Proof of Progress: How Collaboration Along Value Chains Drives Resilience and Sustainability

Purpose & Context:

The EU Sustainable Finance agenda is entering a new phase, shifting from designing ambitious frameworks to focusing on practical implementation, feasibility, and simplification. Recent changes in key sustainability policy files (CSRD, CSDDD, SFDR, etc.), driven by the EU’s competitiveness and simplification agenda, have created uncertainty and seemed to put sustainability progress on hold. But there is reason to be hopeful: Behind the scenes, many frontrunners and transition champions have rolled up their sleeves and continued to make real progress.

This event aims to highlight these achievements. By sharing insights from firms, banks, and policymakers, we will demonstrate how collaboration along value chains fosters business resilience and sustainability. We invite participants from the real economy, financial institutions, policy, and philanthropy to learn, discuss, and, most importantly, carve out next steps for joint action.

Format: Half-day event with multiple sessions and different interactive formats

1. Opening and keynotes (ca. 30 min)
2. Parallel interactive break-out sessions: “Solutions Labs” (ca. 90 min) In small breakout sessions of 5-10 participants, cases of progress towards the transition will be shared and discussed. Based on these cases, participants will discuss what to “stop, start, or continue” to further scale such success cases of collaboration along value chains for increased resilience and sustainability, learn from peers and form alliances. There will be groups focussing on the transition in companies and others on banks and supervisors, with further perspectives contributing to the debate through their enabling role in the wider ecosystems in which companies and FIs exist, in particular from policy making, philanthropy and think tanks.

3. Break and networking (30 min)
4. Bringing the insights together in a “fishbowl” format (45 min) One person per group (agenda point 2) joins the inner circle of the fishbowl to share and discuss key insights with the others. A moderator ensures that the discussion amongst the group representatives takes a forward-looking perspective: What are key takeaways to accelerate the transition through collaborative actions of companies and their value chain partners, financial institutions and other key stakeholders like philanthropic funders, policy makers, and think tanks.  

5. Closing panel discussion: Key takeaways and actions going forward (30 minutes)
6. Networking

Participation

This event is closed-door and participation is by invitation. If you received this page link and would like to confirm attendance or suggest additional participants, please contact the organising team.