All-Region Summit of  Sustainability Leadership Forum (In-person Only)

Oct. 8- Oct. 9, 2026

Theme: The Resilient Enterprise

Building competitive advantage through circularity, value creation, and supply chain transformation.

Registration Cost, Timing, Location, Hotels, Logistics
Early Bird Registration Price $835. After Sept. 18, 2026 $935
Registration limited to SLF members and/or prospective SLF Members
Act quickly, as registration will close when capacity limit reached.
Click here to register  
For Confirmed Attendee list, click here
Registration deadline Oct. 2, 2026
Location: Microsoft Chicago Tech Center – 200 E Randolph St, Suite 200 Chicago, IL 60601
Parking and Public Transportation to Summit, click here
Hotel Recommedations

Wednesday, Oct. 7

• 5:30pm – 9:00pm    Pre-meeting Networking Mixer,  Northman Beer & Cider Garden, 233 East Riverwalk, Chicago, IL 60601

Thursday, Oct. 8

• 8:00am – 9:00am     Coffee, Pastries & Networking
• 9:00am – 9:15am      Welcome & Introductions
• 9:15am – 10:00am     Live Virtual Keynote  – Joshua Lifrak – Winning When the Stakes Are High – The Mindset Behind Breaking a 108-Year Drought

  • • • • • Joshua Lifrak knows what it takes to perform when expectations are high, pressure is relentless, and the old ways aren’t producing results. As Mental Skills Coach for the Chicago Cubs, Josh was part of the organization that broke baseball’s most famous drought, culminating in the Cubs’ historic 2016 World Series championship.

            In this live virtual kickoff keynote, Josh will bring the lessons of elite performance into the world of business leadership: how leaders build resilience, maintain focus amid uncertainty, challenge limiting assumptions, and create the conditions for people and organizations to perform at their best.

            Drawing from his work with championship athletes and the principles in his book Win Today, Josh will challenge Summit participants to think differently about what winning looks like—and what it takes to lead when the path forward isn’t obvious

• 10:00am-10:15am     Break
• 10:15am – 11:15am     Panel on Logistics 2.0 – Synchronizing Decarbonization with Supply Chain Performance
  • • • • • Sustainability teams and procurement managers often find themselves at odds when balancing carbon reduction with cost and speed. This panel bridges that gap, presenting a “win-win” framework for building a low-carbon transportation strategy that strengthens, rather than disrupts, the supply chain. We will explore cutting-edge tactics such as mode optimization, the real-world carbon-vs-cost impacts of near-shoring, accelerating transport decarbonization through insetting, and AI-driven network design. Our experts will offer a “now, next, later” outlook on sustainable fuels—from the immediate scalability of renewable diesel to the future of hydrogen-powered trucking—focusing on how to mitigate risk while transitioning to a resilient, net-zero logistics infrastructure
• 11:15am-11:30am    Move to Breakout Rooms
• 11:30am – 12:30pm  Roundtable on Logistics 2.0 Synchronizing Decarbonization with Supply Chain Performance
• 12:30pm – 1:30pm   Lunch and Networking
• 1:30pm – 2:30pm     Panel on The “Double Green” Blueprint – Articulating the Financial, Reputational, and Regulatory ROI of Sustainability 
  • • • • • In an era of heightened economic scrutiny, driving environmental progress must go hand-in-hand with bottom-line performance—a “double green” approach that actively secures an enterprise’s long-term license to operate. This panel explores how successful sustainability leaders are shifting their departments from perceived cost-centers to proven value-creators by calculating and articulating ROI across three critical pillars: direct financial cost savings, reputational resilience, and regulatory risk mitigation. Panelists will share examples of how they have thought outside of the box and found ways to measure and communicate the ROI of their sustainability initiatives to prove to the c-suite that sustainable transformation is smart business.
• 2:30pm – 2:45pm    Break
• 2:45pm – 3:45pm    Roundtable on The “Double Green” Blueprint – Articulating  the Financial, Reputational, and Regulatory ROI of Sustainability
• 3:45pm – 4:00pm      Break
• 4:00pm – 4:10pm      Closing Comments and Evening Logistics
• 5:45pm to 8pm         Private Chicago River and Lake Michigan Dinner Cruise
  • • • • • Angela’s Charters , 797 East Grand Avenue, Chicago IL, 60611, Navy Pier Marina (Gate B, Pier 6)
          • Departure location Map and Instructions
          • Arrive by 5:45pm.  Boat departs at 6pm

Friday, October 9

• 8:00am – 9:00am     Coffee, Pastries & Networking
• 9:00am – 9:15am      Day 1 Recap
• 9:15am – 10:15am    Panel on  The Strategic Shift from Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) to Circularity
  • • • • • For large corporations, the path to waste-free business is a dual-track mandate. While Circularity provides the restorative design framework to drive long-term product innovation and material security, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) introduces the immediate regulatory and financial mechanisms that hold businesses accountable for their product lifecycles. This panel explores how these two critical issues intersect: how designing for circularity makes EPR compliance more cost-effective, and how the rise of EPR laws in seven states and the EU is providing the necessary infrastructure to scale circular business models. We will discuss the simultaneous tactical steps required to satisfy regulators while meeting the expectations of conscious consumers, including:
            • Managing circular design and ERP compliance as parallel strategic pillars
            • Leveraging circularity to mitigate the rising financial costs of ERP mandates
            • Navigating the simultaneous data requirements of voluntary reporting and mandatory disclosure
• 10:15am – 10:30am    Break 
• 10:30am – 11:30pm  Roundtable on The Strategic Shift from Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR ) to Circularity
• 11:30am – 12:00pm    Networking break,  grab lunch, find table
• 12:00pm – 12:45pm    Closing Keynote speaker over lunch, Manuela Zoninsein, Founder & CEO, Kadeya
  • • • • • Manuela Zoninsein is building what The Resilient Enterprise looks like in practice. As Founder and CEO of Chicago-based climate technology company Kadeya, she is reinventing beverage delivery through closed-loop infrastructure that eliminates single-use packaging. Her work brings together all three Summit conversations—circularity, business value and supply-chain transformation—demonstrating how sustainability can move beyond incremental improvement to fundamentally redesign systems. A serial climate entrepreneur and systems thinker, Manuela will close the Summit by challenging us to think bigger about what’s possible.
• 12:45pm – 1:00pm     Closing Comments, feedback