Quarterly Member Insights: Sustainable Business Trends Shaping 2025, Q2

BSR Members Only

Webinar

April 9, 2025

11 am - 12 pm EDT

Event Resources

Event resources are for BSR members only. Members, please log in to access the resources. Members, please reach out to us if you do not have a login account.

BSR provides members with access to exclusive insights and analysis to help your business see a changing world more clearly and transform to meet present and future sustainability challenges. Every quarter, BSR members receive the ‘Quarterly Member Insights’ report, featuring deep dives into emerging topics curated by our global team of sustainability and industry experts.

Our quarterly webinars walk you through these emerging developments, offering analysis and practical implications for your company. In our next installment, we will explore key trends for the year ahead, including insights from our experts in Climate Change and Nature, Human Rights, and Sustainability Management.

The webinar is open to all member companies and their employees. We encourage you to invite additional colleagues inside or outside of your team and take full advantage of BSR’s member benefits.

Scheduled Speakers

Lara Birkes, Managing Director, Climate and Nature, BSR

Managing Director, Climate and Nature, BSR

San Francisco

Lara is responsible for leading BSR's Climate and Nature team globally and driving the organization’s work with Member companies' impact consulting, grants, and collaborative initiatives.

Lara is a sustainability and policy professional with over fifteen years of experience managing partnerships, sustainability initiatives and policy engagement with companies, international organizations, governments, and NGOs.

Prior to BSR, Lara was Global Head of Sustainability at Sonder, joining in 2020 to establish the corporate responsibility function, implementing policies to engrain responsible business practices across the company pre to post IPO.

She also serves on the Advisory Board of EQX Biome, a start-up working to mobilize financial markets to protect the world’s remaining biodiversity hotspots. In 2024 Lara started hosting a web series & podcast called Nature IS to raise awareness of the critical need for protection, conservation, and regeneration of biodiversity.

Lara holds a B.S. degree in International Business & Management from the University of Montana, a M.A. degree in International Trade Policy from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California and is a World Economic Forum Global Leadership Fellow.

Recent Insights From Lara Birkes

Full Bio

Laura Gitman, Chief Impact Officer, BSR

Chief Impact Officer, BSR

New York

Laura is a global expert on corporate sustainability, with two decades of experience in strategy consulting and has advised senior executives at global companies across a range of industry sectors and sustainability issues.

As Chief Impact Officer (CIO), the first in the organization’s 30-year history, Laura focuses on maximizing the impact of BSR’s work with its network of over 300 members, both through direct engagement on project work and as a mentor for teams throughout the organization. She also oversees BSR’s Collaborative Initiatives and Membership, and is a recognized thought leader and innovator in strategic business.

She has been an instrumental leader in BSR’s organizational growth and impact. She launched BSR’s financial services practice and New York office, and she served as Chief Operating Officer for five years, leveraging her strengths in strategy, organizational change, and people management. Laura works with leading global companies to develop and enhance their sustainability strategies to maximize value for business and society, and she is sought after to facilitate senior-level strategy workshops and multi-stakeholder collaborations.

She previously worked for Deloitte Consulting, where she acquired extensive strategy experience advising multinational financial services companies. She also worked on several community and economic development projects in Latin America.

Laura holds a MBA from Stanford University and a BS in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University. She is an adjunct professor in the Bard MBA in Sustainability program, a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, and a member of the UN Global Compact Expert Network.

Recent Insights From Laura Gitman

Full Bio

Kayla Winarsky McKenzie, Associate Director, Human Rights, BSR

Associate Director, Human Rights, BSR

New York

Kayla collaborates with BSR member companies on projects centering on the corporate responsibility to respect human rights, focusing on companies within the consumer sectors industry cluster. Her areas of expertise include energy transition, anti-corruption, and gender.

Prior to joining BSR, Kayla spent several years advising multinational companies and investors on human rights as an Adviser at the Danish Institute for Human Rights, during which she also served as a Lecturer in Law at the University of Amsterdam, focusing on Business and Human Rights (BHR), international human rights, anti-corruption, and EU law. Previously, she worked on global anti-corruption investigations and cross-border white collar litigations as an Associate Attorney at the international law firm King & Spalding LLP, where she was the founding member of the firm's BHR initiative.

Kayla holds a JD and a Certificate in Global Human Rights from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, which included course work at the Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement, and a BA, Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude from Tulane University.

Recent Insights From Kayla Winarsky McKenzie

Full Bio

Kindra Mohr, Associate Director, Financial Services and Human Rights, BSR

Associate Director, Financial Services and Human Rights, BSR

New York

Bringing her expertise as a business and human rights attorney, Kindra leads BSR's work at the intersection of finance and human rights.

Kindra has nearly 15 years of experience in advancing human rights, social and environmental sustainability, and access to remedy within the financial sector. She advises financial institutions and their corporate clients and investees on innovative solutions to prevent and address human rights risks and impacts on the ground, including through stakeholder engagement and the development of grievance mechanisms.

Previously, Kindra consulted for the International Finance Corporation and worked with clients at PwC to integrate best practices into their corporate governance frameworks. She also worked for the US Senate and served for five years as the Policy Director for a global nonprofit, advocating with communities for environmental and social protections and access to remedy in international finance. In addition, Kindra has lived and worked for nonprofits in Argentina, Haiti, and Peru on access to justice and corporate accountability.

Kindra obtained her law degree at Boston College and holds a MA in International Economics and International Relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Recent Insights From Kindra Mohr

Full Bio

Anna Zubets-Anderson, Former Associate Director, Transformation, BSR

Back to Events

Events

Event Resources

Scheduled Speakers

You Might Also Like

Sustainability Insights

Advisory Services

Collaboration

Membership

Events

Focus Areas

About Us