 All right, good day, everyone. Welcome to Mobilizing Climate-Friendly Consumer Activism. It is good to see so many familiar faces and new faces here as a part of this session today. I appreciate you kind of learning and working through this virtual format with us. We're really excited about the possibilities here. We've got a lot to talk about. We're really excited about the topics that we're going to cover today and really kind of the focus on at the end of the session talking about the meaningful, concrete next steps that we can really get to to take this conversation forward to start to create those opportunities to move this conversation forward for consumers so that they can put climate action into action. So without further ado, I'll turn this over to our moderator, Helen O'Loran. Thank you, Wesley. Thank you so much and a very warm welcome to everybody. You are in the session about Mobilizing Climate-Friendly Consumer Activism. So we're going to talk about what that is and how to create more of it. This session is being live-streamed up until a point where we go into breakouts and we're going to do a lot more hard work. I am really excited that we have participants to this session from all around the world and from all walks of life. So let's make this really participative and really pragmatic and really productive. My name's Helena. I'll be your moderator, but I'll basically be shepherding us through this conversation and I'd really welcome your feedback. Let's keep the energy super high. My day job is working at Consumers International and we are in 100 countries. We're an NGO fighting for consumer rights because we all deserve a fair, safe and sustainable marketplace. We need that. Sustainable consumption as the normal thing at speed is what we're talking about in this session. We all know that the population of the world will be 9 billion by 2050. We all know that by 2040 we'll be using 170% of the Earth's biocapacity. We know that increasingly people are aware of that problem, whether you saw the Fridays for Future Extinction Rebellion, whether you look at surveys of consumers' willingness or desire to do something different, whether you look at their willingness to boycott products that are not sustainable, you see that growing change of opinion and growing awareness. We find this more in emerging markets, in fact. Next week, we're behind a thing called Green Action Week where in 50 countries, including the Yemen, Sudan, Lebanon, Mali, you have consumer activism for climate-friendly approaches all over the... taking place. The thing is right now we need to do more than just grasp at plastic straws and there's a lot more that we can do. We have won the argument, as Bill McKibbin said, but we need to win the fight and we need to put sustainable production together with sustainable consumption and make that circular economy happen. And if you take the consumer perspective, it's about the forays. There's making sure that we are aware, that awareness is clear, that we understand what we can do differently, individually and together, that sustainable choices are affordable, that sustainable choices are accessible and that sustainable choices are available. And at Consumers International, we have also seen that bringing consumers and people together, making them aware of their consumer rights and ensuring that you've got the protections and the enforcement of regulation to back that up makes a massive difference. Now, here today, we've got four wonderful individuals who are going to help us understand this situation a lot better and give us hope for how we take the next steps. Marie Claire Graf is a young global, sorry, a global shaper of the World Economic Forum. She is a climate activist herself and I'd love to hear her views first as a climate activist. What are you looking for and what are the changes that you would like to see in the next 12 months and how do you turn your activism into long-standing change in the system? Can we turn to Marie Claire? Absolutely. Thank you so much, Helena and the organizing team. And as already mentioned, I'm a global shaper from the Zurich Hub and a climate activist. Also because you asked what activism means to me, it's a way of dealing with my own anxiety and fear that we don't have a livable future anymore. When it comes to consumer and climate change, yeah, maybe as a reminder, but young people are and will be the most powerful source and force for consumers. So this is the same people who are going now on the streets and are demanding climate justice and real system change. So we are demanding on the streets, but also in the markets, more climate friendly products as already mentioned by you, Helena. But also what is really important to us is that we really want to push for a real change and not only greenwashing because what you can see that's now getting super trendy. All the businesses have a sustainability report and some fancy STGs and some climate news. But this is not what we want because we all know that it's absolutely crucial to really shift our approach if you want to ensure the survival of all businesses, but also of our society on this planet because of course there is no business on the planet. So that we really move from greenwashing to a real system exchange also in our business models if they are not compatible with the STGs and the Paris Agreement as well as the latest