Thursday, 26 March 2026

Debate: Does employee activism work?

5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. 

 From securing weekends and fair pay to shaping corporate commitments on climate, wellbeing and inclusion, employees have often driven change from within. Yet today many resist the label “activism”. It can imply troublemaking or stepping outside what is perceived to be one’s role. This is a risk that feels sharper amid economic uncertainty, political scrutiny and AI-driven job anxiety, coinciding with a long-term decline in union participation, and weakening collective leverage.

At the same time, pressure on business is intensifying. Climate risk, technological disruption and social instability are no longer distant concerns - for many, they shape future livelihoods and security. As employees sit close to culture, operations and decision-making, some argue they are one of the most underused levers for change. But does employee activism give leaders the confidence to act more boldly, or expose a leadership gap by shifting responsibility onto those not paid to carry it? When activism rises, is it a sign of organisational strength, or leadership failure?

Anthropy UK National Gathering - 25 to 27 March, Cornwall 

Monday, 30 March 2026

Internal Transformation: Employee Engagement & Sustainability as Organizational DNA

10:00 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. CET,  ChangeNOW Collective Stage

Embedding sustainability in corporate strategy requires more than targets: it relies on how people think, collaborate and innovate internally. This session examines practical approaches to building a sustainability-aligned culture, from clear communications and skills development to fostering intrapreneurship as a way for employees to test ideas, drive efficiencies and develop new solutions. We explore how engagement, leadership support and day-to-day decision frameworks can translate ambition into durable organizational practice.

Keynote (15'): Otto Scharmer (Author of Theory U)

Panel (30'):

• Clay Brown (Co-Lead Executive at B Lab)

• Sophie Lambin (Founder & CEO @ Kite Insights)

• Adrien Cassegrain (Director of Transformation and CSR, Longchamp)

• Fireside Chat (18'): Jolana Jamuna Amara (CEO at The League of Intrapreneurs)

Moderated by: Bodine van Styrum

Tuesday, 31 March 2026

Debate: 'Green growth is a myth'

5:45 p.m. to 6:45 p.m

 For some, green growth represents the most realistic path through the climate crisis. Attempts to curb consumption through political consensus have delivered incremental progress at best. Meanwhile, capital markets are moving decisively: clean energy investment is accelerating, net-zero industries are expanding faster than many traditional sectors, and innovation is reshaping everything from materials to mobility. Increasingly, economists argue that environmental constraints can stimulate productivity, competitiveness, and new forms of value creation. From this perspective, the transition is not about sacrificing growth but redefining it, growing economic prosperity while reducing environmental pressure. Could green growth be the mechanism that aligns planetary stewardship with economic ambition?

Others remain deeply sceptical. They question whether efficiency gains and technological innovation can ever outpace the scale of consumption in a global economy built on expansion. Absolute decoupling of growth from environmental harm remains contested, while biodiversity loss, material extraction, and waste continue to rise. Critics argue that the promise of green growth risks delaying more fundamental shifts in economic priorities, lifestyles, and measures of prosperity. If infinite growth meets finite planetary boundaries, is green growth a solution or a comforting myth that postpones harder choices? 

Wednesday, 1 April 2026

Break the Debt Trap: Financing a Just Transition

5:15 p.m., Agora Stage

The sovereign debt crisis in the Global South is not a series of isolated emergencies. It is a systemic failure that forces many countries to spend more on servicing debt than on social priorities such as health, education, gender equality, and climate resilience. This conference moves beyond crisis commentary to focus on why the debt system keeps countries trapped and what can change it, from the role of private creditors to the impact of illicit financial flows.
The goal is practical solutions that free up money where it is needed most: debt reform, fairer risk pricing, and more climate finance delivered as grants to support a just transition.

• Keynote (15’): Laurence Tubiana (President and CEO of the European Climate Foundation)
• Panel (30’):Kamal Ramburuth (Project Lead on the G20) and a representative of AFD (name TBC)
• Fireside Chat (18’): Maria Syed (Economics Consultant and Researcher, Third World Network)

Tuesday, 14 April 2026

6:00 p.m., The Conduit, 6 Langley St, London WC2H 9JA

Join us for an evening conversation exploring whether markets can fix plastics.

