At the occasion of the UN General Assembly, WBCSD has partnered with Business Fights Poverty for an inspiring and action-focused half-day event on how business, government and civil society are collaborating to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This invitation-only event will bring together over 100 senior business professionals and development partners, offering genuine opportunities for peer-to-peer engagement and networking.

WBCSD members can benefit from a limited offer for free access (there are only 10 tickets available, which will be distributed on a first come, first served basis) or an unlimited half-price access to the event. If you are interested to attend, please contact events@wbcsd.org.

Date: 24 September 2018

Time: 10:30 am – 02:30 pm

Venue: Barclays, 745 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10019

Link to event website

Building on last year’s successful event, some 700 senior representatives from business, government, civil society and academia will convene at the second Sustainable Development Impact Summit on 24 – 25 September in New York. The Summit aims to shape an agenda for action and serve as a platform to harness cutting-edge scientific, technological and digital innovations.

As part of the Food Systems Dialogues series which are co-founded by EAT, WBCSD and the World Economic Forum, the partners will co-host a workshop entitled Designing Models to Feed the Planet Sustainably and Nutritiously to build trust, foster understanding, encourage alignment and focus action among actors in transforming food systems towards the SDGs.  The workshop will seek to build consensus on rapidly scalable approaches to improving food systems to be more sustainable, inclusive, efficient, nutritious and healthy.

For more information about the event, please contact Ms. Alison Cairns, Managing Director, Food Solutions at cairns@wbcsd.org

Date: 24 September 2018

Time: 03:45pm – 05:15 pm

Venue: Convene, 730 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Link to event website

Champions 12.3, of which our President & CEO, Peter Bakker is part of, is a collation of nearly 40 leaders from government, business and civil society dedicated to inspiring ambition, mobilizing action, and accelerating progress toward achieving Target 12.3 of the UN SDGs: By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses.

At the occasion of the UN General Assembly, Champions 12.3 Chair Dave Lewis, Group Chief Executive of Tesco, will host the coalition’s annual strategy meeting, where Champions will identify key priorities, coalition opportunities, and actions for the coming year. The gathering will also see the coalition’s second major public event, where Champions will announce the biggest outcomes of the year. Join WBCSD and the Champions at this inspiring event where we will launch the P4G Food Waste Action partnership and the FReSH FLW Calculator tool.

The public event is open to Champions’ associates, Friends of Champions 12.3, as well as high-level representatives from governments, companies, civil society, and the press. Please RSVP to Jillian Holzer at  jholzer@wri.org. For other inquiries, please contact Dalma Somogyi, Manager, Climate Smart Agriculture, at: somogyi@wbcsd.org.

Date: 25 September 2018

Time: 10:00 am – 12:00 pm

Venue: Project Farmhouse, 76 East 13th Street, New York, NY, 10003

Link to event website

At “Future-proofing enterprise risk management,” WBCSD members will gain insight into the knowledge and tools necessary for integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) risk and opportunity management into their business strategy.

This hands-on training builds on concepts outlined by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) in their draft Guidance for applying Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) to ESG-related risks – released earlier this year.

The guidance is designed to help organizations respond to the increasing prevalence and severity of ESG-related risks, ranging from extreme weather events to product safety recalls.

Participants will receive seven CPE credits and leave the event with skills to:

• Articulate the business case for ESG risk transformation at their company;
• Identify short- and long-term actions to embed ESG in ERM;
• Define the impacts and dependencies of their value creation model on natural and social capital;
• Deploy alternative strategies for prioritizing risks.

You can register by clicking here. For inquiries, please contact Rodney Irwin, Managing Director, Redefining Value, at irwin@wbcsd.org.

Date: 27 September 2018

Time: 09:00 am – 05:45 pm

Venue: 218 West 18th Street, 10th Floor, New York, NY 10011

The global food systems of tomorrow need to close the gap on the current 800+ million people hungry, and 2+ billion malnourished, while protecting our planet’s well-being.  Current value chain investments are typically focused on production and profitability, which are the traditional accountability mechanisms of the food system.  Moving forward, diverse food system value chain stakeholders need to collaborate towards ensuring positive livelihood, nutrition and environmental outcomes, an approach that demands different investment models, capacities and standards.

Co-hosted by Royal DSM, World Vision International, FReSH and SUN Business Network, this discussion will kick-off a collaborative process aimed at first ratifying the FAO Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems, and then proposing capacity building resource development to enable food system stakeholders at all levels to improve their investments in alignment with these principles.  Recognizing that accountability cannot precede capacity, the intended resource development will aim at building an enabling environment for these stakeholders, constructive partnerships, and investment guidance. Outputs of this dialogue will include prioritization of short-term actions/requirements, recommendation on benchmark global moments within which to launch developed resources, and identification of partners to assume responsibility for prioritized resource development.

Date: 27 September 2018

Time:  08:00 am – 11:30 am (breakfast will be served at 08:00 am)

Venue: World Vision Office: 919 2nd Avenue (corner of East 49th), New York City

Pension investments are often seen as the next huge opportunity to boost sustainable investment, but there is no fast track to make it happen as they are exposed to a variety of rapidly changing market conditions. Co-hosted by WBCSD and Pensions & Investments, this highly interactive breakfast briefing session aims to discuss these uncertainties and present the first view on our solution – the Aligning Retirement Assets Toolkit #1 developed by WBCSD and Mercer.

The session will address the following:

• Natural climate: Increased environmental risks push investors away from certain industries. Is divestment the right answer to mitigate the risks? Does ESG/sustainable investing make business sense?
• Social climate: All countries are experiencing aging population and some already feel the pressure on their pension fund health. Will the younger workforce be keen to make potential positive impact through smarter retirement investment?
• Regulatory climate: US DOL has created some level of confusion of ESG by releasing a new guidance earlier this year. European Commission and UK are likely heading to another direction, as well as the Japanese government pension fund. What do those messages mean to corporate pensions and fiduciaries?
• Corporate climate: Is the retirement plan offered by the company in line with its overall mission and values? How to better leverage the retirement plan as a tool for employee engagement and retention?

We invite you to join us and other like-minded leaders and professionals for this conversation on retirement plans and how sustainability could be considered in different contexts. At this event, you will hear from the following speakers:

            Edward Farrington, Executive Vice President at Natixis Investment Managers
            Maureen Kline, Vice President, Public Affairs & Sustainability at Pirelli Tire North America
            Chris Fowle, Head of Americas at Principles for Responsible Investment

Open to public, this session is targeted at corporate practitioners in functions such as sustainability, finance/treasury, HR/benefits and similar. The meeting will be held under Chatham House Rules.

Date: 27 September 2018

Time: 08:00 am – 10:00 am

Venue: Pensions & Investments office, 685 Third Avenue (entrance of 44th), 10th floor, New York, NY 10017

You can register by clicking here. For inquiries, please contact Yi Sun, Associate, Redefining Value, at yi.sun@wbcsd.org.