GreenBiz Musings: Gearing up for the Sustainability Revolution

Earlier this month, together with many like-minded colleagues passionate about the role of the private sector in solving the climate crisis, I attended the annual GreenBiz Meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona. The meeting brought together 2000+ committed experts to compare notes about the various ways their companies are evolving their practices in the pursuit of net zero. It was profoundly encouraging. I want to highlight and share a few things I observed:

• The energy around net zero is real. This year’s conference was notable in a few ways – it was the second meeting held in person post-Covid (the early February 2020 meeting was the last in-person meeting many of us attended before the pandemic and GreenBiz was held virtually in February 2021), and it smashed attendance records. GreenBiz stopped taking new registrations a week before the meeting began as the number of registrants began to exceed the venue’s capacity limits. Many of the sessions were standing-room-only, and the excitement at the conference was palpable.
• There is a genuine appetite for transformational change. This energy from sustainability experts is critical, because we’re at the cusp of what one Davos participant called a Sustainability Revolution. Here’s what that means: in order to meet Net Zero, our global economy must be transformed on a scale equivalent to the systemic change that occurred during the Industrial Revolution, but at the speed of the Digital Revolution, if not faster.

At the meeting participants learned from experts in sessions dedicated to climate finance, the details of ESG reporting, improvements in carbon markets, engaging and supporting a diverse workforce, and more. We networked vigorously and discussed these topics amongst ourselves, and in many cases met with old friends and new business partners to discuss opportunities for innovation and investment. These connections will help accelerate the pace of the Sustainability Revolution in 2023. 

• Recognizing the importance of education and outreach. One thing I didn’t see much of, and that I think this community of change makers will need to address in order to maximize effectiveness, is a focus on education. How will we train the next generation of experts in the practical skills they will need to make change in their own organizations? Our young people are profoundly committed to making a difference in their communities, and there is tremendous growth in applicants for “green” jobs. But students are not coming out of universities equipped to immediately engage in transforming their workplaces. Beyond more focus on sustainability in higher education, there may be even more opportunity to reskill mid-level managers to apply their expertise to this new world of sustainable business. A special shout out to my friend and colleague Dr. Christopher Boone at Arizona State University’s College of Global Futures, who has been doing groundbreaking work
  in this area. 

This year will be a critical one for getting us to global net zero. If the energy and enthusiasm at GreenBiz is any indication, I am confident we’ll stay on the right track. Keep an eye on the Rubicon Carbon blog for more on our efforts to move the market forward in 2023.