We cover two key streams of issues for businesses and sustainability.

The first, businesses must embed sustainability consideration into business strategies given (a) businesses impact to sustainability issues (b) business operations and profits are affected by environmental and social issues (c) there are pressures from legislative, moral and societal fronts on businesses to address sustainability- CSR alone cannot greenwash businesses anymore, ESG performance disclosures are becoming norms, and (e) there are increasing evidences that sustainability consideration can drive businesses to success- higher ESG performance are co-relating better with the better financial performances. This calls for a serious thinking on creating more sustainable business strategies since going eco-friendly, yet being profitable, fosters innovation and increases long-term business survivability.

The second, businesses have new opportunities to develop new and emerging business frontiers building on sustainability practices. Some of examples are: Circular economy, renewable energy, Energy Service Companies, and environmental services. There are ample signals that sustainability and demand driven businesses are going to grow and the traditional businesses based on fossil fuel, unsustainable practices, and ‘lumpy’ business and supply driven will fade away. The digital economy is further aiding the sustainability business.

Given these, most of the businesses today need to embed sustainability into their strategy to be competitive. We will discuss about sustainability moving to the center stage for businesses while also moving into an era of increased need for transparency, and a demand for businesses from stakeholders to do more to tackle the environmental challenges. The experts will discuss the journey to 2030, opportunities that will be prevalent, and the future models of sustainability initiatives for businesses.