Why the CLIMATE TRANSFORMATION Summit makes 2022 our year for actions!

Wow, what an energy! One week has passed since the 2 interactive days of the third edition of the CLIMATE TRANSFORMATION Summit ended. It is time to celebrate, to look back at the numbers, results and what we achieved together as CLIMATE Community.

A DREAM CLIMATE TEAM + A DOGFirst of all, what I can share with you: a few months of inspiring work flowed into the #CTS2022! Which I was happy to lead together with our dedicated team from THE CLIMATE CHOICE - composed by Max and Lara, and the continuous support of our Growth Team. Sometimes even our office dog ‘Sunny’ brought in the necessary energy. But it did not stop here. We had countless enthusiastic helpers, partners and supporters who did everything to make the Summit valuable and meaningful. An incredibly big THANK YOU in advance to all of you. It was wonderful to be able to work with you!

BUILDING UP A GLOBAL CLIMATE COMMUNITY

So let me get you into the journey we took together. It all started as a brainstorming on an excel spreadsheet, and turned into an amazing event less than 6 months later. Gathering 1,000 climate enthusiasts, decision makers and curious people from around the world, all interested in learning more about climate transformation, and in particular about Decarbonisation of Companies and their Supply Chains. Fast forward: we kicked off the 100% online summit on 2nd June, with participants and experts joining from many many different countries.

STARTING A CLIMATE REVOLUTION

As stated by our co-founder Lara during her Welcome Speech: “We see now more than ever, companies need to step up and go into a sustainability revolution, but they need to act now, as the window of opportunity is closing faster and faster”. I bet the majority of us today would agree on this need for a sustainability revolution, driving a successful climate transformation of economy and within companies, but probably only few of us would know exactly what to do to get it started.

CLIMATE TRANSFORMATION IS A MATTER OF HOW, NOT IF

So let’s go deep here on actions! These are the three most important steps we learned about climate actions at #CTS2022.

The first point of departure would be to understand your individual status quo. Where does your company stand, how climate mature is it and which actions are already taken?  This step requires collecting all climate relevant data on your business and along the supply chain. This allows you to learn where you stand and to make assumptions about where you are most likely heading. As you may guess, this can be difficult to acknowledge, but it is the only way to start. With you and your own actions.

Therefore the only logical next step is to get active and find ways to reduce emissions. This most often brings in a new challenge, remembering that your accountability does not end at the borders of your company, but that the supply chain is where up to 90% of the total corporate emissions typically are generated.

Facing this hurdle brings you to step three: collaborate with your suppliers to align climate strategies, to share best practices and implement solutions to reduce emissions together. Useless to say that these can also create a positive impact on cost reduction, efficiency and sometimes even other sustainability issues such as loss of biodiversity, labor rights or plastic waste.

Allowing for best practices sharing around these three steps, on the first day,  we looked into how to become truly climate neutral, and then, on the second day,  went deeper into how to create and manage collaborative supply chains transformation and a planet proof procurement.

LEARNING FROM CHANGE AGENTS 

We welcomed over the course of the  two days over 64 speakers (of which proudly 52% were female, which we were able to achieve for the first time!!), who spoke with our audience composed of 30% of corporates and 15% of SMEs and a 55% going as ‘others’, such as start ups,  NGOs, Institutes or self-employed people, overall coming from 59 different countries.

THE MOST ACTIVE CLIMATE COMMUNITY

In fact, this year's summit was for the first time entirely held in English, which made its CLIMATE Community more international than ever, with the top 10 countries represented being Germany, Austria, India, Switzerland, Netherlands, UK, Spain, France, Italy and USA!

The summit required, besides a strong internet connection, also a lot of focus, to grasp the insights shared during the various sessions, which were super interactive and helped answer questions coming from the participants. In fact, the #CTS2022 attendees deserve a special applause, as they were getting the most out of the  event platform we used. On average a participant spent an unbelievable amount of time:11 hours! Celebrating this huge level of commitment and lively contribution, we honored our 3 most active participants with the CLIMATE Community award. Thanks for your outstanding engagement!

GETTING YOUR HAND DIRTY 

Furthermore, attendees had the chance to participate in two of the 12 limited workshops we prepared for them, together with our Partners from  B.A.U.M. e.V., First Climate, BearingPoint, AXA Climate School, Enviria, Fairantwortung gAG, Katjes Fassin GmbH & Co. KG, Regionique, IBM, Make-IT Alliance, Telefónica Germany, EcoVadis, Alice Schmidt, ESG Portfolio Management,  Sustainable Procurement Pledge Germany, Development and Climate Alliance Foundation and WWF Germany.

Quite amazingly, 73% of the attendees participated in a workshop, and loved it so much that the most recurring feedback was that we should have even more workshops next year! By looking at the attendance, it turns out that the  most popular topics covered in the workshops were the ESG regulations & EU Taxonomy reporting, the En-ROADS simulation and a concrete example on how to decrease emissions with a company and along the supply chain.

DISCOVERING CLIMATE SOLUTIONS 

Last but not least, the online fair, showcasing 26 different Climate Pioneers, was also available to our  attendees. They had the chance to meet the exhibitors at their booth, learn about their solutions and discuss possible business opportunities. A total number of around 4.500 visits to all booths was tracked down!

Which leads us to the last highlight of the online fair. We gave all attendees the opportunity to vote for the CLIMATE Champion Awards, which had all Exhibitors competing in the following three categories: 

• Climate Solution Pioneer (the exhibitor offering the best climate solution to decarbonise companies);

• Supply Chain Transformer (the exhibitor offering the best climate solution to transform supply chains);

• Exhibitor Hero (best booth design and most welcoming exhibitor).

The voting results saw 3 companies winning over the others, respectively CarbonStack (Climate Solution), THE CLIMATE CHOICE (Supply Chain Transformer) and Enviria (Exhibitor Hero). Thanks therefore for everyone voting, but a huge congratulations to all exhibitors - you do amazing work!

AFTER THE SUMMIT: MOVING TO ACTIONS

Overall, I had an amazing experience and it was an impactful event of which our Team Climate is proud of. But most importantly, now is the time for action. We learned a lot, we shared more and made valuable business connections. Let’s go out and start the CLIMATE TRANSFORMATION in our daily lives and business decisions, see you next year!

Many thanks for everyone working with us, and me, on this #CTS2022 journey! I am very excited to move to a new role now within THE CLIMATE CHOICE, supporting our Growth & Customer Happiness Team. Stay tuned, sign up for our CLIMATE News and thus don’t miss on our next events, whitepapers and shared opportunities for Climate Actions! 

Your CLIMATE Team & Chiara