science. And also what we are doing is not a hype. It's all fact-based science. Space to science was out there for very long, but it was chosen to be ignored. As you can also see in the global risk report from VEP, the three highest risks are all environmentally related. So it's not a hoax what we are talking here about and why we go on the streets. Also young people get more and more political because the changes we have to do cannot be solved only by the businesses or by the consumers, but we need everyone on board. And quickly to end want to focus on eating on food because we are eating at least three times a day. And at the moment our agriculture system is exploiting the planet. So it's super important that our agriculture is moving towards a small scale, regenerative, sustainable and real food system which is healthy for the soil, for the planet, for the environment, but also for us as individuals and as society. Also when it comes to what do we want from business that we have a true cost, that the impact of our consumption is not carried by society and by the planet as today and especially also by the poorest in the global south. That's also why we demand climate justice from the businesses as well. So if you can do something then put climate justice in the heart of your company and act upon. And yeah, as to end with the climate strikes are not the solution. At the moment in Switzerland we are striking in front of our parliament house because our parliament is not doing anything on protecting us and our future and I mean everyone here in your businesses as well. So young people have to leave school and go on strikes and to make us aware everyone about the topic and this is of course the solutions to what we need is all of you to change but not greenwashing but really do a major shift and a systemic approach and integrate climate justice into your businesses and it is over to you Helena. Beautifully said Marie Claire, thank you so much. And an invitation to everybody who's joined the call today to show your beautiful faces because we'd like to see you if you can put on and you feel like putting on your video go for it. Look, I didn't even get my hair done so no excuses from your side. Okay, fantastic opening call for climate justice from Marie Claire there. I would love to turn next to Pia Haydnmark Cook. She is the chief sustainability officer for IKEA. IKEA, of course, have I think I read 839 million consumers going through their stores last year I suspect that may be different and some fantastic commitments in 2018 to be climate positive by 2030. This year about 100% recyclability and renewability of products. I'd love to ask you, Pia, how do you react to what Marie Claire said? How do you put that at the heart of what you do? How do you see consumers changing? How do you measure that? And how do we then recycle lots of questions in there? Can you kick us off? Thank you Helena and Marie Claire for a good introduction. And starting with IKEA, our vision since we were founded 76 years ago is to create a better everyday life for the many people. So sustainability and affordability was there from the beginning. And then, like you said, we have committed to become a positive by 2030, which really means that we will reduce more greenhouse gases across the whole value chain than we emit without offsetting. Fundamentally means looking at every part of our business from the raw material to production, to the stores, to the products used at home and to end of life. So we're looking at the fatality and we can also achieve this without people. Our co-workers are 160,000 co-workers, but also the one billion visitors to the stores and about two billion visitors to thea.com. So together with people. And I think also building what you said, Helena. It's first of all, around what we do as a company because we cannot put the burden on consumers or on co-workers. So what do we do in our own business? So we set plans, detailed plans for our countries, for our different business units. We have road maps and we follow up on performance. So we do our part. And then of course, what can we do? What can consumers do? And it's a lot around awareness and making people more aware. Because a lot of young people are aware, but there's a lot of young people who are not aware. There's a lot of other people who are not aware. We need everyone to understand that this is important. And we need to also instill a feeling that optimism and urgency together creates action. Feeling apathetic or just worried. Or saying it's too late, I can't do anything, it's not going to move the needle. We need to create this sense of urgency and action. Then it's about what do we do as a company together with what we enable our customers to do. So if we take a climate, for example, we have invested in renewable energy since 2009, about a bit over 2 billion euro. And we have wind farms, about 500 wind parks that we've invested in. So we operate our own renewable energy. Then for our consumers, we sell solar panels in eight countries. And we have invested a lot in LEDs. So when you bought an LED from IKEA in 2014, it would cost you 10 euro. Today costs less than one euro. So it's really about making it affordable and available to customers. If we take food, we're testing urban farming to reduce the food miles. We are now launching a plant-based meatball, which has 95% less CO2 footprint than