Main Stage Agenda

Enjoy breakfast on the Campus because climate action cannot wait!

The Garden Eatery at The Nest Climate Campus is an engaging food experience and a place for robust networking as thought-leaders from the Campus gather for nourishment. Serving breakfast and lunch, the Eatery will feature locally-sourced and rooftop farm-grown plant based options and “sips and bites”.

Garden Eatery open daily from 7:30am - 4pm

 A keynote conversation with two impactful climate action leaders, Governor of Washington Jay Inslee and Marcene Mitchell, Senior Vice President of Climate Change for the World Wildlife Fund.

Governor Inslee is a global leader recognized for his climate action success. He co-founded the U.S. Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition of 24 governors securing America’s net-zero future, and the International Ocean Acidification Alliance, which is dedicated to protecting nearly 300 million people and over 277,600 miles of coastline from ocean acidification. Governor Inslee helps to lead the Pacific Coast Collaborative, America Is All In and Under2 Coalition.

Bringing her own decades of accomplishments to the stage will be host Marcene Mitchell, Senior Vice President of Climate Change at WWF, one of the world’s leading conservation organizations. Mitchell leads the organization’s work, which focuses on accelerating solutions that address the climate crisis and support people and nature both in the US and globally. 

Compass Group believes that sustainability isn’t just a concept; it’s a series of powerful, everyday decisions. By equipping clients, guests and our chefs with the right tools, knowledge, and inspiration, they empower them to turn intention into action.

As the leader in foodservice and hospitality, they have the unique opportunity—and responsibility—to influence the choices people make every day. Compass Group serves 11 million meals daily in healthcare, education, business and industry and sports and entertainment. That’s a significant opportunity to make a difference for people and planet. they do it by fostering a culture of innovation and collaboration that empowers meaningful progress on climate action.

In this session, you’ll hear from four Compass Change Makers focused on creating ripple effects in the food and hospitality industry and through the conversation, you’ll learn how you can empower change in your organization, take ideas from pilot to scale and create a lasting impact.

Nature-based solutions can help to mitigate and adapt to the many carbon and biodiversity challenges in supply chains everywhere. Join this session to find out how Nespresso has been working with PUR to revive ecosystems in important coffee-growing communities through carbon and biodiversity initiatives. And discover how studies by Cornell Lab of Ornithology show that such interventions are working, bringing birds back to coffee fields.

Highlighting the brand’s agroforestry programs in Costa Rica and Colombia, the session will explore how nature-based supply chain-linked interventions work, how impact can be measured, and how coffee can be a force for good.

When we think of climate change, we often think of fossil fuels, electricity, transportation, buildings, and industry. But that’s not the whole story. Some 20–35% of human-generated greenhouse gases come from food, agriculture, and land use. And those emissions are growing. The good news? Solutions to curb this impact exist! 

Jonathan Foley, executive director of Project Drawdown, will lead this discussion featuring panelists Matthew Hayek (NYU), Christy Loper (Robertson Foundation),  and Alexandria (Alex) Coari (ReFed).             

To spark real change for people and planet, our actions speak louder than words! Imagine a world in 2050, where businesses operate sustainably, powered by renewable energy and producing zero waste as part of circular economies. Collaboration across businesses ensures resilience and continued progress towards nature regeneration.

The science is clear: it is possible, but only if we act now. The solutions are here – yet we are not on track. Together we need to speed up and scale the implementation.

Hear directly from the changemakers behind the lowest carbon footprint Volvo car to date, women led nature-based solutions for climate disaster response in the Solomon Islands.

What immediate actions can businesses take to accelerate the implementation of climate solutions? How can we inspire more to act? What are the key enablers for success?

The Garden Eatery at The Nest Climate Campus is an engaging food experience and a place for robust networking as thought-leaders from the Campus gather for nourishment. Serving breakfast and lunch, the Eatery will feature locally-sourced and rooftop farm-grown plant based options and “sips and bites”.

Garden Eatery open daily from 7:30am - 4pm

Protecting the future of wholesome and nutritious food is relevant to all of us. Join Organic Valley CEO Jeff Frank for a presentation and fireside chat about innovative approaches such as carbon insetting, satellite grazing, an adaptive hybrid work model, and alternative capital structures. Gain an understanding of ways Organic Valley’s family farms are working with nature to address the climate crisis and why supporting organic family farms is critical to the future of food and our nation. Learn why these solutions are intrinsic to protecting endangered family farms, the fragile biodiverse ecosystems on which we all rely, rural America, and the future of wholesome food.

