The significant development in the Brainport Eindhoven region means that, in the short term, everything is under pressure. ‘We need to develop a huge amount of infrastructure, and it should have been ready yesterday,’ says Mayor Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who actively seeks collaboration with businesses to address social issues. ‘Shared interests are at the crux of successful public-private partnerships.’

Companies and governments are inter-dependent for enabling and accelerating the sustainability transition, is the view shared by the three executives participating in our roundtable discussion on how public-private collaboration can advance the transition. ‘Executives now have a far wider responsibility than only towards their own organizations.’

How do you include sustainability in the financial management of an organization? How do you deal with the tensions between short-term results and long-term goals, and how quickly can you become more sustainable? These are questions that every CFO needs to deal with. The experts at our roundtable shed light on financial management for a sustainable future. Determining the pace at which to proceed is where the CFO should lead the way.

Almost 30 years ago, Artie Debidien embarked on her career journey. Currently, she holds the position of CIO at KPN and serves as a supervisor at three organizations, including De Nederlandsche Bank. She advocates for renewal wherever she goes. ‘I pay attention to whether an organization is focused not only on current KPIs and the status quo, but also whether I recognize an underlying willingness to progress.’

What are the challenges for the manufacturing industry in designing sustainable products? The directors of chipmaker NXP Semiconductors, denim brand MUD Jeans and aircraft manufacturer Maeve Aerospace - all three forerunners in their industries - in conversation about lofty ideals and the sometimes-unruly practice. 'It turns out to be very difficult to make an industry that is not yet ready for it, sustainable.' Plus: advice for directors.

Carpet manufacturer Interface has long been well ahead of the beat when it comes to sustainable transformation: the net zero ambition has been traded in for the next ambitious goal. Vice president of supply chain & operations Eline Oudenbroek hopes the industry will ‘walk with them’: ‘Companies can only survive by making all their processes sustainable. The realization that there is no business case in being non-regenerative is starting to sink in.’

Although working with generative artificial intelligence systems (GenAI) can at present be compared to driving a car without brakes, no organization can afford to be passive, according to the three experts at our roundtable. ‘Leaders do not think fundamentally about the implications of GenAI for the mission and strategy often enough. It permeates the entire business operations. All executives will have to stay abreast of this.’

As both CFO of BDR Thermea and supervisory director of Gasunie, Carolina Wielinga is making her mark on the energy transition. She knows the heat infrastructure inside out and therefore also sees that energy transition can only succeed if all parties in the sector work together. ‘We must work together to set the standard and bring solutions to the market that will actually move the energy transition forward.’

A key role is reserved for the CFO in the sustainability transition of companies, who in practice occasionally appears to struggle with its interpretation. According to Pim Rossen and Alexander Tamminga of strategic consulting firm Kearney, now is the time to introduce a new paradigm with a better balance between short- and long-term value creation. ‘Adapt existing KPIs to the transformation phase of the company.’

Most companies have set sustainability goals. What they want to achieve and when those goals must be achieved is clear. But how they are going to do that in concrete terms is often still the question. Remko de Bruijn and Pim Rossen of strategic consultancy firm Kearney give a first impetus. They advocate leadership, an integrated approach and extra attention to scope 3 emissions.

Directors and supervisors know that sustainability is part of the license to operate and most of them want to contribute to a solution. They formulate the right strategy and actively drive appropriate innovations. Yet at the level of climate, biodiversity and general well-being, progress is limited and the pace far too slow. Why is that? Kearney partner Marc-Jan Reumers and - principal Pim Rossen pinpoint the problems.

Over the past few years, many companies have wholeheartedly embraced sustainability ambitions. The next step is to make sustainability a well-integrated part of daily business operations. Angela Hultberg and Céline Gaffel from Kearney argue that this requires lasting change in the way organizations think and work.