Program Highlights

THIS PAGE FEATURES JUST A SAMPLING OF THE MORE THAN 150 SESSIONS THAT WILL TAKE PLACE AT VERGE 22.

The Magic of Digital Twins

Breakout

The ability to create a multidimensional digital model of a building and its components is revolutionizing how buildings are operated, breathing life into analog design. Along the way, these models are unlocking new levels of operational efficiency, including energy use and occupant well-being, making buildings more adaptive and resilient. This session will explore the how and why of digital twins, and the opportunities to apply them in the context of your own buildings.

The Building Materials Revolution

Breakout

From steel and concrete to windows and timber, the materials used to build offices, stores and factories are being disrupted. The processes, too: Factory-engineered, or prefab, buildings and 3D printing are just two of the many innovations enabling builders to design and build energy-efficient and healthy structures. Learn about the emerging technologies and opportunities at the heart of the burgeoning building materials revolution.

The State of Carbon Removal

Breakout

The past year brought an avalanche of announcements in carbon removal, including billions of dollars of new federal funding, major investments by some of the world’s biggest companies and the emergence of a slew of exciting new startups. To help make sense of this game-changing 12 months, we’ve asked one of the field’s leading experts to create the essential guide to exactly what happened and why it matters. And when that whirlwind tour is over, it’ll be up to you to pose your questions directly to our expert.

Case Study: A Long-term Plan for Buying Carbon Credits

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By 2030, the cost of offsetting a ton of carbon could rise fivefold, according to a study released by BloombergNEF earlier this year. Yet in that very same report, the authors looked at another scenario and predicted a hundred-fold increase.

With variability on that scale, how can buyers plan for the future? There’s no single answer, but a handful of companies are already enacting long-term plans for navigating carbon markets. You’ll get a deep dive into the plans of two of those companies and learn how you can use a long-term approach to hedge against price volatility, secure the highest-quality credits and spur innovation in nascent but powerful carbon solutions.

The Future of Carbon-free Energy

Breakout

In order to decarbonize the power sector, we’ll need to power the economy with clean energy on a time and location basis — no easy task for intermittent renewable resources. Thankfully, there are clear policy signals, innovative compacts and trail-blazing companies working on the problem. This session will cover the leading collaborations and corporate trailblazers cracking the code to clean, reliable and affordable energy — all day, every day.

The Climate Impact of Renewable Energy Materials

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Last year saw a record deployment of clean energy technologies, and the pipeline is packed with more projects waiting to be built. As we accelerate the clean energy transition, how can we ensure technologies aren’t creating a new sustainability problem — both in climate impacts related to manufacturing, and what we do with products at the end of their useful life. Experts will talk about clean energy material management and how offtakers can avert unintended consequences.

The Future of Beef in a Net-Zero World

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Can food emissions fall to a 1.5 degrees Celsius level without reduced beef consumption? What role can regenerative grazing play?

Global beef production emits about 7 percent of greenhouse gasses every year. That’s why efforts to shift diets away from beef are well underway. At the same time, an emerging group of ranchers, food companies and scientists are building an opposite case. They claim that by using regenerative grazing methods, beef can be carbon-neutral, or even carbon-negative, and argue that livestock will be essential for rebuilding the dire state of agricultural soils. Can the two groups find common ground?

Happening Now: Science-based Targets for Food and Ag

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The Science Based Targets initiative has now defined how quickly and by how much food and agriculture companies need to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to meet the Paris Agreement’s climate goals. It’s time for companies to get up to speed. This tutorial will help businesses without preexisting targets get started and advise those with targets on how and when to update existing ones. It will explore key issues including accounting for Scope 3 emissions, meeting zero deforestation requirements and using carbon removals.

Overcoming Obstacles to Fleet Electrification

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Your company has made sustainability commitments, and you know electrifying your fleet will help your organization meet these targets. But the task may seem daunting. This session will address the obstacles to transforming your fleet operation, featuring the journeys of and lessons learned by two companies who recently electrified their fleets. The speakers will take us through the practical process, from decision to implementation, to help guide you past the obstacles to accomplishing this transition within your own company.

Ensuring Equitable EV Adoption

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Microchip shortages, supply chain woes and surging consumer demand this past year have kept the price of owning an electric vehicle out of reach for most Americans, despite the flood of new models reaching the market in 2022. What else can be done to bring prices down to affordable levels and drive an equitable transition away from the internal combustion engine? We’ll discuss this and more through a policy lens during this session.

Setting up for an Exit

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Does your startup have its sights set on a SPAC or an acquisition? After all, SPACs are on the rise, with a record-setting 613 deals in 2021. Or, perhaps your team is planning for an IPO in the future. There are so many options for an exit, it can be difficult to decide the right path for your company. Regardless of the stage of your venture, planning for the future will help guide your strategy today. Hear from financial experts and companies who have lived through a startup exit to ensure your business is set up for success.

Overcoming ‘Death by Pilot’

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‘Death by pilot’ is the dreaded outcome many climate tech startups have experienced. That is, never scaling a solution beyond the initial pilot phase with a potential customer. Climate solutions are often slower to build, and customers can be largely risk-averse. How can your venture overcome the largely cultural and organizational differences inherent between startups and legacy corporate systems to perform successful market validation? Hear what corporate entities are looking to achieve, and how startups can successfully navigate these relationships to scale solutions into commercially viable operations.