Sustainability Symposium 2025: It’s Personal

From resilient housing to climate capitalism, the Sustainability Symposium 2025 delivers urgent insights and powerful solutions for a world in transition.

Each year, as we prepare for our annual Sustainability Symposium, I find myself inspired—not just by the innovations we feature, but by the resilience, creativity, and passion of the people driving this movement forward. This year’s event, Sustainability Symposium: A Force of Nature, couldn’t be more aptly named.

We are living in a moment that demands boldness, conviction, and collaboration like never before. With extreme weather intensifying, ecosystems destabilizing, and the federal government abdicating its responsibility to lead on climate, it’s clear that the burden—and the opportunity—for meaningful climate action now rests in our hands.

That’s why this year’s Sustainability Symposium, a free virtual event on April 30 and May 1 from 12-3 ET, is more than a gathering of thought leaders—it’s a declaration that we will not wait for permission to lead.

I’ve had the honor of working with my team to curate this year’s lineup of presenters, and we chose each speaker with purpose. These individuals are not only experts in their fields, but they are also disruptors and visionaries, reshaping industries, policies, and mindsets:

• Allan Merrill, CEO of Beazer Homes, is challenging the housing sector to move beyond outdated practices with Burn the Rulebook: The Radical Future of Homebuilding. Allan brings a unique blend of strategic vision and operational insight that’s driving his company—and hopefully the entire industry—toward a more sustainable future.
• Jacob Atalla of KB Home and Will Sarni of Earth Finance are taking on the critical intersection of energy, water, and resilience. In Power, Water & Survival, they’ll explore how technologies like microgrids, onsite water systems, and next-gen infrastructure can empower communities to thrive in an increasingly unpredictable world.
• Laura Kohler, Chief Sustainable Living Officer at Kohler, brings a fresh, deeply human perspective to the conversation with Sustainability is No Longer Just a Footprint Initiative—It’s a Mindset Shift. Her work focuses on integrating sustainability into every facet of the customer journey, proving that responsible living should be intuitive, not aspirational.
• Akshat Rathi, Senior Climate Reporter at Bloomberg News, will offer a global perspective on climate innovation, policy, and business leadership in his session Climate Capitalism: Saving the Planet is the Smartest Investment Yet. Akshat’s reporting has illuminated how companies and countries can align economic growth with climate action.
• Scott Tew, Vice President of Sustainability at Trane Technologies, will present ClimateTech Evolution, exploring how breakthrough climate solutions are redefining the rubrics of sustainability resiliency, and self-sufficiency.
• Matt Power, Editor-in-Chief at Green Builder Media, Marshall Gobuty, CEO of Pearl Homes, and Cynthia Adams, CEO of Pearl Certification, will explore how resilience is evolving from an afterthought to a market differentiator in Resiliency Evolution: Building for a World That Won’t Play Nice. From insurance trends to shelter-in-place design, this session will unpack why homes that can’t handle the future won’t have one.
• Reuven Carlyle, Founder and CEO of Earth Finance and former Washington State Senator, will wrap up the even with a powerful vision for the evolution of our economy in Don’t Say the ‘D’ Word: Winning the Decarbonization Debate in Hostile Territory. His policy expertise and private sector insight offer a rare and actionable perspective on systems-level change.

These topics aren’t theoretical. They’re urgent and deeply personal. They matter because the decisions we make now will impact the living world not just for generations to come, but perhaps forever.

The built environment, the way we manage resources, the values we embed in our products and experiences—these are not just industry issues. They are human issues.

For 20 years, our mission at Green Builder Media has been to catalyze change—to push beyond business-as-usual and bring people together to solve complex, systemic problems with courage and clarity. That’s exactly what we’ll be doing at the Sustainability Symposium 2025.

So I invite you—leaders, changemakers, professionals, and human beings—to join us. Not just to listen, but to engage. Not just to be inspired, but to act.

Because the future is not something we wait for. It’s something we create, together.

Register now. Be a force of nature.

Thank you to Trane Technologies and Whirlpool Corporation for their continued support of our annual Sustainability Symposium, as well as their total commitment to corporate sustainability.