Frequently Asked Questions

• Signia by Hilton San Jose
  170 S Market St, San Jose, California, 95113
  • • • To reserve your hotel room at the Trellis rate of $332.33, please click here.
      • The deadline to guarantee the discounted Trellis rate is Wednesday, October 16th.
        
      • Please be sure to book early, as rooms will sell out before then.
      • If you prefer to call to book your room, please call the hotel and ask for “Reservations” at 408-998-1900 and let them know you are calling to book within the Verge 24 group block.
      • The Trellis rate is guaranteed only when booking within the nights of 10/28-11/01. For availability outside of these dates, please call the hotel directly at 408-998-1900.

• • Hilton San Jose
    300 Almaden Boulevard, San Jose, California 95110
  • • • To reserve your hotel room at the Trellis rate of $339, please click here.
      • The deadline to guarantee the discounted Trellis rate is Friday, October 11th.
      • Please be sure to book early, as rooms will sell out before then.
      • If you prefer to call or email to book your room, please call or email the Group Rooms Coordinator, Hem Raju, at 408-947-4429 or hem.raju@hilton.com and let them know you would like to book within the VERGE 24 group block.
      • The Trellis rate is guaranteed only when booking within the nights of 10/28 – 10/31. For availability outside of these dates, please call the hotel directly at 408-947-4429.

• • Hyatt Place San Jose/Downtown
    282 Almaden Boulevard, San Jose, CA, 95113
    • To reserve your hotel room at the Trellis rate of $299, please click here.
    • The deadline to guarantee the discounted Trellis rate is Friday, October 11th.
    • Please be sure to book early, as rooms will sell out before then.
    • If you prefer to call to book your room, please call the hotel at 1-800-993-4751 and let them know you are calling to book within the VERGE 24 group block.
    • The Trellis rate is guaranteed only when booking within the nights of 10/28 – 10/30. For availability outside of these dates, please call the hotel directly at 1-800-993-4751.

• San Jose Marriott – sold out
  301 S Market St, San Jose, CA 95113
  Visit this link to see if there is availability

• Local & Sustainable Transportation Options
  • VTA Light Rail
  • Caltrain
  • Carpooling via car/rideshare

   

• Other Transportation Options
  • Taxis
  • Rideshare (Uber & Lyft)

• Yes
  • Overnight Parking: $39 per day (in-and-out privileges, available 24/7).
  • Daytime Parking: $25 for first hour, $5 for each additional hour and $50 maximum per day. Those who leave and return during the day must pay again.
  • Directions: Turn right onto San Carlos Street, The Hilton parking garage is located on the right.
• No valet parking available
• On-site covered bicycle racks located inside convention center parking garage

Download the Whova event app. Whova is the best way to access up-to-date agenda information, connect with other attendees and see all things VERGE in real time.

Be sure to login to the app with the same email address you used to register for VERGE 24 – no code is needed! Need to change your email? Reach out to support@trellis.net.

VERGE 24 is the center of gravity for the climate tech community, designed to benefit leaders across the entire ecosystem:

• Corporations and Practitioners
• Government
• Non-profits & Trade Organizations
• Solution Providers
• Startups & Investors
• Research & Academia