Offshore wind will play a critical role in stabilizing the climate, which is key to protecting frontline communities as well as the bird species at risk of extinction from climate change. This panel will address where the United States is today in responsibly planning for offshore wind development. Panelists will discuss the role of the federal, state, and scientific, and conservation communities in collaborating on deploying this new technology in ways that are informed by science and community input in coordination with relevant agencies.

This panel will explore how B2B companies and suppliers can partner with cross-sector customers to help achieve their sustainability goals, creating better businesses and a more sustainable future. The panel will highlight successful collaborations, discuss best practices and explore the benefits of partnerships for both suppliers and partners.

Ulta Beauty, the largest beauty retailer in the U.S., and sustainable hair care brand Eva NYC discuss the importance of collaboration and strong partnerships for reaching sustainability goals and launching programs that reach an expanded audience for greater impact. This thought-provoking conversation will cover industry leading research, best practices on brand alignment, and an inside look at a successful partnership model for other brands to follow.

Unlock the path to effective decarbonization in your agri-food value chain. Join Jennifer Hebets, Senior Director for Responsible Sourcing and Supplier Development at Kellanova, Julie Greene, Chief Sustainability Officer at Olam Agri, and Maya Hari, CEO of Terrascope, as they discuss proven strategies for global suppliers and brands to achieve real climate progress across their entire supply chain.

This session will address the elephant in the room: the DEI and ESG backlash has brought up new questions about the role of business in solving societal issues. The discussion will demonstrate how focusing on your people can bring about game-changing sustainability innovations, in terms of creating workplaces where people want to stay, surfacing novel ideas drawn from a diverse set of backgrounds, and remaining competitive to drive the bottom line. Panelists will talk through the frameworks, metrics, and programs that work to bridge equity and sustainability.

The growing green economy offers hope and innovative solutions. Hear from climate leaders driving transformational impacts—from a global science giant to a global impact investing platform, a climate-focused education organization, and a pivotal climate action nonprofit. They will provide insights into hiring and human capital trends across climate-related industries, talk about the latest developments in climate education and engagement, share tips on navigating a career path within the green economy, and offer an outlook for the future of green jobs.

We need all hands on deck to transition away from fossil fuels and build a sustainable future. This panel will explore how we can come together across sectors to accelerate a just energy transition. Hear how cross-sector initiatives are delivering innovative clean energy solutions that benefit people and the planet.

Enjoy breakfast on the Campus because climate action cannot wait!

The Garden Eatery at The Nest Climate Campus is an engaging food experience and a place for robust networking as thought-leaders from the Campus gather for nourishment. Serving breakfast and lunch, the Eatery will feature locally-sourced and rooftop farm-grown plant based options and “sips and bites”.

Garden Eatery open daily from 7:30am - 4pm

As businesses work to reduce emissions and build climate resilience, they have a growing arsenal of technologies at their disposal. Hear from Shannon Thomas Carroll, AVP, Global Environmental Sustainability, AT&T and Dr. Vanessa Chan, Chief Development Officer for the Department of Energy and Director of the Office of Technology Transitions about which solutions are already transforming corporate sustainability efforts, which are emerging as future game changers and where gaps remain in the technology toolkit for climate action.

Over the past decade, subnational governments have been critical to the global fight against the climate crisis. Local leaders at the city, state, and regional level have been hard at work advancing bold on-the-ground solutions and making their voices heard during key moments – from their role advocating for the historic Paris Agreement in 2015 to their participation in last year’s COP 28 UN Climate Change Conference, where over 70 national governments recognized their importance and agreed to enhance cooperation through the new Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships (CHAMP). In 2022, the U.S. government and partners announced the launch of the Subnational Climate Action Leaders’ Exchange (SCALE) initiative to elevate, equip, and empower these subnational champions around the world. This dialogue, co-hosted by the U.S. State Department and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, will explore the opportunities and challenges these leaders face in advancing ambitious multilevel climate action and share how SCALE is supporting cross-sector collaboration in key sectors.

Modernizing the grid may be the most consequential investment we make this decade. Why? Because it sits at the center of two national goals – accelerating decarbonization and advancing economic growth. Both require the availability of reliable, affordable, and clean power, with demands for that power continuing to skyrocket and resiliency against the effects of climate change an imperative. In this session, Siemens U.S. CEO Barbara Humpton and ASCE President Marsia Geldert-Murphey will discuss what steps we can take today that promise to make the most impact by 2030 and beyond.

