As sustainability rises to the top of the corporate agenda, companies are setting bold long-term goals—but many still struggle to align short-term actions with their ambition. Why is the transformation so difficult to operationalize?

Join ERM and WBCSD for a thought-provoking roundtable exploring insights from Catching the Wave, a global dialogue with over 130 business leaders and sustainability experts. The discussion will unpack the internal and external barriers companies face and introduce a practical framework to unlock value, accelerate action, and future-proof business strategies.

Together, we’ll explore how organizations can shift mindsets, overcome inertia, and embrace disruption—emerging not just more sustainable, but more competitive.

Learnings

– Understand the “multiple truths” of sustainability: Learn why companies must hold space for both risk and opportunity, and how embracing this duality can drive more effective strategy and innovation.

– Identify internal blockers to progress: Gain insight into the most common internal barriers—short-termism, cost-first mindsets, and skills gaps—and how leading companies are overcoming them.

– Draw parallels with past transformations: Discover how lessons from the digital revolution can be applied to accelerate sustainability integration across operations, products, and value chains.

– Explore a practical transformation framework: Get introduced to a tested framework developed through global business input that helps companies align sustainability with commercial success and resilience.

– Learn from real-world examples: Hear how companies are using the framework to guide strategic decisions, improve supplier collaboration, and turn sustainability ambition into measurable business impact.

Post-Event Actions

– Reflect on internal barriers within your organization that may be slowing sustainability integration and identify opportunities to address them head-on.

– Share key takeaways from the session with leadership and cross-functional teams to spark dialogue around accelerating your company’s sustainability transformation.

– Apply the sustainability transformation framework introduced during the session to evaluate your current strategies and uncover new areas for value creation.

– Initiate cross-functional conversations on embedding sustainability into core business decisions—from operations to product development and marketing.

– Explore partnerships or peer learning opportunities with other delegates or organizations to collaboratively address shared challenges and external barriers.

The sustainable transition is increasingly being seen as a strategic imperative. Failure to respond to sustainability-related risks as well as benefit from opportunities can have financial implications, threatening the long-term resilience of an organization.
As stewards of financial performance and corporate strategy, CFOs are uniquely positioned to lead the charge in integrating sustainability into core business decisions and ensure long-term value preservation and creation. This may involve managing risks, allocating resources, and ensuring all relevant information is available to internal decision makers, investors, and other capital providers.
In this session we will deep dive into the role you can play in the sustainable transition, the challenges faced by CFOs in embedding sustainability into strategy and decision-making and how these challenges can be overcome.

This roundtable workshop zooms in on one of the key catalysts for accelerated actions in sustainability: SMEs (small-and-medium enterprises).

Accounting for more than 98% of the total number of enterprises and over 44% of total employment in Hong Kong as well as a large portion of economies all over the world, SMEs’ transition towards sustainability will drive a sea change and accelerate the advancement of UN Sustainable Development Goals.

SMEs (and all companies) incorporating sustainability in their business operations can build strong competitive advantages, land partnerships with corporations with robust sustainability programs, and benefit from operational cost savings over time. Moreover, since SMEs are prevalent in global supply chains, more SMEs integrating sustainability measures in their business operations means increased sustainability in the supply chains for corporations worldwide. However, at times of slow economic growth, SMEs often struggle to secure the necessary resources to integrate sustainability in their business operations.

In this roundtable workshop, we invite industry leaders and subject experts to delve into the challenges facing SMEs when implementing sustainability initiatives and the solutions that can help SMEs stay informed, agile, and proactive in accelerating such endeavors. Participants will gain a better understanding of the tools and resources available to integrate meaningful sustainability initiatives in business operations to accelerate sustainable development throughout the business ecosystem.

Learnings

– Challenges and solutions related to SMEs’ sustainability strategy and actions
– Tools and resources available to integrate and communicate meaningful sustainability initiatives in business operations
– Actionable ideas to incorporate sustainability into business settings

Post-Event Actions

– Effective integration and communication of meaningful sustainability initiatives in business operations
– Broad cross-sector collaboration to accelerate sustainability initiatives