AB In BEV
Accenture
Adobe
Alaska Airlines
Albertsons Companies Inc.
Allbirds
Amazon
American Forest Foundation
Andersen Windows
Apple
Arbor Day Foundation
BlackRock
California Air Resources Board
CDP
Center for Sustainability Science
City of Los Angeles
City of San Jose
Clean Energy Buyers Association
Clean Energy Ventures
Conservation International
Danone North America
Delta Air Lines
Duke Energy
Earth Uprising International
eBay
Edelman
Electrify America, LLC
ENGIE Impact
Environmental Defense Fund
ERM
Esri
EVgo
Executive Office of the President
General Motors
Global Optimism
Google
HP, Inc.
HSBC
IBM
IDEO
Impossible Foods
JetBlue Airways
JLL
Johnson Controls
Keurig Dr. Pepper Inc.
LinkedIn
Lower Carbon Capital
Lyft
Mars Incorporated
Mcdonalds
Meta
Microsoft
Nasdaq
Natural Resources Defense Council
Neste
New Energy Nexus
NRG
Office of Science and Technology Policy,
Pachama
Panera
Powerhouse Ventures
Prologis
REI
Rewiring America
Rocky Mountain Institute
S&P Global
Salesforce
Science Based Targets Initiative
Shopify
Sodexo
Stanford University
Stripe
Tesla, Inc.
The Environmental Defense Fund
The Nature Conservancy
Third Derivative
U.S. Department of Energy
Uber
Unilever
Unreasonable Group
Verra
Walmart
We Don’t Have Time
WWF
XPRIZE

Executive Leadership

• CEOs
• Chief Officers (Energy, Marketing & Communications, Program Development & Innovation, Research & Innovation, Scientist, Sustainability)
• Founders
• Executive Directors
• Partners
• Presidents
• Executive Vice Presidents (Chief Impact Officer, Climate & Energy)
• Senior Vice Presidents (Global Sustainability, Consumer Transportation Technology, Sustainability, Sustainable Lands & Waters)
• U.S. Secretary of Energy
• Vice Presidents (Chief Sustainability Officer, Environment, Policy & Social Initiatives, Global Energy, Global Power & Renewables, Natural Climate Solutions, Sustainability & CSR, Strategy, Transformation & Sustainability)

Management and Directors

• Directors (Global Sustainability, Sustainability, Vehicle Electrification, Sustainability Solutions, Business Development, Commercial Renewables Sales, Design for Food, Energy Services, Sustainability & ESG, Partner Alliances, Sustainability Advisory)
• Heads (Business Development, Climate, Corporations and Supply Chains, Energy Services, External Affairs, Net Zero Strategy, Strategic Communications, Sustainability, Sustainability and Climate Policy)
• Managers (Brand Integration, Chief of Staff, Commercialization, Corporate Sustainability, Deputy Chief Sustainability, Electric Vehicle Charging and Infrastructure Products, ESG & Sustainability Program, Renewable Energy Program, Sustainability and Innovation, Fleet Sustainability)
• Senior Managers (Sustainability, Climate Analyst, Fleet Sustainability)

Global and Policy Leadership

• Global Directors (Corporations and Supply Chains, Sustainability, Vehicles & Electrification)
• Global Heads (Sustainability, Sustainability and ESG)
• Global Initiative Lead (Food Loss and Waste)
• Global Lead (Sustainability Policy, Sustainable Buildings)

Specialists and Others

• Managing Directors (Carbon Markets, Center for Sustainability Science, Climate Intelligence, EDF+Business, North America Sustainability Strategy)
• Air Pollution Specialist
• Strategic Sustainability Programs & Engagement Lead
• Sustainability Program Manager
• Sustainability Sales Strategy Director
• Technical Director, Economics
• Investment Leads

Volunteer roles include but are not limited to on-site registration support, A/V assistance, breakout session managing, and door monitoring. Shifts range from 4-5 hours each, and you are required to perform 2. When you are not volunteering, you will have access to the full conference, except for field trips.

Please note that your overnight accommodations, transportation, and anything not listed above is your responsibility and is not covered by Trellis.

Click here to learn more and apply!

It’s our priority to ensure that our event operations reflect the same values we promote at our conferences – from minimizing and diverting our waste to strategically planning our menus to partnering with innovative organizations who share our goals, we put sustainability at the forefront of the conference planning process. Explore some of our programs and partnerships below to learn more about what exactly we’re doing to live by our values.

If you’re interested in sustainability partnership opportunities, reach out to jessica@trellis.net.

