Sustainable Series: Americas

BNP Paribas Americas recently hosted its first Sustainability week, with events held across New York, New Jersey, Montreal and San Paolo.

BNP Paribas Americas recently hosted its first Sustainability week, with events held across New York, New Jersey, Montreal and San Paolo. The week covered a myriad of topics including; financing sustainable supply chains, measuring sustainable credit risk, diversity and inclusion, smart cities, the future of renewable energy and the circular economy.

A key aspect of the sustainability week was the insight provided by external speakers from a breadth of organisations. Experts from NGOs and academics, to start ups, corporates and ratings agencies gathered, each offering their industry perspective and vision on the key issues in sustainability.

A range of interactive events

New York hosted an exciting ‘sustainability sparkshow’ in which the audience heard from six innovative entrepreneurs, coming from London to Seattle, to present solutions that address the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These were pitched to a panel of 10 journalists from renowned media outlets in a one-of-kind event format, where the first journalist to press the buzzer got a story lead. 



Photo exhibition

Climate change has a visible impact on the environment, people and cultures. This was highlighted in an informative photo exhibition hosted in the BNP Paribas New York offices, where visitors were able to visualise the stark effects of rising sea levels. 




Shifting mindsets- insights from external speakers

External speakers included Tom Nazario, author of “Living on a Dollar a Day” and founder of The Forgotten International. Architect and circular economy pioneer William McDonough – hailed “Hero for the Planet” by Time Magazine- enlightened the audience about how a focus on sustainability has to be a cornerstone of business models and strategy. 

Erika Karp, Founder and CEO of Cornerstone Capital Inc also participated in a discussion about applying the principles of sustainable finance across the capital markets.