The Stanford Woods Institute will convene 57 top CEOs, chief sustainability officers and other senior executives from around the nation with faculty from all seven of Stanford’s schools at a Sustainability Summit on Monday, May 5. The goal of the inaugural, by-invitation-only Summit is to engage leaders in dialogues so they can share ideas and perspectives on how to advance sustainability within their own organization, with academia and by collaborating across sectors.

Participants will discuss their visions of the role of business in sustainability, including making it an integral past of their mission, values and corporate strategy. They will explore best practices, lessons learned and innovation by companies that are leaders in environmental and sustainability practices - including long-term sustainability plans and objectives and what will catalyze achievement, internally and externally. They also will discuss opportunities for collaboration, including how the Stanford Woods Institute can best educate, inform and inspire business leaders and management practices, which is part of the Institute’s mission. 

The program will begin with a keynote speech by Sally Jewell, secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior. Steve Denning, chairman of the Stanford University Board of Trustees and chairman of General Atlantic, will moderate a CEO roundtable with representatives from AT&T, Cargill and The Westly Group. It will be followed by a “Lightning Round” with corporate sustainability officers and business unit heads from SAP, Disney, Intuit and Pacific Gas & Electric discussing “Best Practices, Disruptive Innovation and Scaling Up.” Another session will feature faculty affiliated with Stanford Woods Institute discussing some of their latest environmental research findings. The program will end with a mixer at which participants will have an opportunity to meet more than 80 student leaders working on environmental projects.

"The business leaders participating represent an amazing and diverse cohort of CEOs, chief sustainability officers and heads of engineering, R&D, strategy, innovation, technology, finance, global manufacturing, public policy, marketing and product development," said Sherrie Taguchi, director of programs for the Stanford Woods Institute. "We are looking forward to the perspective and engaged discussion they will contribute, as will our interdisciplinary group of faculty participants. Convening this group of visionaries and leading-edge thinkers will be an impactful way to further catalyze our mission and bring to action the interdisciplinary work of Stanford Woods Institute." 

In addition to Sally Jewell and Steve Denning,attendees will include members of the Stanford Woods Institute Advisory Council, and representatives from 47 companies, including Airbnb, Annie’s, AT&T, Autodesk, Avon, Cargill, Chevron, Cisco, Coca-Cola, Deloitte Consulting, Disney, DLA Piper, eBay, EHDD Architects, Electric Power Research Institute, Flextronics, Gap, General Atlantic, General Motors, Hartford Financial Services Group, Hewlett-Packard, IDEO, Intuit, Kaiser Permanente, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, LinkedIn, Lunera Lighting, MALK Sustainability Partners, Mattel, MBA Polymers, McDonald’s, McKinsey, Method, Morgan Stanley, Net Impact, Nordstrom, Pacific Gas & Electric, SAP, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Starbucks, Sustainable Life Media, Thermofisher Scientific, The Westly Group, Wells Fargo, Williams Pacific Ventures and Yahoo.