Mitigating our Carbon Footprint with CNaught

Trellis is exclusively partnering with CNaught to mitigate the carbon footprint of Trellis’s four largest conferences and to enable every attendee to mitigate the carbon emissions associated with travel to the conferences using a diversified portfolio of high-integrity carbon credits designed in partnership with Calyx Global. The portfolio includes Calyx Global A-rated avoided emissions credits and B+-rated nature-based removal credits, from at least three projects. Each project produces credits in the top 10% of Calyx-Global-rated credits for greenhouse gas integrity and has been subject to an Environmental and Social Risk screening designed to surface non-carbon risks.

Calculating our Carbon Footprint with Workiva

Workiva Inc. (NYSE:WK) is on a mission to power transparent reporting for a better world. We build and deliver the world’s leading cloud platform for assured integrated reporting to meet stakeholder demands for action, transparency, and disclosure of financial and non-financial data. Workiva offers the only unified SaaS platform that brings customers’ financial reporting, environmental, social, and governance (ESG), and governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) together in a controlled, secure, audit-ready platform. Our platform simplifies the most complex reporting and disclosure challenges by streamlining processes, connecting data and teams, and ensuring consistency. Learn more at workiva.com.

Workiva has partnered with Trellis to help calculate our annual and event-specific emissions inventory for 2024 (GreenBiz 24, Circularity 24, GreenFin 24, Bloom 24, VERGE 24, GreenBiz 25), including scope 3 calculations. To learn more, please visit https://www.workiva.com/

Food Donation with Copia

Copia is a proud Trellis partner, advancing sustainability initiatives by effectively managing food donations from Trellis events. By leveraging Copia’s advanced technology, donations are seamlessly matched to local nonprofits, creating a positive impact within the community while minimizing waste and greenhouse gas emissions from landfills.

Copia is transforming how businesses large and small manage surplus by streamlining the donation process, making it easy to donate and track impact in real time. Together with partners like Trellis, Copia is combating food insecurity and helping our planet.

Trellis Food Policy

We envision meals at Trellis events to be plant-rich, inclusive, delicious, abundant and waste-free. We engage the food service teams at all venues we collaborate with on creating low-carbon menus that respect diverse dietary preferences and nourish our guests — balancing our sustainability goals with the needs of our community and the venue’s capabilities. We also work with the venue team to address food waste every step of the way, continuing our learnings from our 2023 Astrapto Food Waste Training.

Menu Planning with Greener by Default

We’ve partnered with Greener by Default, which consults with events and institutions to apply behavioral science to food policy, nudging diners towards sustainable plant-based options while preserving freedom of choice.

Materials + Destination = Circularity

We’ve partnered with Replenysh to enable material destination with full traceability. During the event, materials and compostables are collected source-separated; Replenysh’s technology then categorizes, routes, and tracks each material to end-markets. The materials are then reintroduced into a brand’s supply chain. Replenysh enables brands to retrieve net-new circular material streams from businesses and communities with unprecedented transparency.

Waste Diversion and Sorting with GreenWaste

Waste generated at VERGE 24 will be processed by our Sustainability Partner, GreenWaste®. Waste is transported to the GreenWaste San Jose Material Recovery Facility, California’s first, and only, high diversion organic waste processing facility, where more than 100 types of materials are diverted for composting at the GreenWaste Z-Best Composting Facility or recycling. GreenWaste’s next generation tech sorts organics and recyclables from trash, so no behavior change from SJCC or VERGE attendees is required to achieve zero waste.

Tackling Hard-to-Recycle Waste with TerraCycle

Our Partnership with TerraCycle makes it possible to divert waste by recycling things that are not accepted by curbside services. Hard-to-recycle trash can be deposited in the Zero Waste Boxes with the corresponding waste stream found throughout the event venue. TerraCycle is an international and award-winning waste management company with a mission to eliminate the idea of waste.

