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 some 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 experts.

Effective supplier carbon management requires understanding the carbon footprint of your supply chain and taking actions to mitigate emissions and reduce reputational risk. Join us to learn more about how you can calculate scope 3 emissions and build a more sustainable supply chain.

This session is sponsored by OneTrust. Sponsored breakouts are sponsor-created and hosted breakouts, created independently by the sponsor without input from GreenBiz. Please note that attendee contact information will be shared with the sponsoring company.

Nature based offsets can hold gigatons of carbon out of the atmosphere, acting as a bridge to support emissions mitigation, but news and research have highlighted the risks and uncertainties with ever changing systems such as forests. How can we harness the benefits of forests while mitigating the risks? What should change in certification approaches to increase certainty? We'll discuss innovations in forest carbon offset measurement, verification and methodologies which are improving transparency to ensure accountability within forest carbon projects.

This session is sponsored by NCX. Sponsored breakouts are sponsor-created and hosted breakouts, created independently by the sponsor without input from GreenBiz. Please note that attendee contact information will be shared with the sponsoring company.

VERGE Accelerate is a series of fast-pitch competitions featuring leading climate tech startups. Today’s session highlights five entrepreneurs building cutting-edge solutions for carbon removal, followed by industry expert reactions to each pitch. Help determine the winner by casting your vote live at the event! The winner will pitch in the main stage finals on Thursday, October 27.

Looking for the secret behind meaningful climate impact across your organization? The answer is governance. Structure, accountability, and assurance, great governance are essential for achieving carbon reduction, Net Zero, and other ESG targets while meeting regulatory and investor requirements. In this session, we will explore how four Silicon Valley leaders bring a governance, risk, and impact-oriented focus to their climate efforts – in particular, how they collaborate across ESG/Sustainability, Finance, Risk, Audit and Legal. We will provide actionable advice for our peers on how to do the same and discuss the roles of technology and analytics in the management and execution of their plans.

This session is sponsored by ServiceNow. Sponsored breakouts are sponsor-created and hosted breakouts, created independently by the sponsor without input from GreenBiz. Please note that attendee contact information will be shared with the sponsoring company.

Limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius will not be possible without all but halting tropical deforestation by 2030. The LEAF Coalition is the world’s largest public-private collaboration dedicated to making this happen. Launched in 2021, it has already mobilized over $1 billion from corporations and governments to protect tropical forests. This panel, chaired by GreenBiz Group co-founder Joel Makower and featuring LEAF corporations and sovereign donors will look at how joining LEAF can help corporations take a high-ambition pathway to net zero, while supporting forest preservation and sustainable development for forest nations.

This session is sponsored by LEAF Coalition. Sponsored breakouts are sponsor-created and hosted breakouts, created independently by the sponsor without input from GreenBiz. Please note that attendee contact information will be shared with the sponsoring company.

What would happen if the carbon embodied in a laptop or a sofa or even a packet of chips were displayed on the product’s label?

Measuring embodied carbon is notoriously difficult, but supply chains are slowly becoming more transparent and consumer demand for environmental data is growing. These forces have prompted companies large and small to experiment with labels that detail the emissions created in the manufacture of a product. The big question now is how consumers will react.

This session will feature leaders behind some of these new experiments with carbon labels, who will share what we do and don’t know about the power of labels to impact consumer choice.

Imagine a future in which countries and companies get paid for tackling climate change.

What would happen if the world’s central banks banded together to create a currency that organizations could earn by avoiding emissions or removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere? An imaginary version of such a currency, known as the carbon coin, plays a central role in Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson’s bestselling sci-fi novel in which humans achieve drawdown.

The coin may not be imaginary for much longer, however. The idea is based on a theoretical framework developed by Australian researcher Delton Chen, whose Global Carbon Reward (GCR) organization is now raising funds to support a real-world trial of the idea. Come to hear Robinson in conversation with Chen and other members of the GCR team as they discuss plans for the trial, the potential of carbon coin and key ideas from Ministry.

