Quarterly Member Insights: Sustainable Business Trends Shaping 2025, Q3

BSR Members Only

Webinar

July 15, 2025

11 am - 12 pm EST

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 third installment of 2025, we will explore key trends for the year ahead, including insights from our experts in Climate 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

Hugh W. Brown, Jr., Director, Financial Services, BSR

Director, Financial Services, BSR

New York

Hugh is the Global Head of BSR’s Financial Services practice and partners with public and private companies across sectors.

He advises institutional investors, corporations, and other capital market participants on corporate strategy, sustainability, investment value creation strategy, risk management, and stakeholder engagement.

Prior to joining BSR, Hugh was a senior director at Ceres, where he led investor engagement with global institutional investors representing over US$20 trillion in assets under management (AUM). Hugh managed research and analysis linking climate risks including land use change and water risks to investment portfolios and company supply chains to help investors and companies manage sustainability impacts and opportunities.

Hugh has over 15 years of investment management expertise in various roles. At the $250 billion AUM Florida State Board of Administration, he worked on corporate governance, liquidity cash management, risk management across asset classes, and portfolio value creation strategy. He also worked at Morgan Stanley, where he provided investment management and consulting services to municipal entities.

Hugh is a veteran of the US Air Force. He holds a BA in History and International Affairs from Florida State University and an MBA from Nova Southeastern University.

Hannah Darnton, Director, Technology and Human Rights, BSR

Director, Technology and Human Rights, BSR

San Francisco

Hannah works with companies that develop and deploy technology to integrate human rights-based approaches into their policies, products, and strategies. She specializes in conducting human rights due diligence on emerging technologies, such as generative AI, affective tech, facial recognition, and surveillance, and in identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks to children in digital environments.

She has worked extensively with companies to prepare for and comply with human rights-related regulatory requirements in alignment with the OECD Guidelines and UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. This includes conducting and reviewing risk assessments under the EU Digital Services Act and the UK's Online Safety Act, as well as preparing for forthcoming obligations under the EU AI Act, CSDDD, and CSRD.

Prior to joining BSR, Hannah worked at the Skoll Foundation and spent several years working in anti-human trafficking.

Hannah holds a Master’s in NGOs and Development with a specialization in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and a B.A. in Political Science and French from the University of Michigan.

Recent Insights From Hannah Darnton

Full Bio

Julie Dugard, Associate Director, Climate and Nature, BSR

Associate Director, Climate and Nature, BSR

Paris

Julie serves as Manager of BSR’s Climate team, where she brings over 10 years of experience in corporate sustainability and climate action and supports BSR members with their climate strategies.

After joining BSR in 2021, Julie worked on multiple projects helping companies implementing TCFD recommendations, conducting climate scenario analysis (for the tech, financial and insurance industry), accelerating Net Zero transition, implementing just transition approaches (extractive industry) and scope 3 strategies (consumer goods sector). Since 2023, Julie manages BSR grant-funded work dedicated to Climate Transition Plans.

Julie is also co-developing BSR’s work on alternative business models addressing the tension between business growth and sustainability targets.

Prior to joining BSR, Julie worked in Mazars’s sustainability services and risk practice, where she audited and advised companies on their ESG data and internal audit, control and risk approaches. During her time within Mazars, Julie also spent six months at the Mexico City office.

Julie holds a master’s degree in business from Kedge Business School and spent one semester at the University of Nottingham and another one at the University of Technology of Sydney. She speaks French, English, and Spanish.

Recent Insights From Julie Dugard

Full Bio

David Korngold, Managing Director of BSR Innovation Group, BSR

Managing Director of BSR Innovation Group, BSR

New York

David partners with corporate boards, executives, and investors to develop high-impact sustainability strategies. As part of BSR’s Transformation team, he co-leads engagement with boards of directors to promote effective board governance and leadership ambition on sustainability.

Having previously led BSR's Financial Services team, David continues to work closely with financial companies on sustainability, ESG integration, and impact investing. David has led engagements in nearly all of BSR’s focus areas and major industry groups. This includes leading climate scenarios workshops with boards, creating net-zero road maps for investment firms, designing and operationalizing a leading impact investing fund, conducting materiality assessments, undertaking human rights impact assessments, and co-authoring research on topics like ESG for emerging public companies and responsible investment policies for private equity firms.

Before joining BSR, David worked in strategy and management consulting at Bain & Company.

David holds a BA in History from Amherst College.

Recent Insights From David Korngold

Full Bio

David Stearns, Managing Director, Marketing and Communications, BSR

Managing Director, Marketing and Communications, BSR

New York

David leads BSR’s marketing and communications initiatives, working with a global team to amplify the organization’s mission and showcase its activities, impacts, and thought leadership to members, partners, and the wider business and policy community.

David previously worked for The B Team, a group of global business and civil society leaders working to catalyze a better way of doing business for the well-being of people and the planet. Throughout his 20-year career, he has worked with businesses and nonprofits in economic development, public health, and sustainability to define and communicate their purpose and impacts. .

He has built high-impact communications campaigns for a collaboration to improve maternal health in Zambia and Uganda, driven top-tier media coverage for a major economic development project in upstate New York, and helped strengthen parliamentary capacity and voter education efforts in South Africa and Zambia. He began his career as a newspaper reporter.

David earned his M.A. from The Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University and his B.A. in Journalism and Political Science from Michigan State University.

Recent Insights From David Stearns

Full Bio

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