Sustainability Symposium 2021: Into the Light

COVID, along with unbridled social unrest, historic wildfires, and devastating superstorms, rocked us to our core in 2020. With a vaccine around the corner, light is appearing at the end of the tunnel, but there is no going back to how we used to live before the pandemic. What will change, and do we have the courage to #BuildBackBetter?

Consumers are certainly making different lifestyle choices due to the pandemic, taking better care of themselves by cooking and exercising more, paying more attention to their indoor air quality, and spending more time outdoors.  COVID may prove to be a turning point for adopting healthier habits, but, simply put, that’s not enough.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and right now incremental change isn’t enough if we’re going to successfully manage our ever-escalating climate challenges. We need a sea change.

That’s why Green Builder Media is hosting our annual Sustainability Symposium 2021: Into the Light on April 21 and 22 (in celebration of Earth Day), to explore the fundamental shifts in our collective psyche resulting from the pandemic and the urgent choices that we need to make to create a just, sustainable, and climate-safe system—one that balances economic vibrancy with social equality and environmental stewardship. 

Registration is free, so save your spot today!

As always, our star-studded lineup will include some of the brightest minds in sustainability, including climate scientists, award-winning authors, visionary building industry influencers, leading business executives, and climate policy heroes.

The Symposium will kick off with a riveting presentation, “New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet,” presented by internationally celebrated climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann. In this session, Dr. Mann will present up-to-the-minute climate science, offer a multi-pronged strategy for overcoming climate denial, and provide a plan for moving forward with comprehensive action to save our planet from catastrophic warming.

Back by popular demand, three of our most well-received presenters from past Sustainability Symposiums will also deliver timely and persuasive sessions:

• Sustainable business expert and award-winning author Andrew Winston will present Gigatrends and the Net Positive Imperative: How businesses thrive in a volatile time by helping the world thrive. The world is healing from the pandemic, but vast challenges remain – accelerating climate change and growing inequality threaten everyone’s well-being. Business has the tools and opportunity to help solve the world’s problems, and thrive by doing it. Based on the upcoming book, Net Positive, this talk looks at the seismic changes sweeping the world, and the principles and practices courageous companies will use to build thriving, net positive businesses that give more than they take.
   
• Pioneering venture capitalist Andrew Beebe, Partner at Obvious Ventures, will present “We Are Entering the Climate Decade,” exploring how a long boom of climate tech is just getting started, providing steady, consistent opportunities for growth in the coming decade. This transition to a carbon-free economy is being driven by the combination of consumer and corporate demand, advances in enabling technologies, aligned policies and regulations, and enhanced investment. The biggest opportunities will cut across four main areas: electrifying all mobility, advancement of carbon accounting and trading, transformation in building construction, and a dramatic shift in the supply chain.
• House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis senior counsel Samantha Medlock will outline in her session, Climate Action in the 117th Congress: Advancing the Equitable, Resilient, Clean Energy Revolution, the policy-based opportunities to address the compounding injustices of pollution, disinvestment, and climate threats. The session will address the policy work that is already underway within Congress and the Biden Administration that provides life-sustaining jobs and addresses environmental justice, sustainability, resilience, and preparedness.

We’ll also hear from building industry influencer Sam Rashkin about Why the Housing Industry Is Long Overdue for Disruption, illuminating how the housing sector in the United States is undergoing massive disruption and how building professionals, business executives, sustainability advocates, and homeowners alike can prepare for transformation.

And, not one to sit on the sidelines, I’ll jump in on the fun too, offering COGNITION Smart Data focused on The State of the Building Industry, outlining how the coronavirus has irreparably changed the building industry, enhancing digitization, expediting the adoption of a wide spectrum of technologies, creating new efficiencies, and shifting the top influencer position to millennials and older Gen-Zs. 

Our annual Sustainability Symposium, designed to elevate the national dialogue about intelligent solutions for a sustainable future, has established a reputation as being one of the most innovative, interesting, and fun sustainability events of the year. We invite you to join us for what we are certain will be a remarkable event.

REGISTER TODAY!

A heartfelt thank you to Trane Technologies for their continued support of our annual Sustainability Symposium, as well as their total commitment to corporate sustainability.