Blog

On December 4, 2025, Sustainability Roundtable, Inc. (SR Inc) convened senior sustainability leaders in Boston and virtually for our Q4 Sustainable Business and Enterprise Roundtable Executive Symposium. As we closed out the year, the conversation was candid, practical, and forward-looking, focused on how sustainability strategy, governance, and decarbonization must continue to evolve in a rapidly changing operating environment.

We were grateful to gather with such an engaged group of leaders and to host two outstanding speakers, Justine Roberts, Director of Sustainability at Gates, and Sophia Wang, Associate Director of Sustainability at Gilead Sciences and a member of the GHG Protocol Scope 2 Technical Working Group. Their insights grounded the discussion in real-world experience and helped translate complex challenges into actionable leadership lessons.

Strengthening Sustainability Strategy and Governance

A central theme of the symposium was the role of strategy management as a scaffold for effective sustainability programs. Participants explored how a clear, well-articulated sustainability strategy can anchor decision-making while enabling sub-strategies and functional approaches across core focus areas.

Leaders shared that, in more mature programs, a strong corporate sustainability strategy statement often includes three elements, a commitment to long-term value creation, a clear approach to addressing material topics, and a multistakeholder lens. The discussion reinforced that strategy and governance are inseparable and that effective governance requires intentional infrastructure.

Many organizations described leveraging formally chartered sustainability steering committees with executive sponsorship, cross-functional representation, defined decision rights, and structured agendas. When designed well, these governance mechanisms not only drive alignment but also surface opportunities for revenue growth and competitive positioning.

In a fireside chat, Justine Roberts shared practical lessons from Gates on engaging internal stakeholders, building durable governance, and securing leadership buy-in. Gates’ G-T-E-S framework exemplifies a strong strategy statement, with the technology pillar explicitly linking sustainability to the company’s identity as a materials science company and positioning sustainability as a driver of value for all stakeholders.

Navigating Global Decarbonization and Scope 2 Developments

The symposium also addressed evolving standards and debates shaping corporate decarbonization strategies. Participants discussed proposed draft changes to the GHG Protocol Scope 2 Standard and SBTi Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.0, including the growing emphasis on hourly- and location-matching for market-based instruments.

The group examined why these specifications must remain optional in order to preserve companies’ ability to catalyze new renewable electricity at scale and how corporate leaders can engage constructively in the ongoing consultation processes.

Sophia Wang offered a particularly valuable perspective on the GHG Protocol proposals and their implications for renewable energy procurement. Drawing on her experience with the Scope 2 Technical Working Group, she discussed how the groups have considered the interaction between proposed consequential accounting approaches and emerging quality criteria for attributional accounting.

A key thread throughout the discussion was the concern that enforcing hourly- and location-matching requirements risks misrepresenting the real-world impact of corporate renewable energy procurement, given that there is currently no viable use claim companies can make, regardless of temporal or geographic granularity.

Looking Ahead: SBER 3.0 and AI Enablement

The program concluded with a preview of SBER 3.0, SR Inc’s next phase of AI enablement, shared by Charlie Forcey, SR Inc's Chief Technology Officer. This evolution expands SBER through digital collaboration tools, including Roundtable Labs, the Roundtable Hub, and a new Roundtable Member Portal, designed to help leaders implement sooner and stay aligned with decision-ready, science-backed standards. More details on the Member Portal will be shared in the coming weeks.

Continuing the Work Together

We are grateful to the leaders who make this community possible and to the trust that enables open, thoughtful exchange. Each symposium shapes SR Inc's ongoing research, guidance, and tools and reinforces the shared commitment of this community to advancing sustainability leadership that is strategic, grounded, and responsive to the realities of the world we operate in.

We look forward to continuing the conversation in the year ahead.