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contributed by Salim Khubchandani
The second day of the inaugural Global Summit on 25th March featured two immensely engaging and insightful sessions, both loaded with great inputs from the array of expert participants.
The first session around the Goal 13 Impact Platform featured Gilberto Tomazoni, CEO of GBS from Brazil. GBS is the second largest food producer globally, and he shared his company’s commitment to achieve net zero by 2040 and the organisation’s passion for sustainable agriculture and innovation.
He explained his company’s building a new platform using blockchain to even monitor suppliers’ of suppliers in their commitments towards jointly addressing the issues at hand and thus fighting climate change. Re-iterating the warning that global warming is affecting life around the planet, Gilberto indicated GBS’ significant investments being made to even help farmers harvest without deforestation.
Gilberto Tomazoni (Global CEO, JBS)
(When asked why the net zero was set for 2040)
This is a simple answer, because we are facing an emergency. This is our greatest challenge of our time.
Our core business is already been affected by the climate change. We sincerely hope we managed to share lessons and coordinate action for the planet’s benefit. That is why I am so glad to be sharing ideas and experiences with this group today; so we can learn together.
The above introductory remarks were followed by a very engaging panel discussion which was moderated by Sam Baker from Deloitte, and featured experts in the field of Sustainability from organisations in diverse product lines as listed below:
Page Motes, Global Head of Sustainability from Dell Technologies
David Croft, Global Sustainability Director, Reckitt Benckiser
Juan Jose Freijo, Global Head of Sustainability, Brambles, a leading player in Packaging
David Lantz, Manager of Sustainable Transport Solutions, Scania
Participants of the above panel shared their organisation’s commitment to address climate change and the goals that had been set as well as their key drivers and potential barriers that they see in achieving these goals. There was unanimous agreement across the panel that this is an issue of a magnitude and scale that involves a multitude of stakeholders and one that cannot be done by organisations or even nations in isolation, but involves working together with a great degree of creative business thinking as the risks and opportunities are significant, also requiring action.
The session ended with Datuk Shazalli Hamzah of Petronas Chemicals identifying and outlining what he felt were the three critical areas, as: (i) requiring close collaboration and working together among the key stakeholders (ii) the need for costs and investments to be aligned and balanced in order to find and implement optimal solutions (iii) the need to identify and focus on alternative forms of energy.
The second session addressed Decarbonising the Shipping Industry, which almost every business is dependent upon: one of the hardest-to-abate industries, accounting for about 80% of the volume of global trade and thus considered the backbone of our economies.
It featured a line up of eminent personalities from the industry including:
Datuk Ruben Emir Gnanalingam bin Abdullah: CEO and Director, Westports and holds several other board positions
Michael Parker: Managing Director of Shipping at Citibank
Morten Bo Christiansen: Vice President & Head of Decarbonisation at A.P. Moller-Maersk
Marc Nuytemans: CEO Blue Cluster, former CEO of Exxmar
The discussion highlighted that there was a need for several industries which were dependent on the Shipping Industry to understand the sector and what it means for them and make choices within the space, applying to the entire ecosystem of shipping including customers, ports, financiers, shipping operators and other stakeholders.
The members of the panel were unanimous in expressing the urgent need to address the issue of decarbonising the supply chain where shipping plays a significant role, and the timelines their organisations had set to achieve net zero.
The session highlighted the improved collaboration which was much needed and that has been seen among the different stakeholders in recent times. The realisation of the huge role that shipping plays in the decarbonisation of the supply chain has been a significant change that was much needed.
The fragmented nature of the industry and it being inward looking adds to this global challenge where it is well recognised that several parts of the process and stakeholders need to come together and align in order to combat the problem.
If you didn’t catch the above sessions, watch their playback through the links below:
Our speakers for today’s session (Friday 26 March 2021) on “Aligning Executive Compensation with Climate Targets“ are: Diva Moriani (Board Member, Generali Group and Moncler Group), Karina Litvack (Board member, ENI), Mirza Baig(Global Head of ESG Corporate Research and Stewardship, Aviva Investors), Teoh Su Yin (Board Member, CIMB Holdings) and from Willis Towers Watson: Shai Ganu (Managing Director, Global Head of Executive Compensation) and Mark Reid (Managing Director, Global Head of Rewards).
Also happening tomorrow, catch these great speakers at the session “Understanding Developing Opportunities Across Carbon Markets“: Bill Winters (Group CEO Standard Chartered Bank), David Antonioli (CEO Verra), Ken Newcombe (CEO CQuest Capital), Bill Pazos (COO Air Carbon) with moderator Lucie Tepla (Insead).
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Here is a link to the Global Summit playlist for all sessions hosted by CGM: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyRsJW2gvmdNUmqJDueFo5c-wohbwYzC-
and to all Global Summit sessions: