Session Descriptions

Breakout Sessions

The following breakout sessions are a preview of what participants will be able to select from to create a personalized agenda. Check this page often for program updates and confirmed speakers*.

Buy, Buy, Baby: The Ethics of Marketing to Kids

Is marketing directly to kids ethical? Advertising is a massive, multimillion dollar industry that's having an enormous impact on child development. The sheer volume of advertising is growing rapidly and invading new and existing areas of childhood like schools, summer camps, and kids’ activity groups. At the same time, more children are consuming more media at younger ages than ever before. Some companies are backing away from marketing campaigns targeting kids for both ethical and legal reasons, while other companies are being forced to change their programs due to the threat of litigation. What is the best path forward?

Climate Change and the Arab Region

The Arab region is particularly susceptible to the impacts of climate change due to existing vulnerabilities that are exacerbated by a rise in global temperatures. Half of the region's population lives in water-stressed conditions, with demand exceeding supply. Persistent droughts and floods have already been observed in recent years in several countries, including Syria and Morocco. Climate change is expected to intensify such extremes. Not only do these risks threaten the livelihoods of millions of people, they threaten the long-term sustainability of companies with business interests in the region. Join us to explore the adaptation strategies needed to reduce the risks for companies doing business in this part of the world.

Conflict Minerals: Cleaning the Supply Chain and Solving the Problem?

Over the past two years, a few industries have become more proactive in using due diligence and diplomatic efforts to address the challenge of using minerals that come from conflict mines. But the question remains whether this approach has been effective, or whether it will launch a massive disinvestment from a region that badly needs development. This session will help participants understand what drives change in value chains and why companies should address supply chain issues.

CSR and the CFO

The business case for CSR is critical when company leaders develop strategies that are measurable and impactful for business goals. Support from the CFO is essential yet can be difficult to obtain for many CSR professionals. This session will feature a CFO’s perspective on CSR and offer practical advice on how to engage your CFO to assess and demonstrate the business case for sustainability programs.

The CSR Blueprint for Alternative Energy

This session will address the material issues related to alternative energy and will create a “blueprint” of the top five issues that should be communicated by energy companies. Both NGO and company representatives will come together for a lively discussion.

Culture, Compliance, and Child Labor

Child labor in rural farms and factories is still accepted and even respected in many countries, making it one of the most difficult issues for large companies to tackle in their overseas supply chains. It's also one of the riskiest issues in terms of company reputation. This session will present a practical guide for how companies can develop a multifaceted strategy based on proven case studies.

Female Consumers and Sustainable Products

Today, women are the most influential group when it comes to consumer-purchasing decisions, yet most companies remain unaware of how to engage them effectively. This session will explore the value of female consumers, how to address women’s needs, and how sustainable product design can address some of their main purchasing considerations.

From Conservation to Restoration: How Investing in Water Can Deliver Concrete Business Value

With unpredictable weather patterns and increasing water scarcity, companies face new risks to business continuity and access to raw materials in their supply chains. While some have made great strides in improving water efficiency, leaders recognize that these efforts alone will not mitigate the risks associated with growing competition for increasingly scarce water resources. Recognizing the direct link between access to water and the management of watersheds, some companies are making innovative investments in the basins where they operate. Learn how leading companies are investing in watershed restoration to secure long-term access to reliable sources of water.

Harnessing Cross-Industry Partnerships to Increase Access to Health Care

One of the hottest CSR topics is access to health care—an issue relevant beyond just the pharmaceutical industry. While a pharmaceutical company can provide medicine, a software company can offer analytics, and an apparel company can give vulnerable populations access to health services at their factories. Hear from the companies who are ramping up their efforts to close the gaps in access to health care by developing such cross-industry partnerships.

The Impact of ‘Rapid Obsolescence’ on Sustainable Consumption

“Rapid obsolescence” is the process—planned or designed by the manufacturer—in which products becoming obsolete or non-functional after a certain period of time or amount of use. What are the problems and benefits of this, and what drives it? These questions and more will be addressed by expert speakers presenting their viewpoints and offering ideas on how companies and industries can take on this topic in the future.

