We wrapped up our 2024 Spring Board Meeting in Dallas with a total of 70 ESG, social impact, and sustainability leaders from 49 major companies (and zero vendors in sight).
Thank you to all the ESG & CSR Board Members who made it such an incredible experience — our Show & Tell speakers, our Member-Led Discussion hosts, and everyone who came and asked questions, shared ideas, and built connections.
Keep reading below to see everything we covered over a day and a half:
Show & Tell Talks
- Creating impact measurement models through community collaboration — led by Amanda Schmitt at CenterPoint Energy
- How to create common ground between corporate and social impact priorities — Taylor Amerman at CDW
- TelevisaUnivision’s Vota Conmiga program: Mobilizing millions to vote — led by Teri González at TelevisaUnivision
- Embedding DEI values into your impact strategy – led by Teresa Hillis at Expedia Group
- Creating unique solutions for sustainable good — led by Laura Nieto at Southwest Airlines
- Streamlining disclosures with a rater/ranker cost benefit analysis — led by Kay Brown at Kinder Morgan
- Rightsizing regulation prep and data disclosure for both sides of the pond — Katya Hantel at Smith+Nephew
- Strategies to build influence with limited formal authority – led by Mike Schwartz at Republic Services
- Integrating sustainability into enterprise-wide planning — led by Stewart Lindsay at Campbell Soup Co.
- Building a commodity risk model without the information you really need — led by Jeff King at Bath & Body Works
Member-Led Discussions
- Bringing trust-based principles into corporate philanthropy — led by Dennis Duquette at MassMutual
- Leveraging DEI to drive employee engagement — led by Vivian Greentree at Fiserv
- Disaster relief programs: Meeting the increasing need and prioritizing resilience — led by Colleen Wright at Mattress Firm
- Getting credit for CSR as an employee benefit — led by Katy Phillips at American Airlines
- Building out your ESG tech stack without toppling — led by Emily Muth at Conagra Brands
- Making and reaching climate commitments in a volatile time — led by Rebecca Nalder at Yelp
- Opportunities and obstacles for supply chain carbon collaborations — led by Mauricio Alanis at Maple Leaf Foods
- ESG reporting: Preparing our teams (and ourselves!) for what comes next
Unconference Topics
Environmental Sustainability:
- CSRD: Where are we now?
- Chasing first party supplier data/engaging suppliers effectively
- Workiva: Bare models, efficiencies, and headaches
- Gaining cross-functional alignment on sustainability
- SEC: Materiality determinations, working with finance, and our biggest headaches
- C-suite and board sustainability education strategies
- Scope 3 tool stacks
- Socializing sustainability with a function historically not involved
- What reporting we’ve successfully stopped — or plan to
- Setting up internal governance for Scope 3
- CA bills preparedness: Where are we and what’s next?
- Double materiality strategies
- Regulatory tracking: Tools, processes, and partners
- Water strategies: Starting out, lessons learned, and what’s next
- Internal price on carbon
- Team and reporting structures: Where do you sit?
- Preparing for backlash against CSR, ESG, and DEI
Social Impact:
- Signature programs
- Grantmaking processes: Where do we find new efficiencies?
- Future-proofing disaster relief strategies
- Building allies internally to connect community work across the business
- Employee engagement/volunteering for hourly and frontline workers
- Getting CSR data ready for assurance
- Connecting CSR and social impact to business metrics
- Impact reporting: Partner collaboration, communicating data, socializing results, and explaining limitations
- Mobilizing employees and ambassador programs for days/weeks/months of service
- Most meaningful employee volunteering
- Making an epic case to increase CSR budget
- Losing the confetti and defining dollars for your giving
- Logic models, theories of change, and impact measurement frameworks
In-Person Connections (and hugs)
The best on-site discussions will grow as full community conversations in the coming weeks and months as we dig deeper together.
We loved getting to spend time with all the ESG & CSR Board Members who joined in us in Dallas. Quoting a few attendees:
This conference was different from any other I have been to: It was structured so meetings were highly interactive and efficient, which increased knowledge sharing with colleagues in attendance from across a spectrum of industries. –Brian Herrington, Scotts Miracle-Gro Company
This is the best conference I have ever attended. It was no-nonsense, authentic, and straight-to-the-point conversation. This allowed us to dive deep quickly without exhausting a topic. An excellent use of financial resources and my own time. – Andrea Patton, Campbell’s
The conference was one of the best I have ever been to. I was able to tap into colleagues who were experts and share my own expertise. I can’t wait to go back next year. – Brian Herrington, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company
We hope to see you all again at a future Board Meeting!
