UK Activator Summit 2025
Panel discussions and workshop insights
In May, Anthesis hosted its fourth annual UK Activator Summit in London, bringing together sustainability leaders for a morning of insight and action.
The morning featured insightful panel discussions with guest speakers from Virgin, Nestlé Waters, Peers for the Planet, and Centrica, exploring Sustainability Leadership in a New Era and Rethinking Communications: The Cost of Silence.
Participants also took part in interactive workshops focused on unlocking the value of sustainability, fostering practical dialogue and collaborative problem-solving.
Watch the panel discussions, gain insights from the workshops, and explore additional resources from Anthesis experts below.
Panel Discussions
Nearly three-quarters of employees think their leaders are not very well equipped to navigate the current period of global and regulatory uncertainty.
That’s according to new research conducted by Anthesis and presented by Ben Hayman in the first session of this year’s Activator Summit.
In this panel discussion, we heard from Darshana Myronidis, Global Director of Sustainability at Virgin, Tom Pakenham, Commercial Director at Centrica, and Lynette Huntley, Founding Director of Peers for the Planet, on what makes for a good leader in the sustainability space.
The panel was followed by a workshop focused on the qualities employees value in leadership and practical strategies to boost team performance. Attendees also reflected on their own and their organisation’s strengths and weaknesses.
The session was energising and solution-focused, aimed at driving meaningful team change.
What if you could measure the business return of your organisation’s social and environmental impact initiatives? And what if you could quantify how much it costs your brand if, conversely, it employs greenwashing or greenhushing tactics?
Anthesis’s new report, The Cost of Silence, looks at just this – and attendees of the Activator Summit were given a preview of the report’s findings ahead of its June release.
Olly Lawder, Senior Strategy Director, took us through some of the key data points and recommendations after analysing more than 500 companies across 16 sectors over a three-year period. Coupled with a panel session including Anthesis’ Chief Strategy Officer, Pippa Morris, and Sian Chapman, Global Head of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability at Nestlé Waters, we heard how brands reaping the rewards in this space have the smallest say-do gap.
This fascinating report was of great interest for those looking for tangible data and examples of proving the business case of sustainability.
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Rethinking Communications: The Cost of Silence
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Unlocking Business Value Workshops
The session opened with an overview of the current ESG reporting landscape, focusing on CSRD, ISSB, and CSDDD, and shared key statistics from our analysis of early CSRD reports. Begonia Filgueira, Director at Squire Patton Boggs Law Firm, provided insights on reporting against mandatory frameworks, outlining key compliance considerations.
A roundtable discussion followed addressing what frameworks to align with, how ESG reporting can create strategic value, and what a future-proof ESG roadmap looks like.
While perspectives varied, there was clear consensus on the need for adaptability, strong materiality assessments, stakeholder-focused approaches, and transparent, credible reporting through this time of change.
This session focused on how to transition from complexity to circularity to unlock savings and deliver business value. We explored three key levers for driving return on investment: Gaining a deep understanding of your portfolio, engaging the right internal and external stakeholders, and identifying actionable opportunities for change.
The discussion highlighted the importance of end-to-end system changes to support circularity and the value of collaborative partnerships. Participants also reflected on the need for new operating models that go beyond traditional business boundaries, enabling more integrated and sustainable solutions across the value chain.
Accelerating Positive Climate and Nature Impact
Unlocking Industry Collaboration and Collective Investment
In this workshop, we explored how accelerating climate and nature impact can unlock business value and support growth strategies. A key theme was the power of communication in driving change.
We discussed the importance of reframing conversations to avoid climate fatigue, using emotionally resonant messaging to engage audiences more deeply, and identifying effective conversation starters to navigate emerging sensitivities around environmental topics.
Participants agreed that integrating climate and nature considerations can significantly contribute to value creation, but emphasised the need for broader stakeholder engagement to catalyse meaningful and sustained action.
In this session, we explored how geopolitical shifts and short-term financial pressures are challenging business leaders to deliver both impact and value, and how doing so in isolation is increasingly difficult.
We examined how innovative Impact Capital Solutions, such as Industry Pivot Funds, enable corporates to co-invest in shared industry challenges, helping to deliver scalable impact while sharing risk and maximising financial, strategic, and impact returns.
The roundtable discussion revealed strong alignment across sectors, including coffee, wine, and others, on the importance of collaborating with peers and value chain partners to achieve meaningful, scalable impact.
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