You are actively building this work and doing it inside organisations at a moment when there is significant political pushback and backlash. What is the internal narrative that you’ ve had to confront, not only to drive change in your organisation but within yourselves, to keep this work moving forward?
Sirsij, American Red Cross: It’ s a personal journey for all of us, and we learn. My biggest advocates are my two boys. In schools, they started talking about the ESG agenda quite a bit, and they were my first sounding boards, asking:“ Dad, what are you guys doing within the company to change the agenda?” This was 10 or 11 years ago.
What I found inspirational was that our own company gave me the flexibility to learn more, to go outside, to attend certification programmes, and by doing that, I became more equipped to understand what this means for the world.
And then you become an advocate. I constantly tried to show my presence not just within the company but outside it, asking why things are done a certain way, what it means for the sustainability agenda overall.
It’ s constant learning. I’ m still learning, and one area where I’ d love to do more is understanding what is happening in the AI world that could give me a realtime view of what’ s happening across the world in the sustainability space. It’ s a journey.
But I’ d probably give credit to my boys. If they hadn’ t asked the question 10 or 11 years ago, I might not be here. Procurement taught me to be more humble and more responsible, and for that I’ m grateful.
Lauren, United Airlines: I’ m generally an optimist, though I think I’ m much more of a pragmatic optimist today. I think we sometimes conflate politics with policy and opportunity, and we need to disassociate the two.
My north star at this moment is really recognising that it is this generation of leaders who have the obligation to do this right now.
Because it’ s going to be generation after generation that looks back at us and asks: Did we do this with integrity? We have an extraordinary opportunity, politics aside, to do what’ s right and to benefit future generations to come.
And if we mess it up, it’ s on us. I take that very seriously. So the noise, in a sense, doesn’ t matter; I’ m anchored in building for long-term change and that’ s what’ s important to me.
100 July 2026