The New Landscape of Sustainable Business (Americas/Europe)

Webinar

June 30, 2026

11 am - 12 pm EDT

Registration

In a turbulent operating environment, what are companies doing to prioritize and implement sustainability strategies that drive business value, and how are they planning for the future?

 In a strategic context defined by fragmentation, geopolitical tension, contested information, and uneven economic and social conditions, companies have become more cautious about their public positioning. This lack of information sharing limits innovation, and makes it more difficult for companies to benchmark their activities, slowing the pace of progress on critical sustainability issues.
 
BSR and GlobeScan invite you for an inside look into an aggregated view from over 100 business leaders around the world of how large companies are responding to this moment. Gain insights from the results of our State of Sustainable Business survey—one of the few shared reference points our field has right now—to understand how sustainability is shaping decision-making today and where it’s headed next.

Scheduled Speakers

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

James Morris, Director, GlobeScan Incorporated

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.