The Nudge Factor: Helping Consumers Make Sustainable Choices

Consumers drive markets and businesses and, in turn, their choices help drive sustainable consumption. How can companies start to address the gap between what consumers say about sustainability and what they actually do? This conversation will explore how companies can engage with consumers to encourage more sustainable choices and influence how consumers use products and services.

Putting Vision Back Into Community Strategy

Companies are under increasing pressure to find ways to share leadership with the communities in which they operate regarding their local-development programs. However, most corporate programs “for the community” are being designed internally, with little input from the community. This session will offer a glimpse into a successful partnership between a company and a community that had a positive impact on a specific area.

Rebuilding Japan: A Sustainability Challenge

Do CSR initiatives and cross-sector partnerships make it easier for countries to recover from disasters? Japan is at a turning point that will require new thinking and approaches to sustainable rebuilding and development. This session will ask leaders within major Japanese corporations to discuss their CSR and sustainability efforts as Japan looks to renew its commitment to international collaboration and global leadership in a time of devastation.

Resource Constraints: Preparing for the Future

From clean water to fresh food, resources constraints are growing fast and evident in many industries. Yet few companies are capable of taking observations from the macro to the micro level. This session will help companies understand how imminent global resource constraints will fundamentally challenge current business models and growth assumptions, and how to test these models against future scenarios of a resources-constrained world.

Stopping Traffick: The Role of Travel and Tourism in Preventing Human Trafficking

As business leaders, we all stay in hotels throughout the year and enjoy the many services and amenities they offer to frequent travelers. But running a hotel is a complex business and, as in all of our companies, the CSR issues are wide-ranging. This session will provide insight into one topical CSR issue: human trafficking and child sex tourism and how the travel and tourism industry plays an important role in combating the exploitation of women and children.

Sustainability in Mainstream Financial Reporting

Increasingly, companies are incorporating sustainability issues in annual financial reporting. Join us to hear the latest on global financial reporting regulations, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s regulation requiring climate change guidance and state-level policy in California

Sustainability Storytelling: What Works and Why

It’s no longer enough to have a sustainability program; key stakeholders want to hear and engage with you. Crafting compelling CSR stories to share can help you achieve maximum impact and collaboration with internal and external groups. But how is a story created and told in a way that sets you apart from the competition and breaks through the noise? Join us to discuss practical guidance and inspiration for how new stories, and the reframing of your data and anecdotes, can lead to new values and new opportunities.

Sustainable Engagement in a Hyper-transparent World

Can you say WikiLeaks? The age of hyper-transparency is already upon us, and the tools are advancing more rapidly than consumers and companies can control. Understanding the new media landscape is critical to creating effective sustainability initiatives. In the best cases, hyper-transparency is transparency co-created by a company and its stakeholders. This session will explore how companies are proactively seeking to participate and influence stakeholder understanding of their corporate, supply chain, and product sustainability efforts in this new era.

Swap! Barter! Share! The Rise of Collaborative Consumption

Technology, economic trends, and the growing need for consumers to get greater value out of the things they buy are all leading to a rapid explosion of new platforms for sharing, bartering, and trading goods. This session will examine how these platforms are being reinvented through the latest technologies and peer-to-peer marketplaces.

Taking Innovation to Scale

Global 1000 companies are at risk of losing the “innovation race” to smaller companies. It is imperative that they learn how to apply new business models and strategies, learn how to align business and products with sustainability, and work seamlessly in a variety of dynamic markets. This session will help participants determine the right definition of business to enable evolution and innovation.

Talking the Walk of ESG With Investors

More mainstream investors are integrating ESG into their investment decisions. But what type of information are they looking for? Participants in this conversation will explore opportunities for companies to improve the integration of ESG into investor relations and share examples of how companies have successfully communicated with investors about their ESG activities.

Using CSR in New Market Entry Strategies

Increasingly, global corporations are entering new markets in places where CSR practices are not as well established and the rule of law is less developed. In these cases, sustainability risks are more significant—and more likely. This session, which includes lessons related to stakeholder engagement, media training, and capacity building, will explore how companies can use sustainability practices to support new market entry.