Sustainable Printing with YBC

We have partnered with YBC Production to prioritize sustainability when it comes to all of our signage. YBC Production is dedicated to extending your brand presence, without extending your carbon footprint. By recycling all eligible consumables, exclusively utilizing eco-friendly inks, and prioritizing the offset of our own carbon footprint, we print with a purpose. Learn more about YBC’s commitment to sustainability here.

Reducing Printed Materials with our Conference App

In the place of printed programs, the Whova app offers the best option for accessing the program on-site, connecting with fellow attendees and keeping up with all that VERGE 24 has to offer. Be sure to download the app or access it on your desktop to view the most up-to-date event program. By using the conference app, you are helping to reduce paper use at VERGE 24. Stay tuned for details on when the VERGE 24 app will be live!

Automated Clean Energy Procurement and Proof with Zero Labs

We have partnered with cleantech startup Zero Labs to power VERGE 24 with clean energy and prove it.

Scope 3 emissions represent the lion’s share of emissions for most organizations. This is why we worked with Zero Labs to decarbonize the estimated electricity use from VERGE 24 and easily share with you the proof of the U.S. RECs we are securing for this purpose.

At Trellis Group we are proud to show our support for innovative digital solutions that advance grid decarbonization and we know that Zero Labs can help you decarbonize your Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions faster and smarter.

Stay tuned on https://proofs.green/proof/verge24 or the VERGE 24 app to check out the “Green Proof” we got from Zero Labs that verifies our clean energy credentials.

Building our Sustainability Strategy with Impact Collective Group

Impact Collective Group is a certified woman-owned business leading the charge in sustainable business consulting. We empower companies to achieve peak performance through customized Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) solutions. With decades of experience across a variety of sectors, including manufacturing, energy, healthcare, and education, our expert team excels in key sustainability standards and frameworks such as IFRS, ISO, GRI, TCFD, and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. We collaborate with leading universities and industry pioneers to ensure our clients’ long-term success and resilience. Recently, we announced a strategic partnership with Trellis, formerly GreenBiz, marking a significant milestone in our mission to drive industry impact and promote sustainable, profitable business practices. Learn more about us at impactcollectivegroup.com.

Tree Planting with Evertreen

At VERGE 24, we’ve partnered with https://www.evertreen.com to plant a tree for every attendee, supporting global reforestation and sustainability. Learn more about the initiative: partnerships@evertreen.com

Plastic Diversion with RePurpose Global

We’re partnering with RePurpose Global to collect and remove 100 nature-bound plastic pouches from the environment for every VERGE 24 attendee. Low-value waste will be collected, upcycled and processed at a rePurpose Imapact project, Sueño Azul in Colombia that empowers waste pickers to tackle plastic waste.RePurpose Global is the world’s leading Plastic Action Platform dedicated to reducing waste, reviving lives, and restoring nature’s balance. Today, they are a movement of conscious businesses and consumers taking action on their plastic footprint by empowering innovators on the frontline.

Water Restoration with BEF

Business for Water Stewardship (BWS), a program of the Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF), helps businesses work collaboratively with community and policy stakeholders to advance solutions that ensure people, economies, and ecosystems have enough clean water to flourish. BWS unlocks collective corporate action to accelerate real, measurable, and lasting water solutions. Since 2009, BEF has facilitated 100 corporate partners providing $28M in funding support to fund 450 water projects restoring over 45 Billion gallons of water to date.

VERGE registrations are non-refundable. If you are unable to attend, we can transfer your existing registration to a colleague or we can provide a credit memo for you to apply the amount you paid to a future Trellis event within one year. Please contact Trellis Support if you need to cancel or transfer your registration.

You are no longer required to provide proof of a COVID-19 vaccination or proof of a negative COVID-19 test upon arriving on-site at the event.

Free COVID tests will be available at registration for anyone who has cold or flu symptoms or believes they may have been exposed to COVID.

If you do test positive please follow the CDC isolation guidelines.

