On March 25th-26th, Arnav Shihu from METRON’s Southeast Asia team participated in the 4th annual Sustainability Week Asia event, hosted by The Economist Impact in Bangkok, Thailand. The event brought together leaders, innovators, and changemakers to explore diversified sustainability topics covering all aspects of ESG and corporate sustainability. The event was engaging and included spotlight interviews, panel discussions, case studies presentation, and discussion groups.
This year’s theme was Idealism to Pragmatism. The subject captured the essence of making sustainability work in the long run, moving beyond vision statements to practical, actionable strategies that can be implemented across industries.
An interesting question that was raised was: are we getting back on track to net-zero? And the prevailing consensus among attendees was that we are in fact not on track.
Source: Economist Impact events.
This concern led to deep-dive conversations with Chief Sustainability Officers (CSOs) from leading organizations. Their insights highlighted a shift in the CSO role—no longer operating in isolation, but as key strategic partners collaborating closely with executive peers and boards. Their focus is now on aligning ESG with corporate strategy, integrating sustainability into decision-making, and partnering with CFOs to ensure that environmental goals are met without compromising financial performance.
The discussion was enriched by case studies including: Ashok Leyland’s Net Zero Roadmap, Nestlé Vietnam’s approach to using sustainability as a driver of value creation Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics’ innovations in sustainable packaging.
After the event, the METRON team had two key takeaways:
- It is essential to embed sustainability into business strategies and processes with a strong culture and clear accountability across all business functions.
- Companies must discuss and address the challenges associated with fully embedding sustainability into the current business framework.
