A quarter of all energy in the U.S. is used to power the commercial sector’s buildings. Any company looking for ways to reach deep decarbonization goals must take a look at its building portfolio. This interactive tutorial covers why addressing energy use in buildings is smart for operations and your bottom line, and the tools available to help transform where you work. It will cover: 

• Resources and tools available to renters to work with landlords on energy efficiency and clean energy 

• The perspective of leading real estate developers aiming to build smart, efficient buildings 

• How to incorporate smart energy and financing decisions in new builds

• How to include your buildings in your energy strategy, and how to get internal buy-in

Global shipping emissions are rising thanks to growing demand for consumer goods and on-demand e-commerce. But some companies are trying to decarbonize shipping — across maritime, air, ground and rail — as a way to meet sustainability goals and lower fuel costs. There's an emerging trend of retailers advocating for electric delivery from transportation providers as well as using offsets to reach short term goals. At the same time, maritime shipping companies are adopting new technologies in an effort to cut emissions in half by 2050. This tutorial, led by BSR's Clean Cargo Working Group and the Smart Freight Centre, will dive into the complex options that companies have to lower their carbon emissions associated with shipping and the metrics and collaborations needed to succeed. 

As cities consider gas bans and companies work towards deep decarbonization goals, commercial and industrial applications need electric alternatives for their traditionally gas-powered appliances. This session brings together a trailblazing investor, innovator and policymaker who are thinking about an all-electric future. Join us to hear about opportunities and challenges as we electrify everything. 

Farmers and ranchers around the world are experimenting with new techniques that pull carbon from the atmosphere and store it in soil. These regenerative agriculture practices can boost farmers’ bottom line by improving soil health and, if scaled up, could draw down gigatons of carbon dioxide annually. Meet the food companies and farmers who are working on the first regenerative products and learn about a sector that has the potential for dramatic growth.

As more companies set ambitious energy and climate targets, there’s a need for policymakers to send clear market signals that will inspire the private sector to take big, collective steps forward. What role should businesses play in influencing clean-energy policy? How can companies advance new markets and technologies, all while addressing their SDG commitments? This session will explore the growing body of organizations emerging to help unify voices from corporations, the power of private sector to inspire change, the reputational opportunities and risks and how to navigate the tough issues, such as setting an internal policy agenda and getting C-suite buy-in.

Imagine creating a team where each member is fully engaged, motivated, excited about working with you and taking full responsibility for team success. Such high-performance teams are marked by mining clarity, a deep level of trust among team members and a willingness to support each other’s success. This one-hour session -- which is a glimpse of our three-day highly experiential workshop -- will briefly introduce a picture of what is required to succeed in working with others, the interferences that sabotage the best of intentions and efforts, and the mindset essential to be a high-performing team and team member.

Blockchain, artificial intelligence and wireless sensors are poised to become the foundation of the new suite of services needed to power circular supply chains. For example, the notion of a digital ID that would capture product information such as its location or material composition may prove fundamental as companies transition to PaaS models. Product information is also critical to both original equipment manufacturers and recyclers as companies put in place reverse logistics systems. But these systems needn’t stop at physical products. Digitally collecting information about things like the state of farmland my enhance our ability to calculate carbon offsets and a host of other applications that make digital solutions appealing for both natural and manufactured products.

This session will take a broader look at the opportunity to digitize supply chains in a way that enhances circularity, reduces resource use and positions a whole new view of the resources at our disposal.

Mobility-as-a-service is changing the way we move within cities, but we need mobility systems that create liveable cities, are sustainable and are inclusive of all citizens. In this session mobility providers, transportation planners, and city leaders will discuss how to build mobility and micromobility systems that can decarbonize transportation and are accessible for everyone.

This session looks at how energy and sustainability managers are balancing competing agendas to reduce costs and carbon. Corporate leaders will talk about how to engage stakeholders to get buy-in for ambitious initiatives, the tools and technologies available to measure and reduce emissions, and lessons learned from past programs.

The material value of the e-waste discarded globally each year adds up to $62.5 billion — more than the GDP of most countries — according to the United Nations. Infrastructure growth is massive, and yet often “out of sight” as it shifts increasingly to the cloud. The potential of this rapid growth is both very positive, and at the same time on a dangerous trajectory, both in the area of e-waste and in GHG/ GWP. This breakout will explore a more circular approach to IT and e-waste management. Whether your company is decommissioning a data center, upgrading IT assets or managing other streams of e-waste that have reached the end of their usable life, learn how to unlock value, mitigate data security risks and maximize asset lifecycles.

