AmCham Denmark Sustainability Forum

Corporate Sustainability Leadership Post-COP26

Sustainability Forum: Corporate Sustainability Leadership Post-COP26

AmCham Denmark, in partnership with the U.S. Embassy, is excited to welcome you to a sustainability roundtable discussion with climate change & sustainability thought leader Yale Professor Dan Esty.

With nearly 200 governments setting a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) target by mid-century, as well as targets toward the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, last year’s COP26 conference in Glasgow is historic in terms of the global response to a sustainable 21st century economy.

Most notable is how quickly the government goals have been adopted by the corporate community, who in their own way are leading the pack in terms of net-zero pledges. On top of that, the financial world has promised to do more to evaluate the ESG performance of the companies in their portfolios.

With this as a background, corporate leaders must ask themselves: What does corporate sustainability leadership look like going forward? And how should companies respond to the pressure for greater ESG transparency – coming both from investment managers and now from governments as well?

AmCham welcomes executives to join this cross-industry discussion with Mr. Esty on sustainability leadership trends, which will be moderated by Dr. Katherine Richardson, Professor and Leader of the Sustainability Science Centre, University of Copenhagen.

(Note: this event is reserved for executives who drive strategy in this area – space is limited. If you wish to be considered for the event, please contact mail@amcham.dk.)

About Dan Esty
Dan Esty is the Hillhouse Professor at Yale University with appointments in both the Law and Environment Schools — and director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy (www.yale.edu/envirocenter) and co-director of the Yale Initiative on Sustainable Finance. Professor Esty has written or edited fourteen books (including the prizewinning volumes Green to Gold and A Better Planet) and dozens of articles on environmental protection, regulatory reform, and sustainability — and their connections to corporate strategy, competitiveness, and trade.  He served in various leadership roles at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from 1989 – 1993 and as Commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection from 2011- 2014.

About Katherine Richardson
Katherine Richardson is a professor and investigator at the University of Copenhagen, as well as leader of the Sustainability Science Center. Her research focuses on the importance of biological processes in the ocean for the uptake of CO2 from the atmosphere and how ocean biology, including diversity, contributes to ocean function in the Earth System. Ms. Richardson was Chairman of the Danish Commission on Climate Change Policy that reported in 2010 and presented a roadmap for how Denmark can become independent of fossil fuels by 2050. She is at present a member of the Danish Climate Council and was a member of the 15-person Independent Group of Scientists appointed by Ban Ki Moon to draft the 2019 UN Global Sustainable Development Report.