Hosted by Dassault Systèmes, the event brings together leaders from business, finance, and civil society for an engaging and thought-provoking exchange. The evening will begin with a fireside conversation followed by a lively debate curated by DEBATABLE, where two teams of speakers will argue opposing perspectives in a format designed to challenge assumptions and encourage thoughtful, open disagreement on complex sustainability issues.

Agenda
18:00 – 18:15: Guests arrive
18:15 – 18:45: Fireside chat with Philippine de T’Serclaes, Chief Sustainability Officer, Dassault Systèmes and Jeremy Oppenheim, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Systemiq
18:45 – 19:45: Debate: This house believes that markets won’t fix plastics

Debaters include:

• Beth Knight, CISL Fellow and Non-Executive

• Sian Sutherland, Co-Founder, A Plastic Planet

• Kresse Wesling, CBE, Co-Founder, Elvis & Kresse

• Erinch Sahan, Associate Director, Investment, Joseph Rowntree Foundation

• Ben Dixon, Partner and Head of Materials & Circular Economy, Systemiq

• Libby Peake, Senior Fellow and Head of Resource Policy, Green Alliance

• Nusa Urbancic, CEO, Changing Markets Foundation

• Clare Brook, CEO, Blue Marine Foundation

Moderators: Paul van Zyl, Co-Founder and CEO, The Conduit and Sophie Lambin, Founder and CEO, Kite Insights

19:45 onwards: Drinks reception and networking

Register here: https://rsvp.zkipster.com/_mzrpd

Skoll World Forum - 21 to 24 April, Oxford

Tuesday, 20 January 2026

Debate: "Is well-being elitist?"

Tuesday, January 20 at 4:30 p.m.

Hosted by TPC House, Curated by DEBATABLE by Kite Insights

Schneider's Rätia, Promenade 40, 7270 Davos

A debate on the promise and reality of the well-being economy.

Speakers include:

Sandrine Dixson-Declève, Executive Chair, Earth4All and former President, Club of Rome
Sam Warach, Founder of NextStep Health
Ralph Chami, Economist and Planetary Guardian
Carlos Nobre, Brazilian Climate Scientist
Andrew Mitchell, Founder, Equilibrium Futures
Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Professor of Economics and Behavioural Science, Saïd Business School
Tai Sook Yee, Chairman, NO. 17 Foundation
Sophie Lambin (moderator), CEO and founder of Kite Insights

Thursday, 22 January 2026

Interactive discussion: 'Activating workforce wisdom: How to drive the transition to a well-being economy'

Thursday, January 22, 4:00 pm

Hosted by Hurd, an initiative of Kite Insights, in collaboration with TPC and Climate-KIC

OCHSNER SPORT
Promenade 45, 7270 Davos, Switzerland
Awakening House
Ochsner Forum 3

Family enterprises, foundations, and long-lived institutions have understood for generations that resilience is built through trust, stewardship, and long-term investment in human capability, yet even these actors can drift toward extractive practices as economies and societies scale, digitise, and financialize.

In every organization, people already hold deep insight into where value is created, where risks accumulate, and where harm or opportunity is emerging. How should organizations activate and empower this embedded wisdom to move beyond extractive models and become engines of long-term, human and planetary well-being?

Debate: "Nature will set the price." 

Monday, 10 November, 6:00-8:00 PM

EY House, curated by DEBATABLE. by Kite Insights 

Financial tools such as carbon markets and biodiversity credits aim to harness market mechanisms to drive capital towards restoring nature and away from extraction. Are these effective, or do we in fact need a regenerative economy modeled on nature that nurtures and renews value?

And what if nature doesn’t negotiate in terms of price at all? When there’s nothing left to buy, pricing becomes irrelevant. What if our financial system, no matter how sophisticated or regenerative, is fundamentally dependent on a system that plays by utterly different rules?  

Express interest to attend here. 

AI for Nature: Speed, Scale and Access

Tuesday, 11 November, 6:30-9:00 PM

TED Countdown House at COP30, hosted by Google and WRI 

Urgent global action is needed for nature, and AI presents promising opportunities to accelerate the collection, dissemination, and utilization of nature-related data. Google and WRI invite you to a dinner discussion grounded in a new white paper, "AI for Nature: How AI can democratize and scale action on nature." Moderated by David Gelles from The New York Times, this event gathers a group of practitioners, policymakers, innovators and more to discuss how AI can broaden access to information, amplify conservation initiatives, and empower stakeholders from local communities to governments. The discussion will delve into challenges related to finance, governance, accessibility, and human oversight, while forging partnerships and strategies for leveraging AI's potential, and setting a clear path for demonstrable progress at COP30 and beyond. 

