Bridging divides to maintain corporate progress on material social and environmental initiatives amidst rising social and political risk

January 27-28, 2026  |  Houston, TX

Logistics

Where: The C. Baldwin Hotel, Colman Room, 400 Dallas St, Houston, TX 77002

When: January 27-28, 2026

We begin with a casual dinner on the 26th for out-of-town corporate participants arriving the night before. The formal meeting begins with breakfast on the 27th and concludes on the 28th by 1pm

Registration: Register here. The price will increase on December 16th. Complimentary for Future 500 CAN members.

Who: Senior corporate leaders interested in constructive cross-sectoral engagement across a host of environmental                 and social issues.

What: Future 500 has been conducting this intimate working group for over 10 years. Our discussions are confidential,                facilitated under the Chatham House Rule, and designed to foster constructive engagement and mutual                understanding between companies and advocates. We cultivate mutual understanding by illuminating important               issue trends and best practices, and reducing barriers to potential collaboration between companies and their               stakeholders.

We seek to empower our delegates to actively engage by speaking up, teaching others, respectfully disagreeing, and asking tough questions. We welcome your ideas and challenges, so come prepared to participate.

Dress code: Business casual–emphasis on the casual!

AGENDA

Monday, January 26th

6:00 pm Optional, casual dinner for corporate participants who happen to be in town early. 

Tuesday, January 27th

8:00 am Networking breakfast

9:00 am Welcome, Ground Rules, and Goals

9:30 am Introductions & Networking Activity

10:30 am Future 500 launches our 15th Annual Force for Good Forecast for 2026

From growing greenhushing to supply chain disruption, business leaders are navigating a constellation of ever-evolving and inter-related issues. In this session, the Future 500 team will share our 2026 Force For Good Forecast, highlighting the key stakeholder trends that we believe will affect companies in the coming year, equipping companies to “see around the corner” into the emerging environmental and social interventions that civil society may expect from corporate leaders in 2026 and beyond.

12:00 pm Lunch

1:00 pm Corporate Climate Adaptation and Resilience: A C2ES Perspective

Verena Radulovic, Vice President of Business Engagement at the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES)

Verena will present the findings of the C2ES Corporate Climate Resilience Pathways Initiative, sharing the complex challenges—and critical benefits—of building climate resilience into corporate governance and operations. Verena will ask participants to share their perspectives on how they are beginning to address climate resilience across their companies, supply chains, and local communities, and to provide feedback on proposed ideas for how NGOs and other stakeholders can create a framework to scale climate resilience action and outcomes.

2:15 pm Break

2:45 pm Texas as Ground Zero for Environmental Advocacy

Luke Metzger, the Executive Director of Environment Texas

Texas, home to the nation's hydrocarbon core, is grappling with existential threats around permitting, pollution, and economic development. Luke will share how he works to build coalitions and make change in the Lone Star State, including defending clean energy, investing in state parks, and tackling plastic pollution. He will share his work building a transpartisan coalition to address plastic resin loss and pollution of waterways and oceans, one pathway towards successful collaboration in a red state at the front lines of the globe's energy challenges. Understanding Luke’s pragmatic—and proven—approach to making progress in Texas can help companies understand burgeoning issues across geographies, and provide ideas for how corporate leaders can engage their companies as forces for good.

4:00 pm Debrief & reflections

4:30 pm Adjourn

6:00 pm Multi-Stakeholder Dinner at Navy Blue, 2445 Times Blvd, Houston, TX 77005

Our working group participants and speakers are invited to gather with local changemakers for an evening of cross-sectoral networking and dialogue. 

Wednesday, January 28th

8:00 am Networking Breakfast

8:30 am Reflections on Dinner and Day 1

9:00 am Carbon Accounting: Key to Unlocking Innovation to Reduce Global Carbon Emissions

Amy Brachio, CEO of Carbon Measures

Efforts are underway to reform and elevate carbon accounting standards to drive positive change in the global marketplace by incentivizing competition to reduce the carbon intensity of the 10 products that collectively account for the majority of global emissions. One prominent initiative that was recently formed, Carbon Measures, is backed by a growing number of cross-industry leaders across sectors to progress a “ledger-based” carbon accounting framework to accurately and reliably track carbon emissions across the entire value chain. If successful in scaling, the initiative could have significant implications for established standards such as the GHG Protocol and for how investors and companies worldwide consider investments in low-carbon solutions.

In this session, we will hear from the recently appointed CEO of Carbon Measures, Amy Brachio, who will outline her vision for collaborating with her carbon accounting peers, industry, and investors to reduce carbon emissions at the pace and scale needed to make a meaningful impact. This effort could affect every company worldwide to varying degrees, so Amy is prepared to answer challenging questions as we seek to unpack the approach and better understand its implications for business and society.

10:15 am Break

10:45 am Panel: Methane as a Locus of Cross-Sectoral Engagement

Tebogo Maleka, PhD, WasteMAP Program Manager, Global Methane Hub

Kenzie Huffman, Director of Strategy and Impact at Carbon Mapper

Kelsey Bilsback, PhD, Principal Scientist, PSE Healthy Energy

Moderated by Bob Stout, Future 500 Senior Fellow

Methane management has emerged as a promising, multifaceted climate mitigation strategy, becoming a notable area of collaboration between corporations, the public sector, and advocacy groups. Innovations in monitoring technology to inform scientific analysis and data transparency continue to emerge, fueled by targeted grantmaking and unique cross-sectoral partnerships, in turn shaping corporate practices.

This panel will bring together players across the methane value chain to discuss progress, the strategic drivers of both funders and grantees, and how companies across sectors can successfully embed methane mitigation into their operations to drive profitability and sustainability.

12:30 pm Debrief, reflections & concluding comments

1:00 pm Adjourn