Renewable power purchase agreements aren’t the only option to transform how buildings and operations are powered. As the renewables market matures, new options are emerging for buyers — ones that increase flexibility and ease the contracting process. This session looks at options to help companies meet their clean energy goals, from conventional PPAs to emerging project aggregation models and other business-model innovations.

Distributed energy resources have transformed power generation and consumption from one-way power systems to a complex, two-way "energy cloud." That means energy consumers have more considerations than ever before – including offsite and onsite renewables, energy storage and microgrids, energy efficiency and demand response. This session looks at innovations that are advancing the emerging energy cloud, and what that means for energy procurement and company operations.

Buildings are the largest source of GHG emissions in cities. Beyond their energy footprints, they can be standing reservoirs of materials – or giant structures of waste. Innovations in architecture, materials science, energy usage and water usage are all enhancing circularity in the built environment. This session will bring together the perspectives of architects and materials experts to share recent innovations that enhance cost and material efficiencies in the built environment.

Cleantech companies seek to leverage the power of technology in order to profitably solve the world's energy problems. But the path to commercialization is riddled with barriers that sometimes prove insurmountable to overcome. Join us to learn more about how national labs support innovators, discuss the various roles corporations can play along the path to market for bold entrepreneurs, and optimize these engagements to ensure they’re mutually beneficial.

About Roundtable Lunches: Join 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 do not have advanced sign-up – participation is first-come, first-served.

Water powers all economies, and the nascent circular economy offers an opportunity to ensure that the resource is used more efficiently, safely and equitable. Join us to learn how the circular economy can improve water resources and create demand for new innovation. We will also be exploring the timely questions: Can carbon solutions also address water challenges? Are we still prioritizing the water-energy-food nexus? What can corporations, public officials, NGOs and entrepreneurs doing to change the landscape for water solutions? Join us for an engaging discussion about water's role within the VERGE 19 agenda and stated priorities.

About Roundtable Lunches: Join 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 do not have advanced sign-up — participation is first-come, first-served.

Over one billion people on the planet do not have access to electricity. However, enabling access to renewable energy for globally underserved communities on the frontlines of climate change could rapidly realize regenerative progress for these communities and for the world. This is a massive opportunity to create a new paradigm for international development. Join our conversation to talk about the Global Goals, clean energy, gender empowerment, reversing climate change and creating a mutually beneficial relationship between humans and the planet.

About Roundtable Lunches: Join 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 do not have advanced sign-up — participation is first-come, first-served.

You’ve probably heard of Project Drawdown's 100 solutions to reverse global warming. Still curious about how we transform insights about solutions into real, systems change? Join Amanda Joy Ravenhill — co-founder of Project Drawdown and executive director of the Buckminster Fuller Institute (BFI) — for a conversation about key leverage points for systems change, ranging from blue carbon to transit equity, and how to get involved with BFI's new project, the Co-Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth.

About Roundtable Lunches: Join 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 do not have advanced sign-up — participation is first-come, first-served.

INVITE ONLY

This roundtable lunch is open exclusively to GreenBiz’s Clean Energy Equity Showcase honorees, representatives from 10 organizations across the country that are dedicated to making clean energy accessible to all. All honorees are invited to lunch with Danny Kennedy, entrepreneur, thought leader and CEO at New Energy Nexus, the global network of clean energy incubators, accelerators and funds. Kennedy has a long track record of supporting and launching innovative startups, with a deep knowledge of the collaborations and finance available to help organizations thrive. Invitations will be extended beforehand.

About Roundtable Lunches: Join 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 do not have advanced sign-up  – participation is first-come, first-served.

Although energy efficiency is rightly becoming top-of-mind for businesses across the country, some companies are still operating with the paradigm of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” This session will look at proactive facility optimization programs that help companies achieve emissions reductions and OpEx cost cuts, while also eliminating risk. Redaptive’s Joel Ullman will explore topics including energy efficiency retrofits, “future-proofing” against the risk of inefficient/failed equipment, non-CapEx financing models, and what it all means for the future of businesses and the planet.

