Highlights from the B for Good Leaders Summit 2024
This May, ATÖLYE and NOW Partners co-hosted the Regenerative Economy track at the B for Good Leaders Summit in Amsterdam. Our sessions, moderated by ATÖLYE’s co-CEO Engin Ayaz and NOW Partners’ Founding CEO Walter Link, consisted of three Regenerative Solutions Dialogues and two Innovation Labs which took part over two days.
Throughout, we were privileged to host a lineup of esteemed speakers; together, we deep dived into sustainable business practices, individual journeys, and collaborative solutions development.
Here are just a few insights that stood out for us:
Simplicity in Innovation: Paqui Lizana from IKEA remarked, “At IKEA, we do things simple, and to do things simple is very complex.” This underscores the intricate process of embedding sustainability into everyday operations.
Celebrating Repairs: Hanni Larma of United Repair Center, an apparel repair center that is reshaping the fashion industry, highlighted the importance of visible and celebrated repairs, fostering a culture of sustainability and strong customer bonds.
Holistic Restoration: Willem Ferwerda, founder of Commonland, emphasized holistic landscape restoration, which must tackle the complex nature of ecological, social, economic and political landscapes as essential to addressing the interconnected losses in degraded ecosystems.
Cultivating the Social Soil: In a plenary session, MIT senior lecturer Otto Scharmer illuminated the importance of social fields—the quality of relationships shaping our actions. “Put a stick in front of a dog, and he goes for the stick. Put a stick in front of a lion, and he turns to you,” Scharmer explained, urging a focus on core issues over distractions, thereby nurturing the “social soil” that influences our endeavors.
A big thank you to everyone who joined us, including the following speakers:
Chris Adamo, Global Sustainability Impact & B Corp, Danone
Dick Velings, Managing Director, Eneco B2B
Marc Goedkoop, CEO, Pure Carbon Blue
Yumnaa Firfirey, Founder and Managing Director, Towards Uhuru
Andreas Sommer, Board Advisor and Founder, essential
Harald Tepper, Sr. Director Sustainable Development, Philips
Katarzyna Hanula-Bobbitt, Head of Policy, Positive Money Europe
Michael Pirson, Professor, Gabelli School of Business
Hanni Larma, Head of Partnerships, United Repair Centre
Paqui Lizana, Global Head of Technology Strategy, IKEA
Willem Ferwerda, Founder, Commonland
A special thanks is also in place to our wonderful ATÖLYE Europe Team who assisted in making this possible: Leen Sadder, Mert Cetinkaya, Gülnaz Ör, Deniz Dönmez, as well as our friends at NOW Partners: Merijn Dols and Renske van Grinsven.
We truly hope that the insights and partnerships forged at this summit will propel ATÖLYE’s mission forward. With our collective wisdom, we can innovate more effectively, address global challenges, and build a more sustainable and resilient world.