Join Ceres’ dynamic mainstage program as we highlight the private sector actions needed to limit global temperature rise in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement and accelerate the transition to a cleaner, more just, and sustainable economy. The program will include an engaging high-level discussion on how investors and companies are taking advantage of federal investments to drive innovation and implementing transition plans that detail how they are achieving their climate goals.  Finally, learn how you can be part of the most comprehensive investor call for government action highlighting investors' unified stance for a whole-of-government approach to the climate crisis. 

Stay ahead in global decarbonization. Join Claire Perry O’Neill, Co-Chair of the Global Imperatives Advisory Board at WBCSD; Nicolette Bartlett, Chief Impact Officer at CDP; and Felipe Daguila, Chief Customer Officer at Terrascope, for an insightful discussion on the current state of global decarbonization. Moderated by Halcyon Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer Nat Bullard, this session will delve into the latest trends, challenges and opportunities in climate policy and corporate action. 

The climate solutions we need already exist today, but we must unlock the financing to bring this solutions at scale. To do so we need to go beyond traditional financing, even beyond the value chain. Instead of channelling finance to decarbonize companies and their value chains, we need channel finance around the climate solutions that matter most.

How can we be economy smart and climate smart at the same time? Where should we invest more to reduce our impact on nature and reduce costs?

The Garden Eatery at The Nest Climate Campus is an engaging food experience and a place for robust networking as thought-leaders from the Campus gather for nourishment. Serving breakfast and lunch, the Eatery will feature locally-sourced and rooftop farm-grown plant based options and “sips and bites”.

Garden Eatery open daily from 7:30am - 4pm

Join us to hear about the decarbonization investments, innovations, and deployed technologies that are changing the face of the transportation industry. Members of the panel will discuss policy concepts that matter when it comes to decarbonization, showcase tangible solutions that have been deployed over the last year, and highlight the kinds of public-private partnerships that can enable those solutions to scale.

GM Chief Sustainability Officer, Kristen Siemen, will be on the Main Stage for an in-depth look into GM’s vision and initiatives aimed at achieving a world with zero emissions. This engaging session will explore GM’s progress towards their climate goals including their renewable energy journey with an increased focus on collaboration to get to a more sustainable future, together.

What actually happens to an EV battery? Is there really such a thing as zero waste? Join GM as they dive into how every piece has a home -- both during its lifecycle and at end of use -- and how collaboration plays a vital role in the lifecycle process.

Join this Executive Fireside Chat to hear how top C-suite leaders are turning climate challenges into opportunities for growth. Gain insights from two executives who are leveraging innovation and strategic leadership to drive sustainable value and navigate evolving technology and regulations. Hear real examples of developing bold sustainability strategies that boost business performance and build stakeholder trust. Explore actionable approaches for leading through uncertainty and fostering growth while committing to a sustainable future. Get inspired by firsthand experiences and empower your team with the vision and tools to lead in a rapidly changing world.  

The battle against climate change isn't just fought in boardrooms, research labs or political forums; it's a collective effort that spans many fields and functions. With approximately 30% of total energy consumption and 40% of global emissions stemming from buildings, the built environment stands at a critical juncture for transformative environmental impact. Emerging career paths within green initiatives and efforts to decarbonize the built environment highlight the significant opportunities created by investments in sustainable technologies. Discover how diverse roles, experiences, and backgrounds can foster a favorable landscape for accelerating the adoption of green practices, drive meaningful change and contribute to the creation of healthier and more sustainable workplaces and communities.

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The museum is not separate from the biological world. As the realities of the climate crisis continue to transform societies and traditions, MoMA embraces the responsibility and opportunity to raise awareness and address the ways our collective choices impact the environment. In the unique roles of caring for its art collection and acting as a convenor of culture, it is crucial for the Museum to take a long-term, preservationist perspective. Join MoMA's Carson Chan, Director, The Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and Natural Environment and Jean Savitsky, Director, Real Estate and Sustainability, to learn about how the Museum integrates climate-focused programs into its lexicon and how energy and waste reduction initiatives are changing how it operates.

Join Kate Heiny of Booking Holdings, the world's leading provider of online travel services—including Booking.com, KAYAK, OpenTable, Priceline, and Agoda—as she discusses what is needed across the travel ecosystem to enable a more sustainable future for the industry, communities, and destinations.

No sustainability journey is easy and it’s even more difficult when we have the highest expectations for our customer experience and performance that can’t be compromised. Hear from experts at GM to learn more about what it means to design for circularity without sacrificing quality.

Announcing more speakers soon!