About Roundtable Lunches: Join 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 do not have advanced sign-up  – participation is first-come, first-served.

Early-generation wind, solar, and battery storage systems are already reaching the end of their useful lives, leaving us with the possibility of millions of metric tons of waste heading to landfills over the next 20 years. However, there are ways we can collect, process and reintroduce these materials back into supply-chains at current or even higher values. Further, it’s imperative that we design next-generation renewable systems for up-gradeability, perpetual useful life and built-in circularity. Join us to discuss how we can address these renewable energy production material end-of-life challenges at our roundtable.

About Roundtable Lunches: Join 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 do not have advanced sign-up — participation is first-come, first-served.

According to Project Drawdown, regenerative agriculture has the potential to remove more than 20 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by 2050 — equivalent to suspending all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions for 3 years. But how do we know the carbon will stay in soils? And what's the best way to keep it there? Dive into the science behind the soil with filmmaker, faculty member and regenerative ag expert Peter Byck.

About Roundtable Lunches: Join 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 do not have advanced sign-up – participation is first-come, first-served. 

Description: Wondering what’s going on behind the breathless headlines about carbon removal and its massive market potential? A leading carbon removal expert is here to answer your questions about the policies, technologies and companies that are shaping efforts to capture, utilize and store atmospheric carbon. We will demystify the tech enabling this movement, identify new policy levers and generally explain what your company should know about the emerging carbon economy.

About Roundtable Lunches: Join 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 do not have advanced sign-up – participation is first-come, first-served. 

Description: The climate is changing, extreme weather events are increasing, sea levels are rising, and forests are struggling. It’s costing economies, affecting public health, and disrupting nature. It is not news that these effects disproportionately impact individuals in historically marginalized communities, particularly low-income people of color. In addition, communities with the highest tree canopy needs — aka those with the lowest urban tree cover — also tend to be those that have the highest unemployment. Come learn how American Forests is working on “Tree Equity” to drive climate action, support climate justice and create green jobs.

About Roundtable Lunches: Join 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 do not have advanced sign-up – participation is first-come, first-served. 

Blockchain can be a tool to enhance trust, transparency and collaboration in supply chains, energy grids and financial markets — and companies are already embedding it within their operations. Experts will show you real applications in place with businesses today and detail how you can bring the power of blockchain to your own use cases. Hear directly from the people putting these solutions into place. Not a product pitch – real, actionable information straight from the source. 

About Roundtable Lunches: Join 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 do not have advanced sign-up – participation is first-come, first-served. 

From CDP to SBTi, from RE100 to EV100, companies are entering and steering through a complex web of ways to codify their renewable energy and climate commitments. However, renewables and reporting don’t have to be intimidating. Join us to explore the opportunities and discuss how to avoid common pitfalls.

About Roundtable Lunches: Join 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 do not have advanced sign-up – participation is first-come, first-served. 

What's the role of advanced recycling technologies in keeping materials circulating through our economy and creating a circular economy for plastics?

There’s been a growing buzz around chemical recycling and the promise of new technologies that can fix the broken recycling system. However, the technologies, terminology and applications can be confusing and are not widely understood. This session will explore the chemical recycling landscape: the transformational technologies that turn waste plastics back into new materials, decrease reliance on fossil fuels and curb the flow of plastics into marine environments.

Part one of this two-part breakout will unpack the basics of chemical recycling, explore the landscape of technologies and discuss applications and opportunities to unleash this emerging opportunity.

In this session attendees will learn what it takes to plan, build and operate high demand charging infrastructure that will not only create cleaner, livable cities, but is scalable, sustainable and profitable. Join technology innovators as they discuss how e-mobility models are changing the way we move within cities, and the practical realities of creating a new economy around this effort – built on a foundation of open-standards, powered by renewable energy sources, dynamically optimized and reinforced by the grid – and paving the way for the imminent electric transportation wave.

Many of the materials traditionally used across industries find their way to landfills. But innovations in materials are enabling us to make products that don’t have this end in sight. Across industries, material science has become a real hotspot for circularity. Some materials have inherently circular characteristics, whether because they biodegrade easily or can be recovered and reused or recycled. Innovations span from the disassembly of electronics for precious metals, to the use of innovative fabrics like banana leaves in apparel, to ensuring chemicals are made from products that biodegrade easily and harmlessly. What will it take to utilize these new materials at scale? Speakers from across industries provide insights.

