The annual Practice Forum hosted by the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business is an industry-leading event convening investor and corporate sustainability leaders to discuss the latest research and insights on operationalizing and monetizing sustainability. This year’s event was generously sponsored by Glenmede, Investindustrial, KPMG, and Qintess, with media partner Financial Times.

To date, CSB’s Practice Forum stood out from similar events by focusing on the financial case for sustainability, demonstrating why it’s good for business. For our sixth annual event, we applied these learnings to how to realize these opportunities in performance and profit.

Sustainability in Practice: Applying the Financial Case for Sustainability Investment

Tuesday, March 14, 2023

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AGENDA
Opening Remarks

Raghu Sundaram, Dean and the Edward I. Altman Professor of Credit and Debt Markets at New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business

Applying the Financial Case for Sustainability Investment

Keynote address presenting the latest research from CSB on how to operationalize sustainability in practice

Tensie Whelan, Founding Director, NYU Stern CSB

ESG in Black and White: Media’s Role in the Sustainability Culture Wars

A panel of journalists were on the receiving end of the interview, discussing the recent ESG backlash, and providing insights on how to manage communications in a polarized environment

Heather Clancy, Vice President and Editorial Director, GreenBiz

Amy Cortese, Editorial Director, ImpactAlpha

David Gelles, Climate Reporter, The New York Times

Gillian Tett, Chair of the editorial board and editor-at-large, US, Financial Times

Moderated by Mindy Lubber, CEO and President, Ceres

Fireside Chat with Roberto Ardagna

Roberto Ardagna, Managing Principal and Head of North America and Growth Investments, Investindustrial in conversation with Patrick Temple-West, Financial Times

ROSI™ Roundtable: Monetizing Sustainability Initiatives Across Industries

Practical learnings from how to monetize the Return on Sustainability Investment (ROSI) across industries 

Gary Cohen, President, Health Care Without Harm and Practice Greenhealth

Virginia Covo, Head of Sustainability, North America, AB InBev

Michael Tears, Senior Director of Energy & Environment, Kimberly-Clark

Moderated by John Platko, Managing Partner, ALO Advisors

Trends in Technology

TED-style talk on how information and data management technologies can improve decision-making related to complex sustainability issues

Nana Baffour, Chairman and Chief Culture Officer, Qintess

2022 Sustainable Market Share Index™ Report

The highly anticipated annual update of CSB's analysis of consumer purchasing of sustainability-marketed products during an inflationary period

Randi Kronthal-Sacco, Senior Scholar, NYU Stern CSB

Nishat Mehta, President, Global Products & Solutions, IRI

Fireside Chat with Paul Knopp

Paul Knopp, Chair and CEO, KPMG in conversation with Gillian Tett, Chair of the editorial board and editor-at-large, US, Financial Times

NYC's Carbon Transition

Remarks by Rohit Aggarwala, Commissioner and Chief Climate Officer, NYC Department of Environmental Protection

Capital for Climate Commitments

Climate finance professionals discussed the mechanisms to provide capital for the low carbon transition, including fixed income, venture capital, and green banking

Andrew Kessler, President, NY Green Bank

Lindsay Luger, Co-Founder and Partner, Energy Impact Partners

Priscilla Lu, Partner/Managing Director, Head of Sustainable Investments for APAC, DWS

Moderated by Kenza Bryan, Moral Money Reporter, Financial Times

Practitioners' Guide to Embedding Sustainability

Unveiling the NYU Stern CSB guide to embedding sustainability into a company's business strategy.  The guide provides practical guidance, cases, and a self-assessment tool to help companies develop effective sustainability strategies supported by strong governance, culture and communications.

Chisara Ehiemere, Senior Research Lead, ROSI, NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business

The following programming exclusively available to in-person attendees and does not have recordings.

Embedded Sustainability Workshops

Following the presentation of the new Practitioners' Guide, in-person attendees had the unique opportunity to engage with one chosen section through interactive case studies and exercises that help apply the concepts to your role and industry. Topic areas included:

• Embedded Sustainability Strategy with Tensie Whelan, Founding Director, NYU Stern CSB
• ROSI & Circularity with Chisara Ehiemere, Senior Research Lead, NYU Stern CSB
• ROSI & Sustainable Sourcing with Elyse Douglas, Senior Research Scholar, NYU Stern CSB
• Stakeholder Mapping & Materiality with Sophie Rifkin, Senior Director of Sustainability, Banza
• Marketing & Communications with Raphael Bemporad, Founding Partner, BBMG

Networking Happy Hour

In-person attendees enjoyed beverages and an opportunity to connect and reflect with fellow participants

See below for recordings of this year's programming and more information about previous Practice Forums. Previous speakers include:

• Adi Ignatius, Editor-in-Chief of Harvard Business Review
• Rina Kupferschmid-Rojas, Group Head of Sustainable Finance at UBS
• Paul Polman, Co-founder of IMAGINE and former CEO of Unilever
• Michael Roberts, President and CEO of HSBC Bank USA
• Tim Ryan, US Chairman of PwC

Please reach out with any questions at sustainablebusiness@stern.nyu.edu.