Lisa Jackson is Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives, reporting to CEO Tim Cook. She oversees Apple’s efforts to minimize its impact on the environment by addressing climate change through renewable energy and energy efficiency, using greener materials, and inventing new ways to conserve precious resources. She also leads Apple’s $100 million Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, focused on education, economic opportunity, and criminal justice reform — and is responsible for Apple’s education policy programs, its product accessibility work, and its worldwide government affairs function. 

Carter Roberts is president and CEO of WWF in the United States, a part of the world’s largest network of conservation organizations. Roberts has helped create and deliver some of WWF’s biggest initiatives that combine science, government policy, blended finance, corporate commitments, sustainable supply chains, and the wisdom and rights of communities to stabilize and protect the natural resources upon which all life depends. Under Roberts’ leadership, WWF has negotiated and deployed many debt swap transitions, and is currently actively pursuing sustainability linked bonds and other financial mechanisms to deliver long-term financial flows for conservation. 

Invited guests will celebrate the tremendous collaboration, community engagement, and collective climate action taking place on the Campus.  

They'll enjoy: 

• Networking with top executives across industry and sector from The Nest Climate Campus communities.
• Hor d'oeuvres and cocktail reception.
• Gorgeous views of the Hudson River and Manhattan with access to the Javits Center’s outdoor rooftop, weather permitting.
• Live performance by Sing For Hope
  
  

Enjoy breakfast on the Campus because climate action cannot wait!

The Garden Eatery at The Nest Climate Campus is an engaging food experience and a place for robust networking as thought-leaders from the Campus gather for nourishment. Serving breakfast and lunch, the Eatery will feature locally-sourced and rooftop farm-grown plant based options and “sips and bites”.

Garden Eatery open daily from 7:30am - 4pm

Elizabeth Bagley, Ph.D., is an interdisciplinary environmental scientist and learning scientist with experience spanning academia, business, and the nonprofit sector. 

As managing director, Elizabeth guides Project Drawdown’s overall strategy and keeps programs and operations functioning smoothly across the organization. Before joining Project Drawdown she led higher education-focused climate workforce development at SEI, directed sustainability efforts at the California Academy of Sciences, and designed the science content for video games at LeapFrog. 

 Lauren Singer has been founding, scaling, and operating businesses in climate since 2012. She has consulted on NYC Local Law 84 and Local Law 87 implementation, laid the foundation for EV adoption and policy in New York City under Mayor Bloomberg, and was Sustainability Manager at the NYC Department of Environmental Protection, implementing a sustainability framework on $4B of capital infrastructure projects. She is a repeat founder, building Trash is for Tossers, The Simply Co., and a venture-backed climate tech startup, Package Free Shop, where she now serves as Chairperson of the Board.

Join Jonathan Foley, Executive Director of Project Drawdown, and Maggie Baird, founder of Support+Feed and mother of Grammy Award-winning artists Finneas and Billie Eilish, for a fireside chat to dive deeper into the inextricable link between food systems and climate change. Through the lens of equity, Jonathan and Maggie will consider the capacity of plant-based food initiatives to reduce the negative impacts  of our global food systems and explore ways in which individuals and businesses can work together to drive access, acceptance, and demand for plant-based foods.

​The Toolbox was created to help make sustainability more accessible, based on the ethos that ‘when we share, everyone wins.’ The value of The Toolbox is the community that creates, uses and maintains it. We know that the sustainable transition is mission critical, but it is easy to be overwhelmed with the scale of the challenge and where to even begin.

The purpose of the framework is to empower teams and organizations with a set of tools to enable them to join the movement towards a just and sustainable future.

In a world of polycrisis, new risks and vulnerabilities are more recurrent, unpredictable and interconnected, putting at threat our global stability, sustainability and well-being. As an insurer, AXA’s role is to support society in adapting to those changes and build climate and social resilience. Prevention plays a key role in climate adaptation and transition: understanding climate risks means being able to better anticipate them and reduce their impacts on societies and ecosystems. The use of recent technologies has increased the ability to prevent climate threats and protect ecosystems from impacts due to human actions (soil artificialization, biodiversity loss, methane emissions). Discover how AXA Digital Commercial Platform innovates to face the challenges of climate change, using the technology provided by their partners expert in satellite imagery and artificial intelligence.

Achieving a circular economy is an essential part of addressing the climate crisis. Businesses and communities are already reducing the need for raw materials through reuse, recycling and repair, and today one of the main challenges we face is how to innovate and scale these solutions to build a brighter future. 

Consumers are increasingly looking to leading brands and businesses for help reducing their carbon footprints, but achieving this at scale requires not only circular programs and infrastructure, but widespread participation and a total shift in consumer behavior. To succeed, companies need to get circularity right with Gen Z, who serve as a litmus test for sincerity in circular initiatives. 

