Press Release
Sustainable Brands Attracts Global Finance Leaders Exploring Next-Generation Goals & Reporting

The Sustainable Brands® community gathers today in Philadelphia, PA to kick off the 9th annual New Metrics conference. Over 250 global executives, sustainability strategists and finance leaders from companies such as Moody’s, Nasdaq, Bank of the West, IKEA, and Microsoft are gathering to share advancements in next-generation metrics that measure business success, purposeful leadership and long-term value creation, science-based goal setting, and trends in integrated reporting and investor sentiment.

Over 80 speakers are participating in thought-provoking plenaries and collaborative breakout sessions and bringing an extensive exploration of the smart solutions, case studies and tools that are accelerating change to support the creation of positive impact and value for all stakeholders. Key discussion topics and featured speakers include:

• A distinguished keynote presentation by Mark Kaye, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Moody’s delivering a talk on leadership in transforming financial decision-making and the need to scale up actions globally around finance and changing traditional accounting practices.
• Ben Stuart, CMO of Bank of the West brings a data-driven presentation on the role sustainability has across the entire business - from improving sales metrics, to decreasing costs of leads, to having a tangible positive impact on employee engagement.
• An extensive exploration of science-based climate targets, including step-by-step guidance on setting science-based carbon and water goals, with executives from Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), Microsoft, ALDO Group and Pachama.
• A rigorous investigation of how to set and achieve plastic neutrality targets including identifying goals, understanding the impact of ocean plastics, standardizing strategies and measuring progress with leaders from WWF, SAP and Valutus.
• A look into the future of combined accounting and finance practices with standardized next-level investor-friendly sustainability reporting, assurance and analysis with executives from SASB, AICPA, Deloitte & Touche, Vanguard and Etsy.
• A session on the principles of regenerative economics and the future of regeneration-based business model innovation with leaders from Capital Institute, Timberland, VF Corporation, Cabot Dairy Farmer and r3-0.
• A discussion on finding innovative and practical ways to engage investors on sustainability issues with leaders from Governance & Accountability Institute, HIP Investor, Neuberger Berman, Trillium, Nestlé USA and General Motors.
• Sustainable Brands shares a suite of tools and success metrics for #BrandsforGood and how they can help track behavioral and cultural shifts, as well as evolving perceptions of brand impact.
• Greengate Power invites participants to experience the world’s first virtual reality experience of renewable energy at utility scale. Viewers experience 1.5 million solar panels across 5,000 acres and 28 wind turbines 110M high across 17,000 acres.

“This year’s program covers critical developments and timely topics including a variety of best practices around quantifying social impact, and how to understand and prepare for major disruptions headed toward the C-Suite due to growing sustainability-related risks and liabilities,” states Dimitar Vlahov, Director of Knowledge & Insights at Sustainable Brands. “The business leaders gathering this week in Philadelphia are informing the next generation of goal setting and strategic planning. We are proud to lead the charge toward equipping CSOs and CFOs with important tools, knowledge and partnerships they need to succeed.”

Sustainable Brands is proud to recognize the many sponsors committed to showcasing their leadership at New Metrics ’19, including Flex, Greengate Power, Metrio Software, Pachama, American Forest Foundation, Numi Organic Tea, The Estēe Lauder Companies, World Animal Protection, United by Blue, Salterbaxter MSL and Trucost, part of S&P Global. South Pole Group is the official Renewable Energy and Carbon Offset partner, Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF) is the official Water Restoration partner, and TerraCycle is the official Waste Management & Diversion partner. Additional partners include SustainAbility, G&A Institute, Wharton IGEL, 3BL Media, Real Leaders, Ethical Markets, Solutions Journal and Karma Impact.

New Metrics ‘19 begins today and continues through November 20, 2019 at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel in Philadelphia, PA. Media are encouraged to apply for press credentials at [email protected]. Tickets are still available and can be purchased onsite. Please contact the Sustainable Brands team or call 415.626.2212 for more information.

About Sustainable Brands

Sustainable Brands® is the premier global community of brand innovators who are shaping the future of commerce worldwide. Since 2006, our mission has been to inspire, engage and equip today’s business and brand innovators to prosper for the near and long term by leading the way to a better future. Digitally published news articles and issues-focused conversation topics, internationally-known conferences and regional events, a robust e-learning library, and peer-to-peer membership groups all facilitate community engagement throughout the year.