the normal IKEA meatball. So we are also hopefully showing and inspiring people to try it out, to take away the barriers. So it's a lot of what do we do, but also what do consumers do, and empowering people to feel that make your voice heard, how you vote, where you invest your money, where you put your money when you shop. And we do that in collaboration and with research, because it needs to be easy. It needs to be convenient, but it also needs to be sustainable. So it's really building on the totality. Fantastic. Thank you very much, Pia. Ravi, I'm going to come to you next. Ravi Sunak is the EVP at Porta Novelli. I think you started an entirely new role in 2017 to help communicate with companies about reaching the sustainable development goals. I recently saw you talk about, and I think I'm either quoting you or somebody on your panel, so I hope it's okay, but the age of greenwashing is over. Is that true? How should we communicate to consumers? And is there a new way of doing this so we build trust? Yeah, so, you know, and forgive me for starting on a little bit of a negative, but we know we're four years on from the Paris Agreement, we're five years on from everyone signing up to the STGs, and we're in the decade of delivery right now. Yet we're still in a climate crisis, right? But what really does give me hope is that this week, yeah, it's climate week and businesses and governments are coming together, being bolder in terms of communicating their commitments to helping to avert the climate crisis. So they're not just reaching out and communicating with each other, they're communicating in a more bolder way to the general public, to consumers, right? And that underneath that banner of build back better. I think that's a great narrative. Another kind of, another point that gives me optimism is that a few months ago, 150 global corporations urged world leaders for the net zero recovery from COVID-19, right? They wanted governments to match their ambitions. So clearly, I think we've gone past the age of greenwashing, and we're getting into the age of real commitment and action. Helena and Mary Claire, you mentioned the research out there. There are so many stats. I completely agree that talk about the rise of the consumers, the consumers demanding more from businesses, right? But also, it's not just every consumer, it's more the millennial and GMZ consumer, not only voting with their wallets, they're choosing to work for companies that have a commitment to social justice issues, including the climate crisis and climate change. So I think, you know, as we get into this decade of delivery, as we go into next year, you know, Paris was very good for verbal agreements and verbal commitments, but I think what is now needed is way more action, also way more communication, because there's a unique opportunity right now for businesses and governments to impact societal and behavioral change, right? They'd inspire us all to take drastic action. That's what's really needed to stay within 1.5 degrees. So it's not all doom and gloom. And another interesting point, you know, I've been working in the climate space now for nearly, I think 15 to 20 years, and I work, you know, my position, I work not only with government organizations, government agencies, human agencies, but also the private sector. But I've been doing some increasingly a lot of work with a lot of philanthropic organizations. So I'm also helping these philanthropic organizations who quite often fund the solutions to the climate crisis to convey in more simplistic terms to the general public, because they have a role also not just to influence policy, not just to influence business, but also to stress the urgency of the climate crisis to the general consumers. So, you know, I think as well, we talk about sustainability, we talk about restoration economy, but we all collectively, and especially me as a communicator working with some of these organizations, working with the C-suite, I guess I have a great responsibility in order to communicate with a level of simplicity and urgency. Maybe it's not enough just to be sustainable, we need to be regenerative, right? Maybe it's not just to have a restoration economy and go back to what it was, but to approach and build something very, very new. So I am hopeful. I think we can be bolder, but we do really need to stress that level of urgency. Thank you, Ravi. And I hope everybody's sort of putting thinking about your questions. You're going to have plenty of time in breakouts to unpick some of this, think about it, and propose how we move forward. My last speaker, though, is Frank Clary. He's at Agility. Now, Agility isn't a consumer-facing company, but it's responsible for getting hundreds of thousands of tons of freight and product to consumers. And I think it's really interesting, Frank. If you can share with us a little bit what you see back in the supply chain. Are you seeing that companies are changing their behavior? And frankly, what interests me is how will I as a consumer be able to see more back into the supply chain to choose on the basis of more sustainable actions? Sure. First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for taking time to do this. We've got 95 people on the call. Give a whoop there. It's really great to see everyone. These are important issues. And thanks for hosting this. I think, Helena, that there's a