Sustainability Symposium 2026: Systems Reckoning

Green Builder Media is proud to announce our 10th annual Sustainability Symposium: Systems Reckoning, a free, virtual event scheduled for June 3–4, from 12:00pm–3:00pm ET each day.

This year’s theme reflects a broader reality: systemic challenges like inflationary pressures, soaring prices, insurance instability, and growing climate risk are exposing cracks across the entire economic landscape. Financial models built on short-term returns and incomplete risk accounting are struggling to keep pace with a world defined by volatility and interdependence. Housing is one of the most visible pressure points, and there is a growing misalignment between what being built and what people actually need. 

It’s time to rethink how value is measured, how risk is priced, and how long-term outcomes are integrated into decision-making.

The Sustainability Symposium 2026: Systems Reckoning will challenge the status quo, offering new perspectives, fresh thinking, and next-generation solutions. In six shard-hitting sessions over two days, we’ll explore frameworks that integrate sustainability and profitability, reframing affordability as a function of long-term value, not just upfront cost.

Vanguard Voices

Each year, our lineup features some of the most influential voices in sustainability—award-winning authors, forward-thinking builders, business leaders, and climate pioneers. This year is no exception.

I’ll open the Symposium with “The Affordability Reckoning: Reframing the Solution,” where we’ll take a clear-eyed look at how we arrived at this moment and what it will take to move forward. Affordability didn’t break overnight, and it won’t be solved with incremental change. It requires a fundamental shift in how we define and deliver value.

In “Power Shift: Rethinking Energy in a World at Risk,” internationally renowned environmentalist Bill McKibben will examine how the energy transition is reshaping security, affordability, and resilience. As energy systems evolve, so too must our assumptions about how homes and communities function.

Award-winning NPR journalist Laura Sullivan will take us to the frontlines in “Resilience Is the New Affordability,” exploring what happens when homes and communities fail, and what it truly costs when they do. Her perspective underscores a critical reality: resilience is no longer optional; it’s an urgent necessity.

Author and sustainable business leader Andrew Winston will push the conversation further in “New Rules and Risk Models: Fixing the Math,” challenging the architypes we use to evaluate success and calling for modern metrics that reflect real-world outcomes, not outdated assumptions.

In “Land, Capital, and the Long View,” regenerative real estate investor and developer Neal Collins will reframe how we think about development itself, exploring how place-based strategies and long-term stewardship can unlock new forms of value.

And in “Designing Demand,” RMI’s Chief Program Officer Lena Hansen will examine how efficiency, digitalization, and system-level thinking can reshape energy use, and, ultimately, the built environment.

Join the Reckoning

Market forces are shifting. Buyers are redefining value. Risk is being repriced in real time. And the gap between legacy models and emerging realities continues to widen.

This Symposium isn’t about prescribing a single solution or promoting a particular ideology. It’s about creating space for a more rigorous, more honest conversation about where the industry is and where it needs to go.

If you’re thinking about how risk is evolving, how to differentiate in a crowded market, how to align sustainability with profitability, and how to make smarter decisions in an increasingly complex environment, this is a conversation worth your time.

Sustainability Symposium 2026: Systems Reckoning
June 3–4, 2026
Free, virtual event

Register now and secure your spot.

A heartfelt thank you to Trane Technologies and Whirlpool for their continued support of our annual Sustainability Symposium, and for their ongoing commitment to advancing corporate sustainability.