Driving Sustainable Construction Forward: Pathways and priority actions for transformative change across the value chain: A COP30 Interactive Session on Sustainable Construction

Wednesday, 12 November, 09:30 - 11:00AM

COP30 Buildings and Cooling pavilion (Blue Zone), Belém   

Co-organized by Saint-Gobain’s Sustainable Construction Observatory and the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC), and hosted by GlobalABC and the UNEP Cool Coalition.  

This session will explore two catalysts for sustainability in the building sector:  

• Conceived at COP28, The Buildings Breakthrough unites countries and partners co-ordinated by UN GlobalABC to accelerate decarbonization and resilience. In support of this, a new set of definitions and principles for near-zero emission and resilient buildings has been developed ahead of COP30 with lead partner WorldGBC through the Priority Action B1 [Standards and Certification] Steering Committee.   

• Complementary to the goals of The Buildings Breakthrough, a new action paper will be launched by Saint-Gobain's Sustainable Construction Observatory at COP30. Developed with their community of global and local leaders, it outlines priority actions identified as having the greatest potential to drive impactful social, economic, and environmental transformation.   

Together, participants will explore the objectives and ambitions of both initiatives as they move to implementation, in an interactive session inviting the perspectives and solutions of leaders from across the value chain.  

Kite Insights is supporting the curation of this event.  

Request an invitation (Please note that a Blue Zone badge is required to access the event) 

Closing the Loop: Scaling circular solutions for plastics across emerging markets 

Wednesday, 12 November, 12:30 – 2:00 pm  

Luncheon hosted by Coca Cola at TED Countdown House

A conversation on how global brands, innovators, and investors are scaling circular solutionsfor packaging. This lunch discussion explores how collaboration across design, collection, and reuse can accelerate plastics circularity—spotlighting practical examples, challenges, and opportunities to close the loop across emerging markets.  

Express interest to attend here. 

Saint-Gobain Sustainable Construction Talk: Delivering on the Global Mutirão through sustainable construction: Priority actions to make the world a better home. 

 Wednesday, 12 November, 6:30 - 8:00 PM (arrivals at 6:00 PM and cocktail dinner from 8:00 PM onwards)  

Museu do Estado do Pará, Belém  

 At COP30, the Brazilian Presidency has called for a Global Mutirão — a collaborative movement to turn climate pledges into action. How might the construction value chain deliver on this mandate? Transformation of the built environment is central to addressing the interconnected social, economic, and environmental crises that we are facing today. While awareness of sustainable construction is on the rise, and actions are well underway, a coordinated step change is urgently needed to accelerate progress. To address this, Saint-Gobain's Sustainable Construction Observatory will host a Sustainable Construction Talk in Belém.  In collaboration and consultation with its community at global and local levels, the Observatory has developed an Action Paper to be launched in Belem. It will promote priority actions on six issues identified as having the greatest potential to unlock new pathways for impact and real-world progress. This session is a call to action, inviting participants to build on these foundations to explore how we can join forces, break silos, and scale solutions to make the world a better home.  

Kite Insights is supporting the curation of this event.  

Request an invitation (No Blue Zone badge required) 

Sustainability Markets: The role of business in building carbon removal with integrity at scale

Thursday, 13 November, 8:00 – 9:30 am (Breakfast followed by discussion) 

Hosted by Microsoft at TED Countdown House 

When it comes to carbon removal, companies are not just investors and purchasers — they’re helping develop the markets that will define our path to net zero. In this breakfast discussion, Microsoft Chief Sustainability Officer Melanie Nakagawa will lead a conversation on how to build a credible and scalable carbon removal ecosystem — one that balances technological innovation with integrity, and real impact for communities and the planet.  

Register interest here. 

