Selling Sustainability and
Shifting Consumer Demand & Behaviors
December 2nd, 2026 | 5:00 PM ET
December 3rd, 2026 | 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM ET
In-Person & Virtual Registration
Hosted by: FINN Partners
1675 Broadway, New York, NY 10019
Meeting Overview
Join the SB Member community for learning, collaboration, and hands-on strategy-building focused on one of our key business challenges: selling the value of more environmentally and socially responsible brands to the various key stakeholders we need onboard, including customers!
We'll explore how brands can authentically communicate their sustainability commitments and inspire consumers to choose products and services that create value for business, people, and the planet. Gain practical tools and methodologies for translating purpose into preference - learning through community connection and co-creating how to tell compelling stories, design meaningful customer experiences, and activate internal teams to make sustainability a core driver of growth. Together we'll examine what's working in today's dynamic environment, what's next, and how to move from awareness to action to build stronger brands through the power of customer connection.
This SB Member-exclusive gathering is part of our Member Meeting series, intended to create a safe and productive space for discussion, raise shared obstacles and insights, and enable the co-creation of solutions that drive progress for all.
Agenda
Wednesday, December 2, 2026
5:00 pm - Member Cocktail Reception and Dinner (In-person attendees only) Details to be provided.
Thursday, December 3, 2026
8:00am - 8:45am - Breakfast and Networking (In-person attendees only)
Start your day with fresh introductions, meaningful re-connections and re-grounding with your community to set the stage for fruitful conversations throughout the meeting.
8:45am - 9:00am - Welcome
Join Sustainable Brands and FINN Partners as we kick off the meeting and welcome sustainability leaders from the SB Member Network.
9:00am - 10:00am - Reflecting on Where we Are as a Community on our Commitment to Selling Sustainability: Member Survey Results and Discussion
Let’s have a look and then discuss the anonymized results of this fall’s ‘Selling Sustainability’ Member Survey, which examines all aspects of developing and then selling innovative sustainability-centric value propositions. Make sure you complete the survey in advance and be prepared for an open-ended discussion on what’s working, what challenges folks are facing, how some members may be overcoming challenges, and where we need to focus our work in the year ahead.
10:30am - 11:30pm - Panel and Member Discussion: Understanding Consumers’ Current Relationship(s) with Sustainability
By now, you’ll have seen the data. As preparation for the meeting, we encourage members to watch this recent consumer research presentation walking through recent consumer research results from NYU Stern, Globescan and Sustainable Brands/FINN Partners. During this session, we will discuss key findings from these and other new studies, and dive into what members are seeing internally to surface discrepancies or conflicts between external research and internal insights that interrupt brand management’s “reason to believe.” The goal will be to untangle what the latest round of consumer insights tells us about changing consumer sentiment and behavior, what’s specifically working, what we DON'T know, and how best to fill in the gaps or better communicate opportunity and secure support across the organization and up the decision-making ladder.
Speakers:
KoAnn Skrzyniarz CEO & Founder, Sustainable Brands
Randi Kronthal-Sacco, Senior Scholar and Adjunct Professor, NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business
Janeva Morfaw, Lead, Sustainable Selection, Product Sustainability, Amazon
Kristina Friedman, NA CSO, Unilever
Specific Speaker TBD, Target
11:30am - 12:00pm - The Transformation Economy: Guiding Customers to Achieve Their Aspirations
This session looks at a new book called The Transformation Economy by B Joseph Pine II, best selling HBR author of The Experience Economy and Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want, and everything it has to offer the Sustainable Brands community. The book lays out what Pine believes to be the next wave of economic value creation - creating Transformations - as a natural evolution from the previously-dominant models of selling Commodities, Goods, Services, and Experiences. The book opens with the simple proposition that the role of business has always been to facilitate human flourishing, and then proceeds to offer a thoroughly researched look into an economy based on offering customers help achieving their aspirations and becoming who they want to be. It is a provocative answer to what we see consumers asking brands for - help on their journey to The Good Life. Let’s explore!