Trellis Group expects that all Trellis Group events, activities and digital forums:

• Are a safe, professional and respectful environment for all participants.
• Are a place where people are free to express their identities and ideas.
• Presume that everyone’s ideas, skills, and contributions have value.
• Don’t assume that everyone has the same knowledge or context, and encourage questions.
• Ensure that the relationships, conduct and conversations among event attendees, digital users, speakers, journalists, exhibitors and sponsors remain respectful, participatory, and productive.
• Provide an environment where individuals are free from discrimination or harassment of all kinds.

Trellis Group reserves the right to ask anyone in violation of any of these policies not to participate in Trellis Group events, activities and digital forums.

Trellis Group Anti-Harassment Policy
Trellis Group is dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone. Harassment includes but is not limited to: offensive verbal or written comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, religion; sexual language or images in public spaces; deliberate intimidation; stalking; following; harassing photography or recording; sustained disruption of talks or other events; inappropriate physical contact; unwelcome sexual attention; unwarranted exclusion; and patronizing language or action.

If any participant at a Trellis event engages in harassing behavior, Trellis Group may take any action it deems appropriate, including warning the offender or expulsion from the events, activities and digital forums.

If you are harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact a member of the staff immediately by emailing support@trellis.net or visiting the on-site registration desk. Staff will be happy to help participants contact hotel/venue security or local law enforcement, provide escorts, or otherwise assist those experiencing harassment to feel safe for the duration of the event.

If you cannot reach a Trellis Group staff member and/or it is an emergency, please call 911 and/or remove yourself from the situation.

We value your attendance and hope that by communicating these expectations widely we can all enjoy a safe, inclusive environment.

Special thanks to our friends at Code for America whose Code of Conduct and Anti-Harassment Policies informed our own.

Photography, Audio and Video Recording Policy

Sponsors/Partners/Speakers:

Registered sponsors, partners and speakers are welcome to take photos and record content of their prospective breakout sessions and side events. As a courtesy to speakers, please first receive approval from those recorded on a panel if planning to distribute the original content. Any photography or filming should not be disruptive to the event experience. Credit must be given to the event and event organizers, Trellis Group.

• No photos/video recording of keynotes for commercial purposes or with professional equipment (whether or not audio is used)
• No photos/video recording of sessions unless you have a speaker participating in the session, you’ve received written approval from all speakers involved AND have notified your Trellis customer success manager (applicable to sponsors)
• No photos/video recording of general event areas such as the Expo for commercial purposes or with professional equipment
• Photos/video recording of your booth is okay as long as all of your equipment fits within your allotted booth space

Press:

Registered press are welcome to record program content for journalistic purposes. Credit must be given to the event and event organizers, Trellis Group.

• No photos/video recording of keynotes for commercial purposes or with professional equipment (whether or not audio is used)

Trellis purchases carbon credits through Carbon Direct. Effective January 1, 2024, California Assembly Bill 1305 on Voluntary Carbon Market Disclosures requires companies that make climate claims related to carbon offset credits to disclose information about those claims and credits.

The law requires a company that (1) makes claims of achieving “net zero emissions,” (2) sells a product it claims is “carbon neutral,” or (3) makes other similar claims related to the purchase or use of voluntary carbon offsets to:

• Disclose how those claims were verified;
• Share progress toward how that goal is being measured;
• Disclose whether there is independent third-party verification of the company data and claims listed.

As we have previously purchased carbon credits, we’ve provided information relevant to the disclosure requirements. Review this PDF for more information pertaining to our purchase.

Trellis Group (formerly GreenBiz) is a media and events company that accelerates the just transition to a clean economy. Through events that galvanize, stories that amplify, peer networks that bond and industry-leading analysis, we define markets and advance opportunities at the intersection of business, technology and sustainability. We are a passionate team of people that builds and empowers communities to confront the threats of climate change and solve the thorniest challenges of our time. Learn more about what we do here.