Preview: SB ‘21

Preview: SB ’21 San Diego Regeneration and SB ’21 Come Together

In its history, Sustainable Brands and its members have defined, created and driven many, if not most, of the sustainable business and governance practices in North America — and an ever-increasing presence abroad. One of Sustainable Brands’ biggest strengths has been to focus on a major cutting-edge practice, build its flagship conference around it, and send off thousands of attendees to plant more seeds in their organizations.

It promises to be a festive and focused scene in San Diego October 18-21, when SB’s flagship conference returns for the first time in more than two years. Fittingly, Sustainable Brands has landed on the one theme that will make the ultimate difference in everything from climate change to greater resource management and sustainability — regeneration. For the first time, the conference will be hybrid, staging both live and virtually, the launch of a larger online outreach that will include scheduled virtual events throughout the time between live conferences.

The four-day conference, to be held at gorgeous Paradise Point on Mission Beach, will feature top sustainability experts, presentations, plenary sessions, educational sidebars, and booths and displays by some of the most innovative companies in the world. The thousands of expected attendees, 81 percent of whom are company decision-makers according to SB, will heart from a most impressive group of speakers that includes Virginie Helies, Chief Sustainability Officer, Procter & Gamble; Amanda Nusz, President of the Target Foundation, Target; Carol Sanford, Virtual Executive Producer, The Renegerative Business Summity; Janine Benyus, Founder, Biomimicry 3.8; Chris Brandt, Chief Marketing Officer, Chipotle Mexican Grill; Nathalie Green, CEO, Doconomy; Prakash Arunkundrum, Head of Global Operations, Logitech; Kathryn Farrara, Associate General Counsel, Unilever; Susan Koehler, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer, Footprint; and Simon Manwaring, Founder & CEO, We First.

The theme of regeneration is one we’ve covered at Sustainability Today the past three years. It’s the most important topic in sustainability; after all, if we can’t regenerate — or allow the earth to self-regenerate — our resources, water, land, sea, energy sources and food supplies, we will not be able to sustain our lives, businesses or economy. “Regenerative business practices restore and renew vital natural, social and human capitals, and also improve the ability of these capitals to heal, balance and self-regulate effectively. Regeneration is key to leaving nature and society healthier and more resilient than we found them. Developing regenerative business practices means acquiring a range of new leadership skills and capacities, reinventing business models at scale, and transforming companies’ relationships with customers, suppliers, investors, and employees,” the official SB ’21 brochure states.

The program for 2021 will include a combination of keynotes, workshops and plenary sessions, with topics including:

• Activate your Regenerative Mindset • Accelerate Solutions in Regenerative

Agriculture • Activating Brand Purpose • Transformative Governance and Metrics • NextGen Design & Business Model

Innovation • Influence Consumer Behavior at Scale • Regenerative Options and Supply Chain

The Activate Your Regenerative Mindset and Accelerate Solutions in Regenerative Agriculture pieces offer another new format: “unconference activities,” which help attendees turn key takeaways from the main program into action items to implement beginning on Day One back in the office. In Activate Your Regenerative Mindset, world-class experts from Forum for the Future will help bridge and adapt regenerative business practices to each attendee’s context and level of comfort – all while socializing and having fun. In Accelerate Solutions in Regenerative Agriculture, the fourhour session led by Regennabis will take participants through a disruptive and innovative model. Participants will walk through storyboarding, prototyping, and building out the minimum viable solution for a regenerative design.

Registration for both the live and virtual SB ’21 conference is available through https:// sustainablebrands.com/conferences/ sustainablebrands/registration/. Sustainability Today plans to provide full coverage, which will appear in our Fall 2021 issue. ■