Speakers:
KoAnn Skrzyniarz CEO & Founder, Sustainable Brands
Additional speakers TBD
12:00pm - 1:00pm - Lunch and Networking (In-person attendees only)
1:00pm - 2:00pm - Re-Framing and Re-Focusing Sustainability Messaging: New Narratives for Ongoing Success
This discussion will pick up on the current conversation about how to re-frame and re-focus sustainability messaging for various stakeholders in order to keep progressing in the face of myriad challenging macroeconomic and geopolitical circumstances. The panel will share compelling case studies of re-framing done right, and address timely questions around a variety of relevant trade-offs and available choices as we head into 2027. Together, we will explore strategies that bridge divides, reduce polarization, and connect sustainability to what people care about most: their families, communities, and shared future.
Invited speakers: General Motors, Goldman Sachs, more to follow soon
2:00pm - 2:45pm - Get Your Concepts or Challenges Reviewed by Peers!
This session offers an experimental format - a peer-review of companies’ latest sustainability innovation and marcomm concepts, case studies and/or challenges, privately under Chatham House rules. Bring something for the group to discuss or simply join to trade ideas with fellow SB members and learn from one another.
Speakers TBD
2:45pm - 3:15pm - Networking Break (In-person attendees only)
3:15pm - 4:00pm -Facilitated Breakout Discussions
This session will split attending members into table-topic groups to discuss additional trending issues being addressed in various places within the network: (1) Rekindling sustainability-driven product innovation through the lens of SB’s 9 Consumer Behaviors framework; (2) Case studies from brands’ responses to the European Union’s EmpCo Directive; (3) How to navigate the ongoing fragmentation of marketing and communications channels and how to best leverage each; (4) SB Legacy Leaders <-> SB Emerging Leaders transfers of knowledge, practical wisdom and other categories of help aiming at catalyzing further and faster progress of corporate sustainability.
Invited speakers:
Mina McBride, Futurist and Thinkfluencer
Paula Alexander, Sustainable Marketing & Brand Innovation Expert, 20-year Marketing, Innovation & Sustainability Director with Clorox/Burt’s Bees, Board Advisor
FINN Partners
Sille Krukow
4:00pm - 5:00pm - Debriefing Breakout Discussions with the Group, Reflection on Areas to Double Down Together in 2027
5:00 - Closing Conversations and Reception
Who Should Attend
Sustainable Brands curates Member-Exclusive experiences for our network to help guide their journeys toward becoming truly sustainable brands. This meeting is available to the SB Member community networks only. We encourage brand leaders across innovation, growth, brand voice and values, internal engagement and transformation, as well as consumer communications and marketing to join this interdisciplinary dialogue.
*All SB Member Meetings operate under the Chatham House Rule. By registering for the event, I grant permission for Sustainable Brands Media to use video or photographs of me for promotional purposes.
Bring A Guest
Our SB Member Meetings rely on deep cross-sector partnership, collaboration, and alignment. Do you have a colleague at another company who would make a great addition to the SB Member Network? If so, bring them as a guest to this Member Meeting! Together, we can co-create sustainable solutions to support a more regenerative ecosystem.
Contact us at engage@sustainablebrands.com for details.
In-Person Travel Details
The December Member Meeting will be held at the FINN Partners office in New York: 1675 Broadway, New York, NY 10019
Sustainable Brands has a Room Block at Six Columbus - Central Park Hotel for Members. Please book by November 2nd for the best rates. Please call Six Columbus and request to be booked in the Sustainable Brands room block.
Other hotel options close to the FINN Partners office:
Sheraton Times Square - 811 7th Avenue, New York, NY 10019
Hyatt Regency Times Square - 1605 Broadway, New York, NY 10019
Hilton Garden Inn - 237 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019
Registration details:
Space is limited - be sure to register for your member-exclusive admission! Registration will close on Tuesday, November 24, 2026.
Miss the deadline? Reach out to your account director for availability.
We hope to see you there!