We convened a successful Corporate Affinity Network and Corporate Impact Summit in Dallas last month, with great speakers and participants from across sectors engaging on critical minerals, circular and net positive business strategies, the politicization of ESG, and environmental justice.  Read our summary here.

Spotlight on Future 500’s Work: The Power of Stakeholder Forums

Our team gets to work on a variety of projects with our partners. Still, one that is particularly rewarding for us is cultivating collaborative trust between companies and advocates through facilitating stakeholder forums.

For those of you who have experienced our Corporate Impact Summit and how we convene a diverse group of stakeholders across sectors and ideologies, you understand how our team fosters an environment where participants build relationships with thought leaders they would rarely engage but should. Our facilitated stakeholder forum process does this, but for a single company and is sustained over months and perhaps years. This process enables a company’s leadership to dive deep into issues with advocacy leaders and, in the process, build durable and collaborative relationships where stakeholder priorities and input systematically inform a company’s business planning. 

These processes yield many benefits, including less conflict and misunderstanding, fewer shareholder resolutions, new market opportunities, and collaborative policy advocacy. But ultimately, what most warms our hearts (and that of our participants), are the  bonds forged by corporate and advocacy leaders, as the potential positive ripple effect of forging strong relationships endures regardless of our involvement as facilitators. 

We encourage more companies to engage in such forums, not just for the business value they yield but for the human connections made, as this is where progress happens. It’s always better to work out issues together in the boardroom rather than outside in the market of public opinion, where issues are too often politicized and polarized, heightening misperceptions and misunderstandings between companies and their stakeholders that slow progress on addressing issues we all care about.

If you’d like to learn more about our process or speak to our partners about stakeholder forums, contact us at info@future500.org, and we’ll have someone on our team contact you.

Future 500’s Corporate Affinity Network (CAN)

Virtual Gathering with Time Magazine’s Justin Worland

We are pleased to announce that our next virtual CAN speaker will be Justin Worland, a Washington, D.C.-based senior correspondent for TIME covering climate change and the intersection of policy, politics, and society. He will speak to us about the current Geopolitics of Climate. You can view Justin's recent articles here, several of which have been featured Time cover stories.

Date/Time: June 1, 10-11am Pacific Time. If you’re a corporate executive interested in observing our corporate network gathering, please email us, and we’ll share registration details.

CAN Corporate Working Group: September 6 & 7, Seattle WA

In other news, please save the date for our next in-person CAN meeting in Seattle, WA, on September 6 & 7. We are excited to have Danielle Decatur, Microsoft’s Director of Environmental Justice (EJ), speaking to us about the successful integration of environmental justice into Microsoft’s business strategy, which has been praised by EJ advocates. We are finalizing speakers and logistics and will share more details in the coming weeks. In the meantime, please email us with particular topics you'd like us to cover or speakers to invite to help guide our efforts to provide you with thought-provoking, engaging speakers.

If you are not currently participating in our corporate network and would like to join our Seattle meeting or learn more about our network, please email Future 500 Director Brendon Steele.

Let’s Welcome Future 500’s Newest Fellow: Sarah Zoen!

Sarah is an Associate Director at the human rights consulting firm Pillar Two. She brings almost 20 years of expertise across multiple issues, including human rights due diligence, stakeholder engagement, labor rights, and gender justice. She worked as a management consultant with Fortune 500 companies as the lead on human rights due diligence, guiding their ESG teams on DE&I strategy development and implementation. For over a decade, Sarah was a Senior Policy Advisor for Oxfam America’s Private Sector Department, where she was the thematic lead on gender equality in cocoa value chains, managed Oxfam’s community-based

human rights impact assessment initiative (COBHRA) with local organizations in Asia and Latin America and served as the relationship manager for several company engagements for the Oxfam confederation such as Amazon, Walmart, Mars, and Mondelez. She has published articles and presented on human rights impact assessments and community engagement. She serves on two local boards in Boston, MA that promote human rights and inclusion. She is a Professional in Residence at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. 

Sarah has Masters degrees in Sustainable International Development (Brandeis University) and Education (Boston University). She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Art History and Philosophy (American University of Paris) and a Certificate in French Studies, Level A (Sorbonne University). Sarah speaks English, French and Spanish. She is a member of the Hawaiian Kānaka Maoli.

Recent Headlines That Grabbed Our Attention

• The U.S. is expanding CO2 pipelines. One poisoned town wants you to know its story, NPR, May 22, 2203

• Global Plastics Treaty Talks: Buckle Up for Round Two, Plastics Today, May 17, 2023

• This is kinda scary. Congressman Blumenthal sharing a ChatGPT impersonation of him that sounds very much like him, Washington Post, May 16, 2023

• Indigenous chief shot in head in Brazil’s ‘palm oil war’ region; crisis group launched, Mongabay, May 16, 2023