On Monday 25 February 2019, one day in advance of GreenBiz 2019, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) will hold its annual Member Meeting in North America. This invitation-only event brings together over 100 company executives and industry experts to learn about the newest business solutions that drive long-term value creation and that improve Environmental, Social and Governance practices.

During the event, members and other businesses active in North America will have the opportunity to learn more about WBCSD’s global actions to accelerate the pace and scale of systemic transformations. Attendees will also gain a better understanding of how WBCSD member companies collaborate to advance sustainable business solutions that reduce risk and improve the bottom line.

Register for GreenBiz 19 to unlock special registration instructions for this meeting on the final confirmation page.

The challenges we face as sustainability professionals are complex and interconnected. They’re global in scale, with many root causes and contributing factors, supported by deep-rooted institutions and structures. It can seem that the more urgency we feel, the more these challenges seem nearly unmovable. How do we know where and when to intervene? What actions and efforts will unlock transformational change, and avoid unintended consequences? How do we work with power, and understand who and how to influence to make change happen? Forum for the Future and their partners in the School of System Change are building the system change capabilities of change leaders around the world, and invite you to join this tutorial for a whirlwind exploration of tools, approaches, and methodologies that can enable you to take a systemic approach to your work. Learn from the do-ers and the makers, take real life lessons back with you, and discover how you can be a system change agent, no matter your context and role.

In Indonesia, forest conservation goes hand in hand with cleaning plastic pollution to support livelihoods and reduce palm oil conversion.  Join us to learn more about how GreenBiz is supporting the communities most impacted by climate change through its carbon neutral program.

GreenBiz Chairman and Executive Editor Joel Makower, CEO Eric Faurot, and VP, Conferences Ellie Buechner welcome GreenBiz 19 participants to the conference.

Since the inception of the SDGs, CSOs have grappled with how best to address these goals in their sustainability strategies. This conversation will explore emerging trends, best practices, standards, and stakeholder expectations, highlighting the efforts that both corporates and investors are making to integrate the SDGs into their strategic thinking. In addition, SDG metrics are becoming increasingly material to the investor community. How are investors working to integrate the SDGs into their analysis – and what trends are we likely to see moving forward? Are companies giving stakeholders, including investors, the information they need on the SDGs? And how should companies be communicating their efforts to fully capture their impacts and give an accurate and comparable demonstration of their efforts? Hear how businesses and investors can come together to most effectively advance this agenda.

When done strategically, the alignment of a corporate's sustainability program with its foundation and philanthropic efforts can be a powerful driver of change. Hear from Tiffany & Co. Chief Sustainability Officer and Foundation Chairman & President Anisa Kamadoli Costa on the company's innovative and synergystic strategy to enable maximum impact.

Hear from the latest cohort of Emerging Leaders about their vision for the future of sustainable business. The GreenBiz Emerging Leaders Scholarship empowers the next generation of sustainable business leaders and welcomes young individuals from diverse backgrounds to the sustainable business field. Recipients are hand-selected from a competitive applicant pool to attend GreenBiz 19.

Bob Langert headed McDonald’s sustainability efforts for more than 20 years, leading the burger giant’s efforts on recycling and waste reduction, animal welfare, sustainable beef and other topics. This session, commemorating the publication of his new book, “The Battle to Do Good,” Langert shares his stories and learnings about what it takes to be a sustainability leader, but as an individual inside a company and as a highly visible, global brand.

In Indonesia, forest conservation goes hand in hand with cleaning plastic pollution to support livelihoods and reduce palm oil conversion.  Join us to learn more about how GreenBiz is supporting the communities most impacted by climate change through its carbon neutral program.

GreenBiz President Pete May kicks off the second day of GreenBiz 19.

What if we could accelerate the rate of change needed to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals? What if, in the light of the scale and urgency of the sustainability challenges we face, there are practical ways of making sure everything we do in business drives change that is catalytic and transformative, not incremental? This is the potential of system change for sustainability. And we begin to unlock it by understanding the problem we are solving for using a systems lens, and ensuring our strategies deliver systemic, pioneering interventions, from new market mechanisms to harmonised criteria for sustainability standards. Rethinking corporate sustainability strategies to not only transform your organisation, but the system around you, is how we will deliver the SDGs.

Fred Krupp has guided the Environmental Defense Fund for three decades and is a leading voice on climate change, energy and sustainability, and a champion for harnessing the power of the marketplace to protect our environment. Through his leadership, EDF has set the bar for corporate-NGO partnerships that move markets and transform industries. In this conversation, we’ll look at the state of the art of such partnerships, and their untapped potential to take on the big challenges ahead.

Diversity continues to be a top priority for leading companies, but it’s much easier to identify the issue than to implement an effective strategy. What is the role of the corporate sustainability professional in advancing diversity? How do you tailor your strategy to vastly varied global regions and cultures across your company? And how do you measure the impact and business value created as a result of these efforts? Hear from Dr. Rohini Anand, SVP Corporate Responsibility and Global Chief Diversity Officer at Sodexo on how she has developed and driven a global diversity strategy, not just in the workplace but throughout the company’s supply chain and the communities in which it operates.

ASU, with the help of some special guests, previews the Sustainability Solutions Celebration, presented as part of the Sustainability Solutions Festival hosted by the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability.

Decades of studies indicate that serious health issues (including but not limited to asthma, cancer, and infertility) are on the rise and are due in some part to our ongoing exposure to toxic chemicals—whether it's in the shower, on our commute, while we eat lunch at a local restaurant, or when we clean our kitchens at home. There are more than 80,000 chemicals on the market today. Many don't have any safety data. This is particularly true of those used in the skin care and beauty industry. Hear from Beautycounter Founder & CEO, Gregg Renfrew, on her mission to get safer products into the hands of everyone.

Corporate sustainability is a broad and ever evolving field. For companies, staying on the cutting edge of sustainability means navigating uncharted territory and prioritizing new risks and opportunities to determine the best path forward. This panel will explore how sustainability professionals navigate and prioritize emerging issues, with a focus on framing business value of new programs and focus areas for internal decision makers.

Organized by GreenBiz 19 Host Partner Arizona State University Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives, the sixth annual Sustainability Solutions Celebration brings together audiences from the business and academic worlds to celebrate young innovators, thinkers and designers who have reimagined global challenges to make the world a better home for all of its inhabitants.

GreenBiz Group CEO Eric Faurot kicks off Day 3 of GreenBiz 19.