Debate: "Green will never be brown"

Thursday 13 November, 3:45-5:15 PM 

TED Countdown House at COP30, curated by DEBATABLE. by Kite Insights

Renewable energy promises a future free from fossil fuels and a pathway for economic growth. In some cases, fossil fuel lobbies have sought to smear green energy as being just as bad for the planet. However, there are risks and consequences to renewable energy production that should not be overlooked: meeting the demand for solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries requires mining rare minerals at unprecedented rates—often in regions already burdened by conflict, exploitation, and human rights abuses. These are communities and ecosystems among the last bastions of biodiversity.  Plus, the concentration of these minerals in specific regions risks a concentration of power around green energy that could echo the dynamics of past oil conflicts. So, does the rush to decarbonize have to mean repeating old patterns of extraction under a green guise? Can policies harness renewable energy to drive growth while respecting human rights, protecting ecosystems, and ensuring fairness across generations, while matching the urgency required for the green transition? 

Express interest to attend here. 

Hot Work: Building Worker and Business Resilience in a Warming World - From Fields to Factories to Boardrooms

Thursday, 13 November, 7:00-9:00 PM (session followed by drinks and canapes)

TED Countdown House at COP30, hosted by Wellcome Trust

Climate impacts including extreme heat and poor air quality are affecting workers across the world, from fields, to factories, to boardrooms. In this dynamic session, join the conversation with stakeholders from the private sector, philanthropy and international institutions to explore how businesses can respond to heat and deliver solutions that balance productivity, well-being and equity. 

Express interest to attend here. 

From incremental to exponential: Accelerating the climate & nature transformation

Friday, 14 November, 2:30 to 4 pm 

TED Countdown House at COP30, hosted by Exponential Roadmap 

The updated Carbon Law demands global emissions halve every five years to avoid tipping points. With 7 of 9 planetary boundaries breached, urgent action is needed. This session explores how business can adapt models, integrate climate and nature into decisions, and co-create pathways toward a thriving, nature-positive economy. Speakers include Johan Rockström, Director of Climate Impact Research, Potsdam Institute, and others. 

Register interest here.

Building a Mutirão for Food Systems: Cultivating ambition to drive food systems transformation beyond COP30 

Monday, 17 November, 6:00 - 8:00 PM (session followed by drinks and canapes)

TED Countdown House at COP30, hosted by  Erol Foundation, Instituto Ibirapitanga, Global Alliance for the Future of Food, Instituto Arapyau and Porticus. 

  This event is a moment to connect across the global food system to share insights and perspectives critical to driving collective action. Representing the leadership from the global south, join farmers, activists, indigenous and community leaders, and special envoys for a dynamic evening of conversation to build a shared foundation for action for well beyond this COP and the next.  

Express interest to attend here.

More events will be added soon. In the meantime, please let us know whom from your organisation will be there by filling out this form.

Debate: "Businesses will never be brave"

Thursday 6 November, 5:15 - 6:05PM

Place Vendôme, Paris

This New York Times Debate is curated by DEBATABLE. by Kite Insights.

In an increasingly polarised and volatile world, business leaders take huge personal risks, staking their reputation on innovation. Whether starting a company or steering a major organisation through instability, they must navigate uncertainty with real bravery. But while individuals may be brave, the system is not. Our economic model rewards short-term, risk-reducing strategies that maximise shareholder profit. Yet we see examples of businesses thriving through long-term investments in the common good, resilience, and adaptation — and it can make economic sense: every $1 invested in resilience can generate more than $10 in benefits over ten years, according to a recent WRI report. Could leaders follow these examples into a market-wide shift — and should we question their bravery if they don’t? Or are we deceiving ourselves - does the responsibility to transform economic culture ultimately fall to policymakers?

Paris Climate & Nature Week, 27-31 Oct 2025

Workforce 2.0: Unlocking your employees’ sustainability potential  

29 October, 8:30-11:00 AM

Climate House, Paris

Sustainability is no longer the domain of a single department. The most forward-thinking companies implement measures at speed and scale by empowering their employees, across all levels and functions, to become active drivers of sustainability. For these companies, sustainability is a dynamic, organisation-wide movement that sparks innovation and shapes culture.  

How should companies turn this vision into reality?  

At Kite Insights, we believe the crucial first step is to understand where your workforce stands - measuring both their motivation and their knowledge.   

In this hands-on workshop, we'll introduce the concept of sustainability readiness, explore some key readiness measures and metrics, and learn how to harness these insights to accelerate implementation and drive tangible progress.