Sustainability Leaders Lunch: Discussing Climate, Nature, and Just Transition

By Invitation Only

London

January 16, 2025

12:30 - 2 pm GMT

Kick off the New Year with an exclusive lunch for senior sustainability leaders, featuring engaging discussions with Lara Birkes, BSR’s new Managing Director of Climate Change and Nature, and Charlene Collison, Director of Collaboration. This intimate gathering offers a unique opportunity to explore how the intersection of climate and nature impacts sustainability strategies, and to delve into the implications of the recent UN plastics treaty negotiations for a just transition. Join your peers for an informal yet thought-provoking exchange of ideas.

Space is limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. Attendance is by invitation only, and seats are non-transferable.

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

Charlene Collison, Director, Collaboration, BSR

Director, Collaboration, BSR

London

As Director, Collaborations, Charlene develops and implements strategies to engage BSR member companies and other stakeholders in high-impact collaborations for sustainable development. She specializes in building collaborative approaches between consumer-facing companies and their value chains to embed long-term sustainability, build resilience in the face of disruption, and increase equity, inclusion, and justice.

Charlene brings over 20 years of experience in sustainability, systems change, futures, and collaboration. Prior to BSR, Charlene was associate director for sustainable value chains and livelihoods with global sustainability non-profit Forum for the Future, where she directed collaborative system change initiatives in cotton, tea and other commodities, and led strategy projects with partners across the fashion and textile, agricultural and food sectors.

Charlene has an extensive background in futures, including working with the UK government’s futures unit developing and testing strategies across government departments.

Charlene holds an MSc in Sustainability and Responsibility from Ashridge Management College (UK), a BA in International Relations from the University of Puget Sound (US), and a Diploma in Organisation Development from Henley Business School (UK).

Recent Insights From Charlene Collison

Full Bio

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