Autonomous, electric and shared vehicles — also known as the three revolutions — are supposed to be the future. And  Alisyn Malek,  co-founder and COO of May Mobility, is embracing it, having created a self-driving and electric shuttle service that focuses specifically on first and last mile solutions.

Water is a shared resource — a global necessity, but on a management level, a local system.

Pedro Sancha, the senior vice president of Nalco Water, an EcoLab company, discussed the challenges and opportunities of water stewardship in the era of climate change. "Companies need to look outside and collaborate with other users in the watershed. It needs to be context-based," he said. 

UPS Senior Director of Maintenance and Engineering, Scott Phillippi, knows that the opportunities for electrification are endless.

The space is ready, he says: "We're on the cusp of getting there to where there are solutions, that are affordable and that make sense, and that can tie into good business reasons." The technology is being developed quickly, and quick deployment is key for UPS. Phillippi is confident that others will follow.

"We're maybe on more of a plateau than a tipping point, but we need to push over that," he said.

The digital transformation is the idea that strategic business (and some political) decisions will be made using technologies, data and automated processes. The implications of this transformation aren't as easy to describe, but one of the major ones is eliminating the negative impacts of extracted physical materials on the planet.

Robin Chase believes that "transportation is the center of our universe."

Founder and former CEO of ZipCar, one of the pioneering companies of the sharing economy, as well as tech startup Veniam (and VERGE Vanguard winner), Chase knows that there are major opportunities to cut carbon and enact systems changes through the transportation sector.

"It's a moment — can we capture the momentum and anxiety and deliver cities that are sustainable and livable?" she asked.

Walmart's new food traceability initiative is a leafy green supplier data program, but with blockchain. 

Tejas Bhatt, senior director of food safety innovation at massive retailer Walmart, knows that blockchain is a buzzword, but in moving past that, there are enterprise-level applications to enhance customer safety and supplier resilience while cutting risk. The "decentralized, secure ledger of transactions" could have a huge impact.