few things. One is you originally talked about awareness, affordability, accessibility, and availability. The four A's are very, very important. They're very, very important across the value chain. And I think Mary Claire also pointed out that there's a true cost for doing business or the true costs from business. And that speaks to awareness as well as affordability. So what are we seeing now in different industries? We're not saying enough. That's for sure. So we're primarily agilities are primarily business to business organization. And we focus, you know, as Helena pointed out, we're moving thousands of tons of widgets and materials all around the world on a daily basis. Most consumers are blissfully unaware of the background of what it takes to actually manufacture a transport and distribute a product. There has to be more awareness about what the impact is for those activities underlying the production and sale of a product as well as the return to the whole life cycle. So I think it's very important that we continue as businesses to raise awareness and report about what's going on. Agility, we in agility, we do put effort into actually reporting to our customers who are who are other businesses about what CO2 impact is within the supply chain and within the value chain. That's very, very important. We offer them solutions to say, you know, if you want to get into a discussion about how you can reduce environmental impact with transportation and distribution activities, we will do that. We have technological sources that we resource that we've developed for that. One of the other things that I think needs to occur more in business to business relationships is supplier management, understanding exactly what is going on in the supply chain when you're moving and transporting these items. So there's, in my opinion, from a business to business perspective, there's likely not enough being done. I think that businesses need to report what is actually going on in the supply chain from an environmental perspective, also from a human rights perspective. And I think that consumers would want to know this if they knew that the information was available. But we also need more clear demand signals. It's very good that people are out there talking and asking for change and saying we need to change our behaviors. But I think that there has to be more to really, really trip the, you know, to really, really trip some switches and make behavioral better behaviors embedded in the supply chain. And I think part of that also speaks to what Pia said. It's very, very important to remember that this is a, it's a big issue, but we shouldn't become demoralized by it. We've got, for example, 92 people on this call right now that could be doing a lot of other things instead of this. And that's a very, very good thing. We should remember this. I think Pia brings up a good point that our role for issues related to keeping our water supplies clean and plastics out of our water supply. That's a very, very important issue that these are, these are issues that cross all boundaries within our societies. And yes, these issues are made, people are made aware of this, whether on the business or the consumer level, people would want to engage on these issues and change. No one wants to have dirty water. So, again, keep positive about it, whether you're in business or whether you're a consumer and raise awareness. So people understand that this issue is real. It's something that we do need to change. It can be changed. And there are organizations, you know, like the IKEA team, like, you know, the agility team that are trying to do changes around the world, no matter where they're operating. So again, a little, like I know that Pia and the IKEA team, they work globally and they do, they carry that ethos no matter where they work. We know this because we do work with IKEA and they have requirements within the supply chain that people need to follow. So when they pass those requirements to us as a business, we pass those requirements to our subcontractors. These are things that businesses can do to make change. Thank you, Frank. Awesome. So we've heard from the consumer demand, especially from the young consumer who is looking for climate justice. We've heard about actions that businesses are taking in different approaches. We've heard from Frank about the need for better signals into the system to drive us into this more circular economy. And a lot of the need for acting from hope, not fear, as my own president reminded me echoing, of course, Mandela's words. We're about to go into breakout groups here. I think the forum team will shout if that's the case. We've got three and you will be magically transported into those breakout groups, which will be for about 50 minutes. And we need you to come back with some really fantastic ideas. And I'm going to be putting you on the spot for the thing that you would like to see happen in the next 12 months and make it ambitious and make it concrete. Focusing on consumer action will be Victor Trevino from FEMSA reflecting the importance of the food system for consumers. Frank will continue on supporting us on consumer visibility into our choices and what to do next about those. And we bring in Herman Betten as well from Royal DSM to think about, well, how does public policy and please talk about enforcement will underpin that new system.