Takeaways from GreenBiz 2025, from SBC Member, Michelle Miller (SustainabilityManager, NA, Symrise)
Written by SBC Member, Michelle Miller (Sustainability Manager, NA, Symrise)
GreenBiz 2025 serves as a burning call to action.
A call to lean on and lift up each other to navigate current and future regulatory expectations. A call to understand opportunities for advancement regardless of suppressing legislation. A call to absorb the teachings of experienced professionals in the space while being inspired by the perspectives of those newly on their sustainability journeys.
Held in Phoenix Arizona this premier sustainability conference convened nearly 3,000 corporate sustainability professionals and leaders to discuss the evolving landscape of sustainable business practices. GreenBiz 25 reinforced that sustainability is no longer optional—it’s a business necessity that requires innovation, transparency, and collaboration. Sessions were provided in seven tracks: Decarbonize and Drawdown, Progress and Thrive, Transforming Value Chains, Comms with Integrity, Finance for the Transition, Regenerating Nature, and Confident Disclosure. The energy and urgency in the keynotes and breakout rooms was palpable as sustainability leaders gathered to tackle our biggest climate challenges.
Here are my six key Greenbiz25 takeaways:
1. Sustainability is a business imperative. Companies are integrating sustainability into
their core strategies rather than treating it as an add-on. Business leaders emphasized
that climate action is now a competitive advantage, influencing investor decisions and
consumer trust. Leading businesses are shifting from viewing sustainability as a
compliance issue to making it a strategic priority. This includes aligning sustainability
goals with business objectives, such as reducing carbon emissions, improving resource
efficiency, and enhancing brand reputation. Integrating sustainability into business is not
just about reducing environmental impact—it is about creating long-term value, building
resilience, and maintaining a competitive edge in an evolving global economy.
Companies that embrace sustainability as a core principle are positioning themselves as
leaders in a future driven by innovation, responsibility, and sustainable growth.
2. We need to be business leaders who practice sustainability. Recent developments
at the federal level can have us all feeling like our professions is under attack. We’ve
always faced pushback and always faced resistance. That’s why it’s so important to build
the business case for sustainability instead of treating it as a standalone program. Now
more than ever we need to take a refresher in conflict resolution and practice the AIKDO
response, where the goal is to redirect force instead of opposing it. We also need to look
to nature on how it deals with resistance, what characteristics can we adopt to further
our sustainability objectives, what relationships can we forge to help each other, how can
we build resilience in the face of adversity. And most of all, have hope. Tulain
Montgomery, CEO of New Profit, said "Hope is not fragile- made of butterfly wings and spider webs. Hope has grit on her face, bloody knuckles, and she's spitting out a tooth as she rises for more."
3. Progress is happening even if we cannot always see it. You may need to look
outside your organization, look beyond where you sit today. Even look outside your
industry to see the huge strides and gains we have made in sustainability. Let it bring
you a renewed sense of confidence. We can sometimes get bogged down by the regulation and requirements that we forget to look at the true innovation that is
happening in sustainability. Companies are figuring out how to uniquely sit in their value
chains and make meaningful impacts. Be a part of this innovative work and don’t get
stuck in the reactionary tasks.
4. Value chain partnerships are key. In today’s interconnected economy, no company
operates in isolation. Value chain partnerships—collaborations across suppliers,
manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and even customers—are essential for achieving
business success, sustainability goals, and resilience. These partnerships help
businesses reduce risks, drive innovation, ensure sustainability, and create shared
value. Caitlin Leibert, VP of Sustainability at Whole Foods, remarked, "No one company will ‘win’ the climate crisis. We need to break out of our silos and recognize that our collective impact is far greater than individual efforts." Building strong relationships with trust and transparency at the core is an important factor on our road to sustainability success stories.
5. Utilize the power of collaboration. Find your friendly’s in your organization and outside
of it. No one person has all the answers and we all have our super powers. Many of us
have a collective anxiety over the future and finding those within your network that can
help you move beyond this feeling is a must. Tulain Montgomery, simply put “Community
is medicine”. Take advantage of the community you have built around you to overcome
your doubts and sustainability hurdles. Make a strong network and work together to
continue advancing sustainability in our own spaces.
6. One metric cannot measure the health of nature. We need to move beyond just
focusing on net zero. Measuring only one aspect, such as carbon emissions, overlook
other critical issues like habitat destruction or declining pollinator populations.
Ecosystem health includes factors like biodiversity, air and water quality, soil health, and
species population trends—each of which provides a different perspective on
environmental well-being. Just as human health cannot be assessed with a single metric
like weight or blood pressure, nature’s health requires a holistic, multi-dimensional
approach. Businesses, governments, and conservationists must integrate various
indicators to make informed, responsible environmental decisions.
Overall, GreenBiz 25 reinforced that sustainability is no longer optional—it’s a
business necessity. Companies must move beyond gradual changes and embrace radical
transformation, collaboration, and technological innovation to address the urgent challenges of environmental health. Joel Makower, Chairman & Co-Founder, GreenBiz Group said "I’ll be blunt—even the leaders in this room are being aggressively incremental. We’re making lots of small tweaks, but it’s not enough. The challenges ahead require transformation at a scale and speed we’ve never attempted before." These leaps and bounds we need to see in sustainability cannot be achieved in a bubble; we need to build partnerships across our supply chains and lean on our fellow sustainability professionals to learn how to get the job done.