This panel will explore the pivotal role of youth in this transformation, their growing spending power towards more sustainable consumption patterns, and the importance of digital technologies for implementation. Join us to learn how we can collectively drive the shift toward a circular economy.

The Garden Eatery at The Nest Climate Campus is an engaging food experience and a place for robust networking as thought-leaders from the Campus gather for nourishment. Serving breakfast and lunch, the Eatery will feature locally-sourced and rooftop farm-grown plant based options and “sips and bites”.

Garden Eatery open daily from 7:30am - 4pm

Climate change is commonly treated as a single, global problem that needs to be "solved." This mindset may have been appropriate in the past, but at 1.5°C above the preindustrial average, it's clear that we are not going to solve climate change. Everyone is going to live in a changed and changing climate for centuries to come. In this powerful keynote session, Spencer Glendon, founder of Probable Futures, will show how essential it is to make adaptation a priority and how doing so can lead to stronger institutions, healthier communities, better food, and even more effective decarbonization. Whether you are interested in housing, transportation, water, insurance, community organizing, fruit, or any other aspect of society, this session will give you frameworks, tools, and examples to help you see the world around you more clearly and make better decisions.

As climate change intensifies, many low- and middle-income countries face a precarious balancing act between addressing urgent climate adaptation and development needs and pursuing clean energy transitions. While these two objectives can be complementary, they also create challenging choices around meeting human development imperatives and decommissioning or avoiding fossil development. This panel will unpack these choices, and present energy transition strategies that put human flourishing at the center.  

Insurance is not the only answer to protecting against climate change. With the increasing impact of climate change – and the unpredictability of the risks that it brings – global businesses and markets are realizing they cannot simply insure away the problem. Insurance will continue to play a key role in protecting businesses, but it will need to be augmented with additional investment in risk mitigation, business continuity planning and supply chain diversification. Even renewable energy developments – the very technologies businesses are adopting to fight climate change – will need to be proactive and protected.

This panel discussion between Bansk , Bansk Beauty and Woodstream, will dive into tangible case studies on how Bansk better serves consumer needs and preferences to grow brand revenues through ESG with The Five Goods framework. The Five Goods, in order of importance, are: (i) Good for the Consumer, (ii) Good for the Planet, (iii) Good Working Conditions, (iv) Good Governance and (v) Good Corporate Social Responsibility. Bansk also leverages ESG to identify cost saving opportunities more than just offsetting any costs associated with ESG efforts.
 
Bansk is a consumer-packaged goods focused private investment firm, that partners with distinctive brands in high-growth areas of beauty & personal care, consumer health, food & beverage, and household products. Bansk Beauty is the platform for high-growth, efficacious, beauty brands serving professional, prestige, and masstige retail markets. Currently it includes three haircare brands including amika, Eva NYC and ethique. Woodstream is the leading household Pest & Animal Control company in the US with trusted brands such as Victor, Terro, Safer, Perky Pet, Dynatrap and more. Its mission is to provide innovative & efficacious solutions for pest & animal control, environmentally friendly products for lawn & garden, new & effective ways to enjoy birding.

In the race to decarbonize our economy, the commercial and industrial sectors have flat lined—despite the availability of necessary technology, expertise, and funding—and companies that don’t take action risk being left behind. In this session, learn how companies across the supply chain are overcoming decarbonization obstacles with innovative tools like the DBO™ to achieve economic growth and reach net zero goals.

This panel will address the importance of methane and other non-CO2 gases in the fight to prevent catastrophic climate change, and how partnerships can get us to scale on solutions that have impact today – when it matters most. Project Drawdown will join to talk about the importance of addressing methane and its impact as an “emergency brake” solution. Tradewater will highlight their developing methane program to address actively leaking orphaned oil and gas wells and talk about how Workday’s early support is catalyzing the scaling of this program. Workday will speak about their portfolio approach to proactively address emissions that cannot currently be reduced and the importance of addressing a significant climate challenge that’s historically been overlooked. Tradewater and Workday will also discuss the innovations that made a multi-year offtake possible.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called the agencies working for fossil fuel clients the “Mad Men fueling the madness” - but Seventh Generation, Clean Creatives and their agency partners like Allison PR are leading a revolution in the industry to cut ties with fossil fuel polluters. This session will cover how fossil fuel advertising obstructs climate action, and how sustainability focused brands are leading change to clean up the creative industry, crush greenwashing, and supercharge energy to solve climate change.