Webinar: Future of Sustainability 2020 - US

Looking into the future: How can we harness the radical disruption presented by today’s crisis to drive a truly sustainable, just and resilient future?

30 July 2020
6.30 pm BST / 1.30 pm EDT

The United States is caught at the nexus of several global challenges: income inequality, institutional racism, climate change, food insecurity, and political polarization are some of the long-standing issues facing Americans today. These challenges are exacerbated by the COVID-19 healthcare crisis as several fault lines within society are laid bare and amplified by both the disease and the societal response.

At Forum for the Future, we believe it would be tragic to go back to yesterday’s “business-as-usual”; moments of radical disruption like this provide unprecedented opportunities to reinvent the future. We are therefore calling for business, governments, civil society and communities to seize this moment in helping to deliver a more just, sustainable and resilient world.

Drawing on research and insights we gather annually to understand what is next for the fields of sustainability, impact investing and philanthropy, we will share a suite of futures trajectories we have been developing which help us understand possible ways forward as change-makers. We believe only one of these trajectories, which we are calling Transform, has the potential to create the just, resilient and sustainable systems we need. It is based on a mindset that recognizes the interdependent nature of the challenges we face today. You can read more about the trajectories here.

The sessions will include reflections from inspiring change-makers who are pivoting their work in order to help enable this Transform trajectory – aiming to shift our political, economic and social systems so that they work together in service of human and planetary health, justice and economic resilience.

If there is ever a time to drive this disruptive change, it is now. We hope you can join us.

Questions we will explore with our panelists:

how can we use futures tools to understand the effect of the decisions we make today on shaping the future?
how are organizations pivoting their approaches given the pandemic and increased attention to issues such as structural inequality and racism?
what is the role of organisations across sectors in creating a transformed economy as we emerge from this crisis?
how can we all play a role in making the Transform trajectory a reality?

Panelists:

Host - Dr Sally Uren, CEO, Forum for the Future

Co-host - Sandra Seru, MD US, Forum for the Future

Fred Brown, President & CEO, The Forbes Funds

Lisa Morden, VP Safety and Sustainability, Kimberly-Clark

Amanda Nusz, VP Corporate Responsibility and President of the Target Foundation, Target

Martin Lemos, Co-Executive Director of the National Young Farmers Coalition

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