Keynote: Force Multipliers: The Tech Accelerating Sustainability

The tools and technology accelerating sustainability are already here. We’ll move through the landscape of what’s working — from AI-powered climate startups to adaptation tech to the economics of ecological restoration. Each vantage point provides a distinct view on how technology is compressing the transition timeline.

The goal: leave the audience with a clearer sense of where technology is genuinely moving the needle, where the bottlenecks lie, and what that means for the work ahead.

Decoding Innovation in the New Climate Economy

Over 1,000 startups are deploying AI across climate and environmental domains — from ultra-high-resolution weather modeling to grid optimization to carbon capture. A look at where the innovation is concentrating and what it signals about how the transition is accelerating.

Grant Harrison – VP Sustainable Finance & ESG, Trellis (interviewer) 

Tenika Versey Walker – Global Head of Sustainable Futures, NVIDIA

Steve Levay – Principal, AI Engineering, NVIDIA

Build Forward

Reimagining economics as a design discipline meant to align growth with ecological restoration rather than short-term extraction. A framework for moving past climate doom into grounded, systemic action.

Tom Chi – Founding Partner, At One Ventures

The New Inconvenient Truth

A spotlight on one of the most pivotal technologies to emerge from Day 1: what’s changed in battery tech, what’s next, and why it matters for corporate decarbonization.

Grayson Shor – Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer, Buckstop

Climate Pioneers: Meta’s Balancing Act

The live Climate Pioneers interview explores how one major hyperscaler is managing the tension between rapid growth of AI infrastructure and ambitious net-zero goals. Highlights the leadership traits and practices that make this possible.

Heather Clancy – Editor-at-Large, Trellis (interviewer)

Blair Swedeen – Global Head of Net Zero and Sustainability, Meta

Stitching a New Supply Chain

On-demand, zero-waste, made-to-fit: unspun is rebuilding garment manufacturing from the ground up. Nike’s design leadership is rethinking what’s possible. An investor-led conversation on the unit economics, scaling challenges, and what happens when radical models meet legacy infrastructure.

Bridget Croke – Managing Director, Closed Loop Partners (interviewer)

Arne Arens – CEO, unspun

Golnaz Armin – VP, Nike Design Studio, Nike

Extreme Weather Brings Heat Across the Business

The workforce is being hit harder than physical assets by extreme weather — and almost no one has assessed the risk. Three-quarters of employers report severe weather disrupting their workforce in the past two years, from commutes to medication access to safety for outdoor workers, but few have a plan in place to address it. This conversation reframes employee wellness as core business risk and asks what it means to act before the next disruption hits.

Katie Ryan – VP Sustainability, Trellis (interviewer)

Dr. Sohini Stone – Chief Medical Officer for Global Employee Health, Google

Supercharging Climate Action with Science and Data

Science-based roadmaps for the risks, opportunities, and problems that didn’t make today’s agenda — and what your organization should be tracking next.

Dr. Jonathan Foley – Executive Director, Project Drawdown