Carbon removal is a key focus for the First Movers Coalition, a global initiative harnessing the purchasing power of companies to decarbonize seven hard-to-abate industrial sectors. With global recognition that carbon removal is essential to meeting 1.5 degrees, it is imperative that companies set ambitious commitments to purchase durable and scalable carbon removal solutions. Join this session to hear how coalition partners are using these commitments to accelerate the development of carbon removal technologies to commercial scale by 2030 — and learn how your company can join them.

From carbon offsets to plastic recovery, blockchain and related technologies could become deeply embedded into sustainability.

The rollercoaster ride that cryptocurrencies have followed in recent years has largely obscured a related and more interesting development: Blockchain technologies, AI and machine learning have been adapted and evolved to create Web3, a suite of ideas and products that promise — at least according to advocates — increased transparency and accuracy.

As the Web3 movement gathers pace, climate applications are beginning to emerge. Join this session to discover three of those applications and learn more about how these emerging technologies could impact the world of sustainability.

If you care about climate, biodiversity or racial justice, you should get involved with the farm bill. Here’s how.

The farm bill is one of the U.S’ most sweeping spending packages, and Congress will pass its next edition in 2023. Negotiations are well underway, brokering everything from agriculture and forestry to energy and food assistance. The updated bill has the potential to mainstream nature-based climate solutions, and do so equitably, while also boosting innovative climate technologies. Now is the time for startups and companies to join forces and translate their environmental and social justice priorities into policy action. But what’s the best way to do so? And how should companies balance aspiration and pragmatism to develop policy priorities for today’s highly polarized political reality? Policy experts will share their strategies to efficiently influence the farm bill.

People of color, low-income people, and other marginalized groups are disproportionately impacted by climate change. While many nonprofits, corporations and others are partnering to address this issue, recent climate events and their economic fallout have revealed that vast inequities remain.

This session will explore how entrepreneurs and startups are harnessing the power of advanced technology, including 5G, to create innovative solutions that are helping to build climate resilience in at-risk areas. It will also explore the vital need for climate solutions providers to work closely with community leaders to help them prepare for and respond to climate events, ultimately improving impacts.

This session is sponsored by Verizon. Sponsored breakouts are sponsor-created and hosted breakouts, created independently by the sponsor without input from GreenBiz. Please note that attendee contact information will be shared with the sponsoring company.

Natural climate solutions are growing in prominence, yet skepticism and uncertainty about how they work remains. There are less-than-credible players out there, but can buyers spot them? How can the whole industry collectively raise the bar on what real climate impact means? 

This session, hosted by the American Forest Foundation, will shed light on an innovative approach to carbon accounting. The Family Forest Carbon Program, a natural climate solution and carbon credit offering developed in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, has pioneered a new method of assessing carbon credits that increases accuracy and transparency. 

Rather than basing our methodology on a projected baseline, this new analysis uses a dynamic baseline, attributing carbon project participation as the sole intervention responsible for additional carbon sequestration. Dynamic baselines guarantee the credits we sell are high integrity, verified and focused on additionality, ensuring that our customers make a genuine impact on the planet.  

Please join us as key program stakeholders discuss this innovation, how it works as the baseline for our Family Forest Carbon Program and how this innovative approach can help the larger voluntary carbon market.

This session is sponsored by American Forest Foundation. Sponsored breakouts are sponsor-created and hosted breakouts, created independently by the sponsor without input from GreenBiz. Please note that attendee contact information will be shared with the sponsoring company.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is about to mandate disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions. Are you ready?

Experts agree that the SEC’s plan is a critical component of climate strategy, but the consensus is less clear on exactly how the process should work. Which companies have to disclose, for example? Should all categories of Scope 3 emissions be included, from the production of raw materials right through to product use? And who, if anybody, should audit these disclosures?

As the SEC consultation moves toward a conclusion, experts who have been tracking the process will share their thinking on the likely shape of the final rule and the implications for your company.

How can you support promising but often overlooked technologies for cutting methane emissions?

Seaweed feed additives used to reduce methane emissions from cow burps have rightly been embraced as an exciting climate tech innovation. But the quest to reduce methane emissions, which was elevated to a global priority at COP 26, doesn’t stop there. Companies also need to address methane emissions from sources such as manure, rice cultivation and food waste. Gain a holistic understanding of how to build a methane reduction roadmap and discuss opportunities for incorporating them into your sustainability strategy.