Hear from clean energy leader Google and software company VMWare about selecting where, when and what renewables to meet energy needs and goals. This discussion will include lessons learned from over a decade in clean energy procurement to help you develop a goal and identify and pursue assets to achieve your objectives.

Do you want to push your company to work on carbon removal projects, but aren’t sure how to get colleagues behind the idea? In this interactive session, you’ll actively brainstorm approaches to communicating the urgent need for carbon removal and the benefits it can bring. Join two leading strategists as they use their Thinking Wrong methodology to help you generate bold and innovative new ideas to amplify your company’s climate impact.

The next generation of blazing fast wireless broadband networks, called 5G, is being rolled out this year and will soon start connecting cities, vehicles, street infrastructure and the cloud. Autonomous vehicles, also now emerging, will need super-fast connections to create safer environments for riders and pedestrians. Street and road infrastructure sensors connected to 5G can reduce congestion and make transportation more efficient. This session will explain how 5G could fundamentally change how transportation networks operate.

Circular business models may be a better use of resources, but how do they impact the bottom line?  McKinsey has estimated that in Europe alone, the circular economy to generate net economic benefit of €1.8 trillion by 2030.  This comes from developing new opportunities such as Product as a Service (PaaS), switching to recycled and biodegradeable materials, recovering and repairing parts or materials to reduce total input costs, switching to organic rather than chemical inputs, etc.   This session will go under the hood on how several companies calculated the business advantages of shifting to a circular model and the cost saving, business growth and other results their efforts have produced.

If you're a renter of office, retail or industrial space, you may not know a lot about the carbon intensity of your facilities. But that doesn't mean you can't do anything to decarbonize them. This session highlights the tools, contracts and technologies tenants are using to work with property managers to power their operations more cleanly and efficiently.

Thanks to corporate investments, a slew of new forestry projects will help remove significant amounts of carbon from the atmosphere in the coming decade. For many innovative companies, making a direct investment in a forestry project can be one of the most effective ways of offsetting emissions. To help navigate these projects’ social, economic and scientific complexities, companies are partnering with top environmental organizations. In this session, key players behind from both sides of the partnerships will discuss how they are working together to protect and restore forests, including planting millions of trees.

There's a massive deposit of untapped lithium brines under the Salton Sea near California's southern border, which could be used to make lithium-ion batteries that power cell phones, laptops and, increasingly, electric cars. A rise in domestic lithium-ion battery production could lead to a local innovation hub, green energy jobs and needed development in the region. Power companies, battery makers, policymakers, automakers and tech startups are currently investigating how to unlock this potential.

Microgrids have grown into a multibillion-dollar market, providing users flexible and reliable energy. Yet many companies that may be interested in building these projects have trouble making the finances pencil. This session covers companies that have pursued microgrids, and how and why it made sense for their operations. 

Deep decarbonization targets are growing, as states, utilities and companies aim to reach 100% clean energy. Achieving these targets will require a massive mobilization of capital and the deployment of both existing and new technologies. Our experts discuss how corporations are helping finance the clean energy revolution through instruments like bonds, corporate venture capital funds and direct equity investments.

The world’s farms and forests have the potential to draw down billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but monitoring the progress of land-based sequestration projects can be challenging. Hear from the technologists behind the new software tools that are making it possible to track, in real-time, the carbon being removed by even hard-to-monitor locations such as remote forests and large farms. If you’re using land-based offsets to reduce emissions, or thinking about doing so, this session will explain how the new tools can increase confidence in your investment.

Product take-back programs are commonplace at retailers keen to have customers walk their used printers and sweaters back into the store. Manufacturers commonly offer mail-in programs, and even cosmetics brands have begun accepting empty packaging for discounts on the next purchase. But all this is very old fashioned, and oftentimes the path of used items is not circular, or even sustainable. Digitizing take-back and reverse logistics — including the tracking of goods, maintaining an inventory of materials, managing pick-up and optimizing end-markets has huge potential to accelerate circularity. This session will examine efforts to modernize take-back back and reverse logistics and forge stronger links in a circular supply chain.