Leading Through Disruption: Lessons from the 2025 Aspen Institute’s Business & Society Summit

If you follow my weekly newsletter, you’ll know that never has the pendulum swung faster or farther on sustainability. 

This was my second consecutive Aspen Institute Business and Society Summit, and the 180-degree turn on sustainability was the ‘elephant in the room.’ Programs that were once a point of pride are now a liability. Companies are being challenged like never before.

The Aspen Institute attracts top leaders from the world's largest companies. And, for the Business and Society series, these folks are the upper echelon of corporate sustainability leaders. So, this event was a true barometer on the direction forward for this field. 

The key take-away message is that there is no ‘quitting’ from the people at this conference. Quite the opposite, companies are managing the headwinds and continuing to make progress toward their goals and looking ahead to even greater achievements. The dynamic was pragmatic and action oriented.

The resilience of this movement is grounded in business value. While the attacks on corporate responsibility allege its based in liberal ideology, the truth that emerged from this event is much deeper than labels. The movement is not ideological at all, it's based in self-interest.  

The roots of corporate sustainability have always been about delivering value. Having worked for most of my career within large companies, I can say from first-hand knowledge that programs that do not deliver value don’t last long. And yet, because our field delivers value to the business and to society, it has always carried this false-allegation of “wokeness” - essentially delivering benefits to society at the expense of shareholders. 

I left Aspen knowing that, once again, this myth had been busted. 

To be clear, the mood was not “business as usual.” The leaders at the event shared many strategies for coping with the political headwinds. One theme that emerged was that perhaps the current pull-back was overdue and a product of overzealousness. The new challenges have these leaders being more agile and more focused than ever on producing shared value.

During one of my conversations at the event, I spoke with Cecile Beliot-Zind, CEO of global cheese and snack manufacturer Bel, and she explained how she manages to balance short-term pressures with longer-term sustainability commitments:

That same focus on resilience came through in my extended conversation with PepsiCo Chief Sustainability Officer Jim Andrew. Jim provided a few “dos and don’ts” for resilience:

Placing sustainability at the center of how our company creates growth and value is how PepsiCo works to build a stronger, more resilient business for the near- and long-term. To make resilient businesses a reality, I believe there are three dos and don’ts. 

Starting with the positive:

• Know what matters to your business: We source 35 major crops and ingredients from more than 60 countries, so healthy soil and a strong, resilient food system are essential for our business, as well as the planet and people. 

• Set sustainability goals that are ambitious, actionable, and achievable: It’s important to aim high, but it’s also important to be agile and pragmatic when setting goals, taking into account external factors outside the control of any one company.

• Embed sustainability into the core mechanics of your company: We’ve tied a portion of our executive compensation to our sustainability targets and transformed our capital approval process so sustainability is part of decision-making. We also aim to integrate sustainability into the early stages of new construction and new product design.

And, here are three points companies should avoid:

• Don’t be performative: Sustainability is not a PR strategy, it’s a business strategy meant to build long-term resilience. It’s important to be pragmatic and also transparent about progress and challenges.

•  Don’t set goals without leadership support: Sustainability is a team sport, and everyone has a role to play. Part of the job of a CSO is to make sure the people within your company know why sustainability is important for your business.

• Don’t get complacent: Making progress on sustainability requires persistence, focus, and constant effort to find the right solutions and collaborations both internally and externally.

I thought this year’s Summit would have been a massive departure from 2024. Instead, it reaffirmed that the movement is resilient because it delivers business value.  

The best encapsulation of the event was when the participants were polled about which movie quote best summed up the moment we are in. The runaway winner was the Rocky Balboa quote: "It ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward."

Thanks to the team at the Aspen Institute for bringing this tremendous group together to emphasize resilience and the importance of pushing forward with a values-driven approach.