climate Action

Roundtable Lunch: Accelerate Your Journey to Net Zero with a Climate Action Plan

Roundtable Lunch: Carbon Accounting and Optimization Tools: An Open Conversation about Best Practices

Roundtable Lunch: How Can the Private Sector Conserve and Regenerate Nature?

Roundtable Lunch: Roadmap to Net Zero: Practical Decarbonization Pathways

Roundtable Lunch: Going Retro to Reduce Carbon & Fix the Climate Crisis

Roundtable Lunch: Building a Successful Climate Action Plan

Roundtable Lunch: Financing the Net Zero Transition

Leveraging Circular Strategies to Reach Net Zero

Sponsored: How Technology will Transform Carbon Markets: An Emerging Future for Transparent and High-quality Carbon Credits

Sponsored: Getting Real: How to Make a Commercially Smart Climate Transition

Exploring the Market for Nature-Based Solutions

How Multi-Stakeholder Innovation Can Unlock New Solutions for Climate-Resilience Outcomes

Sponsored: Integrating Multiple Clean Energy Solutions…With a Special Announcement on Water

Broaden Your Scope: Engaging Your Suppliers to Drive Action and Transparency Throughout the Value Chain

Accelerating Progress on Scope 3 Emissions

Sponsored: A Carbon Negative Collaboration through Forests

Sponsored: Aligning Health and Prosperity with Decarbonization Strategies

What’s Next for Net Zero?

Ensuring Integrity in Carbon Credits

Sponsored: Protect, Regenerate and Restore: Improving Sustainable Land Use in the Food Supply Chain

Planning for an Energy Resilient Future