The last two years have seen unprecedented change.

Every area of society and business has been knocked sideways by three main things:

• Sustainability and the environmental crisis

• The battle for post pandemic survival

• The louder demands for a more progressive social contract

Businesses of all sizes and all sectors find themselves in the eye of this storm: knowing they need to change as they battle to simply stay afloat while the demands made on them by governments, staff and customers grow day by day.

Let’s not pretend. This is hard.

So while a record number of companies are making climate pledges and commitments to being better to work for and with, is there action behind the narrative?

The Business community will be the leaders in delivering the net-zero climate target. They control the levers to create an environment for more progressive ways of working and more ethical and value led supply chains.

But first they need to get back on an even keel after 2 years of chaos.

It is too easy just to say that change is needed. For many, change means wholesale transformation and pivoting entire business models.

So how can we create positive progress while growing profits?

This opening session set out the big themes, challenges and opportunities which business will face in the coming years and which will be the areas of discussion, debate and decisive action which will take place over the next 3 days.

A British Sign Language interpreter was present for this session.